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Guitarpix,

Very interesting mod and a great depiction of how you did it.  I usually position myself and guitar in front of a big plate glass window to hear what I think I want to hear. Your mod is a great "use it anywhere" application.  Thank you.  By the way, that's a nice touch glassing the inside to maintain structural integrity.

Blast from the past again.

This is a very good question that begs you to try the guitar before you buy it.  I own two jumbos.  One is a Gibson and the other is a Guild.  Both of their bodies are about the same size and shape.  The Gibson is made of Spruce top and Maple sides and back.  The Guild is a spruce top with rosewood sides and back.  Both have mahogany necks. The playing volumes of the two guitars are very similar but the Gibson has much more bass.  Not a little bass.  A LOT OF BASS.  The Guild has very balanced volume across all the strings but the Gibson gives me an opportunity to accompany myself.  If I play/ pick the bass line while I'm fingering other notes it almost sounds like two guitars.  At first I didn't like the "imbalance". Now, I love it.   But to get to the meat of the original 2007 question, "What is so special about a jumbo acoustic vs. a normal acoustic"... Answer is: Nothing and everything.  Example:  Over all, my Ovation sounds better and is louder than the Guild or the Gibson (to me).  The Ovation is a very small body by comparison.  The Gibson is so large that I don't think a small person should even try it.  Volume and tone of any guitar are very subjective.  Loud is not an issue in this day and age of electronics and amplification.  Sound quality, comfort, tone, and playability are the issues (Ok, looks are important too).  I have discovered that no matter how much I love the Gibson,  I can't sit down with it in a chair and play it comfortably.  I can hang out all day in a lazy-boy with my Ovation.  I don't know if age has anything to do with this but as I get older, I'm looking more at the smaller body guitars like the Gibson L-00 or Martin's OOO series.  Long story short: Bigger isn't always better. But, sometimes it is.

That's really cool.  Nice touch with the Hendrix approach!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11413196@N … 510182538/

Hey,  I think this link works now.  I'm such a rookie at this internet posting stuff.  Let me know if you have any trouble.

Thanks,

Matt

Here's some photos (I hope) of what I've been up to with this guitar since Disaster Day.

Anyway,  Once I got the head glued back on, I knew that I would have to replace the veneer.  I found a piece of rosewood at stewmac.com that was quite a bit thicker than the original.  The original was paper thin.

The new one was 3/32".  I wanted to use it because i knew that it would not only look nice but also add strength to the repair.  I used a Japanese saw at the back edge of the nut and cut a slot 3/32" deep and used a set of dividers to scribe a line around the headstock.  After that I used a Dual Action Orbital sander to remove the excess material down to the scribe line.  Then I glued and clamped the new rosewood veneer.
  I also decided to reprofile the neck to make it fit my hands better. I figured, what the hell, I'm in it this deep already, I may as well make some modifications... I sort of mimicked the soft V shape of my Ovation using the same sander.
So far its got a good feel but I won't really know until the strings go on.  And just to set the record straight.  I would never have done any of this myself if I had spent a lot of money on this guitar.  This thing only cost me $250.00 US so I figured I could give it a go.  I would never even consider doing this to my J-200.   

Thank you all for your tips, hints, links and support.  I appreciate it.  It motivated me to try this myself.  Which is a good thing.
I still have the whole refinishing thing to deal with but that somehow doesn't seem as daunting.

Thanks again.

Matt

Normtheguitar,   I'm still off topic but the guitar armrest really does make a sonic difference to me.  Elderly Musical Instruments and probably some other sites,  offer printable full sized templates for these arm rests that you can print, cut out and then match to the curves of your guitars.   I have an original plastic one on my 1988 Yairi, and two ebony ones on my Rogue resonator and Godin 5th ave Kingpin.  I like the feel, the look and the improvement of sound after installation.  These are a great addition to almost any guitar and the expense is really not that much.  They are easily attached and cause no damage to your finish.

Thats great that you found the John Pearse book.  Do a google search for him.  I own several of his products and love his guitar arm rests.  I have three.  Sorry that this is a shade off topic but this guy deserves more attention than he gets.

I had my epiphany in 1985 when a friend of mine showed me some of the filler stuff he played on his version of Buffalo Springfields "For What its Worth".  Its mostly a two chord E and A sort of thing but he played 12th, 7th and  5th fret harmonics between chords and also did some fingering runs in the pentatonic scale (i didn't know what that was at the time).  These little tricks really made this song sound great to me.  I asked him to show me exactly what he was doing and his explanation was "Well you do this and that and this and that and your done".  It took me weeks of practicing hard to sort of duplicate that "sound" but the light came on when I did.  I had inadvertantly discovered the blues scale and harmonics.  24 years later, I'm still learning it. and still loving it.  Now to answer you Zguitar,  I don't like to get hung up in percentages of good and bad.  The practice is part of the journey.  The more practice, the more journey.  Don't constantly repeat your repertoire.  Learn something new and unfamiliar.  Try to play the melodies inside of your chords.   They are in there.  Open them up.  Skydivr103 is right - "Suddenly, out the the blue, you're playing it."

I know this is a really old post but for some reason today I wanted to start at the back and see what I've missed.  This topic is a gem.  If you haven't had the opportunity to own or play an older Ovation,  please take the time.  They are not that expensive and fairly available.  I have a model 1112 balladeer from 1981 that I bought new in Jan 82 and will never sell. This was not my first guitar. It won't be my last but it's the one I hold dear.  It's been refretted once and needs it again.  Its been with me on three continents over 28 years.  I've played it in live settings since 1986 and it has always performed well.  It's been outfitted with numerous pickup configurations (it has a Fishman matrix blend in it now). It has been from the arctic to the desert and to the tropics and has never let me down.  It just sounds better. year after year.  Now that I've puffed up the Ovation company, let me let some air out.  The new ones don't sound as good as their old ones.  The fit and finish is not as good.  I've seen new Ovations that should have been given the "traditional Ovation B stock treatment".  Run em over with a catepillar tractor.  Now these seem to be the standard. I'm talking about the American made ones of course.  Keep an eye out for those old ones though.  They don't disappoint.

Godin 5th Avenue Kingpin.   Find one.  Sit down with it for a while.  Take it home.