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Location: Eastern Long Island, N.Y. | Hello Ovation Lovers,
This is my first post and I have a question regarding my Adamas.
Adamas deep bowl, electric- acoustic dated 10/6/78, hand signed by Charles Kaman, model 1687-8 and a serial # 0431-94. The guitar and case are in excellent condition and so is the soft outercase it came with. I'm curious as the rarity and value of this guitar and would appreciate any comments or feedback from the membership of this forum. |
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Location: Jax, Fl or Lost in Ga woods, again | The latest edtion of Blue Book of Acoustic guitars List: Exec condition $1750.-2000.00 Avg condition:$1050-$1250.00 Mgr 1977-1998. Just a guide,it's what the market will bear.Might do an Advanced Search on ebay. Others here will have far more history knowledge than me !!! |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | $2500. |
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Location: everywhere | I have almost the same guitar, but the colour is 9 rather than 8. So that's a bigger number, which has to be worth more, doesn't it? But my serial number is only 230-something which is about half of yours, so your's must be worth getting on for twice as much as mine. But your fundamental frequency is like, OMG maybe 7HZ more than mine. But that makes it have less bass.... OH MY GOD, I am so confused. Maybe you should just enjoy it for what it is and forget about it's monetary value, which ain't much, compared to those fancy tailors and such..... Anyway, I hate my shitty '78 wideneck Adamas, if anyone wants it you know the trailer where you can find my sorry ass. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Such a load of Rooubishe that is, isn't it? OY!!
Dave gave a good answer, 2500 +/-
of course that signature isn't worth as much as the ones after #600 which have a different signature, even though the same set of ears accepted every guitar from 200 on. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | My favorite, the first post, rooubishe, codswollop and all. |
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| Rooubishe, I'll caravan right over and take that wideneck off your hands - should take me a bit over an hour to get there. Any others you're tired of let me know.
BTW, welcome to the board, john. Nice git you have there. |
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Location: europe | send a photo |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Nice to hear about the under 1000 guitars.
Question, does it have a foam or wood carving on the headstock? |
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| $2500 is a steal for those guitars. They've got to be worth twice that much in todays' money... |
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Location: SoCal | Originally posted by Mauvais Beal:
Question, does it have a foam or wood carving on the headstock? Beal, how can you tell which it has? |
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Location: NJ | Light it. |
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Location: SoCal | Shut up Clifford. I wanna know..... |
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Location: europe | what do you see as more valuable, the foam or the carved headstock.
my 1978 adamas I has the wooden epaulettes in photographic material (i think) but a carved headstock. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | No real difference in value, just a question of WHEN.
I think the paper eppaulets were on #70 to around 100 maybe, perhaps not even that many. Maybe they were just the Adamas 2, I forget.
My 220 has a foam piece. It jusl looks brownish and no real wood grain. The real wood will have a pretty pronounced grain, particularly on the very top with all the end grain.
I am pretty sure that around #600 they are wood. Just trying to track down when the change was made.
$2500 is what I hear they go for. $5000 is great but I've not heard of that. They should be there. |
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Location: europe | i think it is great to have one with a foam piece. mine is #327, and the eppaulets are what i think no wood. they look one-piece and the borderlines between the segments look painted. first i was a little bit disappointed not to have the beautiful wood, but then i thought it is also interesting to have the ones which were not wood because most probably there will be not too many of those. |
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Location: SoCal | One of the 1st clues is that the foam is shiny...course, now that I am using Gerlitz Guitar Honey on my fingerboards and headstocks, might be hard to tell.
The one foam headstock that I was shown - other than being shiny, looked as good as the wood. |
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Location: SoCal | Originally posted by Mauvais Beal:
I think the paper epaulets were on #70 to around 100 maybe, perhaps not even that many. Paper epaulets? Never heard of them. What's the story there? |
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Location: europe | beal, would it be possible to get a photo of your 220 ? specially the headstock. i really love the old ones. those were the guitars i dreamed about when i was teenager. back then i studied the ovation and adamas information material, collected all photos i could get. i even painted one on my schooldesk in a photorealistic way. |
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Location: NJ | It's mentioned in "TheBook" that the eppaulets were changed (for cost-saving reasons) to "photographic mylar" for a spell . . .
