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Posts: 68
Location: Morristown, NJ | How do the older Collector Series guitars compare to the Legends and Balladeers? Are they better? |
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November 2006
Posts: 3969
| All depends on which specific model. You'd need to compare apples to apples, or close to it - bowl depth, fretboard wood, top wood, pre-amps, cutaway or full body, multi- vs. traditional soundhole, etc. The Collector's series were often used to introduce some new feature that may or may not have been incorporated in later production models. |
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October 2009
Posts: 68
Location: Morristown, NJ | There's a 1986 Collectors Series for sale by me (in NJ) - it's a shallow bowl. I have a 1988 Legend 1767 and a 1990 Legend 1767 and I love them both. Should I check out this Collectors Series?? It looks awesome. |
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Posts: 815
Location: Colorado | A 1986 CE is basically a Custom Legend with special paint (on the neck and headstock), black tuners, and special 1986 CE inlays on the fretboard. It will sound pretty good plugged in, but a little thin unplugged since it's a shallow bowl.
Is this guitar better than another Legend or Balladeer? That will be based on personal preference and I cannot answer that one for you. |
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December 2006
Posts: 6996
Location: Jet City | Originally posted by Todd G.:
It will sound pretty good plugged in, but a little thin unplugged since it's a shallow bowl. I've had a couple SSBs that really had a wonderful tone. I would have never called them "thin" but maybe not quite as loud. It's kinda like a parlor vs jumbo... neither sound is better, just different. |
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May 2008
Posts: 4996
Location: Phoenix AZ | As a group (my opinion) the Collectors Series ran the spectrum from truly superb to utterly awful. But as they say in life, someplace in there is something for everybody.
Not specifically familiar with the 1986, but if it appeals to YOU, then go for it. The good thing about all the Collectors Series is that they are inexpensive enough that you really can't make a huge mistake. |
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Posts: 15682
Location: SoCal | I've played Beal's 84 ssb collector's and it's great acoustically. The only ssb I'd say that about.
Gallerinski, heaven help me for admitting this about that schmuck, is absolutely right. If you like it, buy it. There's no right or wrong answer on this one.... |
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October 2009
Posts: 68
Location: Morristown, NJ | this guy (may be one of you) told me that he couldnt get the action right so he sent his guitar to ovation to get the neck reset. Said he had a classic case of 'run out' but now the guitar is perfect.
what does this mean?? |
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October 2005
Posts: 4081
Location: Utah | Over time the guitar will bend with the tension of the strings and take a new set. For a while you can overcome the changes by tweaking the truss rod and removing shims under the saddle. After a while, though, you run out of adjustment. Then the neck needs to be reset. For a reset, the neck is removed and the joint to the body reworked at the proper angle. Then the neck is reinstalled.
For wood guitars they heat the glue joint and pull off the neck. For older Ovations they can't remove the neck and have to heat the bowl and bend the bowl, called a "bowl bend". I'm not sure how they remove the neck on newer Ovations but it apparently can be easily done and the neck joint reworked.
If the work was done by the factory I would not worry about it at all. They'll get the guitar back to original spec. |
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Posts: 815
Location: Colorado | Damon, you said what I really meant--not as loud unplugged. |
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October 2009
Posts: 68
Location: Morristown, NJ | I wonder if I should do this with my Legend - how much does it cost, approx?
This guy was asking $485 for the guitar and I threw out an offer of $350 and he said yes...
this sounds like a good deal, right? Of course, I still havent seen it or played it..
I really shouldnt even be THINKING about buying another guitar right now..
are there any psychiatrists out there? |
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October 2005
Posts: 4081
Location: Utah | My wife's a shrink. She just laughed when I said I bought a(nother) guitar. There is no cure for GAS. |
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Posts: 68
Location: Morristown, NJ | at least they hold their value - if you buy them used anyway. |
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September 2005
Posts: 3619
Location: GATLINBURG TENNESSEE :) | I have seen so many collectors guitars go so dirt cheap it is unreal. It's just a massive case of ignorance with guitar enthusiasts. But the good side to this, is that many members here have benefited by it. |
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January 2009
Posts: 4536
Location: Flahdaw | I know, I know...everyone's got an opinion, but does any ONE collector's model stand out as being a clearly superior guitar? 2007 maybe? The Koa? |
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Posts: 3969
| Yeah, my 87C, available now for a mere $30,000... |
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Posts: 5332
Location: Bluffton, SC | The 87C is always mentioned in this discussion. |
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January 2009
Posts: 4536
Location: Flahdaw | Originally posted by G8r:
Yeah, my 87C, available now for a mere $30,000... You got too many good damn guitars. I have GOT to come back up there and spend some quality time with them. (Can I put in an order for 2 hours of playing time and some shrimp and grits?) |
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May 2006
Posts: 4239
Location: Steeler Nation, Hudson Valley Contingent | Originally posted by G8r:
Yeah, my 87C, available now for a mere $30,000... Times are tough this year, so I'm willing to sell mine for less, but not by much.... :p |
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November 2006
Posts: 3969
| Originally posted by dark bar:
I have GOT to come back up there and spend some quality time with them. Right. It's not like I haven't invited you repeatedly. I even have a proper shirt for you to wear. |
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October 2009
Posts: 68
Location: Morristown, NJ | i heard somewhere say once that the reason Ovations don't hold their value is because the wood warps over time but the plastic does not so with age, the wood separates from the plastic... the same person said that Ovations are really good "disposable guitars".
Any truth to this? |
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Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | What a load of hooey. |
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November 2006
Posts: 3969
| Originally posted by drift:
i heard somewhere say once that the reason Ovations don't hold their value is because the wood warps over time but the plastic does not so with age, the wood separates from the plastic... the same person said that Ovations are really good "disposable guitars".
Any truth to this? Another completely made-up piece of pseudo-scientific crap by someone who in all likelihood never actually played an Ovation. Probably heard it from a Taylor owner.
Think about it for real. A traditional wood back guitar is almost always made with different species of wood for the sides and back versus the top. These different species have VASTLY different dimensional expansion characteristics. If anything, the different rates of expansion/contraction between a spruce or cedar top (a softwood) attached to a mahogany, rosewood or maple back (a hardwood) would tear those guitars apart much more readily than the much smaller differences between a dimensionally stable bowl and the top of an Ovation.
I'm not the only one here who has 20- 30- and 40-year-old Ovations that show no such warping or separations. |
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October 2009
Posts: 68
Location: Morristown, NJ | dont kill the messenger... i have 2 legends from the 80s that i love more than any guitar i have ever played... |
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November 2006
Posts: 3969
| Not at all directed at you. It just gets my back up when ignoramuses like the person you heard this from spout off clearly wrong crap they've heard second or third had as though it were gospel. Now if instead of asking whether this had any basis in reality you'd instead just repeated it as "well-known fact" then the shots might have rang out ;) |
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August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | Originally posted by dark bar:
I know, I know...everyone's got an opinion, but does any ONE collector's model stand out as being a clearly superior guitar? 2007 maybe? The Koa? Beal's 84.
Just about all of the Collector's were good. There were a few dogs, but even with those, you find people who swear by them. In the end, all of them are just different flavors of what Ovation USA could do in a limited run. They have the play and feel of a high-end Ovation. I sure like all of the ones I have. |
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Collectors Series