Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi Folks,

I have just purchased a 1990 Ovation Legend which appears that has never been out its hardcase in 17 years.

It plays and feels great, though due to the composite rounded back and spruce top there is a slight warp on the spruce soundboard.

This guitar has just been shipped to me from the USA to the UK.

There are no cracks on the soundboard as I know this type of guitar are renowned fur cracks. My question is that ,  what is the best way to reduce this warp? I would really appreciate your advice as I really like this "vintage ovation" thats in fab condition, I want to try to prevent a future crack ....

Thanks so much for reading this.

Steph

 

 

 

 

All guitar tops warp slightly unless they're overbraced or are made of plywood.

[QUOTE=Rick Turner]All guitar tops warp slightly unless they're overbraced or are made of plywood.[/QUOTE]

 

Hi,

Thanks for this quick reply, I also have a Takimine EN10 from around the same age with no warp, my main concern was that the warp get too bad and crack the top.

This has been a problem with Ovation Guitars over the years, I was looking for a possible solution to reduce this warp slightly.

Thanks,

Steph.

 

 

 

Steph-
Welcome to the OLF- it's quite a place!

It's not clear exactly what kind of 'warp' you see in your guitar. If you can, posting a picture would help you get better answers from the many experts here.

As a definite non-expert, I'd say that if the guitar plays and feels great, I wouldn't worry too much about this warp, other than taking care in string selection and tuning, to ensure that the situation remains constant.

Of course, you should be reasonably careful to control the humidity environment for any guitar with appropriate monitoring (hygrometer) and control (humidifier/dehumidifier). This is possibly less difficult in the UK than in many parts of North America.
Humidity fluctuations are contributors to a lot of guitar cracking problems, even if they are not always the direct cause.

Cheers
John

Steph-
There you go: Rick showed up and answered your question as I was typing. So you got an expert opinion without a picture!

Cheers
John

Are you talking about warp as in the top pulling up behind the bridge? I wouldn't worry about that unless it is obviously out of control. Ovations can crack along the top as a result of being fan-braced - there isn't as much bracing across the grain as in a usual X-braced guitar, but a lot of tension.

Ovations' round backs don't fit well with my round front.    I had a plain old unamplified 12 string for a while, and I thought it sounded good for what I paid for it. (I think a lot of cheaper guitars that sound really tight to me as 6-strings, like the really popular Seagulls, sound pretty good as 12's).   The ergonomics were just wrong, though.

_________________
Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Steph welcome to the OLF!!!!