Vintage 1976 Ovation Viper Solid Body Electric Guitar - Sunburst
Serial No. E11158
Weighs: 7.5 lbs

Includes Free Pro Setup - $90 value
See below for details.

Available Cases: 
This guitar did not come with a case, but we have the following cases available. If you buy a case, your guitar will ship inside of it for the best protection.

• Gig bag, $49
• Ovation hard shell case in rough shape, $69
• Aftermarket hard shell case, $119 (shown)
• Ovation hard shell case in good condition, $189

Serial Number:  E11158. The serial number indicates this is one of the earlier ones. The CTS pots are from 1976 and 1977, so we assume the guitar is a 1977 model.

Age and Condition:  This guitar is almost 50 years old and has been loved and played. It has some honest play wear and a few nicks here and there, as can be expected. We've gone through it and everything works as it should. The neck has a nice worn in feel. It plays and sounds awesome and has TONS of MOJO!

Viper and Preacher:  These solid body electric guitars were introduced in 1973 and production went until 1980. The body shape is based on a scaled-down version of the Ovation dreadnought. Bodies were made of ash, maple or mahogany. They featured a 24 fret bolt-on neck, a top quality adjustable bridge (made in Germany by Schaller), and a proprietary set of wonderful sounding, high-output pickups the size of mini-humbuckers. Pickups were single coils on the Viper and humbuckers on the Preacher. Fingerboards were either ebony with pearl dots or maple with black dots. A laminated pickguard (with the name "Viper" or "Preacher" engraved on it) held the pickups. The Viper had a master volume and master tone. The Preacher had volume and tone for each pickup and mono and stereo output jacks. The later Vipers and Preachers have no name engraving on the pickguards, an all-metal bridge assembly, and an extra toggle switch. Vipers and Preachers came in a variety of high-gloss finishes, including natural, sunburst, nutmeg and a charcoal/blue burst.

Vintage - Made in USA Quality:  These guitars are going on 50 years old and represent an amazing bargain in a Vintage, Made in USA electric guitar. Most Fender's and Gibson's of this era go for two to three times the price! We've seen these guitars online and have been intrigued. They just look so cool! Finally we saw one for sale locally, and had a chance to pick it up and play it a little. We were so impressed we bought it, then proceeded to buy several more to be able to offer a good selection to our clients. If you've played Strat's, Tele's and Les Paul's and are looking to try something new, this might be a good guitar for you. The Viper is of excellent - Made in USA - build quality. They play and sound wonderful and have a vintage vibe and ton of character all their own. We think you'll love this guitar. We know we do!

Pickups: Ovation made their own pickups for these guitars. The Vipers have single coils and the Preachers have humbuckers. Both are about the size of a mini-humbucker and use Alnico magnets and have about 30% more winding than conventional pickups. DCR is about 10k on the single coils and 18k on the humbuckers. The single coils have angled pole pieces on the bridge pickup to accentuate the treble even more. These pickups are clear and articulate when played clean and have the balls to push a tube amp into beautiful crunchy saturation! They sound wonderful in all three positions. We have never seen a Viper or Preacher with aftermarket pickups. Wonder why? Because the original pickups sound Freakin' Amazing!

History of Ovation Guitars: On the banks of the Farmington River in New Hartford, Connecticut, there’s an old brick building that was home to Ovation Instruments and of course, the original acoustic round-back guitars. Ovation was the brainchild of Charles Kaman, an aerospace engineer, who ran a successful engineering company employing a staff of more than 2,700, with hundreds of scientists and engineers. In the 1960's, after visiting the Martin Guitar factory to have one of his acoustic guitars repaired, Mr. Kaman decided that his company could apply its technology to guitar making.

In 1966, after 18 months of research and testing, the Kaman engineers concluded that the ideal shape for a guitar back is semi-parabola. This shape produced far richer, fuller, deeper and more constant sound from top to bottom of the scale. The most practical way to form this shape was using aerospace technology to mold the back out of a new composite material called Lyrachord. When they showed one of their new guitars to jazz guitar legend Charlie Byrd, he remarked that the guitar sounded so good, it deserved an "Ovation". And the brand was born.

Ovation guitars have been used by legends like: Chet Atkins, Paul Simon, John Lennon, Mark Knopfler, Glen Campbell, Al Di Meola, John MacLaughlin, Eddie Van Halen, Brian May, Nancy Wilson, Melissa Etheridge, Matthias Jabs, Dave Mustaine, Joan Armatrading, Steve Lukather and David Gilmour to name a few.

Luthier's Assessment and Measurements:

• Serial No. E11158
• Weight: 7.5 lbs
• Nut width: 1.55"
• Neck width at 12th Fret: 1.975"
• Neck thickness at 1st fret: 0.80"
• Neck thickness at 12th fret: 0.86"
• Action (high e): 0.050"
• Action (low E): 0.060"
• Neck pickup DCR: 10.4k Ohms
• Bridge pickup DCR: 10.5k Ohms
• Fret condition: Very good (8/10)
• Truss rod: Turns easily
• Cosmetic condition: Very good. Nicks and honest play wear
• Functional condition: Excellent
• Playability: Easy to play. Low action
• Sound: Excellent. No issues.
• Overall condition: Very good

Features and Specs:

