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Joined:
February 2004
Posts: 1634
Location: Warren,Pa. | Before I have anyone doubt my motives for this posting...I am an O fan, I LOVE my '02 CL 12 and '97 Collectors',and I "sell" Ovation everywhere I go.......so....Harley had its good seasons, then not-so-good seasons, then back on top. Same with Gibson guitars and lots of other companies. It seems like Ovation is at the start what I hope will be their best season ever. Does anyone have a good feel for the ups-and-downs of Ovation through the years? I'm not talking about money making seasons necessarily, but periods of great strength design-wise...followed by shallow-bowl, dead acoustic sound, "only good plugged in" years. | |
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Joined:
June 2002
Posts: 6202
Location: Phoenix AZ | That's an easy one for me. The hey day was the shiny bowls of '67 to '70. Why they changed everything (bowl, bridge, peghead, cosmetics) I'll never know. But pretty much everything wood topped in the 70's to mid 90's sucked sound wise unless you plugged it in. A few exceptions but not many. A second golden era occured with the introduction of the Adamas in '76. That lasted until the mid 90's when they killed that product by re-engineering as well. The third coming of the mighty one seems to be starting now with the LX and some special guitars like the CL30 and FD14. I look forward to good things ahead but also know that it won't last for ever. | |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15684
Location: SoCal | I disagree a bit with Dave. The first golden years were 66-69. With the exception of the Adamas line and the Custom Legends, write off all of the 1970's. They did well because you could plug them in. Not much else to write home about.
Then in the 1980's the A bracing pattern was expanded to most of the lines. These were really good guitars.
In the 1990's the push was for the Celeb's and super shallow bowl. The Adamas line was re engineered and with just a few exceptions, everything sucked.
But Dave is right in that today we seem to be at the beginning of a very very good time for Ovations, not as a company, but Ovation guitars. The next few years should be a lot of fun. | |
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Ups and Downs Through the Years