Any Ovation experts?

[carfish7]

Was playing an Ovation round back at the local pawn shop today and was shocked at how good it sounded. Model as listed on the internal tag looked like 1112? Was a natural top, textured back, diamond pearl fret markers, looked like an Ebony 'board, and had an inlaid rosette. The only thing that seemed odd was that it didn't have the multi-piece neck I see so often on ovations like this. I was tempted to snag it, but walked away because I don't know if it was a decent deal or not. They were asking $299 with the HSC. It was crack-free and pretty darn clean with no lifting of the bridge or other signs of trouble.

Did the multi-piece neck come later in the production run or? $300 seems like a fair price for something that played and sounded so nice, but I DO like a deal........

Thanks in advance for any input.

[cmatthes]

Check with Alpep. He's the resident Ovation guru.

[zenmindbeginner]

Custom Balladeer and $299 with HSC and no cracks or breaks is a good deal.

Alpep can speak to the one piece vs 3 piece necks.

[crunchee]

I've had a few Ovations, including a couple of 1112 Custom Balladeers. From what I figured out back when I was actively shopping for Ovations, the laminated 'stripe' down the middle of the back of the neck was originally on that model as well as truss rod access at the nut (like on Hamers and Gibsons), then Ovation transitioned to a two-piece mahogany neck (no laminated stripe) and their 'Kaman bar' truss rod, which was accessed through the sound hole, around about 1979. The ebony fretboard was retained with the neck change. The Legend model Ovation continued the laminated 'stripe' neck construction for at least a couple of years more. Sometime in the mid-late 1980s, Ovation went to rosewood fretboards and satin finish necks, but I never paid much attention to that particular era. Hope that this helps!

Edited to add: Did you play the CB acoustically, or plugged in, or both?