How to Convert an Ovation Guitar to a Wood Back. 

Exactly. The reason I made a vid was because I was looking for luthiers who were making mods to the Ovations. An Ovation can make a new player sound good and keep interest in learning. I think many potential players quit because of the pressure it takes to hold down acoustic chords. Even on very good acoustics. Thanks for your thoughts!

That's great! A secondary benefit.

Yeah - but it still tends to slide around. I don't think this sounds any different from the deep bowl now that it has this mahogany back.

@@ParaRipperShaw Maybe that's an older Ovation, now they come in slim bowl, med bowl and the large have a flat side on the belly. And like I said a guitar strap will work wonders.

@@12babyapes59 Yes, I agree. The newer ones have more comfortable backs. I love the guitar and wanted to play it more so that's why I modified it. The neck is perfect. This just gives an option for the older ones that the player loves that might be sitting in a case.

They are fantastic guitars.

Thank you! You almost can't play those things with the deep bowl. One was even smashed because my friend's little nephew though it was a kiddie seat.

haha thanks! its very well built but it is a cheaper model. Maybe I got the idea from my buddy in college who inherited an AMC Gremlin and he cut the top off and made it a convertible.

Hey thank for the comment! Oh yeah, Taylors are hard to beat. This is a fun project for the cheaper American Ovations - it's made the difference for me in terms of playing it sitting down. As to finish, you know what, because it's such a nice mahogany board from LMI, I think it would be wrong to just paint it. I'm finishing it with clear gloss nitro lacquer. It will show all the grain and still kinda match the dark brown Lyrachord original plastic.

I think part of the thin should is I recorded that with electric guitar strings - 10s I think. I'll do an update with the Ovation factory recommended strings.

​@@ParaRipperShaw...exactly my question ..what are the original factory spec strings for the 1970's big bowl acoustic balladeer?

@@Timba-w7f Within reason, you should be able to use any good acoustic steel strings. I noticed that the dude making this video had strung it with nylon strings originally! Apparently, he went from that mistake to another one by using electric strings on his "mod". Anyway, the standard string gauge that most manufacturers put on their instruments would be an acoustic light, which is usually .012-.054. I like Martin Marquis, but any brand will do. If those feel too hard to play, you could go extra light, but then you'll have more trouble keeping the tuning. I wouldn't go thicker than medium (.013-.056), because at some point the strings will not run smoothly over the nut slots, which then would need to be filed wider. Ovations have a smart bridge design where you don't have to deal with pins, you just feed the strings through the drill holes from the bottom of the instrument. The balladeer also had decent machine heads, I believe they're rebranded Schallers.

@@JohannesLabusch you are correct with the .012 bottom but it looks like the top is recommended .053 (minuscule difference). Yes, I did try it with nylon strings with meh results. This mod though, has overall been working very well. Especially with the recommended .053-.012 phosphorus or nickel acoustic strings.

Haha! Well I put my best effort into it.

Truly... so much of this is just so wrong... 😅😅😅 As a Luthier I just was cringing so much ...until I realized he hasn't a clue and was just messing around in his garage and having fun ...and I thought " what the heck, he's having fun" Hope he never touches anyone else's instrument. 😄😅🤣😂😄😁

It's been working great - especially now with .053-.012 phosphor-bronze strings.

Unplayable? It plays great!

A couple of things. 1st, the strings on the demo were very light gauge electric guitar strings - maybe even 9s. I now have 12s on it. 2nd, as I mentioned, this is a low-end 70's Ultra model that already had a damaged bowl. 3rd, I was playing it with the original pickups through a Boss Micro Cube. It's not going to sound like a Huss & Dalton through a top of the line Fishman system. 4th, its not an atrocity, you're being over-dramatic. Under that standard, Eddie Van Halen's FrankenStrat is an atrocity.

Take 2 aspirin in the morning, then deal with it. In no way we're RU-vid viewers harmed while watching this demonstration.