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Thread: ovation mandolin mae-148

  1. #1
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    Default ovation mandolin mae-148

    a slow/snow day, let's post another triumph of marine-weld epoxy over luthiery.

    "Applause by Ovation" mandolin model no MAE-148. 14in/35.5cm scale length. EJ70 mandolin ball end strings. No truss rod. More general info here: https://emando.com/builders_active/Ovation_Applause.htm

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    Has been sitting on a shelf for 15 years waiting for repair, now completed. Purchased many years ago for a very good price on Long Island, NY. (should have bought the ovation mandocello, too. time machine, anybody?). Played very nice acoustic and electric, until it broke.

    The fixed bridge is glued to the top thick finish, not to the top wood. Finish separated from wood, bridge came off with a chunk of top finish and a chunk of top wood. Very ugly hole left behind. As promised, top is laminated, so only top layer of laminate was damaged/destroyed. (no pictures. sorry). in addition, the bridge has split (reportedly a common problem with ovation guitars).

    Repair.

    (long time ago) split bridge glued together using regular epoxy (badly, now waiting for it to fail again so I can redo it).

    Damaged area under bridge filled/flooded with marine-weld epoxy. All open wood covered, flattish space to glue the bridge created. 1 evening preparation, 1 evening 1st layer of epoxy, 1 evening 2nd layer of epoxy, 1 week total time.

    Viscosity and working time of this evil substance (gloves, safety glasses, ventilation) was just right for this task. It flowed into holes and stuff, but did not drain down. no mess on the underside.

    As seen on photos, there are 2 bolts with nuts (washers added by me) to "hold" the bridge. I believe their only purpose is alignment and clamping of bridge when originally installed and glued. They provide no strength, nuts (even with washers) are pulled into the soft wood and that's it.

    Glued the bridge: redrilled the holes for the bolts, flooded under-bridge area with epoxy, bridge goes on top, bolts go in, washers and nuts go underside, tighten the bolts to get good squeeze-out of epoxy, set to cure. 1 evening.

    This was a moon shot, no taking the bridge off again, no taking the bolts off (holes are flooded with epoxy), no fixing intonation. ever.

    Let cure for several days. Installed old rusty strings, intonation is off. yikes! Installed brand new strings, yes, intonation is spot-on. original method of locating bridge using through-bolts worked.

    To get better action, had to rework the hole under the bridge/pickup. Action is very low now. The pickup and electronics work. (I posted photos of piezo assembly earlier) (uses 9V battery).

    Photos:

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    Thoughts:
    - design problem: balls of ball-end strings are setup to split the bridge wood. how does this work for their high-end guitars? they use un-splittable wood?
    - design problem: bridge is glued to finish not to top wood. bond of finish to top wood is not very string, very easy to peel finish from wood using swiss army knife
    - construction defect: holes for tuner shafts too big, I used paper shims, easy to see on photo.
    - construction defect: tuning machine mounting holes do not line up with shaft holes (shaft holes are correct, do not bind), easy to see on photo. (had to file mounting holes oval).
    - funky tuning machine design (s.korean company now defunct)
    - the attachment ring for the rear access panel was glued to the bowl, glue joint failed. I may reglue it, but I like leaving the access panel off:
    - easy to get my pick back if I drop it down the sound hole
    - it works as an extra sound port, just for me.

    Result. Mandolin works. stable. playing outdoors in winter weather ok. works for busking. works ok at irish session. not enough oomph for a bluegrass jam.

  2. #2

    Default Re: ovation mandolin mae-148

    “Interesting” bridge repair!

    A friend has one of those in good shape, but it’s still limited as an acoustic mando (IMO). I did some setup on it and it did have a truss rod adjustment accessible from inside the back opening. A small hole for a small Allen wrench IIRC, but it did work to adjust the relief. The bridge saddle/pickup thing I was able to leave alone, thankfully, as it stil worked once the battery was replaced, and that (i.e., plugged in) was the primary use case for my friend.

  3. #3
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    Default Re: ovation mandolin mae-148

    yes, "interesting" all right! but it works. yesterday, I had it in tune at home, then lugged it through snow, bus, skytrain, more snow, 1 hour in the cold, 4x4 jeep ride to a music gathering. it was cold enough to the touch to give you frostbite. warmed up and was still in tune (one g string was slightly off). then reverse, it is slightly off right now. all in a soft gig bag.

    just looked inside, nope, no sign of truss rod end point at the (plastic) head block. (no truss rod end point on the head stock either).

    and I agree, it is on the weak side unplugged. also everybody who tries it comments "it is so heavy".

    I am now gluing back the attachment ring for the rear access hatch. (why is it a separate piece, not an integral part of the plastic bowl? a sense a design snafu)

  4. #4
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    Default Re: ovation mandolin mae-148

    Fun continues. started working on the frets. the piezo pickup assembly now sits at the very bottom of it's slot (it must have been wedged part way in before), the strings are now lower and the high-A (E strings 5th fret) stopped sounding (especially in cold weather). I see many high frets. I see many frets lifting up on the bass side.

    After some hammering, now I have some low frets (G on D strings 5th fret stopped sounding) and I have the low G strings buzzing everywhere. Improvement! (fixed that by lifting the D and G strings at the bridge using a paper shim. no reduction of volume or tone).

    Also lowered the strings at the nut, without boogering up any slots. a first, for me.

    And as a cherry on the cake, the tuning knob on the longest A string shattered. More marine-weld epoxying ahead...

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