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Location: Queens, NY | So I had off this week, and I figured I check out some music stores. I went to two Sam Ash stores (Queens and Manhattan) and three Guitar Centers (Yonkers and Manhattan (Times Sq. and 14th St.)).
Here's what I found, or didn't find:
Two Guitar Centers had NO Ovations at all. One GC had a Celebrity (may have been used).
Sam Ash Queens had one 12-string Celebrity.
Sam Ash Manhattan had an Elite TX and a used Adamas.
Of course the usual apathy and ignorance:
I asked the sales rep at GC on 14th street about Ovations. (They had none.) He said they're not getting them in anymore and that he stopped caring about Ovations once they closed the [US] factory. I informed him that the US factory has since reopened. He just shrugged.
Disappointment online:
Sam Ash online (samash.com) has only one Ovation for sale: (you guessed it) a Celebrity Elite.
World Music Supply (worldmusicsupply.com) used to sell the entire Ovation line. Now they just have Ovation T-shirts.
Some bright spots:
The few stores that had an Ovation or two, I usually saw someone playing it.
Inexplicably, Guitar Center online (guitarcenter.com) has a good selection of Ovations (17 models), just not their stores.
In short, Ovation won't sell if customers are not seeing them. And right now, they're not seeing them. |
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Posts: 852
Location: Canada | I assume that it really depends on the distribution network to get guitars into the stores. So for Ovation that was the network associated with KMC, which has been now been split up and/or sold for various brands and countries. I assume that DW has a solid distribution network for their drum lines, but will have to build something from the ground to get Ovations back into the stores. |
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Location: Hot Springs, S.D. | d'ovation - 2015-10-31 11:56 AM
I assume that it really depends on the distribution network to get guitars into the stores. So for Ovation that was the network associated with KMC, which has been now been split up and/or sold for various brands and countries. I assume that DW has a solid distribution network for their drum lines, but will have to build something from the ground to get Ovations back into the stores.
Just watch. It WILL happen, and in a big way. |
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Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | Sammy Ash (the real person) has been very positive on Ovation as of late so I would think once the distribution agreements get put into place with DW they'll be back with a vengeance.
On the Guitar Center front, maybe the distributors are just being real careful in putting product in the stores since GC is teetering on going tits up and the last thing DW needs is to take a big financial hit on account of those bozos. |
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Location: south east Michigan | Way to early to panic.
The goods news probably hasn't gotten that far down the pipeline.
If might reach many dealers till NAMM .
And I got feeling ovation will attract a lot of attention there. |
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Location: Jet City | So far, they've only built 1... and they gave it away.
Patience Grasshopper |
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Location: SoCal | You're never going to see a lot of USA built O's and A's in those stores. At least not for several years. They are only building, next year, about 300 guitars. Orders will be taken at NAMM in January from dealers (some dealers, like Al, are taking orders now). So there aren't going to be a lot of guitars to sit in stores (like the early 70's).
I still remember in Houston TX in the early 70's, being a dumb high school student, and standing in front of the display windows of Parker Music in the Memorial Shopping Center, and drooling over the 3-4 Ovations on display........ |
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Location: Texas | "You're never going to see a lot of USA built O's and A's in those stores. At least not for several years."
Nothing new. It has been a long time since you could actually try out an O locally. I may be wrong, but in the 80's I could go to both indy music stores and they would have at least 1/2 dozen models available at each store and that seems like the last decade this was possible.
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Location: Frozen Tundra of Minnesota | CanterburyStrings - 2015-10-30 2:25 PM
d'ovation - 2015-10-31 11:56 AM
I assume that it really depends on the distribution network to get guitars into the stores. So for Ovation that was the network associated with KMC, which has been now been split up and/or sold for various brands and countries. I assume that DW has a solid distribution network for their drum lines, but will have to build something from the ground to get Ovations back into the stores.
Just watch. It WILL happen, and in a big way.
