BigRedX Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 I was checking the Eastwood site this morning and noticed this: I had heard that Eastwood were doing a version of the Breadwinner Guitar, but I had no idea that there was going to be a Magnum Bass too. However on closer inspection I'm less than impressed. It seems as though all Eastwood have really done is to copy (roughly) the outline of the body. The rest of the bass bears as much resemblance to the original Magnum as the average early 70s Japanese instrument did to what it was supposed to be copying. It looks as though it was designed by someone who once saw a blurry photo of the real thing. The Ovation Magnum I and II were full of innovations and had obviously been designed completely fresh without blindly aping what had gone before. The Eastwood looks too much as though it's built with mostly generic off-the-shelf parts and the impression is that it's a standard far-eastern made bass with a less than conventional body shape. How does it differ from the Ovation Magnum I? 1. The neck. I wouldn't expect Eastwood to be allowed to copy the iconic Ovation headstock, but they should have at least used a tapered design to match the intent of the designers for a relatively straight string pull from the nut. The Ovation neck is Mahogany with graphite re-enforcement. The Eastwood is a generic maple neck - I don't know about the sound but the certainly doesn't look right; it should at least have been coloured to match the body. Finally the Ovation neck joint was glued as well as bolted (with proper bolts rather than screws - I don't know of anyone else using bolts on a wooden neck in the 70s) and the heel on the neck is the minimum you can get away with given the construction of the joint. The Eastwood appears to have a standard Fender-style "bolt-on" neck with the standard chunky heel. 2. The bridge. The Ovation Bridge was a brand new design with a massive base-plate and big chunky brass saddles. There was also an effective built-in level-operated string mute. The Eastwood simply has a generic Fender high-mass style bridge. Looks nothing like the real thing and doesn't have the string mute mechanism. It might be possible to retro-fit a [url="http://www.bassmute.com/bassmute/bm_mainframe.html"]Bass-Mute[/url], but the space available lloks fairly tight. 3. The Pickups. The Ovation Magnum featured some fairly radical pickup designs. The neck pickup had a separate coil for each string wired in a humbucking configuration. Also string balance was done by adjusting trim pots in the circuit rather than raising and lowering the pole-pieces. The bridge pickup was also humbucking using a split-coil design (again something that wasn't at all common back in the 70s). The Eastwood just has two single coil pickups despite the appearance of the cover on the neck pickup. I have to admit the Burns Tri-Sonic looking bridge pickup looks interesting, but until someone takes one apart you have no way of knowing what's actually under those covers. My cynical guess would be for something J-style (but I'll be happy to be proved wrong). 4. Other bits. The Eastwood lacks the large metal pickup surround that doubles as a body length thumb rest. IMO it looks good as well as being functional. The Eastwood replaces this with far too much boring black pickguard and a rather awkward join between this and non-laminated bridge pickup surround. Also absent on the are the dual outputs of the Ovation model. Then there's other cosmetic details that are wrong like gold speed knobs instead of black top-hat knobs. And even the body shape doesn't look quite right especially the lower cutaway. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the real thing, here's an example in good condition: I don't know how this new Eastwood plays and sounds because I haven't been able to try one myself, but I can't imagine the sound being anything like the original with the massive differences in pickup design. Also for me all the design innovations were a big part of the attraction of the Ovation Magnum. By removing nearly all of these you appear to be reducing this bass down to a fairly generic model with a slightly unconventional body shape. Has anyone here actual had a chance to play one, and more importantly can you compare it to the original Ovation Magnum I sound? I can't help but feel disappointed, especially since by all accounts the Breadwinner guitar copy is a lot more authentic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ou7shined Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Ew that headstock is all kinds of wrong on that body. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ancient Mariner Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 You hit the nail quite accurately - it's probably a low-mid quality bass made with generic parts as far as practical to keep the cost down, and given an interesting body outline. It's not intended to be any kind of replica, so much as just borrowing very heavily from the outline. The originals didn't sell that well, and I'm sure this won't either, which is probably why a) they've not put much real effort in to the design and why it will still be expensive for a very ordinary instrument. I have a soft spot for unorthodox instruments, but Eastwood seem to do budget-style knock offs which they sell at a relatively premium price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmywinks Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 IIRC they did a similar thing with ther Ampeg copy. It was a plain old budget bass styled after a very distinctive and individual bass. The only thing it had in common with the original was the body shape. Also i seem to remember the price seeming way too high, don't know if they've come down since then though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassman Sam Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 The Dirty Harry bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassassin Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 It's a pity & a wasted opportunity, but it seems to be common for "re-issues" of some of the more idiosyncratic vintage designs to cop out & use generic hardware & components, while simply apeing the style of the real thing. The Epiphone Ripper with its P/J pickups, the Aria Diamond Mosrite lookalike (Eastwood do a version of this too) with J pups & bent tin bridge - even the Yamaha SBV is really just a funny-shaped Jazz & only retains the look of the 60s SB series. I suppose though, these are all fairly budget basses & reproducing original hardware & electronics would probably make them prohibitively expensive - particularly for a target market that is likely a lot more interested in the visual style than authentic detail. Jon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve-soar Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Here's one for BigRedX, did Ovation ever build any left handed versions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted March 21, 2011 Author Share Posted March 21, 2011 AFAIK there were no left-handed Ovation Magnums, so the fact that the Eastwood version does offer this is a small plus point. However when you build your instruments with generic components it's much easier. The Ovation would have needed new tooling to produce both the bridge and pickup surround/thumb rest of a lefty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaggy Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 (edited) Ay, I'd noticed those new Eastwoods and was very disappointed - as the OP says the whole point of the original was to redesign the bass guitar from the ground up, with a whole raft of new design features and use of new materials. Slightly flawed they may have been, but I love my Magnum 1 (in pics) - now my longest-serving "keeper" by some measure. Someone on Finnbass said they admired it aesthetically for its "combination of art nouveau curves and massive f*ck-off industrial hardware", which about sums it up. I wish Ovation would return to making electric solid-bodies how they used to do best - high tech, highly original designs which I think would be better recieved these days. Unfortunately a reissue of the Magnum wouldn't be in the ethos of that, but I wish Eastwood would have tried harder than this cheap, bland, formulaic load of old tosh. Edited March 21, 2011 by Shaggy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted March 22, 2011 Author Share Posted March 22, 2011 I guess I'm not really the target market for the Eastwood version, but I find it frustrating because Eastwood seem to have spent a lot more time and attention to detail on their version of the Breadwinner Guitar - it's even got active electronics like the original! I know it's probably been done to keep the costs down, but the use of generic and in the case of the Magnum copy inappropriate looking parts seems a false economy. After all the really hard part - designing the parts and making the physical items actual work properly has already been done for them, and I'm sure that with modern production techniques many of them are now much cheaper to produce than they were back in the 70s. Looking through the range of Eastwood basses in appears that the Magnum is least convincing of all the copies. Their version of the Ampeg Scroll Bass has already been singled out for criticism, but at least they went to the effort of making a slotted headstock and matching the neck colour, Eastwood couldn't even be bothered to do that on the Magnum. I don't expect [url="http://xstrange.com/"]Bruce Johnson[/url] levels of authenticity at this price point, although he has proved that there is a market for authentic modern replicas of classic basses if you pick your models carefully. However similar companies like [url="http://www.hallmarkguitars.com/"]Hallmark[/url] seem to be able to recreate old instruments in a far more sympathetic manner without being very much more expensive. BTW Shaggy was your Magnum always fretless or is that a mod? Also the black pickup surround? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Low End Bee Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 The Eastwood hasn't got any of the cool of the Magnum. Looks like a horrid parts bin lash up compare to the real one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaggy Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 [quote name='BigRedX' post='1171991' date='Mar 22 2011, 12:31 PM']BTW Shaggy was your Magnum always fretless or is that a mod? Also the black pickup surround?[/quote] Original fretless; only one I've seen - to my mind it's one of those basses that are just "right" as a fretless. There are individual fret markers on the side of the board with 3/5/7...etc markers in between, which isn't my preferred layout. Ebony board of course, on all models. The p/up surround frame is original black-finished alu alloy too - I used to think the polished versions had been stripped and polished by owners (probably when the paint had started flaking), but I think someone on here - joegarcia? - said the factory finish changed from black to polished alloy at some point. You can see from the pics that the thumb-slide mute is missing on mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted March 22, 2011 Author Share Posted March 22, 2011 I've seen another fretless in eBay several years ago but IIRC it was a (very good) conversion. The mute mechanism is one of the things that attracted me to the Magnum in the first place since it's functional and relatively unobtrusive. I have a several songs where the bassline would benefit from being able to switch the muting on and off in the middle and something like this would be much easier than palm-muting. If it wasn't for the fact that at least half the things I play these days require 5-string basses, I'd probably have bought one by now. I have to admit that I've been toying with the idea of finding someone who would be prepared make me an exact replica (including all the hardware) but with 5-strings... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cocco Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 hopefully it will do some good for the ovation re sale value Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaggy Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 [quote name='cocco' post='1172896' date='Mar 23 2011, 08:08 AM']hopefully it will do some good for the ovation re sale value [/quote] Nice one here....... [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1978-Ovation-Magnum-Bass-/310306246818?pt=Guitar&hash=item483fb190a2"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1978-Ovation-Magnum-...=item483fb190a2[/url] (shame it's in the US! ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted March 23, 2011 Author Share Posted March 23, 2011 That's nice. If it wasn't for the fact that I've decided there's no point buying 4-string basses at the moment because they won't get used, I might well have hit the "Buy It Now" button. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaggy Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 [quote name='BigRedX' post='1172689' date='Mar 22 2011, 11:16 PM']I've seen another fretless in eBay several years ago but IIRC it was a (very good) conversion.[/quote] One here; [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-70s-Ovation-Magnum-Fretless-Bass-Guitar-Case-/170625273646?pt=Guitar&hash=item27ba0f0f2e"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-70s-Ovation-...=item27ba0f0f2e[/url] - Goddam shame about the pickups and other butchery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted April 14, 2011 Author Share Posted April 14, 2011 That one's on my watch list. I think it's going to go for way too much money considering how much of it has been replaced/modified. Originally I was after as nice an example as I could find, but since my aim has changed to finding someone who can make me a 5-string version I'll settle for a battered but all original example instead, which can be used as a template, and then sold on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaggy Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 [quote name='BigRedX' post='1199945' date='Apr 14 2011, 09:07 PM']That one's on my watch list. I think it's going to go for way too much money considering how much of it has been replaced/modified. Originally I was after as nice an example as I could find, but since my aim has changed to finding someone who can make me a 5-string version I'll settle for a battered but all original example instead, which can be used as a template, and then sold on.[/quote] Actually, looking at the Magnum headstock I bet you could fit another tuner on the bass side of the headstock, & the neck might j[i]ust[/i] be wide enough for a 5 (it's more P than J) Happy to take any tracings / measurements of mine as a template though - sounds like a cool project! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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