Vintage 1979 Ovation Viper Solid Body Electric Guitar - Rare Charcoal Blue Burst Color
Weighs 7.8 lbs

Includes Free Pro Setup - $100 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
• Ovation hard shell case in good condition, $179 (shown)

Color: This one comes in a beautiful Charcoal Blue Burst. its only the 3rd one we’ve seen in this color. The first one we had SOLD FAST! So, we were happy to get out hands on another one.

Age and Condition: The CTS pots are from 1979, so we assume the guitar is a 1979 model. This guitar is 51 years old and has been loved and played. It's got a nice patina that only comes with age, but it otherwise looks almost new. We've gone through it and everything works as it should. The neck has a nice worn in feel, but the frets are in excellent condition and have lots of life left. It plays and sounds awesome and has TONS of MOJO!

Neck Pickup: The neck pickup the original Ovation Viper single coil. Ovation made their own pickups for their Viper and Preacher guitars. They are high output Alnico single coils with 30% more windings that other single coils. They look and sound a lot like a hot set of vintage P90's.

Bridge Pickup: The bridge pickup is a mini-humbucker. It sounds very good and is a good compliment to the neck single coil.

Ebony fretboard: Most vipers came with maple fretboards. This one has ebony, which is hard to find and would be considered an upgrade, as Ebony is a rare wood when compared to maple. It wears extremely well, and compliments the Blue Burst body.

Luthier's Assessment and Measurements:

• Serial No. E 20059
• Weight: 7.8 lbs
• Nut width: 1.63"
• Neck width at 12th Fret: 2.00"
• Neck thickness at 1st fret: 0.85"
• Neck thickness at 12th fret: 0.90"
• Action (high e): 0.050"
• Action (low E): 0.060"
• Neck pickup DCR: 10.2k Ohms
• Bridge pickup DCR: 8.4k Ohms
• Fret condition: Very good 8.5/10
• Truss rod: Turns easily
• Cosmetic condition: Very good.
• Functional condition: Excellent
• Playability: Easy to play. Low action
• Sound: Excellent. No issues.
• Overall condition: Very good.

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.

In the early 1970's , Ovation tried their hand at solid body electrics: They introduced the Breadwinner and Deacon. These guitars had unusual shapes that didn't catch on. So in the late 1970's they introduced the Viper and the Preacher, with a more conventional body shape based on a scaled-down version of one of their dreadnoughts.

Viper and Preacher: The Viper and Preacher came with a bolt-on maple neck, top quality adjustable bridge Made in Germany by Schaller, and a proprietary set of wonderful sounding, high-output single coil pickups. These guitars were made from 1978 to 1983. The Viper came in two versions made of ash, maple, alder or mahogany. Vipers had 24 fret unbound fingerboards of either ebony with pearl dot inlays or maple with black dots. A laminated pickguard (with the name Viper engraved in it) held the pickups and extended down the body for the controls, including master volume and tone knobs. The single-coil pickups were about the size of mini-humbuckers with metal sides, black inserts, and flat polepieces. Windings were different depending on the position. The bridge pickup had poles slanted diagonally that emulated the slant of a Strat. As with the Preacher, some of the later Vipers have no name engraving, an all-metal bridge assembly, and an extra toggle switch. The Viper III was similar to the Viper except it added a middle pickup. Vipers came in a variety of high-gloss finishes, including natural, sunburst, green, nutmeg and a charcoal/blue burst.

Vintage - Made in USA Quality: These guitars are now almost 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 the Viper 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. We were so impressed we bought it on the spot, 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!

Features and Specs:

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

About Del Mar Lutherie: We’re a small shop in San Diego County, California. We build electric guitars, hand-wired tube amps, and do mods and setups.  We also buy and sell vintage and used gear.  Our owner is a guitar enthusiast, wood worker and professional engineer by training. We’re part of the local guitar community (Fender, Taylor, Carvin/Kiesel).   We welcome clients by appointment. 

Why buy from us?  Our customers have peace of mind knowing they are buying from a highly rated professional shop.  We've been doing this type of work since 1999 and have thousands of happy customers.  We pride ourselves in providing best-in-class personalized service for each of our clients. We are a Reverb Preferred Seller, and our approval rating is close to 100%.

Dr. T’s Professional Inspection and Setup: You may find a similar guitar at a lower price, but ours may still be the better value as we include our professional inspection and setup. This service costs from $80 to $150 at most shops. 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.  Here’s what in entails. We inspect the guitar and address issues. Next, we remove the strings and tighten and set the drag on the tuners. We inspect the frets, find any high spots, then level, crown and polish. 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 bends, and we fine-tune as required.  Next, we test the electronics, clean and tighten pots and jacks and balance the pickups.  Occasionally, we find a fault with the electronics, so we dig in and diagnose and repair that.  Once the electronics are tip top, we play the guitar to make sure everything is just right.  Finally, we clean and polish the guitar, then slacken the stings to get it ready for shipping.

