Man! If this guitar can be salvaged...any O has a chance. Thanks for taking on this project and sharing it with us. I have a couple of questions.

"fretboard for some significant divots"

Can those grooves in the fretboard actually be repaired? If so, how do you plan to approach that issue?

" I will apply thin fiberglass cloth and resin on the underside of the top for about an inch"

Would that have an adverse effect on the tonality of the top?

thanks...and good luck!

jay

Here's a cross-section of the suspension ring and CF top.

If I understand correctly, the recess on the suspension ring would cause the outer face of the top to sit proud? How deep is the recess?

Normally, Ovation wood tops are tapered from top to bottom. I sand mine down to .110" at the upper bout down to .100" for the lower. When I built Jonmark's Parlor I had to forgo the taper and sanded it down to .095" because the neck was set too close to the neck block.

I checked on Ovation Tribute and from the Adamas History Booklet, I found that the thickness of the Adamas top is .045". (two .005" layers of CF sandwiching a .035" birch veneer layer)

The epoxy can be removed using heat or by manually scraping it off. I've done it both ways.

The problem with the heat is you run the risk of softening the epoxy holding the suspension ring into place. OTOH, I have successfully used heat many times to remove the excess epoxy from the tops of linings on other Ovation guitars without loosening the lining joint.

To 'focus' the heat so it only hits the area I want I use a modeling heat gun that has a flat nozzle. (See: Top Flite Heat Gun)

For the manual scraping method, I use an Xacto chisel.

To keep a reinforcement layer thin, you'll want to squeeze the excess resin out of the cloth. (FG or CF) This can be done with a vacuum bag set up, a piece of visqueen or even a pane of glass. I used the visqueen method when molding the patch for my first 1619. (See: 1619-4 Rebuild...)

Personally I would use FG cloth as it's cheaper than CF and accepts resin more readily. The weight of the cloth you use will be determined by how thick you want the reinforcement layer to be.

Steve,

There aren't too many choices out there for torrefied Adi tops.

I've bought torrefied Sitka spruce tops from Stewmac and had reasonably good luck. They are now selling torrefied Adi, both old growth and new growth. They're pretty pricey, however. I tried buying an old growth torrefied Adi top, but the grain was really crooked and uneven. And, quite expensive, too as I bought the AAA stuff. I tried exchanging it for another and gave them details about what I was looking for, but that top went back too. After that I just got a refund.

I have not seen Stewmac's new growth torrefied Adi tops, but those are pretty pricey, too. The problem with ordering tone wood from Stewmac is you're buying it sight-unseen, so there's no telling what you're going to get.

Most of the tops I've used came from either Colonial Tonewoods, now out of business, or from RC Tonewoods. Both are reasonably priced and decent quality. The selection at RC Tonewoods right now is okay. They also sell torrefied Englemann and Sitka. These are the guys I used for Jen's guitar and my parlor. The nice thing about these guys is they post photos of the wood, so you know what you're getting.

Also, RC Tonewoods sells uncut torrefied Adi brace stock. Stewmac only sells torrefied Sitka brace stock.

There's another place that sells torrefied Adi called Wood To Works. I haven't used them, but they look like they have a decent selection and are reasonably priced. (See: Wood To Works) WTW also sells torrefied Adi brace stock, but it's a little more expensive than RC Tonewoods.

For the parts like mollies, bridge, epaulets, contact the factory. If you're going to use the thin-line bridge, you'll definitely want to use the OEM bridge because the slot is angled back a few degrees. This combined with a compensated saddle fixes the intonation problem inherent in all Ovations, including, Adamas.