Ovation UK II Black Solid Body Electric Guitar. GGA Image ID # 21a57dfe2c.
My Second most favorite guitar. The Ovation UK II was ahead of its time. Although this guitar was excellent in most respects, Ovation couldn’t sell enough to continue production. There are a few that you can purchase and use. Most start at about $1k and go upwards from there. Mine came with the molded case, and most of the folks who purchased the guitar also bought the case as well.
The UK II is a fun guitar to play. It’s lightweight, has 24 frets (2 more than most, allowing for a wider range of notes), and can produce an astonishing good sound. I’ve set the action as low as possible and utilize 8/38 strings that work for me.
The UK stands for Ultimate Kaman, not the United Kingdom. Neal Schon of Journey has used the UK II in concert, and people who know me know I am a huge fan of Journey. I was always on keyboards for Journey tunes when I played in a band, but my love for the UK II is unwavering.
If you ever find one hanging up in a music store, take it down and play it. You’ll wonder how this guitar couldn’t gain traction enough to stay in production. It is that good. The feel of this guitar is fantastic, with a comfortable neck and smooth fretboard that makes it a joy to play!
I found an old advertisement for the Ovation UK II from 1979, which I extracted below. I also have the owner’s manual and have created a PDF for you to download (see bottom of page).
Features and Specs
When Ovation began to design the U.K. II, there were three project goals:
1) better sound,
2) more comfort for the guitarist, and
3) durability.
Research shows that their stiffness determines the sound quality of electric guitars. The more rigid the relationship between the nut, bridge, and frets, the better the sound and the more sustain the guitar will deliver. We designed a rigid aluminum frame to surmount this hurdle and support an ultralightweight Urelite® body. With the neck bonded securely to the frame, the result is one of the stiffest guitars on the market.
Ultimate Comfort
A musical instrument must meet high standards of player comfort and be light and well-balanced. To achieve this, we perfected the use of Urelite®, a high-density foam material initially developed by the aerospace industry. Urelite® has the stiffness and density associated with good-sounding guitars but weighs far less.
Because of Urelite’s® physical characteristics, the body can be molded to an arched top and back shape. This configuration, which is thick in the middle and tapered toward the edges, gives greater comfort. At the neck, the heel is rounded for your palm, and the treble side is cut away for easy access to the 24th fret.
The U.K. II is an advanced double-coil humbucking pickup designed to reproduce a “thick” sound—that is, a sound that is rich, clear, and undistorted. Chrome-plated bar-style pole pieces are non-magnetized to prevent pull on the strings, which dampens sound transmission and causes notes to be out of tune.
Pickups and Electronics
Because the Alnico bar magnets are at the bottom of the pickup, the bars can be set closer to the strings for more response. Each pickup features two bobbins wound in opposite directions with ten thousand turns of fine copper wire. With Ovation’s tri-mount system. Pickup height can be adjusted extremely close to the string for maximum output or somewhat lower for a cleaner, thicker sound.
The bar piece constantly interacts with string and pickup, so no volume is lost in string-bending. Body cavities are shielded by special non-conductive paint to reduce magnetic interference. The low profile SPS switches on each pickup permit the musician to choose a double coil mode (series wiring) for the thick sound or a single coil mode (parallel wiring) for a sharp, biting lead sound. Each pickup has specially tapered volume and tone potentiometers for truly balanced functioning. The output level corresponds precisely to the number on the knob. Controls can be easily adjusted with the little finger.
Other Features
Every detail of the U.K. II, from the sustain-enhancing brass nut and jumbo frets to the brass tailpiece, has been chosen with one goal: ultimate performance.
Features of the Ovation UK II. Ovation UKII Owner’s Manual. Courtesy of Ovation Instruments Inc., A Kaman Company, Bloomfield, Connecticut. GGA Image ID # 21a62e3cb2.
Specs
• Model Name: U.K.II
• Model Type: 6-string electric
• Model Number: 1291
• Length: 39 1/2″
• Width: 13″
• Depth: 2 1/4
• Weight: 7 1/2 lbs. (my UKII weighed in at 7.82 lbs or 3.53 kg)
• Strings: 2E extra light nickel wound
• Optional Accessories: 9122-0 Molded Case
The Neck
• Two-piece Honduras mahogany neck
• 24 3/4″ scale length
• 1 11/16″ width at nut
• 24 nickel-silver alloy frets
• two-octave eying range
• Bound ebony fingerboard
• 10″ fingerboard radius
• 11 inlays
• Ovation/Schaller deluxe gold machine heads. 12:1 gear ratio
• Bolt-on. Glue-on. Detachable neck
• Truss rod neck reinforcement, adjustable at peghead
The Body
• Urelite® urethane on aluminum framework
• Single cutaway
• Tri-mounted badge, adjustable for action and intonation
• Solid brass base plate and saddles
The Pickups
• Two high-output double-coil humbucking pickups
• Two 1/8″ alnico bar magnets per pickup wired in both series and parallel
• 10,000 winds per coil
• Patented adjustable tri-mount
The Electronics
• Passive type
• Two volume and two tone controls, one each per pickup
• Standard high impedance
• Three-position toggle selector switch with the neck pickup, both pickups and bridge pickup settings
• Two series/parallel selector switches. Front position series (thick sound), back position parallel (sharp sound)
• Stereo/ mono capabilities
Finishes
All finishes are high-gloss polyester -5 black; -7 nutmeg (BLACK-5, NUTMEG-7)
The Ovation UKII, also known as the Ultra Kaman II, is an exceptionally rare solid-body electric guitar from Ovation. It is often regarded as the “Holy Grail” of guitars, and opportunities to own one are truly scarce! This guitar features a unique hollow-body aluminum frame encased in a Ureilite mold—a dense Urethane foam—making it incredibly lightweight and giving it a distinct, resonant sound.
The neck is glued and bolted to the body’s frame, a design choice that, combined with the hollow body, ensures maximum sustain. Ovation also pushed the boundaries of innovation with its custom-made pickups. Each pickup coil was meticulously wound 10,000 times, far exceeding the standard for most pickups. This design delivers a potent and exceptionally clean output, making the UKII a standout instrument in design and performance.
Source: 1979 Advertisement. Printed in the USA #79000029