Saturday 12 November 2011

Ovation Eclipse 1235-5 semi-hollow wonder


This excessively cool ES-335 style Ovation Eclipse has an interesting story (it it's a true one). It belongs to the late 1960s Storms series - the Tornado model being the most famous of them - whose bodies were actually made by Höfner in Germany. It seems that once they received a batch of bodies with painting problems, but all they had to refinish them was the Lyrachord they used to mold the round bodies of their acoustic guitars (I have this finish on my Breadwinner, it's great!)

That was a good starting point, add to this Höfner 513B blade pickups, classy chrome hardware, a bizarre pickguard and you have this dream guitar, that doesn't look like a 40-year vintage grandma but something Ellen Ripley could have used to smash a Xenomorph with. This guitar was a very short series, like just a few hundred items around 1970, and if there was fairness in this universe, one of them would be mine...

Bertram

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5 comments:

  1. Had this since the early 80's till I sold it around 2005. I miss it.

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  2. I own one of these guitars. I never saw another one with the black flat finish. It was my uncle's and he gave it to me in 1978.

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  3. I've had mine since 1985ish. Love it except for trying to find a replacement pickup ring.

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    Replies
    1. I've had mine since then too. AND . . .the pickup ring problem. Ended up having to make my own. There doesn't seem to be a standard sized part on the guitar. LOL

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  4. I have one that I still enjoy playing ...I had it plecked and I play iy through a Kemper Profiler and it plays as good as my American Strat.

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