Ovation Ultra GP

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here we have an Ovation Ultra GP, dating back to 1984 when approx 400 were made, this example currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $2,499.99. These high quality guitars were largely overlooked back in the day, but in retrospect collectors and players have realised what amazing guitars they are and examples now command high prices. This is in no doubt partly due to Queen of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme who has championed the GP. Those in the know often describe the GP as a "Les Paul killer". Apparently they are that good. Certainly Eastwood Guitars thought it was worthwhile issuing a replica.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Charles H. Kaman, inventor of the Ovation Guitar dies at age 91

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Charles H. Kaman - aviation pioneer in the development of helicopters and the creator of the Ovation Roundback guitar - has died in Connecticut USA [on Monday January 31].

In the 1940s he split off from Sikorsky Aviation to found his own corporation to design and manufacture helicopter blades. Using the knowledge he had regarding the control of vibrations, he set out in the mid-1960s to create a new type of guitar: using a strong molded one-piece parabolic assembly of sides and back made out of the same fiberglass compound he used on his blades. In-store demonstrations of the earliest Ovation guitars were a sight to behold: the sales rep would put the guitar face-down on the floor and stand on the bowl assembly.

Kaman (sounds like "command") was among the first to use alternative synthetic materials on guitars, paving the way for Steinberger and others. Kaman was 91.

Via Alan Peterson

(See also the New York Times obituary)

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Innovex "Condor GMS" vintage guitar synth

guitarz.blogspot.com:

One of world's first guitar synthesizers was the Innovex "Condor GMS", released around 1970. Innovex was a joint venture company of Hammond and Ovation. Examples are rarely seen, but one such complete guitar and synth unit (pictured above) is now being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $2,000. Ovation fans will recognise the semi-hollowbody guitar as being the Ovation Tornado model, albeit with a box of tricks attached to the bridge containing, I guess, individual pickups for each of the strings and with an output cable to the synth unit.

The seller comments that:

It is very lofi, and in my opinion, completely awesome. It tracks terribly and warbles, and does everything I love. If you are accustomed to Line 6 stuff you will probably hate this. It functions properly, everything works.

One for the collector, perhaps, or the Lo-Fi recording enthusiast!

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Ovation Deacon XII

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Further to our Electric 12-string Fiesta last Wednesday, here is my own particular favourite and one that I would dearly love to own (I still regret being outbid on one of these by a measly couple of quid in the closing seconds of an eBay auction a couple of years ago).

It's an Ovation Deacon XII, this one dating from between 1973-75. The Deacon was a sister guitar to the Breadwinner and was essentially a more upmarket version of that guitar featuring a natural finish (which looks positively red on this particular example), bound neck, fancier "diamond" fretboard inlays, and pearloid buttons on the machine heads. Otherwise, pickups, electrics, etc, are all the same as on the Breadwinner.

Alas, for anyone interested in this example, the auction has already finished. Sorry about that, but I thought it was still worthy of a blog post being such a nice example of this guitar.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Electric 12ers #2: Ovation Hurricane semi-hollowbody electric XII

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Jaimie writes:

Despite once owning a 1984 Ovation Collector Series guitar, Ovations now generally scare me a bit. Their electric guitars scare me more. But this one looks fairly normal, other than being a 12 string...

Ah, Jaimie don't say that. One of my biggest regrets is that I lost out in an auction for an Ovation Deacon 12-string by a measely couple of pounds.

The guitar pictured is an Ovation Hurricane XII which pre-dates the better known solidbodies such as the Breadwinner and Deacon. I believe it is quite a find amongst Ovation collectors.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Ovation Typhoon III fretless bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Ovation of New Hartford, Connecticut, are known - of course - for their acoustic guitars with roundbacks made from synthetic materials. To a lesser extent they are also known for their high quality solidbody electric guitars during the 1970s with models such as the Deacon, Breadwinner, Preacher, Viper, and Magnum Bass. What they are less known for is their semi-hollowbodies such as this Typhoon III bass from 1971. This particular example is fretless, albeit with a lined fingerboard. The seller doesn't mention if this is an original feature or if it was converted. Nevertheless, a shortscale bass would seem a strange choice of instrument for the fretless treatment, but it's not without precedent.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Ovation Breadwinner spotted in a 1979 Iggy Pop video

guitarz.blogspot.com

This is a day full of surprises and favorite guitars: after the Wandre Oval on Libération's front page,  I found a 1979 video of Iggy Pop performing 'I wanna be your dog' backed by some anonymous musicians - one of them playing a white Ovation Breadwinner.

