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| I tried searching the forum, but when I search the terms I'm trying to define I get no good results.
So, here are my questions.
1. What do all the acronyms mean? SVT, CVT, etc? (I know what etc means, but is there a glossary of abbreviations somewhere on this site?).
2. Anyone have personal opinions on the Tangent MOB? And what is the difference between a MOB 57 and a MOB 47? I keep seeing them with different numbers after them but can't determine the difference. They both look blue to me. Also, were these models made in the USA?
3. Is there a book I can buy that would explain to me all the different O and A models? Would someone be willing to put all that information into a small booklet form? That's the kind of information that an O/A fan like me would pay money to have? Like, a little print on demand item that listed the number of them made and had some interesting opinions on each in terms of sound quality and construction and innovation, etc? If someone has this information, and other valuable information, I work as an editor and would be willing to help whip it into shape. If we found someone else who could deal with layout and photographic images, we could create a great little guide for relative newbies like me. If we put some brains and images together, we could create a valuable resource. I'd be willing to work for free on such a project. If others would as well, then we could create something that the site could sell to generate some revenue to cover the hosting costs. Would also be interesting to create a supplemental value "guide." We're collecting fairly unique guitars. If I got hit by a car and killed, my wife would have no idea what these guitars are worth (I am not exactly in full disclosure as to what I "invest" in them). In fact, I barely know their value myself. A guy on here was asking 1500 bucks for the exact same guitar I bought on ebay a few months ago for 380 plus shipping. There's another one going for around 200 on ebay right now. Further back in the archives, I saw one of the other members sold that same model guitar for 500 dollars about three years ago. I can't account for such a wide variance in price of the same instrument in virtually the same great condition. Sometimes it's worth 200 and other times it's worth 1500? Same thing with the Adamas Mill-CB. The price point is all over the place on that instrument. We're not buying and selling oil stocks here, so the price swing shouldn't be a few thousand dollars within a few months... and yet it sometimes is.
Thanks for your assistance, and oh, yes, your opinions too.
TNG |
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Location: Thredbo, NSW, Australia | There's been some recent discussion in another thread on a couple of the acronyms you mention in your first point here: http://ovationfanclub.com/megabbs/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=45045&...
But going beyond that, I've been wondering if a Wiki with multiple contributors and a couple of editors would be a viable project for the OFC?
Thoughts people?? |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | SMT = SMooth Top
CVT = Cross-weaVe Top
MOB = My Other Board. 47 is Mid-Depth. 57 is Super Shallow Bowl.
As to Value... All USA models are worth more because they will never be made again.
Adamii are worth more because they started expensive, and they will never be made again.
Even if Drum Workshop starts making Ovations, they won't be the same.
Looking in the archives is deceptive.
Some individual models are worth more now than they were a few years ago.
In 2007 you could buy a USA Elite T on eBay for $300 on any day.
Now these are worth much more. Any LX is worth more now.
Weird stuff like an Academy KA17 is worth much more now.
Read What Is My Guitar Worth?
I have owned guitars, and do own guitars, that I paid waaay below value for.
If you see something selling for cheap, don't think that is the normal price...
Just buy it and say "Thank You"
As to an information resource...
http://www.ovationtribute.com/
http://www.ovationgallery.com/
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Location: Orlando, FL | arthurseery - 2015-04-24 2:25 AM
If you see something selling for cheap, don't think that is the normal price...
Just buy it and say "Thank You"
Very true, prices have gone up quite a bit. A few years ago when the economy was a lot worse, a LOT of guitars, not just Ovations were bargains, now it's back to a sellers market. And now that you can't get USA Ovations, more people seem to be interested.
A few things still slip through the cracks though. You just have to do a lot of looking for the deals!
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | I need to add some more info about Adamas models and make some updates, but between The Ovation Model Reference:
http://ovationfanclub.com/megabbs/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=32470&posts=1&start=1 Model Numbers Decoded including Color Code:
http://ovationfanclub.com/megabbs/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=32470&posts=1&start=1 and Serial Numbers List:
http://ovationfanclub.com/megabbs/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=32469&posts=1&start=1 Most everything should be covered. If anyone would like to add to those pages, just post it here in a similar format to the pages you think need help and I'll add the info in. |
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| That is very, very helpful. Thank you.
