Acoustic damage advice needed!

[SRVDciple]

I've had my ovation 12-string sitting in it's hardshell case in my bedroom for the past three months. I knew it would be sitting for at least that long, so the strings were slackened.

Yesterday, I went to take it out of it's case & tune it up, when I noticed the fretboard had some major cracks in it. It wasn't one big crack, but more like a series of cracks running the length of the fingerboard (See Pic 1 below).

I think it goes without saying how disheartening this sight was.

At this point, I decided to tune it up in an effort to determine the playability of the instrument, only to find that it would not stay in tune.

Disgusted, I left it alone overnight. This morning, when I went to check it out again, I found that the bridge had horribly peeled up from the body (Pic 2 below).

If this had been someone else's instrument, I would have guessed that he had subjected it to severe temperature or humidity changes. But believe me when I tell you that this instrument sat, untouched and un-moved, in it's case. It was in my bedroom so I know there were no such outside influences that could possibly caused such damage.

Obviously, I am going to try and contact Ovation. I'm stumped here. Any advice you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Pic 1




Pic 2

[Sven]

It may have been severely dry.
Another thing, what sort of heat do you have in your home? If it was under the bed against the floor, it could have gotten very cold, or if your floor is heated, then it would have cooked it.

But mostly, I vote for dry, especially with the weather there, and the early snowstorms last fall.

[Tele-Bob]

Yep. It dried out. You can certainly fix it, but a guitar case humidifier will be the order of the day once it's repaired. Good thing the sound board didn't cave in. Yet.

[blair]

Severly low humidity and a temp change.........

It's fixable but at a price. Ovation's are generally considered 'Road Warriors' and built like a tank but they will only take so much. Wood is humidity dependent along with temp and rate of change.

Good luck with the fix and I would suggest back to Ovation for that.

Good luck.........

Hammer on........Blair

[Sven]

Re-glueing the bridge is a pretty standard repair, and the fretboard might close up again with oil, but i'm not totally sure.

[SRVDciple]

Thanks for the help guys.

I guess if worse comes to worse and Ovation drops the ball (this instrument is only 4 years old), I'll try to find a local luthier to do the bridge job.

I have a lifetime warranty from Sam Ash, but I don't think I'll be trusting them to do the bridge work, it'll prolly come back in worse shape.

I'll try some oil on the neck, too. Any suggestions on which oil to use?