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Didn't know Gibson made such a model


philfish

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Yes, they made them around 1983. Nashville I presume. I had a very early one, serial number 012. It’s in the UK now. Might have been a prototype or some type of pre-production build. Very nice sunburst, prettier than others I’ve seen since. They had a laminated top. They stopped making them in 1985 I think. Around 1990 they found about 200 of the bowls in storage and shipped them to Bozeman. The folks at Bozeman joked about the bowls and called them “oil pans”.  They ultimately made guitars out of them and the model designation was OP-25 (oil pan). The Bozeman ones have solid tops as far as I know. They were available with or without pickups. 

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I remember seeing those hanging on music shop walls,  I recall thinking Gibson must have been on puppy chow to go in this direction,  I racked them up though to being a holdover of the 1970s when there was no grass growing under the feet of Gibson's R&D Department when it came to at least electrics.  At the time I recall thinking they did have a J45 thing going down but still something was off.  But that was a long time back and what that was I cannot put into words.

Edited by zombywoof
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10 minutes ago, Salfromchatham said:

There was one for sale on AGF a few months back. I almost bought it … because curiosity. I bet it would gig fine, record even better, and be a great conversation piece.

Gig with it you could, record with it you could, talk about it, yep, but put it up against a M-36 and the M-36 would make it cry like 4 year old that got  pushed off the merry go round. If it’s  so good why is it not in production?

Edited by Sgt. Pepper
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16 minutes ago, Salfromchatham said:

There was one for sale on AGF a few months back. I almost bought it … because curiosity. I bet it would gig fine, record even better, and be a great conversation piece.

Wouldn't last a month in your corral 🙂

 

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9 hours ago, Salfromchatham said:

There was one for sale on AGF a few months back. I almost bought it … because curiosity. I bet it would gig fine, record even better, and be a great conversation piece.

Yep.

Those Ovations were used for many decades by some mighty fine players on some mighty big stages. Owen had one, and he eventually bought another one and probably owns it to this day. We used it on the first cd, and live in every show for years.

 

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An Ovation was my first acoustic and only foreign made guitar I ever owned. They were so fun to play especially when they started sliding down your leg due to the genius that said "Hey lets make the back round". Yeah, Cat played one, I think Macca used one on the Wings Over America Tour, and others I can't remember. Maybe I saw video of Melissia Etheridge with one?

Edited by Sgt. Pepper
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Acoustic guitars, of course, were still being built in Kalamazoo in 1983.  But I agree that the J25 has Nashville written all over it.  Oddly though, 1983 was also the year that Kalamazoo went in a new direction deciding to return to the guitars which had put them on the map and tasked Abe Wechter with building a protype slope shoulder singe X braced J45.  Kind of schizophrenic. 

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1 hour ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

An Ovation was my first acoustic and only foreign made guitar I ever owned. They were so fun to play especially when they started sliding down your leg due to the genius that said "Hey lets make the back round". Yeah, Cat played one, I think Macca used on the Wings Over America Tour, and others I can't remember. Maybe I saw video of Melissia Etheridge with one?

I bought a Kaman (the cheap version of an Ovation) to keep at work. I had the problem with it sliding down my leg. So, I put a strip of Anti-Slip Tread Tape on the bottom of the bowl. Problem solved. 

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1 hour ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

An Ovation was my first acoustic and only foreign made guitar I ever owned. They were so fun to play especially when they started sliding down your leg due to the genius that said "Hey lets make the back round". Yeah, Cat played one, I think Macca used on the Wings Over America Tour, and others I can't remember. Maybe I saw video of Melissia Etheridge with one?

She was an Adamas (high-end Ovation) endorser, IIRC.  

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I used an expensive, Connecticut made Custom Legend for a long time.  For taking an acoustic out into the wild, any environment, no idea what you are up against tonight, you can't beat them with anything.  I miss that guitar.

rct

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As many of you know, I once collected US made Applause guitars, made in Moosup, CT from 1976-1983. I had 66 of them in one room. Underdog stuff. Some of it was rescue. Some of it was pity. They’re all gone now. I also sold off all my “real” Ovations but a couple years ago I tracked down and bought back one of my favorites, a prototype of the 1983 Collectors Edition, super shallow bowl cutaway. And a couple months ago I picked up a rough 1968 Deluxe Balladeer shiny bowl with an excellent neck set and 4 massive top cracks. It’s hydrating in its case for an extended period until the cracks close up so I can cleat them. Ovations falling off your lap is definitely a thing. They make little non-slip adhesive things cheap, and they work. Of course there are straps too… 

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10 hours ago, Murph said:

A strap solves that issue.

This one was American made.

When Roy Clark and Chet Atkins are checking out your solo, it doesn't matter what guitar you're playing...

 

Sadly he rode off to the Rodeo. If you were a member of The Wreaking Crew you could hold your own and then some.

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2 hours ago, ksdaddy said:

As many of you know, I once collected US made Applause guitars, made in Moosup, CT from 1976-1983. I had 66 of them in one room. Underdog stuff. Some of it was rescue. Some of it was pity. They’re all gone now. I also sold off all my “real” Ovations but a couple years ago I tracked down and bought back one of my favorites, a prototype of the 1983 Collectors Edition, super shallow bowl cutaway. And a couple months ago I picked up a rough 1968 Deluxe Balladeer shiny bowl with an excellent neck set and 4 massive top cracks. It’s hydrating in its case for an extended period until the cracks close up so I can cleat them. Ovations falling off your lap is definitely a thing. They make little non-slip adhesive things cheap, and they work. Of course there are straps too… 

And then there is almost every guitar maker that doesn’t  make theirs with round plastic backs.

Edited by Sgt. Pepper
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