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 gauge strings for Fender (25.5") scale guitars and 10-46 for Gibson (24.75") scale guitars.  We set action to 0.050 on the high e side and 0.060 on the low E side. This action is fairly low and allows for easy fretting without buzzing or sacrificing tone. If you have special preferences, please let us know, and we will do our best to accommodate you.

Light Gauge Strings: We recommend light gauge strings on electrics, which makes fretting and bending easier. And if you want more volume, just turn up your amp. I don’t know anyone who thinks Tony Iommi or Billy Gibbons have thin tone - Tony uses 8’s and Billy uses 7’s. If you use 10’s you might consider 9’s, or if you use 9’s try 8’s. It will take a little time to get used to, but you’ll be surprised at how much easier your guitar is to play… and if you turn up your amp a little, you won’t be sacrificing volume or tone.

Fine Tuning Adjustments:  Your guitar will be playing and sounding wonderful when we finish our setup. However, 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 cannot cover the cost of these adjustments. However, if your guitar was mishandled during shipping, please let us know, so we can see if a shipping claim is in order. Sometimes it’s possible to get you a partial refund to help cover issues if we can show that they were caused by shipping.

Condition Ratings: We do our best to be consistent with Reverb’s condition rating system.  Please keep in mind that Reverb’s descriptions are very general and can be open to interpretation. The guitar you get will be the one shown in the photos, and if it has any major flaws or defects, we will point them out in the listing.  Our guitars rated below “Mint” will have signs of use and cosmetic imperfections, including minor dings, dents and swirl marks, which might only be visible upon close inspection. If you are sensitive to minor cosmetic defects, please let us know, and we can provide you with close-up photos.  We do not accept returns nor give partial refunds if you receive your guitar and believe that it should have been rated lower.  We’ve sold thousands of guitars, and almost without exception, our clients have not had issues with our ratings.  This tells us that we are doing a great job with our condition ratings.  

Standard of Care: We strive to meet our clients’ expectations, and we 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 the guitar has been played and loved. Our used and vintage guitars will have signs of use. Our Del Mar Lutherie brand guitars are hand-built and will have artifacts that some people might view as "imperfections".  If you want a guitar in “perfect” or “flawless” condition, we advise you to buy new from an authorized dealer or buy locally so you can inspect it in person. We do not guarantee that our guitars will be cosmetically flawless, and we don’t accept returns or give partial refunds due to cosmetic imperfections.

Specs: We list specs as a courtesy. Some specs are measured by our techs. Others are taken from the manufacturer's data. Manufacturers change specs all the time, and their listed specs may not be 100% accurate. Also, some used guitars have mods 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 YouTube links 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. 

Shipping: We ship guitars via UPS ground. The fee shown includes shipping within the contiguous USA with insurance. It also includes packaging materials and our time to pack up and drop off at UPS.  For guitars, shipping costs are controlled by box size and insurance is based on value. Your guitar will ship without a case, unless one is described as included in the listing or you add one to your order. If you decline to add a case, we will pack your guitar well with bubble wrap and other padding and ship it in a sturdy guitar box. However, if you want your guitar to have even better protection, we encourage you to add a hard case to your order. See below for details.

Cases: Some guitars we buy come with cases and some don't.  Some clients want cases, and some have so many they don't want more.  To offer flexibility, we make cases optional.  This allows us to pass on some savings to those who don't want cases and to offer several case types to our clients who do want them.  If you want a case, please let us know.  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 we ship your guitar inside the case for better protection. 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. See the top of the listing or inquire for options.

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 our workload and other factors. Once UPS receives your guitar, they will estimate a delivery date, which you can access via Reverb. UPS will typically deliver your guitar within 2 to 7 business days after they receive it, depending on your distance from Southern California. If you're in a hurry, please let us know and we’ll do our best to accommodate you, or at least we can advise you of the estimated wait, so you can decide if you need to make other arrangements.

Damage Claims: Although rare, guitars sometimes are damaged during shipping. If you receive a guitar that is damaged, please let us know immediately so we can open a claim.

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 shipping costs (both ways) and a restocking fee to cover our time.

Trades:   We are a professional guitar business. Anything we take on trade, we resell. Due to shipping costs and transaction fees, we only do trades in person. To make sense for us, we can only offer wholesale value, which is typically 40% to 60% of what it would sell for on Reverb. This is usually as good or better than Guitar Center.  If you’re OK with this, please send current photos of the actual gear you have for trade. We need brand, model, year, and condition. Note any mods, repairs or other issues. If your guitar includes a hard case or gig bag, send photos of that as well.