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Posts: 604
Location: Tampa, FL | On a slightly more serious note. I do think think the thickness on the bass side is a little more than I like. Not sure if this is fully mediated by the stay-on-your-lap flat back. Standing I find the contour bowl somewhat easier to play. It tends to stay more in place without much fuss. I find I chase the more traditional nontraditional round back all over the place when standing. Probably just me. Need to get a bigger dose of that talent stuff. |
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June 2002
Posts: 863
Location: Central Florida | Originally posted by Standingovation:
What would help, would probably be if O could give some indication WHEN they will have LH versions of certain guitars to avoid interested buyers from going off and doing something silly (like cuting off their arms). Dave,
...Or buying Martins? ;)
Jeff |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15664
Location: SoCal | It's not just the material of the bowl that makes the LX, it's also the new neck attachment and neck bracing. That new system isn't compatible with the older bowls. It's also the new top bracing.
Now, what you could do easily enough, is ask Ovation to build you a K bar braced neck, with an older bowl, and a top braced with the new scalloped X bracing. But it would be special ordered.
Maybe if Ovation reads this, they would know that there's a left market out there that's being left out and this is a way to bring them in, at least to a certain degree. |
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June 2002
Posts: 863
Location: Central Florida | Yep, I forgot about the neck attachment...
Jeff |
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June 2002
Posts: 6197
Location: Phoenix AZ | Originally posted by jeff:
...Or buying Martins? Nothing wrong with buying Martins or anything else if that's the guitar that meets your needs.
For the longest time I was a complete Ovation bigot and believed that any guitar in Ovations lineup was defacto superior to anything else on the planet. Then I started to critically listen to some of them compared to each other and realized to many of them actually sucked. I won't mention specific models because other members may love those, but let's just say that the range is sonic quality to my ears became much more extreme the more I listened objectively. If you look at my Ovation collection today you will see that it is very different than it was 3-4 years ago. All the shit and most duplicates are gone.
My next logical conclusion was that gee, if one Ovation can sound so much better than another doesn't it make sense that may some non-Ovation guitar might also appeal to my taste in certain circumstances. Low and belold, I found a few nice wood boxes that to my ears rang the shit out of some O's.
Long story short, I did what any sane shopper should do, listen and buy the instrument that best suits their needs. I just did it the very long and expensive way. Actually not so expensive because Ovation collections can be built up pretty inexpensively and there is a good market for resale. The shallow bowl stuff just made me sick sonically, but it's in high demand for live performers. So there's a prefect resale opportunity where one mans trash is another mans treasure.
Conclusion, don't fret it (bad pun) that you bought non-ovations. Ovation is a great builder but can not do everything and satisfy everybody all at once. If they diverted resources to build LH contour bowls, maybe they would take away from building mandos or something. It's all a big tradeoff. Sucks that the lefty's lost out but if you, it would have been someone else.
Enjoy your guitars,
Dave |
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Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 4413
| StandingO is absolutely right.
But Ovation should announce whether or not they intend to make lefties of a particular model, and when. Not to do that is just shooting themselves in the foot. Marketing agin. Easily the worst of any major manufacturer. |
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December 2003
Posts: 13987
Location: Upper Left USA | Good communication is important in many ways. It also takes a high level of commitment to keep it up. Not an easy task. |
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Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 4413
| If it was easy they wouldn't have to pay them a salary. |
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July 2004
Posts: 338
Location: Omaha | Well, let me share...
:rolleyes:
...right when the LX models came out, I was interested in getting an Ovation - I guess you would call it bad GAS... So, I bit the bullet and ordered the old model, a lefty Legend 1777 (actually L777). I think it's a great guitar, but I knew when I ordered it that if I wanted to sell it and upgrade to an LX someday (if and when lefties are offered), I would take a big hit in selling it.
So I'll probably just keep it; I have other great sounding acoustic all wood guitars (two Larrivees). The L777 fills a different niche for me (Sunday morning worship plugged in - sounds great and I'm not *as* worried about it getting nicked/scratched/knocked over).
I'll probably just see if Ovation can give me any info when they come back to work after August 1. But I am now interested in ordering another Ovation - but it would be nice to know I could do it in LX form (although for a nylon string that may be irrelevant...other than a lighter bowl; bracing and neck might be the same as the old models).
Ovation DOES try to offer most of their guitars lefty as special orders - with the old bowls. We'd just like some timelines to help us plan (and dream).
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Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 4413
| "We'd just like some timelines to help us plan (and dream)."
Exactly. What would it cost them? So many sites have "Left-hand availability" listed with a yes or no against every model. If it's 2007 for the contour bowl, why can't they just say so? The guys at the factory are so good and so helpful, as has often been said "streets ahead of any other volume manufacturer", that it is really depressing when you think about how useless the marketing is. And it's particular to Ovation. Takamine are wildly successful over here - competitive pricing, great availability and great advertising. They just put no effort into Ovations at all (unless you count the surfboards). |
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Namm show in INdy