The only appearances of the Breadwinner I knew so far were a few videos of Robert Smith when playing with Siouxsie and the Banshees (including the Nocturne concert).

bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

70s Ovation Preacher Deluxe 12-String

guitarz.blogspot.com

Sorry for the small and low quality picture, but an Ovation Preacher Deluxe 12-string 1285 is not a guitar you find on eBay everyday. Anyway, you will get better pics here and here.

You just look at this guitar and you see that the people who built it knew what they were doing!

Ovation solid body guitars were amongst the finest electric guitars ever (in my opinion), and this one is on the top, together with the Breadwinner.

It's always a mystery to me how the whole guitar business ended up revolving around a few brands, independently of the quality of the instruments, so that some companies had to give up excellent products for lack of sales. 

bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Ovation Breadwinner Limited ... snap this one up, quickly!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's my eBay tip of the week, if not the whole month! This Ovation Breadwinner Limited is not only in fantastic condition but it's also a quite a rare find, and is currently listed on eBay with a low Buy It Now price of $895.00 (which is approximately £541.28 in my money).

Trust me, this is an absolute steal. Buy it now before one of the Ovation Fan Club members snaps it up - some of those guys have huge collections of Ovations - they don't need any more.

Believe me, if I was in full-time employment right now and had the necessary readies coming in, I would only be telling you about this guitar once it was mine!

The Limited was the final incarnation of the Ovation Breadwinner and features a natural finish and a slightly modified body shape.

G L Wilson

P.S. If you do buy it, please let us know!

Additional (9 December 2009): SOLD. The seller accepted an offer of US $700.00 (approximately £429.41) which was much less than the Buy It Now price. I can't understand this - it's a highly desireable guitar.

NB: There are a lot of blogs STEALING content and bandwidth. If you read this anywhere else but on guitarz.blogspot.com then you are reading a blog that STEALS content. Please support original bloggers!

My guitars...

The collection has changed a lot since I last featured an item on my own guitars on this blog. Here is the collection as it currently stands after having sold a few guitars recently (warning BIG pictures):

Fender Japan Blue Flower 70s style Strat circa 1988. Bought approx over one year ago - it had one lady owner previously who had played it once then put it away in its case for years, so it's in mint condition. Not to be confused with the more recent inferior re-issues.

Fender Japan candy apple red 12-string Strat

Feline Holy Panther - built by Feline guitars of Croydon using an original 1970s Fender body. Inspired by Russ Ballard's guitar.

DiMarzio one-off "Red Beauty" built for 1984 NAMM trade show. Read more here.

Sanox Sound Creator plexiglass bodied Strat-type guitar. Made in Japan in the 1970s.

Fernandes Pink Plexiglass Sustainer Guitar. Totally unique. One-off guitar made for the trade shows. VERY heavy. Has far more sustain than other Fernandes guitars I have played.

Ovation Celebrity acoustic. I can't remember the model number off the top of my head. Names are always much easier to remember. Nice sound and the built-in tuner is a god-send, but the action's a little high for my tastes.

Ovation Breadwinner - circa 1976. A true classic - the first truly ergonomically designed guitar - first production guitar with active electronics and 24-fret neck. Note glossy black finish and small scratchplate.

Gibson Flying V Faded Cherry, circa 2004.

Mania Fretless Bass. Bought to replace my Mexican-made Fender Jazz Bass fretless which I never got on with. Thru-neck, lovely woods, lovely sounds... (with roundwound strings, btw. I know a lot of people put flatwounds on a fretless because they are scared of marking the fingerboard but they sound like crap. Use roundwounds and the bass literally sings.)

Short-scale EB0-bass, probably Japanese, early 70s. No, it wasn't me who painted and decorated it. Cheesy-looking but nice sound - particularly from neck pickup.

