This Ovation Thunderhead w/Updated Electronics is really in Excellent condition, but I rated it only Very Good because the electronics are not original and there is some finish-checking. Any "cracks" you see in the photos are the typical flaw of the finishes Ovation used at the time and are purely cosmetic.

Speaking of electronics, rarely are updated electronics in vintage guitars really improvements, but this is an exception. As you may know, the original operations of the controls required a recipe card to figure out what did what where, when, and how. The pickup selector actually selected in/out of phase and standby for starters which would have been strange enough, but then the four knobs were master volume, two tone controls, and blend.

The updated electronics are much simpler, using the same fantastic DeArmond pickups but now the pickup selector is a pickup selector. It still has an overall volume and two tone controls, but the fourth knob is now a 4-position selector for Parallel (in phase), Parallel (out of phase), Series (in phase), and Series (out of Phase). Additionally, the master volume is a push-pull that engages a Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster. The wiring "could" be returned to the original, but honestly, I can't imagine wanting to do that. A great guitar with a variety of tones.

The Ovation Storm semi-hollow guitars were produced between 1967 through 1972. They are thin-body archtops and were Ovations' answer to the popular Gibson ES-335 guitar. The necks of the Storm series guitars, including this Thunderhead, were made by Ovation in Connecticut. The bodies came from Germany and the gold hardware is Schaller. The matching gold pickups are by DeArmond.