Ovation Deluxe Balladeer 1968 Vintage: Very, very rare shiny-back Balladeer

1968 Deluxe Balladeer

A bit of a unicorn, these original Hartford built shiny backs are few and far between.  Excellent sounding Ovation and a joy to play.  Very early, low serial #. 

• Serial B-2xx
• No electronics, acoustic only.  
  
• Original case is long gone but the guitar is in a new TLK molded case built for round backs.  
  
• Action is on the high side, but tunes and plays just fine. There is some saddle left to lower the action.
  

• Headstock: No damage or repairs.
  
• Neck: No damage or repairs.
  
• Bowl:Very, very slight contraction on the lower/treble bout, see pics.
  
• Top: No cracks. There may (or may not) be a very early factory/warranty repair on the center seam. I am not certain about this, but I took an interior photo of the center seam for your reference. Top is tight and structurally fine. 
• Plenty of little dings and finish cracks. Rosette has cracks typical to the model. Plenty of signs of pro use, nothing awful, no major dents or scrapes, just little stuff, from head to toe. 
  

A super-nice, very very rare, early Deluxe Balladeer with very few of the problems that plagued most of the early examples.   At some point, this guitar was in the possession of a smoker and it really smells like a bar!  The guitar is really clean, it just smells like the 60's/70's!

The action will probably always be a bit high on this one, the neck humps just a bit as it meets the body.  It is a solid, good player that sounds really surprisingly excellent!

Let me know if you have any questions.  Please, no low-ball offers, thank you.