Mark Day's Blog (2)

I'm almost done with the "Ovahuela" so it's time to update this blog. This was a fun project. The nice thing about it was the freedom rebuilding an old klunker gives you. I was free to experiment and try things I normally wouldn't if I were building a "period" instrument from scratch.

A little background

I bought an old 1970's Ovation Applause from my sister for $50 about ten years or more ago. It was a 6 string (steel), approximately an "OM" shape. It had a…

What to do with an old Applause Ovation 6-string with a godawful aluminum/resin neck and a plywood top? Rebuild it into a lute, or vihuela, of course!

I started by removing the plywood soundboard. Most luthiers that do repair work will tell you they hate Ovations. I can see why. Ovation uses all sorts of epoxies and other "space-age polymers" to glue their guitars together so taking them apart is not pretty. As I wasn't planning on saving the soundboard, I didn't care. I wore a…