Kay K45 Travel Guitar. Thru-neck construction, DiMarzio designed pickups, brass hardware. Circa 1980s.

Traveler Pro Series travel guitar. Features magnetic single-coil pickup, piezo pickup under bridge for acoustic sound, plus "stethophones" which pick up sound from internal diaphram under bridge which lets you privately practice totally acoustically. Made in USA.

Yup! It's only got 4 strings. (No - it's NOT a bass). It's a tenor guitar. Very limited edition in Telecaster styling from Soares'y Guitars.

Guitbass. Three-stringed guitar as used by The Presidents of the United States of America. I built this from parts from an old Japanese Strat copy, Epiphone humbucker, plus various other bits and pieces that I had in my box of bits. The three strings are tuned C#, G# and C# (octave higher than the low C#). Looks like sh*t but sounds great.

Yamaha EZ-EG. Not really a guitar at all, but a guitar-shaped synth-controller. Has on-board sounds and can connect to other synths via MIDI. The right-hand has picking "strings" and the left hand has buttons laid out for each of the strings at 12 fret positions, so you can indeed play it like a guitar.

Countryman 6-string banjo. Banjo players would call it a guitar and guitar players would call it a banjo! It's a banjo, but with six strings so that a guitarist can use regular guitar tuning and get a banjo sound. Very loud.

My ukuleles. Greg Bennett baritone ukulele on the left and Mahalo soprano on the right. The soprano is a bit small for my large fingers, but I love playing the baritone.

Yamaha Pacifica. Bought in pieces, refinished and re-assembled my me. The striped "deckchair" look was an experiment with three different colour oil finishes and some tape! It's far from perfect but I quite like it. There is no tone control because I prefer it that way. (OK, truth be told, it fell off when I was removing the electrics from one broken pickguard to a second pickguard, and I couldn't be arsed re-soldering it on, but as I never use passive tone controls anyway this was no big deal). This guitar is actually a really nice player. It intones well and has a nice action. Perhaps it would benefit from some hotter pickups but they would cost me way more than the rest of the guitar. This is the guitar that I keep at my parents' house in Wales and which largely makes the travel guitars redundant. I also have the body and neck of another Pacifica which needs re-building. (An unfinished project - or perhaps that should say an unstarted project?)

Other guitars that I have owned and sold on include:

Vox Standard 25
Vox Clubman II guitar (later converted to fretless)
Westone Thunder I-A fretless bass
Eko Ranger XII 12-string acoustic
Eko mando-guitar
Aria Elecord FET-DLX electro-acoustic
Aria Legend Plexiglass Jazzmaster
Fender Japan Stratocaster pink paisley (circa 1988)
Fender Japan Telecaster pink paisley (early 1980s)
Fender Japan Stratocaster Antigua re-issue
Squier Stagemaster 7-string
Fernandes Revolver Pro with Sustainer
Fernandes Native Pro with Sustainer
Bass built with parts from Brandoni guitars
Sakai EB0-style shortscale bass
Avon EB0-style shortscale bass
Fender Jazz Bass Fretless (Made in Mexico)
Two or three Strat-a-likes self-built from spare parts
Top 20 (Woolworths) guitar complete with vibrato arm
Cheap but nice Telecaster copy
Tele-style guitar self-built from spare parts
Silvertone (Harmony?) Archtop acoustic
Unidentifiable Archtop acoustic
Washburn Idol WI64
Epiphone Les Paul Junior
Teisco MJ2
Danelectro Convertible
Danelectro 56'U2
Danelectro 12+6 doubleneck

...plus a couple of other cheapies that I didn't keep for very long.

Return of the Breadwinner

Last June I commented that Eastwood's proposed Breadwinner re-issue was not going to happen. Well, now it seems that the situation has changed and Eastwood are already taking orders for their Breadwinner tribute guitar which has already been shown at NAMM 2009. I guess that for whatever reason, Ovation (now owned by Fender) had changed their minds about allowing the re-issue.

Other than the obviously different-shaped headstock, there are quite a number of cosmetic features that are, quite frankly, inaccurate, and if I was shelling out best part of a thousand dollars for one of these, I'd want it to be a much more faithful replica than the guitar we see in the image above. I see from the specs that Eastwood are making trem-equipped models available, something that the originals never had.

