Back in the day, you could search Ebay for “guitar project” and come up with some great deals. The best ones that I found were old Ovations. These things were the mutts nuts back when I was learning to play. You’d see every start on TV playing them – Jim Croce, Glen Campbell, name it. This was probably because they were durable (they had a composite back), and if memory serves were the only acoustic-electric with a decent sound plugged in.
The first one I got was a cutaway Model 1861. I got that for $35. But it was a mess. Cracks in the soundboard, and busted like someone smashed it on the ground.
They did a shitty job with god knows what kind of glue. The binding was gone. It had cracks in the soundboard. May have been impact related but if these instruments weren’t stored properly, they don’t do with temperature changes well. The composite back expands/contracts at a different rate than the soundboard. Something has to give, and it’s almost always the (dried out) soundboard.
This was a great learning experience. I glued the soundboard back, cut the cracks into a V shape and glued in birch strips, and rebuilt the binding.
If I had it to do over, I’d have done the whole binding, or at least the right side. Notice the crack repairs. That was back in my sand it, stain it, varnish it phase. I didn’t know you could dye lacquer.
I installed some tuners and started working on the electronics.
I lucked out. All that was wrong with it was bad solder joints. I simply lit up each connection on the board, de- soldered and re-soldered them.
Cool guitar. Great action. Sounded great, had some character to it.
I played it for a few years at Church and then sold it. Forgot how much, a few hundred. I made money and learned some serious skills.
Ovations have a longer scale than most acoustic guitars I’ve played. It’s identical to a Strat’s 25.5″, although the frets feel farter apart. So I found it easier to play higher on the neck. Probably another reason they sounded so good back in their heyday. Explains their brighter sound.
Inspected By Pat 
I remember when Ovation was a “New” thing and they had given one to Roy Clark to “introduce” to the world. He did so by turning the back to the crowd (camera) in profile. Then turning himself in profile to the crowd as well and it was actually quite remarkable how the bowl back of the guitar matched his belly.
He would often comment about his belly… and the “belly” on the back of an Ovation as seen here:
As always, Roy would proceed to play the living hell out of it.
They have a very unique sound. The 12 string he plays here almost sounds like a harpsichord.
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