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Joined:
May 2004
Posts: 3
| I want to learn to play an acoustic so I have ordered the AA21 Applause. After asking for opinions on this guitar I was told the following...
EVERY Applaus I've seen that's more than a couple of years old has
the top bellied - meaning that it's convex rather than flat, and the
strings are higher off the fret board than is conducive to extensive bouts
of practicing.
My Questions are: Are Ovations known for more bellying than any other guitar? As a beginner I am hoping the AA21 will work for me, at least for a few years. Also, what is a normal warranty on Ovations?? Thanks for any help. |
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Joined:
February 2004
Posts: 47
Location: Seattle Tacoma Washington | Hello Littleton,
Welcome to the club! I don't know how serious you are about playing the guitar, but at my house guitars (with the exception of a few) are all available for the revolving door. So if you play it for a while, and decide that you want another guitar (like one of the upper end Ovations) then trade it in.
I purchased my kids an Applause a few years ago, it has been a bit abused, played by three kids, and the top is still nice and flat on it. A great beginning guitar. When I first started playing guitar I never would have thought to buy an Adamas (if they made them back then), or any other high end guitar. So play for a while, have fun, and then decide how serious you want to become, or how much money you want to invest in a guitar! Again, Welcome!!
Play on, Pray for Peace!!
Glenn :D |
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Joined:
May 2004
Posts: 3
| Glenn... Thanks for your input... Makes me feel better that this will work for a beginner like myself. |
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Joined:
July 2003
Posts: 1922
Location: Canton (Detroit), MI | Littleton, I have an Applause that is 28 years old and it has NO bellying or warpage!!!!
I think that Ovation products are no more prone to warpage than any other brand. It all depends on how a guitar is taken care of.
The Applause AA21 is NOT a U.S.-made Ovation. You will have to check your owner's manual or paperwork to see what warranty is applicable for it. If you don't expose it to extremes of temperature and/or humidity and use extra-light or light strings on it, it should be fine.
Roger |
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Joined:
April 2002
Posts: 196
Location: Shelton, Washington, USA | welcome!
just as an aside to what the guys have already said..... what you have been told about the various Ovation lines of guitars varies greatly... the single greatest indicator of the type of review an Ovation receives is whether or not the reviewer has ever played one!!! Most guitar store employees are quite quick to nay say Adamas, Ovation, Celebrity and Applause.... yet have played them little or not at all... opting instead to play Taylors, Gibson, Martin et al... so.... i guess what i am saying is take the reviews with a grain of salt.... play the guitar, listen to the guitar... if you like it and it feels good.... buy it... good luck and again, welcome. |
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Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 13987
Location: Upper Left USA | "I have an Applause that is 28 years old and it has NO bellying or warpage!!!!"
While this holds true for the instruments there is absolutely no such guarantee over the owners!
Welcome. If you have already picked up the Applause - play it often and enjoy. If you are looking around I suggest you run through some of the older posts and topics. |
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Joined:
May 2004
Posts: 3
| Thanks to All for Help! I will now fade into the background and listen and learn from the people who know.... |
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Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | While you're fading, keep right on pickin. |
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February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | It's normal for flattop guitars to show some bellying over time, and it's not a problem if the guitar has been built with the correct neck-set to allow action to be adjusted at the bridge and still maintain a healthy string-break angle over the saddle. The problem with many entry-level (i.e cheap) Chinese & Korean guitars, including Applauses & Celebrities and just about every other brand is that they tend to have a very shallow neck-set (this was generally not the case with the early US-made Applause guitars) which limits the useful life of the guitar. This is not so much a "fault" as the result of building a guitar to a price. Of course the neck on these guitars could be re-set if necessary, but a 2-300 dollar job on a $150 guitar doesn't make a lot of sense. |
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Is this true about Ovations??