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January 2004
Posts: 627
Location: Cherry Hill, NJ | I've owned Ovation guitars for over 25 years now, and have owned various electric guitars, Fenders, Gibsons, Guilds, Morserite, and Grestch guitars, but I am totally ignorant of the formerly made Ovation electric line of guitars. After viewing Miles' collection, and other sources, I'm very curious about these models. How do they stack up to American made guitars such as Fender, Gibson, PRS, Tom Andersons, and the like. I gotta admit, some of the models like the Ultra GS 3, Breadwinners, and Preachers are awesome in appearance. But I know nothing about them. Single coil or humbuckers? How's their quality? Why did Ovation stop producing them? Marketing? Competition? Where's a good source for model descriptions? |
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March 2005
Posts: 12750
Location: Boise, Idaho | Miles' site is the best for descriptions. There is also a story that I think is from Vintage guitar magazine if you do a Google search on Ovation Ultra GS. The pickups on the Ultra GS are decribed on Miles' site.
I can't compare because I haven't played the others. |
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January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | The best they ever made were the Hamers made now, |
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December 2003
Posts: 13984
Location: Upper Left USA | Tommy, lock your wallet away and then check them out. There's some really cool flavors of solidbody out there. |
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August 2006
Posts: 2804
Location: ranson,wva | my personal favorite's are the breadwinner limited and the viper..jason |
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December 2001
Posts: 7211
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | I do indeed have most all of the specs on at http://www.baronaudio.com/collection
I have done an immense amount of research in the past several years on how guitars are built. Covering the truly handmade, thru hand finished to totally mass produced.
I have to agree (or proclaim if you haven't heard it before) that hands down, Hamer makes the best solid bodies, for the best value, in the USA at this time.
As far as the Ovation solid bodies go, I just realized I never talked to anyone about the actual build process. However, as far as design and innovation, I think they were way ahead of their time on so many fronts. I do believe they were some of the best built guitars of the time also. |
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March 2006
Posts: 1634
Location: Chehalis, Washington | Ovation has pretty much always been ahead of the game on innovation and electronics, so it's fair to say that the same holds true for the solids as well. The original pickups on my Viper sound awesome, and they're better than 30 years old! |
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January 2004
Posts: 627
Location: Cherry Hill, NJ | Miles, your site and info is awesome, an online guitar show. I always thought you were down in Maryland though. |
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December 2003
Posts: 13984
Location: Upper Left USA | Miles has come to his senses and now resides in the upper left corner! We are currently "socked in" with 3" of snow and all of the panic that comes with it... |
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February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | "socked in" with 3" of snow indeed.
We got a couple inches here last night as well. Enough to make it mildly slick, but not enough to keep the idiots at home. Had to follow them at 30 mph all the way to the interstate with clear roads and 38 degrees.
Most of the northern tier states would laugh themselves silly at the panic caused here by 2 or 3 inches of snow. |
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April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | We have a "little" storm that is due to hit tonight. 3 feet in the mountains and 1-2 feet down here where everyone really lives.
Lot of Californians that just moved here are gonna be in for a rude awakening when they find out a 4-wheel drive SUV slids into the ditch just as easy as any other vehicle! |
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December 2003
Posts: 13984
Location: Upper Left USA | Since Alaskans named their "rookies" as Sourdoughs maybe you can call your Califoradans "Croissants" or something else lightweight and flaky?
