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Location: Michigan | The bracing seems to be showing through the top?
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Location: SoCal | It's been known to happen and has been discussed before. If memory serves, it doesn't hurt the guitar, it just gives it a distinctive look..... |
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Location: Michigan | Strange, the only thing I could think of is perhaps the glue...too much or a different kind that bled into the top more than normal? |
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Location: Marlton, NJ | I think it's more a result of low humidity. I've seen it on the Millennium if it gets too dry. |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Well... You don't need to look inside to see what kind of bracing you've got! :eek: |
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Location: Atlanta, GA. | Whatever is causing the top to darken must be from underneath the top and the braces are blocking contact with the surface.
Age?... Environment?... |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | I've seen this often with smokers. The top surface of the guitar is sealed. The inside is not. So just like smoke will stain your fingers, walls and clothing it also stains the inside of the top and permeates through causing the wood to darken. But it is blocked in the areas of the braces (so they stay lighter in color). I've heard of people intentionally blowing smoke into their guitars to give the wood top an "aged" look. |
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Location: closely held secret | I've seen that happen to old people who live in Arizona... |
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Location: Atlanta, GA. | I've heard of people intentionally blowing smoke I've heard of this too... but, not into their guitars! |
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Location: Copenhagen Denmark | Never seen that before on a Git.,...... |
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Location: Route 66, just east of the Cadillac Ranch | Here's another Ovation with the same pattern. This one is a 1619-1 that once belonged to Cat Stevens, who at the time was a smoker.
Cat Stevens 1619-1 |
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Location: Upper Left USA | I like Dave's theory but I'm leary about him blow'in smoke on us, but it fits!
#1 Make observations without drawing conclusions.
The Top is Darker in areas that do not have bracing.
Assumption - the braces have prevented or slowed whatever process that darkened the top.
Points to concider:
- The braces add mass
- The braces may hold/stabilize humidity
- The braces have a chemical bond to the top
- The braces/bond may block absorption of gas or vapor through to the top.
I like the Smoke Hypothesis. |
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Location: Hot Springs, S.D. | Hmm...I smoke (but only to excess) and I've never had that happen to any of my guitars. |
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Location: GATLINBURG TENNESSEE :) | Maybe someone was using the guitar as a bong? That would go along with the humidity difference AND smoke theories, and unlike traditional guitars, the Ovation DOES have a bowl that could hold water. That would also explain why Cat Stevens' guitar was that way. That's MY theory, and I'm standing by it.
Of course, I wouldn't know anything about that sort of thing. |
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Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | As evidenced by the top scratches, I'd say this puppy hasn't been babied all its life. |
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Location: Jet City | The 1617 I got for my kid with the foil label has it too, but not as prominent. I don't know if the previous owner smoked or not, but it didn't smell of smoke, and it was in pristine condition.
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Location: SoCal | Originally posted by Nick B.:
Here's another Ovation with the same pattern. This one is a 1619-1 that once belonged to Cat Stevens, who at the time was a smoker.
Cat Stevens 1619-1 |
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May 2008
Posts: 4996
Location: Phoenix AZ | You folks can laugh all you want, but I'm dead serious about the smoking thing. The inside of he soundboard is bare wood and it's very porous. The smoke just settles right in. Somebody once mentioned a smoking player who had two guitars, one of which was a high end classical with a varnished interior. Guess which of the guitars had no wood staining from the smoke. I'm not making this stuff up. |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | That sounds like a good hypothesis to me!
So all y'all smokers who wanna prevent this, get a can of spray sealant and let loose in the sound-hole. |
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Posts: 354
Location: nashville | This was casued by an over exposer to an X-Ray machine, most likly at the airport. Well technically speaking a mis-operated x-ray machine.
When an x-ray becomes reversed polerized they can cause the molecules in H2O to be come excited and react with molecules in the glue . They become in laymans terms "trapped" and overtime brake down the inside of the guiar and the braces "show through" (Since the braces are unsealed and were the densest part of the guitar holding moisture the braches become "infected")
Ovations are affected the most becasue of the Lyarchord bowls reflect more rays
This is really an over-simplification of the process because I know we have some banjo players on the board. |
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Location: Brisbane Australia | I don't think it's the guitar that's been over exposed to X rays!! :D
AJ |
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April 2006
Posts: 2491
Location: Copenhagen Denmark | Originally posted by james37214:
This was casued by an over exposer to an X-Ray machine, most likly at the airport. Well technically speaking a mis-operated x-ray machine.
When an x-ray becomes reversed polerized they can cause the molecules in H2O to be come excited and react with molecules in the glue . They become in laymans terms "trapped" and overtime brake down the inside of the guiar and the braces "show through" (Since the braces are unsealed and were the densest part of the guitar holding moisture the braches become "infected")
Ovations are affected the most becasue of the Lyarchord bowls reflect more rays
This is really an over-simplification of the process because I know we have some banjo players on the board. That sounds like a case in point .. |
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Posts: 747
| Originally posted by james37214:
This was casued by an over exposer to an X-Ray machine, most likly at the airport. Well technically speaking a mis-operated x-ray machine.
Yet another reason not to go anywhere by mass transit.
Maybe the x-ray dude couldn't spell for beans and got everything all messed up. |
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January 2002
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Here's my guess.
The braces were bonded to the top using a water based wood glue. They were done in a high frequency bonding machine that basically sent electricity up into the top where it found the water in the glue and ran along that line for a while(path of least resistance) till it came to the next metal bar in the high=freq machine and it went back down into the machine. So what you had were a bunch of spot welds that held it all in place. The glue would air dry in a few hours but in the machine it went in 30 seconds or so.
My theory is that the machine ran too "hot" and over cooked the glue lines. These lines don't show up until a year or so after the fact. Mostly all that I've seen with these glue lines are from the 80s.
That fit with what you guys have seen? |
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February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | Originally posted by james37214:
This is really an over-simplification of the process because I know we have some banjo players on the board. The theory really blows, but that line makes up for it. |
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What could cause this?
