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Joined:
October 2003
Posts: 4
Location: Ireland | Got a question:- Seeing a few all electric Vipers (with the soap bar style pickups) for sale on the net and tempted to buy one. Can anyone give me info on this cool looking guitar, what to look out for when buying, what years were the best for this guitar etc.
Much appreciated |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | The Viper came in a few versions but the most common is the 2 pickup all-maple type which are usualy seen in natural, sunburst or a dark mahogany stain. There is a slighty less common 3-pickup version (the Viper 3) Later a few solid colors (black, ivory & red) were added along with an ebony fingerboard option. Later models have a chrome bridge made by Schaller rather than the original Ovation bridge. They were produced from around '75 - '82ish and they were pretty consistent throughout, though I personally prefer the original bridges to the later Schaller version.
Basically the Viper is Ovation's take on the Telecaster, the Viper 3 offers Strat-ish tones as well. Ther're great guitars and can be had very reasonably for a quality US-made guitar. |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7211
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | So PT, ya' gots me thinkings...
I realize this would actually limit the Viper III pickup selection, but what about putting a knife switch on a Viper III and basically wiring it like a strat. If it is an endjack body instead of jack on the pickguard, could even add the second tone control. Hmmmmmmm |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | actually the 3 had two tone controls, it was a stacked pot and they worked on the front and mid pickup. Volume control worked for all three pickups (isn't that a good thing!) |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | You're talking to one of the few people who hates Strats (I love the way they sound, I just can't deal with the layout) The Viper 3 P/U switches gives 2 settings that you can't easily get with a strat 5-way switch, which are bridge/neck together, & all 3 together.
Of course they'll also give you all pickups off, which is not a great idea in the middle of a show. I played Teles for years and always added a middle pickup but used the standard tele pickup selector and put the middle PU on a push/pull pot switch. That way you get the Tele-tones and the Strat-tones plus all 3 on together. The only thing that switching arrangement wont do is middle PU by itself. I can live without that.
All 3 pickups on together on a Viper 3 is a GREAT tone. I have 3 Viper pickups and similar switching on the Breadwinner that I use for slide & it's killer. |
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Joined:
January 2003
Posts: 1498
Location: San Bernardino, California | If you install a switch that connects the neck p/u to the bridge p/u on a strat, it will give you the 2 missing combinations.
pos 1. Neck + Bridge w/ tone control 1
pos 2. All w/ tone controls 1 & 2
pos 3. Middle w/ tone control 2
pos 4. All w/ tone control 2
pos 5. Neck + Bridge w/ no tone control |
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Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Bodorf
A good Viper and a good amp will blow away your mind. Just buy a two pickup one cheap and you are in business. They are high quality Teles, and 10 times better.
Bailey (Viper stinger with an amp that works) |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7211
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Trust me, I am no strat fan as such, but I do like the electronics configuration. Actually the 3-pickup H-S-S like the UltraGS is one of my favorite layouts. I guess someone had to be first, but it seems to me that 90% of the decent strat copies are better than the original. |
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Hi, I'm new here!
