Ovation Bass

Never... but i've always wanted one... -sigh-

Sorry I couldn't be more help

I saw one back in the day, but I never picked it up.

There was a review in the vintage section of Bass player mag a few issues ago

but Pomeroy never says anything bad about the basses he reviews

because chiefly they're his own or belong to a buddy of his

he said some great things about a Teisco bass that I knew to be a pos

my take is that if they were good basses, they would have caught on

as it is, I think they were only in production a year or two

Ovation had some production issues back then

the tops of their bedpan roundback acoustics started splitting at the bridge

and lifting to form a bubble of sorts

anyone who complained was taken care of

and Ovation recovered quite well from those original flaws

but they decided to stick with acoustics

I wouldn't consider one for gigging,

maybe to collect

My housemate has a Magnum. Massively overcomplicated electrickery, but a solid and well made bass, chunky neck, broad range of sounds since it has an on board graphic. Would hate to try and fix the electrics on it though.

The big neck pickup is actually 4 single coils , one for each string. Doesn't sound anything like the Gibson style mudbucker, the bridge pickup sounds J bass though.

Since I saw the first one on fleabay, I have been poking around the net looking for other examples.
They made 2 versions, a Magnum and a Magnum II. The II had the 3 band graphic EQ, with 2 sliders per band.

Most have stereo outputs as well as mono outputs,
however a few have only mono outputs.

Clunky neck description bothers me though. I generally don't like thick necks.

I used to have a Solidbody Ovation electric guitar, it was the Deacon model. An early model to have active circuitry. Had some intonation issues and I once had the pickups literally fall out. They were affixed to steel plates with adhesive foam and the foam dry rotted. glued them back up wiht RTV and all was fine, at least up untill I sold it.

I think you're right OFC, woudl be more of a collector's type thing just to have; not to gig with.

My housemate's was his main gigging bass till he got a musicman and a jazz: