Look what I just bought!!

[Grahame Myers]

Bought this one from a customer today for €20! He brought it in for repair, but after finding out what the repair would cost, he decided against it. I asked him what he was going to do with it, and he said don't know, what is it worth? I told him that, in the state it was in, nothing, but I'd be prepared to give him €20 to take it off his hands. It's worth €20 for the pickup system on its own, without the guitar :-)
I'm thinking of repairing it, just for the challenge of achieving a lasting repair. Take a look at the pics, and you'll see what I mean. Cheap chinese copy work at its worst, just take a look at the neck/body joint :-)

Best

Grahame

All pictures guaranteed Lucky Strike free :-)

[Dave Yelverton]

er....yuck! What is that gunk? I've had my share of sloppy Chinese workmanship, but I've never seen anything like this. Gonna be a lot of fun cleaning the stuff off...I expect you'll need to build up the tenon with shims substantially to achieve a good joint judging by the amount of gap-filling that seemed to be necessary. Good luck with it!

Dave

[Mark McLean]

Grahame, does this mean that you have given them up??!!

I guess if your factory is trying build 100 guitars per day at a cost of $50 per unit this is the sort of work that your people do (and at the hourly rate they get why would they try harder?). I guess you are right, that pickup might be useful. The question is, how many of your hours do you want to spend trying to make that neck joint good?

[Mike Kolb]

Good purchase, Grahame. The most amazing thing (to me) is why anyone would want to copy an Ovation.. (but, yeah, I'm biased).

Assuming it has a plastic bowl, can you tell, perchance, what glue they may have used for attaching the kerfing to the bowl? I'd guess epoxy, but that seems to be a fixation for me lately. Anyway, congrats on your acquired "Celebrity"!

PS: miss the Luckies.. hope to see 'em soon :)

[Alan Cangemi]

when i was 20 years old, i was out making photographs and stopped an old man and his older dog and asked to take their portrait....we talked about photography for abit, and he invited me back to his house to see some old junky photo equipment that his uncle left him when he passed away....he brought out an old box and handed it to me and said i could have it....it was pretty much junk....cheap german junk....cheap german circa 1950 leica m2 junk......i didn't have the heart to take it....so i went back the next day and paid him $500 for the "junk"

[FRANK]

WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE PAID IN US CASH?

[Grahame Myers]

$27.23, according to http://www.xe.com today. Eat your heart out, baby....:-)

Grahame

[FRANK]

NOPE I AM NOT A BIG FAN OF TUPPERWARE PARTIES CHEERS

[Grahame Myers]

I was only joking with eat your heart out :-) No, I'm absolutly not a fan from Ovation guitars. I thought it was worth €20 for the pickup system alone, I can either build it into another guitar (although I'm no fan of the systems where you have to cut a hole in the side for the pre-amp, I find them much too intrusive), or use it as spareparts scource for repairs.
In the event of being to repair it properly, when I have the time, I will certainly sell it, or give it to someone in the family who'd like to learn guitar. There is no way in the world that I'd want to keep it as a personal guitar, ain't my thing at all.
The only guitar I haven't got, and would really love to have, is a Selmer Maccaferi (sp?), or a good, modern copy of one. Thought about building one myself from plans, but my shop is too small for projects like that. Maybe one day......

Grahame

[FRANK]

NO GRAM I WAS JUST GIVING YOU A HARD TIME I KNOW YOU KNOW THE REAL STUFF ISN'T OVATION GUITARS ANYWAY JUST WANT GIVE YOU A BAD TIME

[Karsten Topp]

I'd pay you a fiver for the 9V battery holder...