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March 2005
Posts: 12759
Location: Boise, Idaho | There's probably a connection here. I used to stop at GC on my way home at least weekly. They knew me as "the Ovation guy". The last good Ovation I saw there was a red Deacon that they mislabeled as a Breadwinner. It wasn't really my thing, but I thought about it too long before I went back to buy it and it was gone. The last few times I went there, I did a quick sweep and didn't see anything interesting, so I haven't been back in months. |
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Location: moline,illinois | I talked to the customer service manager at GC about the 50th anniv. models last weekend and he didn't know of any plans for them to stock ovations but said that they had a relationship with DW so he could order one for me if i wanted.figure its to soon for any but us die hard ovation lovers to be asking but keep in mind if you ask they might get you one plus the more people that show interest the better chance eventually they might actually have an ovation in there store.I doubt we'll see many 50th anniversary models in stores,with the limited number being made they may sell as fast as they get made |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | The last Ovation that I saw at the North Portland GC was a used Celebrity center-hole model.
And that Celebrity sounded better than many of the wood-boxes in that acoustic room.
Once sales of the AX series went down I am guessing that SA and GC stopped stocking new ones.
Also, I know of smaller stores that stopped selling Ovations once Fender stopped USA production.
But maybe some smaller stores will return to Ovation once DW gets rolling.
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Location: Utah | The local GC used to have a pretty decent and always changing selection of USA O's, back ten years ago. We bought my daughter a Red Flame 1778T right off the wall. They transitioned to Celebs, and now don't even have those on hand.
The local Mom/Pop always has 2 or 3 Celeb and/or Applause in their small shop. They do cater to beginner players much more than high end, and they sell a good number of Celebs and Applause (and Takamine back when that was a KMC brand). The staff are big fans of O/A there.
The Mom/Pop just can't price competitively with the big GC and online retailers. Last time I talked to them about a new O or Hamer, they told me their price from the distributor was higher than the online prices offered at the big retailers! |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | FlySig - 2015-10-30 8:49 PM
Last time I talked to them about a new O or Hamer, they told me their price from the distributor was higher than the online prices offered at the big retailers!
So true, I know that must be hard on the Brick-n-Mortar stores.
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Location: Hot Springs, S.D. | But even if we Mom and Pop stores buy them online and only sell them for a few dollars more, we do sell them, because most people would rather buy the exact guitar they have already held in their hands. Now we have a new customer who will probably come back for strings and tuners and capos and amps, and eventually another guitar. We may not make anything on the original sale but over the long run, customer loyalty means more. |
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Location: Sunshine State, Australia | This particular topic has been 'on-topic' for as long as I can remember. Ovations haven't had a 'music store' presence for at least the last 10 years, probably more. And I'm referring to proper Ovations, not Celibacies and Applesauses. |
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Location: SW Mintsoda | CanterburyStrings - 2015-10-31 9:51 AM
But even if we Mom and Pop stores buy them online and only sell them for a few dollars more, we do sell them, because most people would rather buy the exact guitar they have already held in their hands. Now we have a new customer who will probably come back for strings and tuners and capos and amps, and eventually another guitar. We may not make anything on the original sale but over the long run, customer loyalty means more.
You've got the right idea...and a great attitude about creating new long term customers. I love my local mom n pop (actually they have four stores in the Omaha/Lincoln, NE metro areas), and they're very competitive with GC and MF on prices, returns and service.
I agree with some of the other comments here - Ovations haven't had a presence in stores for a loooong time. The above mentioned store(s) were dealers and back in those days kept a nice stock of O's in their stores. Then, they started hanging on the walls forever, while people bought Taylors, Martins, Gibsons - and lots of other acoustics that now had decent pickup systems in them.
This store has no plans to start selling O's again; they're still selling lots of Taylors, Martins, Gibsons, and now Larrivees (in that order, plus Yamaha, Ibanez and Fender acoustics) ... so I don't know what it would take to convince them to try Ovations again... |
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Not encouraging (Sam Ash and GC)...
