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Joined: March 2002 Posts: 15654
Location: SoCal | How does one go from junior membership to full membership? Altho I don't mind being junior (makes me feel young), I haven't quite figured out the system yet. |
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Joined: March 2002 Posts: 873
Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | yeah, when do we get to be big guys dad? |
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Joined: December 2001 Posts: 7211
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Hi,
It's just a silly feature that makes it easier to do maintenance when we get lots of users. You get "auto promoted" after 20 posts if I recall how I set it up.
<>
There are some performance features that are based on the difference between having lots of people that post many times a month, or lots of members that post only a few times a month etc.. etc... The "level" of user is a good indicator over time for me... and hey... if it makes ya feel young for awhile... why not? |
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Joined: January 2002 Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Thankfully there is no Senior member, that would make one feel like an old fart. |
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Joined: March 2002 Posts: 873
Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | i just noticed i am a "member" now! i didn't realize i've posted so many times already. i only joined last thursday! this site is great compared with allot of the others where it seems the contributors are skateboarders/wannabe guitarists. i like the technical level of friendly expertise here complete with all of the humor and toung in cheek stuff. KUDOS!!!!!!!
russ |
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Joined: February 2002 Posts: 613
Location: Zion, Illinois | I'm still a junior
Bradley |
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Joined: March 2002 Posts: 29
Location: Maryland | Yeah, I would agree with the statement........
"i like the technical level of friendly expertise here complete with all of the humor and toung in cheek stuff"
I find this "club" very informative and entertaining!! I can see the difference in the
ovation fans!!!!!!! |
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Joined: March 2002 Posts: 15654
Location: SoCal | I've noticed that Ovation fans are not as stuffy as fans of Martins, Taylors, Gibsons, etc. I suspect that they are willing to try something different and are not locked into tradition. They (heck, we) are a little more tongue in cheek. They are a good bunch of folks. |
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Joined: March 2002 Posts: 29
Location: Maryland | I agree Paul....It was a "thinking man" who designed the ovation/adamas! As I understand
the story, it was C.Kaman who wanted to improve on
the martin guitar by buying the company. He then
made the very wise decision to start his own company....the rest is ovation history!!!
Buying a martin (american)is to put mega bucks
in a name!!...and thats ok for lots of folks.
All I can say is put an Adamas in the hands of
an honest guitar player and I think he will have
only one conclusion!!!
Tom' |
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Joined: December 2001 Posts: 10581
Location: NJ | JT3
martins are great guitars I have a couple BUT like all companies these days they have tried to become everything to everyone.
It used to be you would aspire to own a martn to afford one now there are a ton of models available for under1K now IMHO these models are the martin "celebrity" series. they have satin finishes and are model or pressed wood they really have nothing to do with a martin guitar IMO.
as for the adamas all you have to do is have someone play it and usually they are hooked |
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Joined: March 2002 Posts: 873
Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | i hate to admit this, but i have never, in 35 years of playing, had the pleasure of playing an adamas. i guess the people i've played with and the little back water places i've played in weren't up to adamas standards. i have always been so satisfied with my ovations and a couple of old woodies i have, that i couldn't justify the cost. you know, kids, college, making a business grow etc all came first. now that the nest is empty and my grandson thinks it's coolio that grandpa plays "rocaroll" in a band, i might have to reconsider my priorities. i guess if my grandson follows in grandpa's footsteps, (actually i hope only the good footsteps) i'm just buying one for him someday anyway.
so if a guy was looking for a players adamas that was not a look but dont touch model, kind of like the les paul studio is in that series, what should i be looking for and what price range. even a cosmetic second would be ok, as it would go perfectly with it's owner that way. did ovation sell adamas seconds? if i had an adamas i would gig with it. i think thats what ovation had in mind anyway. to me the beauty is in the sound. |
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Joined: March 2002 Posts: 873
Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | you should have a distinguished member catagory for those among you who are there to answer and comment on all of these posts. some of you are well past 100 posts. you deserve the "silver bowl" for distinguished service. |
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Joined: January 2002 Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | What's in the bowl??? |
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Joined: March 2002 Posts: 873
Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | corn flakes for a guy up and at'em as early as you are. |
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Joined: March 2002 Posts: 15654
Location: SoCal | Musicamex:
Look for a 10-20 year old Adamas II. They weren't as fancy as the full Adamas, but still had the great sound. I see them on ebay going for $1000-$1200. The new ones are nice and have great electronics (and you can buy them for about $1200), but you strike me as a man who likes a guitar that's got a story in it.
Anybody else have an opinion? |
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Joined: March 2002 Posts: 873
Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | does the adamas II still have the carbon fiber top? you pegged me paul. the last new guitar i bought was in alaska in 1968. it was a martin 0018 ny. alaska airlines managed to damage it the first year i owned it and that is when i decided to buy a story instead of being the one responsible for it.
