I like the Supersuckers clip!
I had a Magnum-I for several years. I always enjoyed Ovation's quirky looks (Breadwinner, Deacon, Viper, etc...), and thought the early Mags were lookers. Pretty innovative for its time, what with the graphite+maho neck. There was one graphite beam outwardly visible on the back of the neck, and (if I recall correctly) two flanking it inside of the neck.
Fit and finish were excellent, it felt like a tank, and the structure was beyond rigid. Mine arrived very poorly setup, and it took me weeks to get the neck relief dialed in - that sucker just would not budge! Once it was there, however, it played great. I do use a mute from time to time for certain sounds, and thought they had one of the better mute designs in the Mags - activated via a slide lever protruding from the bridge assembly.
It could get REALLY bright sounding, despite all the maho. Not really my kind of sound, but I tried to like it. The neck pickup looks massive, but it's actually comprised of four small individual coils staggered under each string, with trimpots to adjust individual string levels. Very narrow field on that one! (not great for a "bendy" player like myself). The bridge pickup was a humbucker with two coils side-by-side (one under E&A, the other on D&G).
Overall, it's sound sorta reminded me of something like jazz bass meets 4001 - but much more sterile than either. I always speculated that may have been due to the graphite and over-the-top rigidity of the thing, but this is the only composite-content bass I've ever played. I know with Wobble and Laswell using them, Mags tend to get associated with that genre... but I'm tellin' ya - an EB-0/1/2/3 or Guild with the 70's 'buckers would blow one of these into tomorrow, in terms of low end. Maybe equalization on the Mag-II compensates for some of the inherent anemia?
Anyway, just my impressions. I enjoyed getting the chance to experience the Mag.
What was this thread about again?
Oh yeah- congrats on the Genz! I remember those being quite a bit more $ when I was looking, and ended up with the GK.