Just trying to help... |
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March 2005
Posts: 12750
Location: Boise, Idaho | It's getting as bad here. We'll have a drought for about 7 years when it doesn't snow in the valley. Californians move up in droves. Then we get a normal snow year and they go nuts. It used to be people would get out their old cars and pickups with the thought that it didn't matter if they wrecked. Now they all just drive the SUVs with the "all season" tires. Get a little snow and they all slide in the ditch. Last year a highway patrolman was on the news saying that out of 100 plus slideoffs on the Interstate 85% were SUVs. |
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August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | I, for one, am glad you are providing a safe haven for the crappy drivers of California. Better to have them on your roads than ours. You need to figure out a way to attract about 8 million more of 'em. :cool: |
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Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | Oh, BTW, I meant to say that I own a solidbody Viper and it is a very good guitar for what it is. Same thing about the Deacon 12. Excellent honduras mahogany bodies on both with mahogany necks, ebony fretboards. Viper has single coils and the sound to go along with it, and the Deacon is ... well, the first rendition of active electronics and the humbuckers and the switching lead to many interesting and unique sounds and tones. From a build quality standpoint, they are a match for anything made in a US factory at the time, and probably better than a lot of factories are putting out today. Hamer is clearly the successor to the solid body strategy at Kaman, and is true to the original core in terms of great guitars, interesting designs, quality build, etc. I think Hamer came over to Kaman in about 1988, so they have been carrying on the tradition for a long time now. |
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March 2005
Posts: 12750
Location: Boise, Idaho | Somehow, we never get the Californians that drive cool cars like Porsches. We just get the guys like Arnold with Humvees and the ones that move up here because it was cheaper and there was less traffic until they moved here. |
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December 2001
Posts: 7211
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Only 3" must be nice... Skagit County isn't really supposed to see snow, and although less then 30 minutes north they got 14", we got at least 8" and it's still floating down. :) I love it.
http://www.sunnyledges.com/cam
Miles |
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March 2005
Posts: 12750
Location: Boise, Idaho | You must not have to drive in it, Miles. I was in Seattle once when it snowed about 3 inches and the city was paralyzed. |
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November 2005
Posts: 4817
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | 10-12" on our tropic Pacific Isle. Every year it snows, about once, and everyone screams "What the hell is THAT?" And proceeds to put their car in the ditch while travelling at the posted speed, like it's the Minimum...
On the up side, most of the ski hills are opening on time or early this year. |
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December 2003
Posts: 13984
Location: Upper Left USA | The problem in the greater Puget Sound Marine convergence zone is that it doesn't snow - it slushes!
Daytime mush followed by repeated freezing and melting.
So... how many solidbodies have we discussed here? Take a look in my Gallery for a few alternatives! |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Back to Tommy's original question for personal comments and observations on Ovation's solids, I have four of them, a Preacher, Viper III, Breadwinner Limited, and a UKii. I have a few other solids against which to compare them as well. When all is said and done, the UKii would be my favorite player of the Ovation bunch, but not necessarily my favorite solid overall. All the Ovation solids have a full, easy to reach, 24-fret neck which is great if you're up in that range. The tone of the UKii (in single coil mode) compares well with my American Strat with Texas Special (SRV) pups, but the body feel is smaller, so when playing the upper frets, my hand position is lower down. I feel it the next day. I think the set up has more to do with the comfort and feel than anything else. Once a guitar is set up perfectly to your taste and tonal preferences, you stick with it. Accordingly, I gravitate toward this Strat (but not two others I also own). I may have to try a Hamer in the future. |
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December 2001
Posts: 7211
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Just curious, ProfessorBB, did you mod the UKII as it has the ability for series/parallel switching stock, but not single/dual coil. Regardless, I agree on the Tone of the UKII. My favorite is the Viper. I like the single coil pickups, but they are hot pickups and sound almost like humbuckers. I think this and the scale provide the best of all worlds.
On the snow, I like driving in it, as long as everyone else behaves. We've been out all day today. There's at least 8" of fluffy stuff and we haven't seen a snow plow anywhere, and don't really need to. The North Puget Sound really got some snow. The last time I saw this was when I was here in '89 I think. Don't even own a snow shovel. :) |
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Joined:
August 2006
Posts: 122
Location: Tucson, AZ | ...I kinda wish Ovation would turn the current EA68 "Viper" into an electric "jazz" model by adding a "floating" humbucker pickup that mounts to the heel of the neck assembly!
...HINT, HINT! |
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March 2005
Posts: 1421
Location: Orange County, California | +1000 ;) :p ;) :p |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Miles, the UKii is original as far as I know. I purchased it last year from StephenT. I wasn't sure what the switches do above each pup, but was speculating that they change the configuration in some manner to mimic single coil tone, which I prefer. |
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Ovation Solid Bodies