i'm not a "wooo wooo" by any stretch of the imagination, but as crazy as it sounds something from the previous owners seems to stay with some used guitars. could be 100% psychological, but somehow there is a connection there for me. kinda lke an extended musical family thing. i can't imagine picking up BB's lucile or one of slow hand's or stevie ray's axes and have it feel like something off of musicians friend's wall. maybe i've been fishing in the tropical sun too long but i sure have made lots of lasting friendships with people i have bought guitars from. |
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Joined: January 2002 Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | The Ad2 had the same top as the Ad1. What it didn't have was weighed and matched braces. The Ad 1 the braces were weighte and matched ( the pattern is symetrical) to within .5 grams There was a range for the total weight of the brace and a tolerance range (.5g) |
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Joined: March 2002 Posts: 873
Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | i didn't realize the level of precision used in making the adamas. the adamas II is still a fine sounding guitar isn't it bill? would you reccommend one for a gigging ovation that is plugged in most of the time? we try to balance the outputs so no one instrument is overly dominant and just back off on our playing when someone is hitting their special licks. |
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Joined: March 2002 Posts: 873
Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | bill, was the bracing for the adamas always wood or were there experiments done with composites too? did you use testing equipment as well as the human ear to test resonance, sustain etc? |
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Joined: January 2002 Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Always spruce |
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Joined: January 2002 Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | There's not very much, if any, difference in sound between a 1 and 2. Both are out of production now I guess.
Testing was the ear and comparisons against certain Test guitars. One of those is Adamas #220 which I still have and is a mofo. We also ran responce tests of the tops (and guitars) so we could see the sound on a graph, the peaks and valleys. On Adamas 1 guitars the serial number has a dash number after it. This is the fundamental frequency of the guitar. Mine is 220-88. 88 to 90 was great. You get up around 96-98 tha guitar sounded too tight and we'd go in and sand on the braces to get the number down. That's how each one was sound teated and then the lable was signed. If the FF was down around 82 or so we'd tighten it up by adding strips of grafits to the tops of braces 1&9 or 2&8 etc.
You getting all this Sam? |
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Joined: March 2002 Posts: 873
Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | do you know if this kind of individual testing is unique to ovation adamas? is this done by other high end woodie makers too. weighing the braces and then tweaking by sanding or adding to get the sound into a specific range sounds like pretty sophisticated attention to detail. |
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Joined: January 2002 Posts: 970
Location: Atlanta,Ga. | Bill, i already knew this,he,he!! You also forgot to mention that on some of the adamases there was a wood cross brace with a strip of graphite.Some only had the braces from top to bottom and then some had a spruce strip brace running across all of the bracing near the bottom of the guitar..Do you remember that Bill? I have seen some adamases that way.Also,most (if not all)of the early adamas and adamas II had the serial number written on the brace under the top.So, if your adamas has a missing label,then look inside the back door and it should be written on the brace near the door.. |
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Joined: January 2002 Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Not a chance. Ovation doesn't even do it anymore.
Now maybe the guys who make 5-10 a year might go through some of this, I can't say. They have the time and can usually charge for it but I don't know. |
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Joined: December 2001 Posts: 10581
Location: NJ | you may be a little off on your prices I think 1200-1500 is closer. but there are bargains out there |
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Joined: February 2002 Posts: 613
Location: Zion, Illinois | I saw an Adamas II on E-Bay a few days ago with a "Buy It Now" price of $875. Nobody took it!
I have never played one of these carbon topped guitars. If I knew how they sound, I would have been tempted to buy it (now).
Bradley |
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Joined: March 2002 Posts: 873
Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | bradley,i saw that one too, but it was in alaska. might be one to look at before buying due to the extreme temps. i didn't see my first ovation till 72 in cal, but woodies had a hard time up there. one of mine turned to kindling on the north slope. strange stuff happens when it gets extreemly cold. i could fill a book with the bummers of cold. that is one reason i'm here in the tropics. |
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Joined: February 2002 Posts: 613
Location: Zion, Illinois | I'm up here near the Illinois / Wisconsin boarder. It's almost as bad . I bought an Ovation Custom Elite from a guy in Califoria last winter. It lasted about 1 month here before the top split. I just picked it up last night from the repair shop. Good thing it still sounds great, I was tempted to pick up that Ovation Elite 1537 for $549 on E-Bay.
Bradley |
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Joined: March 2002 Posts: 873
Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | bradley,i saw that one too and was tempted. drop me an e mail if you are bidding and i'll back off. no sense bidding against one another. there are lots of guitars out there and anything i purchase from this point on has to be in some way special. i am not buying to resell or make a profit. i'll leave that to the guys who know what they are doing. i just derive tremendous pleasure from playing a fine instrument that helps me to get the most out what my hands are capable of.
is the elite the top of the line wood top series? i still havent got the order of quality top to bottom straight. there seems to be an abundance of models and variations within a particular model. i can see the dilema for a purchaser with little previous knowledge of ovations. i agree with a previous thread that had several posts re ovation's high quality guitars need to somehow be separated from the production and import entry level guitars kind of like the difference between the words applause and ovation. i hope the current direction doesn't lead to a "boo" series. russ
[ March 23, 2002: Message edited by: musicamex ] |
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Joined: March 2002 Posts: 15654
Location: SoCal | That Elite is the same model that I have. It is worth a bit more than the amount they are asking in the buy it now. It's AAA spruce, multi layered wood body binding, peghead face, and heelcap, and a black walnut fingerboard. If I wasn't putting a new engine in the old sports car, I'd buy it for myself. Anybody want to buy it and give it to me? Mine has got a great tone acoustically and plugged in. |
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Joined: February 2002 Posts: 613
Location: Zion, Illinois | I'm happy the way my Custom Legend turned out. Go a head and snatch up that Elite for $549. Sounds like a good deal to me.
Bradley |
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