If I was in the market for another Breadwinner I think I'd prefer to track down an original which could theoretically be cheaper than this Eastwood, although some retailers are already hiking up the prices of the originals. I bought my own 1976 Ovation Breadwinner back in 2006 for a little over £300.

Kudos to Eastwood for responding to public demand and making this re-issue available, but why the high price and why wasn't attention to detail better?

1978 Ovation Magnum Bass

The Ovation Magnum Bass, this one from 1978, is built like a battleship. Just look at all that solid mahogany and that seriously heavyweight hardware that it carries. The volume and tone controls look like they've been transplanted from a submarine.

From its design you can tell that it is a cousin of the now legendary Breadwinner and Deacon guitars. Supposedly it's an excellent player, but looks-wise it's a weird one. It's really quite ugly but quite wonderful at the same time.

Unusual Ovation Deacon Guitar

Regular readers will know that I am a big fan of Ovation's solid body electric guitars from the 1970s, especially the Breadwinner and Deacon models.

I did a double-take when I first saw this rather unusual-looking Ovation Deacon on eBay; I've not seen one quite like it before. I suspect that the neck and neck plate on the back of the body are the only actual Ovation parts. The neck with its white binding and double diamond inlays would appear to be accurate, but the body is wrong for a genuine Deacon as it has obviously not been routed for pickups and electronics mounted on a scratchplate. The pickups are not Ovations, the bridge is a Gibson style Tunomatic and the control layout is not correct. It doesn't appear to have the active electronics that a genuine Deacon or Breadwinner would have.

Whoever put this guitar together has done an excellent job as the body shape and the forearm and belly contouring look to be absolutely spot-on, whilst the colouring of the wood matches the neck very nicely. The effect is that it looks like it should be original, but there are too many un-Ovation things going on here for this to be the case.

London Guitar Show 2008

[Warning: Longest Guitarz post EVER! (Don't worry, it's mostly photos). You might want to get yourself a drink or something before continuing.]

This weekend has seen London's ExCel Centre host the London Guitar Show 2008, now part of a bigger event, the London International Music Show. I nipped along to see what, if anything, was new and to take some pictures for you guys.

The first thing to grab my attention was this incandescent Vigier Excaliber fretless guitar with Delta metal fingerboard. (Delta metal is, I believe, an alloy of Vigier's own recipe!) These sound fantastic, the metal fingerboard creates excellent sustain - even on the unwound strings. But, yeah, I know this guitar is nothing new - they've been around for a fair while now. So, moving on...

The next guitar to capture my attention was this Rainsong acoustic (above left) made completely out of graphite. Picking it up, it was as light as a feather, and it played pretty nicely too with a very bright sound which would be perfect for fingerpicking. The weave in the graphite gives the guitar a gorgeous finish too. A lovely guitar, for sure, but I was quite alarmed when I saw the price. The new Vox Virage guitars (above right) also looked very sexy and had an equally scary price tag.

Vox also had this scooter on display, which was nice. I resisted the urge to take her for a spin and instead tried out some of the cheaper end of their product line: the amPlug range. I was impressed! These little headphone amps actually sound great - my favourite was the Classic Rock model. I'm definitely buying one or more of these.

Indie Guitars had a handsome pair of Ricky-a-likes on display (above left... Did someone say "lawsuit"?), and also some oddly coloured guitars such as this Rasta acoustic (above right).

I preferred the finish on these Ibanez acoustics. Check out the bookmatched tops on this pair.

Also on the Ibanez stand was this "web" guitar (above left), with the web design cut into the face of the guitar itself. The body material for this guitar was most unusual. It felt like some kind of solidified expanded polystytrene, and was very light and plasticky. Too plasticky for my tastes. The Surfing With The Alien guitar (above right) reminded us that Joe Satriani was somewhere in the building. Not that I was bothered, if I am honest.

We didn't see Mr Santriani, but we did see this guy, Billy Sheehan, putting a Yamaha Attitude bass through its paces.

