Ovation Magnum 1 Fretless

Late '70's, USA made
One piece double-cutaway Honduras mahogany body with clear lacquered finish, long scale bolt-on mahogany neck with graphite-carbon reinforcing strips (one visible through centre of neck, two invisible beneath fingerboard) additional to standard truss-rod. Ebony fretless fingerboard with inlaid fret position markers to edge. ?Ovation? branded Schaller machines, 2 + 2 Ovation ?duckbill? headstock. Two chromed pick-ups mounted in an aluminium neck-to-bridge frame. Bridge pick-up; narrow 2-coil humbucker with ?U? shaped pole pieces, neck-pick-up; large 4-coil humbucker with separate trim pots for each pole to equalise output. 2 volume and 2 passive tone rotary controls, mono and stereo output jacks, three-way pickup selector switch (neck/both/bridge). Large cast aluminium bridge/tailpiece with brass saddles individually adjustable for length, entire bridge has three-way adjustment for height and tilt.

Being a mahogany bodied / twin humbucker bass, I was half expecting a sound similar to a Thunderbird, which I?ve always thought one of the coolest looking basses in the Universe but is ? to me ? unplayable because of the neck and thuddy tone. Certainly the overall tone is warm, and the neck pick-up is capable of low frequencies that can pulverise concrete bunkers with the right amp, but the Magnum is an extremely tonally versatile bass. The closest comparison I could give is a semi-hollow Fender Jazz if such a bass existed, and the tone lends itself extremely well to fretless playing ? it can sound very like an acoustic upright, or give glassy, growling funk, depending on how you mix it. This is a heavy bass, with great sustain. As other reviewers have pointed out, it?s not great for slapping because of that big neck pick-up, and bending notes off the poles of the neck pick up (if selected on its own) will cause dramatic volume drop off. Personally it suits my playing style, but it wouldn?t be for everybody. This is the first passive bass I?ve owned for 26 years and I do miss a good preamp/active EQ, but the basic tone is so good it doesn?t really need it. The active graphic EQ on the Magnum 2 is reputedly noisy and prone to problems, besides needing two 9V batteries.
I currently play it through a silverface Fender Bassman 135 head with 1 x 15?, but I?m planning to change to 4 x 10? speakers to improve the high end response.

The guy who sold me the Magnum was a regularly gigging Jazz bassist, and had just had it professionally set up. Action and intonation was superb, making the neck very fast indeed because of its slimness. Some wear to the fingerboard from use of round-wound strings ? I tend to use nylon-covered. The clear lacquer finish was perfectly clear and uncrazed, obviously with the few dings expected in a working instrument close to 30 years old. Finish on hardware (matt black on aluminium parts, chrome on pick-ups and machines) still good with no corrosion whatsoever. Small crack to scratchplate by output jack.

Very robustly built, all hardware near indestructible. The neck looks vulnerable because of its slimness, but obviously those carbon-graphite strips do their stuff. No detectible wear in moving parts. Electrics quiet.

Never contacted Ovation, but I understand they're a helpful bunch. Quite a bit of specs. etc on the net

I haven?t had this bass long, and am still exploring its potential. It?s a bass I?d wanted for a long time for two reasons;
1. One of my three favourite bassists was a guy called Barry Adamson, who played in the British new-wave band ?Magazine? from 1978-82, and after that in Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. He had - and probably still has - an absolutely unique style and sound; fat, fluid, funky and slightly flanged, with a soulful ?hollow? sound. He played an Ovation Magnum 1; I saw them live in 1980 (Liverpool Uni.) and the live sound was as good as or even better than the studio sound. (N.B; the other two are Mick Karn and Tony Levin!)
2. A few years ago I bought a used 1980 Musicman Sabre bass (also reviewed) that belonged to one of the guys who worked part-time in the shop; a gigging bassist who definitely knew his stuff. He needed the money, and was keeping only one of his basses; yes - an Ovation Magnum. The Sabre was such an awesome bass that I thought; how good must the Magnum be?
I was delighted to find a fretless model as they?re extremely rare, and the Sabre fulfils all my needs for a fretted bass.
The Magnum is interesting looking, rather than beautiful, certainly it couldn?t be mistaken for anything else. Very ergonomic though, it fits snugly into your body, and access to the upper fretboard is excellent. It looks dated now, with its chrome pickups and chunky hardware, but that?s a plus for me ? if you want a modern bass you don?t buy an old one. Ovation clearly went back to the drawing board to design a bass from the ground up, and like most original concepts it has some brilliant features and some flawed ones. I particularly like the full length pick-up mount which acts as a thumb-rest, the superb playability of the neck, high-quality construction, and the individual, refined, and highly configurable tone. On the downside are the weight ? heavy! ? the balance is slightly neck-heavy, the lack of potential for slapping and string-bending due to the neck-pickup, and the lack of good active electronics. It was never really going to challenge the big guns for supremacy, but I?m very happy to own such an unusual, articulate, and highly playable bass.