Here we have a 1987 Ovation Legend that belonged to my late brother-in-law Mark. This guitar was purchased for him brand new by his girlfriend/future wife at Steve's Music in Toronto and was his pride and joy for many years. That was until it was virtually destroyed in a "bizarre gardening accident" about 10 years ago and has been sitting in it's case ever since. When I first said I would try and put it back together I still had not seen the destruction in person. When I opened the case, I couldn't believe what I had gotten myself into.
The goal with this guitar was not to restore it to pristine condition, but to put it back together leaving it's character in tact, make it playable, and give it back to Mark's son.
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The first thing I had to do was remove several layers of aluminum and duct tape that was holding everything together. Then I disassembled the guitar completely to see the full extent of damage I was dealing with.
The top was broken into two pieces. The larger portion had several cracks which I addressed first by bracing them with splints from underneath.
Next I glued the smaller portion of the top back to the larger piece and braced them with splints from underneath as well. However there was still a small piece of the top that was completely missing.
The lower bout on the bass side of the guitar is the area I call "Ground Zero" and took the most damage. I glued in a piece of veneer to strengthen a large crack, and also make the top thicker so I could plane the jagged edge straight and graft in a piece of spruce I borrowed from an old Cuban cigar box.
With the missing piece of spruce grafted in, all I had to do was fabricate a couple of small sections of purfling and kerfing, reattach the cream binding, and the top was done.
Next I had to deal with the rounded back of the guitar which is made from a single piece of thin glass resin that is shaped into a bowl. It had a large crack in the area of "Ground Zero" that I repaired with CA glue and held tight with finger pressure until it dried.
When the fragile top and back pieces are glued together the body itself becomes surprisingly strong - like an egg. Getting the two pieces glued back together was a tricky time sensitive maneuver that required a custom made jig and an assistant.
I used 5 Minute epoxy to glue the body together because I needed something that was going to bond with resin, glass-fibre and wood. My wife applied the glue to the inside edge of the bowl while I did the top. Then we quickly put the two parts together and clamped them down in the jig for the next 24 hours.
Now that the body was back together I had to reattach the neck, which is bolted to the bowl from the inside; then glue the end of the fret board back to the top. The neck also required a few minor repairs to the binding which I took care of first.
I strung the guitar up and everything held tight. The neck had a slight back bow at the 15th fret so I left it alone for a few months under extra string tension and it has come back nicely. The guitar actually sounds quite amazing after everything it's been through and it has definitely retained its character. All that it needed now was a slight touch up to the black top with the old "Steinway Repair Kit", a little bit of buffing and it was ready to go back to Mark's son.
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| Mark Bailey 1964-2017 |
