remove ovation neck

[scott gannon]

Hey folks, new guy here. So I am a rookie trying to learn. I have a 2003 ovation balladeer. It has two bolts holding the neck, is it glued also? Thank you very!

[Paul Verticchio]

This question should be directed to Ovation.  They know more about Ovations than anyone else (-:

[scott gannon]

Thanks Paul. Emailed Ovation, see what happens. From what I can find, these things are epoxied together. Got it cheap,      

something to learn on.

[Paul Verticchio]

Scott,

IMO, Ovations are terrible guitars to "learn (the craft of guitar repair) on".  They're horrible,  Everything is proprietary and they share few construction or material details with "conventional" instruments.

I'm happy to hear that you're starting to learn.  It's a fun craft and guitar builders and tech's are the most sharing individuals on the planet.  We're also some of the most opinionated.

With that last sentence in mind, be aware that there are few (if any) Ovation lovers or advocators on this forum.  Some of us either refuse to work on them or add a surcharge to our fees when HAVING to work on Ovation instruments. I'm in the "refuse" category after working on several over the years.  They're not worth the trouble (to me).

Regardless, welcome to the craft and keep asking questions.  It's how we all learned and this forum in particular is an oasis in the "bogus info" wasteland of the internet.

Best of luck,

Paul

[Chris Rochow]

It's not glued... just remove the bolts and 'wiggle' the neck off.

[Joshua Levin-Epstein]

You might find that the fingerboard extension is held on by contact adhesive or double stick tape. In my experience this did not need heat, a thin pallette knife would do the trick.

 

Joshua

[Frank Ford]

I, too, routinely decline major repairs on Ovation instruments for the simple reasons given by others here.  The design and construction of those instruments don't lend themselves to traditional repair.  I do take on refretting, which goes predictably, setups and a few other operations.

 

Not long ago I reset the neck on one for a good friend and customer. It was a straight bolt-on, and the job went fairly easily.  I would not be surprised to encounter major differences between models and vintages, though.

[Donald A. Fortune]

I have an ovation with a bolt on neck and as a matter of fact the neck is a replacement that is a Martin style with a 25.34 inch scale....  two bolts on the inside and the neck is off .....   peace,Donald

[Russell Vance]

At the risk of sounding cavalier or amateurish - the best treatment is to hold the instrument by the peghead while placing the rest into an open fire for approximately an hour.   I do not know any of my colleagues who do not hold similar views about this often broken and very hard to repair and manage instrument.  Rusty.

[nathan clark]

Ummmm, Rusty, those composite backed guitars aren't fit to burn.

[Eric Steven Johansen]

Russell, I hate to say it but you'd be wasting a perfectly good hour. I deal in vintage guitars and once had a Glen Campbell 12 string model that I carried around to the shows for years. Cursed that unstackable case and useless guitar in so many creative ways until one day, voila, a buyer appeared. Could have just offered to take it away and I would have said yes. He gave me $300.00 and was happy to do so. Go figure? Will never own another plastic bowl POS again.

[Thomas James]

Scott, I hope you can fix it. Though the jabs to the brand here hold true, those salad bowls do have a loyal following. I have one in my shop now making me $100 in crack repair. Good luck with it.

[Kerry Krishna]

Russell, it's way to much pollution to burn it. Burying it sounds better, and keeps that pollution factor down. If it's buried for say 5 years, you should be able dig it up and screw it to a wall as decoration.  Sorry to Scott the Original Poster, we are just having a bit of fun .