Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 1374
| The Guitorgan thread reminded me...
if someone wants an "interesting project" that's an Ovation... and you have electronic aptitude. and possibly your own oscilloscope..
my buddy Al,(slydog) has all the pieces of an Ovation midi rig.. M862 balladeer, Charvel decoder/rack unit, foot pedals,cables,quick start-up guide, and docs from Shadow Germany,
the guitar is in good condition, Black, shallow bowl, and the preamp/hex pickups are functioning.
the decoder posts and tests out. but has not been hooked up to a synth yet.. and it does not carry it's own voicing you must have either a Hardware or Software synth for it to interface with via midi cable. The guitar signal is passed to the decoder through a standard 1/4 stereo cable. supposedly the shadow unit can track/lock on within 4 vibrations of the string...
When John Budny found out we had cobbled all the components together he bout fell off his stool..Laughing, seems he used to stuff all the components into the guitars.. looks like the engine compartment in a BMW under the top. also looks like a ton of extra bracing was put in these.
I understand that these were not too easy to set-up, calibrate, operate, or maintain.. but if you could get it to work and keep it working was actually pretty cool... if..
but he also said that as a historical piece since we got all the pieces together or for the collector with skills it would be a nice addition. Apparently not a whole lot of these were made, wonder why? I also Know where another Midi Balladeer is but no rack unit with that one.
the previous owner of the midi decoder used a hex/shadow equipped takamine classical, and said she liked to make it sound like an old Hammond B3... you can even assign each string to play as a different instrument.
she assures me it's in working condition, but I don't have a synth set-up. and Al is just starting to learn his.
we both have too many projects going on right now so if anyone's interested, let either him or I know.
I think he said $700 for the works.... guitar, case, midi unit, cables, docs, footpedal.
but I'll check again tomorrow.
Glenn |
Midi Balladeer rig, complete
