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Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | I lived in Poway Ca in the 70's and had a bluegrass club that met at Poway lake on weekends and played various places. Poway Music helped us a lot and Bill the owner became an Ovation dealer so I bought a new red sunburst Viper (built between 73 & 75 by serial #). I played acoustic and bluegrass in CA and here in NM with my sons who are now in their 40's. Now that I'm old I pulled out my Viper and decided to try a little electric fooling around (it's just like new). Well, my son told me that it was just too clean sounding and not much good for whatever, he was into Lynyrd Skynrd etc. so I had to find out what it was all about so I went to the web and here I am. So far I'm impressed with the info I've found here. By the way I'm taping all the GC shows, I also saw them the first time around. |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10581
Location: NJ | glad you found us and make that viper sing. |
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Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Thanks for the pleasant welcoming response, one thing I'm curious about is the Ovation mandolins. I don't hang around music stores like I used to, so I've never seen or played one in real time. I haven't seen much reference to them here, and I've heard they are pretty good. Does anyone here have any info on them to pass on?
Thank you
Bailey |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10581
Location: NJ | I have one for my personal use and a few that are currently for sale on my website. I think they are great they play well etc and for the amount of time I play mando a year I am SELLING my 1923 martin flattop mando
guess that says it all |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | The Mandolins are killer, acoustically, to my ear, they sound somewhere between an army/navy flat-top round-hole & an F-style. Not as much mid-range bark as an F, and less prissy than a flat-top, if you know what I mean. Plugged in there's nothing to touch'em at any price.
There's a store in the UK with a used Ovation Mandocello at what seems like a bargain basement price. I have no possible use for a mandocello right now, but at £600 it seems rude not to.
Paul |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Bailey,
The mandos were very well recieved from the get go. If you go after one the usa is better. It's the real deal. |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7211
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Early Viper too clean??? I assume you are talking about the soldbody based on the year (they started making Vipers in 1975). I don't know about that guitar sounding too clean. I have played mostly heavier rock stuff over the years, like BOC, Ozzy, Whitesnake, Skynard, 38 Special, Queeen, all the 80's rock hits when I played covers... I used my Viper for most of it. I did replace the bridge pickup on my favorite viper, but I feel the stock setup is actually more flexible. I lost the "single coil on the bridge" strat sound when I replaced the pickup.
Anyway... I was just surprised to hear it, as I think the Viper is the perfect Rock guitar. It has a long enough scale to keep the Steve Vai wannabee happy, a fat enough neck to bend notes into new dimentions, enough sustain to let you you take a beer break while playing, it's light.. and it's simple. Basically a Strat and a Paul smooshed into one axe with a Vol and Tone control. But.. each to his own I guess...
[ June 06, 2002: Message edited by: Mr. Ovation ] |
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Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Thank you, that is the kind of info that is making me happy that I found this board. I don,t have much knowledge of guitar sounds outside of country, and, to me, my Viper has an excellent sound for country. One of the reasons I bought it was because of the quality of workmanship and materials at a pretty reasonable price, Gibsons, Fenders etc even in the 70's were expensive and their quality did not seem any better. I haven't played it much because I didn't have a good amp. My son bought me a 100 watt amp and I bought a zoom effects box and haven't been the same since. |
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