• Body Shape: Single cut
• Body type: Solid body
• Body contours: Belly cut
• Body wood: Maple
• Neck wood: Maple
• Neck profile: Medium C
• Fretboard wood: Maple
• Fretboard inlays: Black dots
• Fret size: Medium jumbo
• No. of frets: 24
• Scale: 25.5"
• Fretboard radius: 10"
• Pickups: Ovation high-output single coils
• Pickup switch: Three-way toggle
• Controls: Volume and tone
• Tailpiece: Schaller with six adjustable saddles (Made in Germany)
• Saddles: Brass
• Tuners: Grover Rotomatic
• Hardware: Chrome
  

Dr. T’s Professional Inspection and Setup:  You may find a similar instrument listed at a lower price, but ours may still be the better value as we include our professional inspection and setup.  With over 25 years in the industry, we’re convinced that a good setup is the single most important investment to improve the playability and sound of your guitar.  We inspect the guitar and address issues. Next, we remove the strings, clean the guitar, and tighten and set the drag on the tuning keys.  We inspect the frets and dress and polish as required. We clean and oil the fingerboard, restring, tune to pitch and set the neck relief, action and intonation.  We then play each fret and check for fret buzz and fret-outs during string bends, and we fine tune as required.  Next, we test the electronics, tighten pots and jacks and balance the pickups. Lastly, we play the guitar to make sure everything is just right. 

String Gauges and Settings:  We do our setups using common string gauges and settings, which we've found work well for most players.  For electrics, we use 9-42 on Fender scale (25.5") and 10-46 on Gibson scale (24.75").  For acoustics, we use 12-53.   We set action at 0.050 to 0.060 for electrics and 0.090 to 0.100 for acoustics.  If you have specific requirements, please let us know, and we will do our best to accommodate you.

Fine Tuning Adjustments:  Your guitar will be playing and sounding its best when we finish our setup.  Occasionally, minor adjustments will be needed after shipping due to changes in temperature and/or humidity, rough handling or other unfavorable conditions.  Since we have no control over this, we do not cover the cost of these adjustments.

Standard of Care:  We strive to meet our clients’ expectations and want you to be happy with your purchase.  Guitars develop wear with use and it’s widely accepted that honest wear adds character and shows that it has been played and loved.  Our used and vintage guitars will have signs of use.  Our Del Mar Lutherie guitars are hand built and can have artifacts that some people might view as "imperfections".   If you want a guitar in “perfect” or “flawless” condition, we advise you to either buy new from an authorized dealer or buy locally so you can inspect it closely in person.  We do our best to rate each guitar’s condition using guidelines outlined by Reverb.  We do not guarantee our guitars will be cosmetically flawless, and we don’t accept returns or give partial refunds on guitars due to cosmetic imperfections.

Shipping:  We ship guitars via UPS ground. The fee shown includes shipping within the contiguous USA with full insurance.  It also includes packaging materials and our time to pack up and drop off at UPS.  Note that guitar shipping costs are controlled by box size, not weight, and insurance is based on the guitar's value.

Delivery Time:  We do our best to get your guitar setup, boxed and shipped as soon as possible.  However, sometimes this can take a few days depending on how many guitars are in the queue, our current workload and other factors.  Once UPS receives your guitar, they will estimate a delivery date, which you can access via Reverb.  Depending on your location, UPS will typically deliver your guitar within 5 to 10 business days after they receive it.  If you are in a hurry, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate you, or at least we will be able to advise you of the estimated wait, so you can decide if you need to make other arrangements. 

Specs:  We list specifications as a courtesy. Some specs are measured by our luthier, others are taken from the manufacturer's data. Manufacturers change specifications all the time, and their listed specs may not be 100% accurate.  Also, used guitars sometimes have modifications that may not be apparent upon visual inspection. The guitar you will get is the one shown in the photos. If there are any "deal breaker" specs that you must have, please let us know so we can double check for you before your purchase.

Videos:  We often provide links to YouTube videos to provide our clients with more information. These videos will be of a similar make and model which is representative of the guitar in our listing. 

Cases:  We price most guitars without cases. This allows us to offer a more competitive price and pass along some savings to our clients who do not want a case. However, if you want a case, please let us know, and we will find a good one for you. If you buy a case, we will ship your guitar in it for the best possible protection.  There are many benefits when you buy a case from us; we have good prices, we make sure your guitar fits, we offer free shipping on the case (when combined with a guitar), and best of all we ship your guitar inside the case.  Each year, we see a small number of guitars arrive with damage caused by mishandling during shipping.  However, when shipped inside a hard case, the incidence of damage is almost zero.  Please consider buying a case from us. 

Returns and Canceled Orders:  We are a small business and can’t afford to offer free returns like the big guys.  There is a lot of time, effort and cost involved with processing your order, pulling your guitar from inventory, setting it up, packing and shipping it.  Please make sure you want the guitar before you commit to buy.  If we agree to a return or to cancel your order, you will be responsible for all incurred shipping costs (both ways) and a restocking fee to cover our time.

Dr. T's Tone Factory & Del Mar Lutherie, Message from the Owner:  We are a small shop in San Diego County, California.  We are part of the local guitar community and build custom electric guitars, custom tube amps, and do mods and setups. We also buy, sell and trade vintage and used instruments. Our owner is a guitar enthusiast, wood worker and professional designer and engineer. We've been doing this type of work since 1999 and now have over a thousand happy customers. We are a Reverb Preferred Seller and our approval rating is 99.9%. 

Best wishes and happy strumming!

Dr T.