Ovation rescue... Yes, I know...

[Chris Vallillo]

Hi folks,

I've been asked to salvage a cheap Ovation Celebrity (made in Korea) for a local music store.  This instrument is a repair (major!) and the owner doesn't have much in the way of a budget, but I'd like to try to salvage this for him even though I know it's really not worth the effort.  I like to think of it as a random act of kindness and I get the feeling he could use one.  

My goal here is to somehow make this playable at a low cost. As you can see from the pics, the damage is severe and this literally is a salvage job.  I suspect the stuff at the bottom of the neck joint is the fabled "Korean mystery glue" I've heard so much about over the years.  It feels somewhat like a very stiff silicone caulk, not a hard glue and it doesn't seem to be functional other than as a spacer.  It is about 1/8"+ thick.

I could see putting this back together with epoxy once everything was cleaned and fitted, but the main contact points only seem to be the neck block and the top brace and I'm concerned that won't be enough glue surface to hold the neck tension. The wad of glue at the base of the heel doesn't seem to be functional other than as a spacer and is about 1/8+ thick.  I'm not concerned about the cosmetics, it just needs to function.

I know Ovations are a nightmare to work on but any thoughts on how to pull this off would be greatly appreciated!

[Allan Bacon]

I like Ovations. There, I said it. But I can't help but think that the money spent to do a reasonable repair would exceed the cost of an equivalent (or better) good used guitar. 

[Chris Vallillo]

No Denying that.  I'll go with the Quick and dirty for this one.

[Roger Häggström]

I'd go with the epoxy glue to give the guitar one last hurrah :-) I would try to add some cleverly positioned reinforcements though before mixing up the epoxy for that final fix.

[Chris Vallillo]

Yes, I have to agree with the "cleverly positioned re-enforcements"!  

[Taffy Evans]

Hi, I think a little differently. Well done or quick and dirty, the customers still going to tell folks who did the work. I think I'd like my name linked to a well-done job. Quick and dirty is what I see done by owners of guitars, I reckon if it leaves my workshop with my name on it, it's got to be well done, even if one can't see what's done inside. 

I had a similar dilemma recently, I'll dig out some photos of how I increased the gluing area.

Taff

[Taffy Evans]

Hi here are a few photos of a reinforcing job in the same area we are talking about here. Although possibly not the same issue, it might give you some ideas.

The captions on the photos are part of a running commentary of the whole job, I'm showing what I did not the steps on how.

Hope this helps.