Replacing top on Ovation

[learner]

I just picked up a deep-bowl, USA made Ovation with several cracks around the bridge for almost nothing. It sounds fine. The top is not bellied or sunken. The bridge is not lifting. How difficult/expensive woul it be to replace the top sometime down the line? I've read the threads I couls find here on top replacement. Most say it's difficult and not worth ot. I'm wondering if Ovation's different construction might make it easier because there would be little concern of damaging the back and sides. What do you think?

Thanks,

Vin


.

[HHP]

Why not just fix the cracks?

[learner]

I suppose I could, but I guess I was hoping I could also get a finish color that I like better while I'm at it. Any estimates on cost?

[Kitchen Guitars]

Hey Pittsburgh! Welcome
How are Ovation Necks/fret boards attached? A steady hand could rout the top off and leave a shelf for a new top.

[learner]

I don't know John, but I intend to find out.

[Neil K Walk]

Originally Posted by Kitchen Guitars

Hey Pittsburgh! Welcome
How are Ovation Necks/fret boards attached? A steady hand could rout the top off and leave a shelf for a new top.

FYI, here's a pic from the bracing gallery over at frets.com:

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Musi...ws/ovation.jpg

He claims that the sunburst prevented the light from coming through the edges of the soundboard so I can't tell if they use traditional kerfing. *shrugs*

[Kitchen Guitars]

If the neck needs to be steamed off you can use my converted Cappuccino machine.I am real good at getting necks off. OK at putting them back

[learner]

Thanks much for the input guys. I'm still in the info-gathering stage. Not sure when (or if) I'll move on this, but I'll keep you posted.
Vin

[Corky Long]

Must.....not......make.....Ovation jokes.....must......not....

AAARRGH.

Seems like you're asking the wrong question - why not replace the back and sides??

(Well, I tried...)

[Alan Carruth]

I've re-topped a couple of Ovations myself, helped a student or two do the same over the years, and seen a few in various stages of deconstruction. I've learned some things on the way.

One is that those folks seem to take a perverse delight in doing things in non-standard ways. Not only aren't they done the way other people do it, they may not even be done the same way on two different Ovations. I attribute that to 'production engineering': some guy figures out a new original way to do things that's faster and 'better', when he may not really understand why it's done the 'standard' way in the first place. I'm all for improvements, mind you, but you can't lightly ignore the weight of hundreds of years of cumulative experience, either.

One 'standard' they do follow is the use of lots of epoxy. The top finish is epoxy, and I have samples where the finish measures .03" thick; about five times what a _heavy_ lacquer job would be, and about ten times as thick as the varnish I use. Another application is in the neck joint, which is often very badly fitted, and just bedded in a lot of epoxy. Saves time....

The bowl back can be pretty whippy when you take the top off, although the liners help stiffen it up some. I'd suggest getting the new top to the exact shape before you take the old one off; that way it becomes a template for getting the edges back to where they should be, and thus ensuring that the bowl shape ends up right. There's a nice article on working this way in a back 'Guitarmaker' magazine, in which Pat DiBurro replaces the top on a Martin without removing the bindings or disturbing the sides. This has become pretty much a standard top replacement method in the past fifteen or twenty years, and would work well on your 'Tupperware' instrument.

Finally: don't expect too much. The ones I've done have turned out sounding better than the originals, but, IMO, that's not really too hard. Simply using some 'normal' bracing (oh yeah, they don't like to do that in the standard way, either) and losing that armor coat on the top has got to help. I just think that the design is limited by the bowl back in many ways, and you can only expect so much from it. I will say that the ones I've done went out to satisfied customers, and I never heard them again. Maybe they played in to be really terrific. One can dream...

[Zigeuner]

Correct. As Poster just above says, they use lots and lots of epoxy to assemble Ovations. There's no reason why the old top couldn't be removed in sections but it would be preferable to repair the cracks if at all possible. Due to the epoxy fastenings, removing the top from an Ovation would be quite a chore.

I don't think that Ovations were built with repairs in mind. The ones I've worked on had things like fingerboards and bridges epoxied on. I took one into my former shop once to replace a badly cracked bridge. I tried heat, then steam and ultimately had to shave it off down to the spruce. The bridge was made from walnut, too, which is fine but I sure had a time getting it off.

The top was finished in a white epoxy finish that had soaked into the spruce. They weren't kidding when they built that instrument. LOL.

[Kitchen Guitars]

I have heard they are the worst to work on. Now I know why! THanks!
On list; Ovation repairs - no

[learner]

Thanks again for the help guys. I did a little research on this guitar. It turns out it's a deluxe balladeer made in 1975. (It sold for a whopping $360 then, which is nearly $1,500 today according to my CPI adjustment calculator.) Here's a link to one that Elderly had that's almost identical:

http://www.elderly.com/items/20U-8890.htm

The only difference is mine is not electric. Why buy an Ovation that is just acoustic, Corky might ask? Because these deep-bowl USA Ovations really sound better than you might think. Not as good as my Guild or my Maton, but different. Plus, I can't think of a cooler, more durable guitar to use as a beater.