Over on the Fender stand were loads of relics and custom shop jobbies including this Andy Summers Telecaster and Stevie Ray Vaughan "Lenny" Stratocaster. I have to say I felt quite underwhelmed seeing them in the flesh.

Also on the Fender stand were...
...this sparkly purple J Mascis Jazzmaster and this difficult to photograph black and chrome beauty, the J5 Triple Tele Deluxe.

Not to mention... ...lots of pointy pointy Jacksons, the odd Charvel...

...and a whole gathering of Gretsches!

There were plenty of basses and amps on the Warwick stand. Those that caught my attention were this familiar looking Steinberger-esque headless bass (above left) and this quite eyecatching fretless semi-acoustic Star Bass (above right).

Of the many retro guitars on display, these Mosrite-inspired Wilson Brothers Ventures guitars certainly grabbed my attention.

Speaking of retro guitars, Italy's Eko guitars are back with several funky re-issues including the 700 series (above left). Personally, I'd have liked to have seen these complete with the banks of push buttons that adorned the originals, but I suppose they felt they ought to feature more contemporary hardware so as not to totally freak out the modern guitarist. On the Eko stand, I also met up with an old friend, the Eko Ranger XII bolt-on neck 12-string acoustic. I had one of these for many many years and it was one of the best sounding 12 strings I ever played. (It kept its value too! I bought it new circa 1984 for £120 and sold it just a couple of years ago for £160). This new Eko Ranger XII - actually a prototype, but expect them to hit the market in the Autumn - played just as nicely as I remembered. Expected retail price is around the £200 mark.

My friend Paul was quite taken by this fretless acoustic bass from Ashbury guitars on the Gremlin Music stand. The bass had a solid spruce top, a low action and very nice tone, no doubt helped by its larger sized body. (Some acoustic basses feature bodies that are basically too small to project enough bass, and hence are usually very quiet). This bass also had a very attractive price at £279. On the same stand were some Blue Moon brand guitars, of which I tried out a parlour guitar, retailing at just £79, and very nice and very playable it was too! I was quite impressed. It would make a great instrument for having around the house to grab and play a few licks as the fancy takes you. I hate to say it, but it was a nicer player than my Ovation.

We were also quite interested in these solid body electric ukuleles, each of which had a built-in headphone amp. The two at the bottom of the picture (which unfortunately is a little out of focus) were made from solid rosewood. Alas, I do not remember the brand name of these little Tele-shaped ukes. [Edit: I've been told they are Eleukes, which seems to ring a bell.]

On the stand for the Vintage guitar brand we spied this quite accurate replica of Eric Clapton's psychedelic "Fool" SG, amongst other budget-priced but nice quality "relic" guitars. Much better than buying one painted by some dodgy artist on eBay.

Now isn't this the biggest Orange stack you ever did see?

Speaking of big, I'm sure Boss effects pedals used to be a lot smaller than this. It was like being on the set of Irwin Allen's "Land of the Giants".

Brian May Guitars had Red Specials in a whole bunch of colours, plus a mini Red Special, acoustic Red Specials, and this rather bizarre example bearing a likeness of the man himself. Given his interest in astronomy, it's appropriate that Mr May seems to be suspended in space in the portrait.

Of course, there were some hideous guitars to be seen. I mean, check out this OTT Telecaster with glitter and silver skulls and flashing lights everywhere. Behind that is a Strat-styled doubleneck with a Vigier-like fretless metal fingerboard on the lower neck, and which also has a Fernandes sustainer fitted, which makes some sense on a fretless. It doesn't stop the instrument looking hugely cumbersome.

And what guitar show would be complete without the odd Music Man Spinal Tap guitar or two over at the Ernie Ball stand? (I think it's a tradition or an old charter or something.)

Strangely missing in action were the likes of Gibson, Rickenbacker, and C.F. Martin & Co. I was also sorry to see there weren't many UK-based luthiers present. Black Machine and Feline Guitars, both of whom have appeared at the show in prevous years were nowhere to be seen. Perhaps it's simply not profitable for them? Also where were all the parts manufacturers and the pickup companies? It was a bit disappointing in that respect. I really wanted to try out the Lace Alumitone pickups.

And where was the Moog guitar?

It was entertaining, sure, but it was mostly same old same old.