So, just to make sure I'm reading those right, if one of my Adamas has 1881 NB8 in it, then it's made in 1981 and all blue. I mean, that's what it is, but I want to be sure I'm using all the resources you linked me to correctly.
1671-2668 = 1981
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Location: Hot Springs, S.D. | Oh, and the Tangent? I knew a guy who bought one. The most hideous guitar I have ever seen. The pictures don't do it justice - it's a lot uglier in person. The blue is so blue it'll blind you, the headstock is just plain stupid looking, the "surfboard" soundholes are ugly, and it sounded like crap. |
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| I found a few examples of people playing it on youtube and it sounded tinny, but they weren't mic-ed well so I couldn't be sure if it was the guitar or the crappy laptop mic, and I couldn't tell which bowl they had on the ones in the videos. I like the strangeness of its look. It's aesthetically strange, and in this way it seems to fit in with some of the designs Ovation experimented with over the years. I think I might pick one up for $300, which is about what some are going for right now online, but you've scared me with it looking uglier in person. I should also consider how it will look alongside the other guitars. If it just screams out and grabs all the attention, it'll just have to live in its case, all alone. Anyone want to part with one? I'd prefer a mid-depth bowl, or if they made one, a deep bowl. |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | It's a good campfire guitar, except it doesn't burn well. I thought my opinion on the looks (not quite "hideous", but close) might be just my age, but when I asked my daughter and her friends about the looks of the iDea guitar when they came out, they didn't like it. It wasn't that they liked the center sound hole style, either. She has an 87 Collector and a Celebrity Deluxe, both multi-hole guitars that I thought were ugly when they first came out. |
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Location: Frozen Tundra of Minnesota | Hi New Guy!
I am pretty new too, and trying to sort all of these acronyms and models out too!
Here is a link everyone gave me to look at Adamas Models, Ovation Models, Rare Models, etc:
http://www.ovationtribute.com/index.php
you will spend HOURS there, have food and drink readily available, and Enjoy! 
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | CanterburyStrings - 2015-04-24 11:31 AM
Oh, and the Tangent? I knew a guy who bought one. The most hideous guitar I have ever seen. The pictures don't do it justice - it's a lot uglier in person. The blue is so blue it'll blind you, the headstock is just plain stupid looking, the "surfboard" soundholes are ugly, and it sounded like crap.
Wow! Hideous? That is High Praise from Alison. It is "uglier in person".
I mean... Not only is it "stupid looking", it "sounds like crap" too.
Any chance of me ever buying one just totally disappeared. 
and I have owned Academy's and a red Ocean Acoustic*
*(and if I had seen this blue one I woulda grabbed it)
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Location: Hot Springs, S.D. | A red one wouldn't be too bad. But the blue, well, the guy I knew who owned one sold it pretty quickly. |
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Location: SoCal | May have already been addressed but unless there is damage, sale due to health/divorce/car repair/school tuition, etc., a number of sellers since the debacle of Fender are pricing their guitars knowing that it may be impossible to buy an equivalent guitar in the future. Especially when they might have regrets and a replacement may cost more in the future. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | MOB. I always thought that was My Other aBortion
Tagamet , a different word for fugly |
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Location: south east Michigan | This might give you an idea where the MOB rates in the Ovation food chain.
When I would drive home from the factory I go right by Niagara Falls. When it was decided that a guitar needed to be sent over the falls an MOB model was the easy choice.
That said, I just hope you love your guitar as much as I love mine.... whatever make or model.
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Location: Flahdaw | Brad Durasa - 2015-04-27 6:18 PM
When it was decided that a guitar needed to be sent over the falls an MOB model was the easy choice.
That's just cos no one had a Taylor in their car... |
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Location: south east Michigan | tru dat |
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| This is an interesting discussion. Thanks, everybody. I've not seen or played a MOB in person. It's just that they're out there, and they are selling really affordably for what once sold for what... 800 bucks new? Are they really that poorly constructed and sound that awful, or are they getting points deducted for odd headstock, color to bright, surfboard sound holes not my style?
They were made in CT right? Is everything wrong with them or are they just not quite what we're generally attracted to about Os and As?
They were made to be durable, apparently, and this impacts the playability and the tone negatively? Go up in one category (strength) and down in another (tone)?