Don't recall the time frame, and I don't believe I've ever SEEN one. Does Jerome have a pic on his site anywhere?? |
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Location: europe | 
there are pictures on jeromes site, the serial number is 327.
here a close up of the eppaulet. |
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Location: Paris/France | The carved part of the head of the #0125 is foam without any doubt.
I'm not sure about the epaulets because the wood (if it's wood) is thinner than on my other Adamas and the side of the epaulets is painted in Beige with sparkle just like the top.
There's some PICTURES HERE.
What's your opinion???
J :) |
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Location: Tychy, Poland | my opinion is that you have some weird wood on back side of headstock... that lighter area. i haven't seen anything like this before on O. |
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Location: NJ | that's just the grain . . . |
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Location: Scotland | That's foam for sure. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Well that's a foam head and those eppis are wood. The thought was to do them printed on paper and they could do it so well that noone would ever know. Yeah RIGHT! I guess that there were only a few. Like the early Adamas II guitars that had a vaccuuformed ring binding. They are wood grained but don't look quite as good as themoulded ones. There are a few of those out there but they switched over to the Ad 1 ring system pretty quickly. |
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Location: europe | are the eppoulets of my guitar (blue) the paper ones. they look to be one piece and have something like a wood grain imitation, like pressed into the surface. |
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Location: Eastern Long Island, N.Y. | I have no idea what you folks are talking about.
Foam headstock, a different sinature, etc. etc.
Anyway, my guitar appears to have a wooden headstock. It's not shiny and has some wood grain to it. The signature is in ink (pen) and the volume and tone controls are made of wood and appear to be walnut.
Please keep this dialogue up; I find this dicourse fascinating. |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | For a period of time the carved-scroll part of the headstock was made from high density foam instead of wood.
Early adamas were signed by CHK, then CWKII took over the pen.
For a period of time the multi-wood epaulets were made from printed mylar.
Folks are just trying to figure out where your guitar falls in this smorgasbord of developments.
Dave |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | It will keep yer hear a spinnin.
gerald, your eppis are wood.
signature is not a big thing, someone else can explain that to you. |
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Location: Eastern Long Island, N.Y. | Yes, the signature reads Charles U. or K. Kaman
Once I figure it out I'll post some pictures.
thanks again to all. |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | H. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Yeah, he's H. |
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Location: europe | beal, and why do you think that the signature of the later ones are more valuable ? ;-))) |
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Location: Germany | Thanks Bill for the info about the early vacuum-formed bindings of the AIIs. I realized that my 1682-7 has this ring and I completely agree, it looks cheap. There's a pretty good pic of it on Jerome's site:
1682-7 with vacuum-formed ring binding
Anyway, this is my favourite A/O guitar, play it 90% of the time. I'm a wide-neck freak but this is not the main reason why I prefer this instrument over the others. It was heavily used by the previous owner and thus opened up wonderfully over the years (even if some people doubt that this can happen with an Adamas guitar). To my ears this guitar sounds amazing.
Bill, I have a complaint: Your signature is missing on the label. Would you please come over and make up your mistake?
Karl |
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Location: SoCal | I'm enjoying this thread. It's the kind of thread that we used to have all the time when the board was new.
Beige Admaii are really starting to grow on me. Ever since I saw Karl's beige 1167 slothead, I've been drooling on my keyboard.... |
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Location: south east Michigan | I agree with you on the beige, Paul.
The other one that suggested a natural spruce color was also cool.
