Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7222
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | So I had lunch in this nice little nook in Frederick next door to Boe's Strings. Boe is an institution of sorts in Frederick with a top notch violin luthier. He sells a lot to up'n coming and well established artists in the area, and is now the ONLY music instrument store in Downtown, followed by Make N Music which does not carry Ovation.
So I go into the sound room which if I may digress is one half of the store. There is the small area that has sheet music, some amps, strings, straps etc.. and the sound room. Along the left wall are Ovations with a couple of prime USA models (Adamas and Balladeer up front) and several Celebs too. Also mostly import Hamers in the middle, and on the right some more O's and a few Martins and Several Takamine. Are ya getting the picture. That's it, that's what he sells and he's been doing it this way forever it seems.
So I ask if they have any LX models and you guessed it.... the sales guy didn't know what I was talking about, but then the owner, asked me "Is the LX a new Limited Edition this year" and I kinda thought he was joking. Afterall, this is all he sells, and I'm not about to fault him for not knowing in this case, but he really didn't know anything about what I was talking about. I gave him a brief list of the details, but I think he was annoyed with my know-it-all attitude and frankly I don't blame him. It was like I walked into a Chevy dealer that had been in existance only selling chevy for 50 years and asked what a "Vette" was to find out they never heard of it. We got into a little argument about the tross-rod issue as he likes the "current" truss rod we call the K-Bar but it was a tomato/potato thing and I left it at that.
I was not frustrated at the knowledge level. These guys know thier stuff, but as the only music store in town, and the only local Ovation dealer, that sells pretty much ONLY Kaman products, I was just so taken I had to come home and post this.
A big huge ball was dropped somewhere..... I can see if he didn't want to carry to many of something, or any of something, that's different. That's buisness. But how does a dealer that mostly only sells KMC products not know of the latest guitars 5 months down the road. I suspect he is missing out on the whole FRG thing too.
On a good note.... I did test drive an Adamas fiber top. It was grey with a beautiful grain. Lisa really liked the sound and the look and I guess I did too. It's on sale so I may tuck my pride under my coat and head back over to pick it up, but it's probably easier to just call Alpep and order one. It was a mid bowl, but it just had this smooth warm sound. Not crispy like so many I have tested before. It was a little heavy I thought, but I could get over that. It really liked the sound, almost as much as my Redwood 2001.
Sorry for the rant-off, but I had to vent this. I added the notes on the Adamas to type myself down from the frenzy. |
Joined:
February 2004
Posts: 1634
Location: Warren,Pa. | Miles, can't say I blame you for the frustration. I promote Ovations among the musical folks I come in contact with(and there's plenty of them), but I'd bet you $100 that the store near me that sells O's doesn't know a thing about LX's; furthermore, what they have on the wall are all Celebs. more than a couple of years old...with the ORIGINAL strings...never tuned! I'm sure this leaves people with a BAAAD impression about Ovations, and sometimes I feel stupid...like maybe we as Ovation fans care more about PR than Kaman does! John. |
Joined:
January 2004
Posts: 627
Location: Cherry Hill, NJ | Well for those of us who have an appreciation for the quality and sound of our beloved O's, it is frustrating. I had played my 1619 for years, picked up a few other higher end acoustics, but found qualities in my O they didn't have. When I bought my LX 1777 back in Feb, I want to shout on the roof tops of the local music stores about how great a guitar it is.....and believe me at my age I know. The comment about the Celebs with the old dead strings is right on the money. For new customers, it is a far cry from a US made O or Addams with Elixr type strings. It makes a big differance. Its about marketing and image. Lets face it Ovation took a risk in putting the name Ovation on its Korean made guitars. Not to demean them, but a new customer would't know that. |
Is the LX a new Limited Edition?
