Setting up a Vintage Ovation
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- Опубликовано: 3 окт 2024
- A 46-year old Balladeer, one of Ovations best guitars of the 1970s comes to me after a major repair that left it with nearly unplayable action. A 5-piece neck and solid AA Sitka Spruce top definitely justified a few hours of work to get it playing like new. Unfortunately part of the original video didn't "take," so I demonstrated tweaking the adjustment rod with a different guitar (a Legend), but I promise I did the Balladeer the same way.
What isn't shown in the video at all is that the owner was delighted with the setup and said it felt like "his guitar" once more.
I recorded this video some time back, before my editor Phil Quintas was in the loop, and I realize that some of what I'm working on isn't shown clearly, or is shown at the bottom of the screen where subtitles would obscure it. So, big apologies for some of the less professional segments, and for lack of subtitles.
Also for the length. Again, my bad. But I figured going to that level of detail might help someone else facing a similar project.
I enjoyed this video your experience taught me what to look for. I've never owned an ovation but in the near future I'll be purchasing one 12 string ovation. Thanks! God Bless!!!
You should point out that the string furls fit into the bridge in a U shaped groove and over time if not done correctly will split the bridge.
just like mine...its a 73...still going stong...ty for this!!!
I just bought a 1617 ovation, left-handed guitar online. The action was really high and hard to play so I removed two of the four shims under the saddle . The E A G D strings play well with minimum fret buzz but the B string especially the High E almost bottoms out. Going to take it into my local music store for a set up. It probably needs a custom saddle. Guess I’ll find out.
Good luck with it. Does it have a crack in the face yet? Also are the electronics still good? The wires in my 1617 have broken from age. 😞
Maybe I can just shim the left side of the saddle up so it compensates for the buzzing on the last two strings. I’ll give it a shot before I take it into the music store.
Is there a chance you could sand one of the shims you removed at an angle and slide it back in with the "fat" part on the end that buzzes? Okay, that may sound like a "kludge," but area "luthiers" that most people respect have done worse kludges on my guitars. Another reason I do most of the work myself these days.
I ended up cutting the two shims I had left over to about 3/4 of an inch and putting them on left side under saddle. No buzzing on E and B strings. It works like a charm and the electronics are good. Kludge worked lol.
Glad to hear it! Enjoy!
i had one cedar top that split. someone epoxied it. it played ok, never was a great lap guitar.
Good video and info... but yikes!.. maybe cover that workbench with something soft. And yikes again.. always lossen a truss rod adjuster a half turn or so first before tightening it. Anyway.. an Ovation crack story-- I have a 1968 Deluxe Balladeer with the typical crack below the bridge that did not happen until 2019 when it was being shipped across a drastic humidity change (dang it!).. and a 2018 1627 Campbell reissue with a torrified top that I suspect never will crack (knock on wood.. pun intended). Some of my other Ovations (ranging 1972 - 2000) have crackage, and some don't (knocking again). Sadly, my 1627 was the 37th to last USA Ovation ever built before they ultimately closed the shop in Connecticut for the final time and moved it all to GEWA in Germany. So sorry to see Charlie's original old plant shut down.
My early 1970s Legend has a varnish crack, but not a wood crack yet. My 12-string from the same era has separated faceplates below the bridge, but still sounds great. BTW, I do put a towel on the workbench when working on most guitars. :-) I was truly sorry to see the old line shut down. :-(
@@paulracemusic It seems that the vast majority of cracks on Ovations I have ever seen are limited to the finish and not the wood itself.. but then again I live in an ideal guitar climate, and suppose that there are many that spend their lives in not-so-ideal climates and develop wood cracks you can see light through. While the round back Lyrachord does produce great harmonic distribution, the stuff never moves with age and humidity fluctuation in synch with the rest of the guitar like an all-wood body does.. so when the side pressures rise/fall across the sound board something has to give. At least that's my take on it.
@@FromMyEyesToYours In many cases I've seen (including two Legends I bought second-hand for "beach guitars"), the varnish cracks because the wood underneath is bulging slightly. In Ohio, I'd generally blame too much humidity. This can eventually involve the wood underneath. I've seen others where the wood is cracked the length of the guitar a couple inches away from the sound hole. Most often, though, that kind of damage usually happens between the hole and the tailpiece. Ironically, it doesn't seem to affect the tone very much if at all. I also have a 12-string on which the face plates separated. This was probably because I left it in a corner that got too dry in the winter. In the summer, you can't tell, because our Ohio humidity swells the wood, but in the winter you can see the gap. Again, no effect on tone.
Ovation cases are built like tanks. (They’d better be, because no other company goes to the trouble and expense of making a hardshell case for those guitars, it’s just Ovation themselves.)
I have an Ovie "Long-Neck" that they supplied a wooden hardshell case for - I imagine it would have been too expensive to engineer a plastic, foam, aluminum, and fiberglass case for a "one-off." That said, I recently put my Legend in a gig bag - at my age, the combination of the traditional Ovie case and that guitar was just getting too heavy to drag around.
@@paulracemusic I’ve got two acoustic guitars that are both unique to their companies: Ovation, and a Voyage-Air folding guitar. Ovation makes hardshell cases for their bowl backs, and Voyage-Air has a backpack built to carry their instruments.