For Sale: 1967 - 1968 Deluxe Balladeer. I am asking $500 OBO

This is what Ovation Customer Support had to say about the guitar when I emailed them:

This guitar is one of the first guitars that Ovation produced and is a pretty rare guitar.  The 1990 is the serial number, which means this guitar was produced from 1967-1968.  This was during the time that Ovations were built at the original Kaman location in Bloomfield, CT before the operation was set up in New Hartford, CT

This guitar does have a few condition issues. There is a crack in the body, some damage to the ring around the opening and some dings and scratches on the back. Please see photos for exact condition. It comes with the original Ovation Case. Buyer will pay for the cost of shipping.  Let me know if you need more pics or info.

I'm inclined to agree with Paul. The neck on your guitar is from a later model. I can tell from the Ovation logo on the head stock. The earlier design did not have a black outline. It only had the logo in gold metallic.

Here's your head stock.

Here's the 1968 Deluxe Balladeer headstock.

Also, note that the 1968 Deluxe Balladeer had the word, "Deluxe" in gold on the head stock. Yours does not have this. The headstock veneer on the 1968 Deluxe Balladeer was Rosewood. Yours is walnut.

I know that Ovation kept the plain gold head stock logo through at least 1974 because here's my 1974 1111 Balladeeer headstock. Note that the head stock veneer is now walnut.

Finally, the 1960s Deluxe Balladeer had the 5-point rosewood bridge. Yours is the standard shape walnut bridge. The 5-point bridge was phased out in either 1971 or 1972. It looks like walnut bridges replaced the rosewood about the same time.

In looking at the catalogs on Jerome's site the 1970 Balladeer has the 5-point walnut bridge and the 1972 has the standard-shaped walnut bridge.

The way to tell whether the body is a 1968 is to look inside at the braces. This is what the braces of a 1968 Balladeer would look like. Note the fiberglass strip between the lower legs of the X-braces.

That's definitely a late 1960s neck block.

Here's the neck block from 1967 Balladeer I re-topped a few years ago.

As I say, the way to definitively identify the body is to look inside at the underside of the top.

All it would take is some sort of a mirror and a flashlight. Shine the flashlight at the mirror so it illuminates the insides.

The neck looks like a late-1970s neck that was mated to an early body. BTW, even though it's a bit of a Frankenvation, it still looks like it's a nice guitar.

Yes thank you, standingovation had pointed out that this brown case didn't exist yet in 68.

So it looks like this is a mid 70's neck married to a 67/68 balladeer body in a mid 70s brown case.

I really appreciate all of you guys help in figuring out what I have, you all really know your stuff.  

I still need to find this a home so I am open to all offers. Otherwise I guess I will just throw it up on eBay and see where it lands.