My guess is that we are going to see a break from the traditional blue or red color offerings. |
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Location: Atlanta, GA. | Another indication is that the foam appears to go all the way to the nut... therefore no TRC. |
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Location: SoCal | Colin, it wouldn't have a truss rod cover as they had K-bars in the neck that are adjustable from inside the guitar...... |
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Location: Atlanta, GA. | Moody,
Correct! But does that include the ones with a carved wood headstock? Were all Adamas' of that vintage K-bar? |
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Location: SoCal | Originally posted by cholloway:
Moody,
Correct! But does that include the ones with a carved wood headstock? Were all Adamas' of that vintage K-bar? I believe so.... |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Original slotheads have a Truss Rod.
Adamas I and II have K-Bar.
Dave |
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Location: Paris/France | #47-RI have also a Truss Rod like the original Slotheads isn't it??
Thanks for your replies about my #0125 and I'm know sure that the epaulets are made with wood.
I noticed that there's no white binding between the table and the trim like on most Adamas I know.
Is it usual on early Adamas I???
I'm in love with beige color since the first day and it's my favorite color with brown.
My next Adamas will be a "special beige" but it's another story that I should be able to tell you pretty soon... ;)
J :) |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Originally posted by Jérôme:
#47-RI have also a Truss Rod like the original Slotheads isn't it?? FRI's have truss rod. |
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Location: SoCal | Jerome, you need to get married and have kids so that you'll have less money to spend on guitars --- like the rest of us! |
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Location: europe | how many kidso do you have moody ?
i have two boys, 5 and 7 |
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Location: europe | jerome, i love the beige, which beige are you talking about.
does the beigt exist with burst into real blue? |
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Location: Paris/France | Originally posted by moody, p.i.:
Jerome, you need to get married and have kids so that you'll have less money to spend on guitars --- like the rest of us! Paul,
I'm so lucky to be with a nice woman whom understand my passion for O's.
It's maybe hard to believe but sometimes she helps me to choose the next one... ;)
She's got a very kind kid who's very interested with guitars too so everything is ok.
Gerald, wait a little bit and you will understand what I mean with the Beige color... ;)
J :) |
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Location: europe | don´t tell me it is one 10 km from your home. ;-)) |
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Location: Scotland | Originally posted by gerald:
how many kidso do you have moody ?
i have two boys, 5 and 7 That's interesting. Is is customary in France to give your kids numbers instead of names? |
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Location: SoCal | I knew a guy in Oklahoma, years ago, who nicknamed his son "Burden", 'cause that's what he was.... |
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Location: Paris/France | Originally posted by Paul Templeman:
Originally posted by gerald:
how many kidso do you have moody ?
i have two boys, 5 and 7 That's interesting. Is is customary in France to give your kids numbers instead of names?
Gerald is in Austria if I'm right... ;)
In France we don't give numbers to our kids but cheeses or wines names!!! :D :D
J :) |
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Location: NJ | Makes it easier t'keep track of 'em . . . |
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Location: NJ | This past Valentine's Day, I was buying Jeanette some perfume, when I saw this VERY cute little black girl skipping down the aisle, sliding her fingertips along the display cases singing:
". . that's m'name . . that's m'name . . . that's m'name . . ."
A few seconds later, I heard the little girl's mother bellow from the adjacent aisle:
". . CLINIQUE!! . . you GIT yo' ass over here, Girl!! . ." |
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Location: Tennessee | True story ... my nephew (whose name is Pericles ... named after his Greek grandfather) was in kindergarden and the teacher was getting to know the kids so went around the group asking each of them questions. When she got to Perry she asked if his Mom has a special name she called him because his name was so unusual. Of course, says he. What does she call you? asked his teacher. "Little Sh$t" says innocent little Perry. My sis got a call from school. :) |
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Location: Eastern Long Island, N.Y. | Sorry to bring this thread back into focus however after visiting the Ovation website I discovered that the number following the serial number was actually the fundamental frequency of this specific guitar.
Quite interesting! |
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Location: SoCal | John...I guess the average is about 93; however they can be down to 83, I have a 1687 Adamas I rated at 101.
Does it mean anything? Not much...the 101 still has a strong bass similar to my 93's. Might be slightly brighter on the tenor side. |
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Location: Blue Ridge Mountains | Yes, I'm quite partial to that -7 color myself! |
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adamas question