Ovation Legend

[Dr.Dave]

I have a great old Ovation Legend 6 string bowl back electro acoustic from 1976 in Tobacco Red. Gold parts. 63 gold parts , actually because I stripped them off and cleaned every one of the little bastards last night - with my failing eyesight too...anyway -

I got it cheap - £200 in Ovation hard case - which when I got it in 1990 was a fair old bargain. It was worth a lot more then , now it's probably worth about what I paid again because the newer , cheaper ones with much better electrics rule the world.

So - as I'm cleaning the poor old thing up 2 issues present themselves - I submit said issues for your comments.

1) There's nasty fingernail damage to the fretboard for the first 3 frets. At one point I had it filled by some freakin' shylock that used his own ear wax I think but it looks a bugger and I want to goge it out and start again. Any ideas for cheap , easy ebony repairs ?

2) When I showed it to Tutankamen's Dad he mentioned how the electric/pickup system was a bit old fashioned - I'm wondering if I should attempt to clean it up and keep it going to retain the guitar's originality or to retro fit a modern Ovation preamp system in - that would at least require making a fag packetish szed hole in the top of the bowl but how hard can it be ? So - leave or update , and any tips on the latter ?

Oh - and if I do decide to rag the guts out and install a new preamp - any ideas for filling the 3 little holes in the bowl that will result (the biggest would be where the standard size vol. pot comes through.

[Big_Stu]

1) If it's a good ebony and black as coal I'd trawl for a decent wood-yard that can get you an ebony off-cut, or if there's such a thing as a piano tuner near you buy an old piano key off them. Saw it to bits with a hacksaw to get fine ebony saw-dust, mix it with PVA wood-glue to make your own filler & fill the holes. When it sets it should smooth down as well as the wood does.

2) Personally I wouldn't, such things are a matter of taste - and if you ever did flog it there's no telling if the buyer would want it as spec. BUT!! ....

3) ... selling it, as you say, at a worthwhile price isn't likely, so if you went down that road you'll struggle to say the least to make an invisible mend on the bowl. I'd be inclined to enlarge the hole to standard size (6mm???) & click in one of those domed screw-head covers that DIY shops have for flat-pack furniture.

[Mykesbass]

There was a thread about bowlbacks on here some while back, and my take on it was that the nice thing about the early Ovations is that they weren't trying too hard to sound like a mic'd up acoustic, they were creating their own new niche. Sure, they probably don't compare too well next to a new top end electro but that isn't the point. Keep it like it is and enjoy it for what it is. As for the fingerboard, if it is really bad can you get a new one put on?

[Dr.Dave]

I'm most surely leaning towards keeping it original - besides it would probably cost less to buy a used 5 year old one with all the bells and whistles than it would to upgrade this.

The fingerboard is not a disaster , no. I wonder ( re Big Stu's comment ) how good the ebony is , though - if someone's finger nails can cause such damage. I know the previous owner was into C and W music from the stickers on the case and I can see quite cleary he liked to play in C from the nail marks - you can actuallly see the chord ! Just making a few chord shapes as I sit here and I suppose C is as big a culprit as any for presenting finger tips ( and therefore nails) to fingerboards - many of the other open chords have a bit less angle and present the pads of your fingers more. Still seems a bit extreme for it to happen - so I wonder if the ebony's a bit softer than usual.