1995 Ovation MM68 Acoustic/Electric (Modded) Mandolin

This US-made Ovation mandolin has been the gigging workhorse of a local musician since new. He has two of them and this one was the first and now his slightly-newer black one has taken-over main duty. On both instruments he had some specific mods done -- adding a mandolin-style tailpiece is the first and having them refretted with stainless steel is the other. I approve of both of these changes as the ball-end-load bridge design never really "worked" from my point of view with these Ovation mandos and it made them feel more tense as well on the left hand. Stainless frets are simply nice to have but they are a pain to install.

I had to do some hefty tweaking to get this to play spot-on and happily, but now that it's done-up, it's feeling easy and fast and has a good sound plugged-in and unplugged. The look will not be for everyone but for those of you into the '90s vibes -- well -- this has them in spades. The pickup/saddle insert is original to this instrument but the preamp is actually slightly newer by a year or two. It works just fine but the volume slider has been replaced and one adjustment slider/EQ knob is missing.

Most "fun" bits? The pickwear/usewear to the venner on the treble-side soundholes is pretty entertaining and the newer stainless frets feel slick.

Repairs included: a fret level/dress, countersunk bolt-reinforcement for the neck joint (tensioned on the inside of the body), an old repair to a center-seam hairline crack under the strings from the tailpiece to the bridge, restring, cleaning, and setup.

Top wood: solid spruce

Back & sides wood: molded

Bracing type: fan/tonebar

Bridge: rosewood

Fretboard: ebony

Neck wood: mahogany

Action height at 12th fret: 1/16" bass and hair-under 1/16" treble
String gauges: 32w-9, fine with 34w-10, 40w-11 not suggested

Neck shape: medium C

Board radius: ~12"

Truss rod: non-adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium-narrower

Scale length: 13 7/8"

Nut width: 1 3/16"

Body width: 10 5/8"

Body depth: 3"

Weight: 3 lbs 1 oz

Condition notes: it's been modded -- a tailpiece has been added and the preamp is from a slightly-later MM68 model. The preamp has a replacement volume control arm (a screw! ...yes, I did that for the owner a bit ago, it works fine) and the volume is a little sensitive if you're planning to change levels a lot while playing. The rest of the preamp works as it should with no issues. The frets are replacements and stainless so they barely wear at all -- the owner is a neck-squeezer and I saw what kind of wear he put on his old Guild flattop. These have been on this for a while and were only the tiniest-bit pitted from use. There's a repaired crack on the lower-bout center and plenty of usewear in evidence throughout. The bass side of the neck near the nut also has a hairline crack repair -- it was just a little separated and I glued it up. I didn't even know it was there until I had tension off the neck for fretwork. There's a small circle of patch at the back of the heel where I sunk a bolt in the neck that's tensioned-up on the inside.

It comes with: its original hard TKL case, though both hinges are now replacement wire and one latch is broken.