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September 2011
Posts: 3
| although i've never had an ovation guitar before now, i think that i can say that i probably picked a great one to start with. i am the incredibly fortunate owner of the original custom guitar that ovation built for josh back in 1966 which eventually led to their signature series. i have to admit that although i am not a spiritual person, the first time i held the guitar and struck the first notes of "jelly, jelly", there was some serious magic there. to play THAT song on THAT guitar is indeed the stuff that dreams are made of. i have long been a fan of josh white and he was one of the reasons why i took up the guitar in the first place back in the '60's. it was only through several very odd twists of fate that i came to have his guitar and can not believe the unbelievable experience that it has been so far. i have been been trying to gather as much historical information about the early days of ovation and charlie kaman's relationship with josh and have been very fortunate so far in the kinds of information that i have been able to find, including some great material here and on the ovationtribute websites. unfortunately, the one source of information that i had hoped to be able to tap into, the ovation company and their archives themselves have proven to be a dead end. although i've spoken to a couple of folks at the company, nobody seems to have any information about that time. in particular, i was wondering if any of you know anything about j.h. rukard since it is his signature that is on the label of the guitar as the "approver". anyway, thanks to all the folks here for all the great information that i have been able to find. ![]() |
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August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | Mr. Rickard passed on some years ago, but there are people who frequent this site that knew him (some quite well! ;) ) and worked with him. They may be along to this thread soon.
There are also several other resources her that have quite a bit of historical information. You can also search in all of the threads and especially the archives and see what you can glean.
That sounds like an amazing find and congrats for it. BTW, you may have been mentioned here before ... do you buy/sell Ovations on eBay? Your name rings a bell in that way. |
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Joined:
August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | P.S. Do you have any pictures you can share? |
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Joined:
September 2011
Posts: 3
| Mr. Rickard passed on some years ago, but there are people who frequent this site that knew him (some quite well! ) and worked with him. They may be along to this thread soon. i am very sorry to hear that and i do indeed hope that some of the folks who knew him do stop by. i'd love to hear from them.
BTW, you may have been mentioned here before ... do you buy/sell Ovations on eBay? Your name rings a bell in that way. sorry, but that is not me. as i mentioned, this is the first ovation that i have ever owned and have never sold a guitar on ebay although i have bought a couple over the years. as for pictures, i have a couple but have to figure out how to post them here. |
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Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 13984
Location: Upper Left USA | The Ebayer of note was Superiorkayaker, as in Lake Superior.
Welcome Sir, we love history but we REALLY love pictures even more. |
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September 2011
Posts: 3
| the guitar has had some work done to it during its life and has been back to the ovation factory at least twice that i know of. the bowl has been resprayed from the original shiny to a pebble finish and a back de-lamination repaired. there has also been some more recent but minor work that was done to deal with some of the effects that josh's playing style had on the guitar there are some photos of josh holding/playing a guitar that has the triangular-shaped bridge instead of the rounded one that is on the guitar but my thought is that most likely, those were staged publicity photos where he was using one of the new signature models rather than his own original custom-made prototype which by that time was an already heavily used guitar. josh was not gentle with his instruments to say the least.
there is one video of josh performing nobody knows you when your down and out in sweden with his daughter, judy, which is one of the last filmed performances before he died. there are some features that are visible in that video that absolutely match this guitar and along with the provenance that comes with it, makes me absolutely certain that this is the guitar that charlie kaman built for josh in 1966 which then became the model for the signature series.
figured out how to post photos so here are a couple. the first is from the listing page at dreamguitars.com (you can still see higher resolution photos there)
and another one at home:
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Joined:
April 2010
Posts: 823
Location: sitting at my computer | Welcome urbankayaker.
That's quite a unique Ovation you've found, especially for your first one! Congrats!! An interesting history. There's plenty of knowledgeable O aficionados here who no doubt will chime in eventually.
I'm sure many of us would enjoy reading about the "several odd twists of fate" that led you to it. Inquiring minds want to know! :D
Thanks for posting the pics. And the video link too. I'm gonna have to go listen to some more of Josh's music!
Seems kinda odd that the Ovation company archives were a dead end. You'd think they'd have plenty of information on the history / origins of their Signature Series models. :confused:
Best of luck with your research. |
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josh white ovation
