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The last of the line of American Ovations, very much in the tradition of it predecessors.
The body is a compromise strat shape, double cut-away with horns of different length
but with the broad isometric lower bout familiar in both Preacher and Viper. It
has a set neck with a well shaped joint easing fingering the lower fret. The neck
is familiar as is the headstock fitted with standard Ovation/Schaller tuners. The
tri-mount bridge is also an easily recognised feature on both guitar and bass. The
pickup on the bass is unmistakable Magnum but a variety of pickup have been tried
on the guitar. The four show below all have different setup.
These guitars never got beyond the prototype stage and never reached the marketplace,
only about 25 were made.
Although they mark the end of the American era a lot of their design can be seen
in the later, Korean made, Ultra GP.
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The PF-22 never made it to full production. About 25 guitars were made around May,
1980. These are probably the best electric guitars ever manufactured by Ovation.
These were set-neck (screwed and glued) guitars. Glue makes a better connection for
vibrational transference between the neck and body than the traditional bolt-on necks
resulting in improved sound and sustain.
On other Ovation electrics with bolt-on necks
there is a piece of paper added between the neck and body that was soaked in glue.
This would glue the neck to the body and the bolts insured correct alignment. This
technique meant that if the neck ever needed to come off, you could take off the
bolts and the neck would separate from the body at the paper joint.
The PF series
did not have bolts. The holes were used for dowels to align the neck. The neck and
body were glued together. As you may have now realized, that although necks on other
Ovations will come off, PF necks will not.
The original PF pickups were two single
coils. The bobbins from the magnum bass rear pickup were used with a hole drilled
between the two pole pieces for the third pole piece and set them. Dave Fiester from
the Henry Paul band had a Fender custom and liked those pickups so Bill Kaman tried
to get close to that. The pickups were mounted on a plate and were wired in the hum-canceling
position, (much like a P bass setup). The plate was the same size as a Dimarzio so
they could be changed if the owner wanted to. Anything in the aftermarket at the
time would fit.
So how did the PF-22 get its name. According to Bill Kaman, "We were
still trying to have a soild body in the early 80's. Peavey had just come out with
their first guitar and bass which had satin finish (the T-60). Hartley also had just
put out an ad that the headline was "It took me 22 years to create this amp" and
showed him sitting on the amp holding the guitar. Randy Hess, ad mgr (for Ovation),
rest his soul, said we should do an ad with me (Bill Kaman) sitting like Frank (Zappa)
in the "Phi Zappa Crappa" poster, on the can, holding the guitar, and the headline
would be "It took me 22 minutes to create this guitar" Since we (Ovation) were going
to kick Peavey's ass with this model we called it the Peavey F&%Ker. Hence the PF-22."
This is true story. Years later at a trade show Bill told Hartley (Peavey) about
it and they "both had a good laugh over it."
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