Any way of knowing how many of them were made? |
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Location: sitting at my computer | That New Guy - They were made in CT right? Nope. Made in Korea. ...for what once sold for what... 800 bucks new? I think that was the MSRP. Not sure if they actually sold for that much. Bought mine used for less than half that. Are they really that poorly constructed and sound that awful, or are they getting points deducted for odd headstock, color to bright, surfboard sound holes not my style? Is everything wrong with them or are they just not quite what we're generally attracted to about Os and As? The Tangent series were probably just as susceptible to build quality issues as the offshore Celebrity models. My MOB 57 turned out okay tho. "Differ'nt strokes for differ'nt" folks as they say. I happen to like the Baaah Loooo finish and "surfboard" soundholes and fret inlays. Maybe they appeal more to us beach bum types.  
They were made to be durable, apparently, and this impacts the playability and the tone negatively? Go up in one category (strength) and down in another (tone)? I wouldn't say that the MOB I have is much (if any) tougher than my other Os. They all seem fairly durable to me, but I don't go banging 'em around to test that! The MOB 57 is a super-shallow bowl so it's not an awesome acoustic. Plugged-in, with the OP30 preamp, it does fine. imho I'd figure the mid-depth bowl MOB 47 would be better acoustically. I haven't ever tried one tho. Any way of knowing how many of them were made? Dunno. I think but they were only in production for a year or two. Good luck! Keep us posted whatever git ya get.   |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | I guess some people like them. I'd rather be caught with a Taylor. |
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| Thanks, SOBeach.
I already have maybe what would be called too many guitars, so I'm trying to limit my high end purchases for a little while. That's why I'm curious about the MOB right now. I don't mind the color. I have a pretty bizarre color palette going on with my guitars right now anyway. I actually live in La Crosse, Wisconsin, which some of you might know has one the largest and best guitar shops in the world, Dave's Guitar Shop. The entire upstairs is vintage and collector guitars of every kind, but mostly the biggies. Lots of 100-300k guitars up there. The downstairs is packed with the cheaper stuff. They have a huge acoustic guitar room too, bigger than most guitar shops by about five fold. Sometimes I try out some of the top of the line instruments in there, and that helps me remember why I mostly play Adamas. Some of those high end guitars sound pretty awful to me. I was really disappointed that the only representative of Ovation/Adamas in the entire store was a really crummy used Celebrity for like 200 bucks. I was there the other day for a setup on an old electric that I have, and while I'm there this Jaguar with out of state plates pulls up and starts unloading... well, from what I overheard around 50k worth of guitars. I heard them talking about trade values, and dotting i's and crossing t's on instruments. He traded a strat that he got store credit for 25 grand. The others were all ten to fifteen grand. Then the staff turn around and start loading all these other instruments into the Jaguar. You know it's funny when the order is so large that five staff members are double checking and counting all the guitars they are loading into the Jag. I should give them more **** about not having any decent Ovations or Adamas. Literally every family of guitar is represented in that shop. They probably have four or five hundred vintage strats. A few dozen Rickenbackers. Too many Gibsons of every style. One, count it, one Ovation, and a really crummy one. Depressing. They have more Mosrites for sale than they have Ovations. Hell, they have probably 50 left handed strats from the sixties. One crappy Ovation.
I've tried probably 100 Taylors and a few hundred Martins over the years. I just live a few blocks away so if I get bored I go wander around. I don't understand why Taylors and Martins occupy that price range. They're universally disappointing. Someone told me "Well they age well." I'm not interested in a guitar that will sound better in 20 years, if it sounds cheap today. Larivee makes some very nice guitars, and Collings too. They had one carbon fiber guitar in there. I can't remember the model or make. Made by someplace out of WA state. Anyway, the price tag was like 2,600 or 2,300 dollars and it sounded like someone put guitar strings on a cement mixer. Just awful. It's a reminder that we should all be grateful that we've got the instruments we've got. I should drag an Adamas down there and make them play it, and say "This. Sell these instruments here so people can see what they are missing." If I could find one guitar that rivaled or sounded as good as an Adamas, I might consider buying it. Seriously, though, in a world of guitars... there are so few of them. They're becoming more like unicorns every day. |
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| I should mention that when I say "cheaper stuff" I mean mostly in the 2-5k range. |
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Acronyms and Opinions
