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May 2008
Posts: 4996
Location: Phoenix AZ | Got my IDEA PREAMP today. Lots of stuff to figure out yet and will post more later, but just wanted to give a quick first impression. Summary: this sucker will be FUN !!!
1. Comes packaged very nicely like a computer component. Clear instructions, etc. Here's the install guide:
INSTALL GUIDE
2. YES you do need to plug something into it to use the tuner. Dumb, dumb, dumb ...
3. YES you do need to drill a hole in your bowl for the 1/8 jack if you want to use the aux input. The kit comes with a whole new OP can because the interfacing on the inside has to accommodate the the connection for aux in.
However, you don't need to use the aux in if you don't want to. And that case you just slap it into any existing guitar that has the original OP can. In practice you could "record" using the aux in of your modified guitar with the 1/8 jack cut into the bowl and then pop the iDea preamp into any other guitar to "play" the track. Dilemma for me I'm wondering which guitar I'm gonna bite the bullet and drill the hole. I'm sure you could buy extra iDea OP cans and internal cables/jacks and outfit all your plastic backed guitars to be iDea compatible if you wanted to.
4. I guess Ovation got tired of preamps being swapped by customers or stolen in guitar center. The iDea preamp is connected by a 4 inch spring cable to the inside of the can so it can be removed enough to change the batter, but not removed completely. It too 3 seconds with a wire cutter to eliminate that little hastle.
5. The tuner works really well, definitely the best of any Ovation tuner I have every used (still not as good as Takamine, sorry). But why oh freaking why can't you use it with out plugging in? This is the single stupidest thing I have ever heard of. OK the preamp draws a lot of juice, fine make it inoperable unless plugged in but for freaking christs sake please give us a tuner that works ALL the time.
6. I installed it initially in the Stealth Adamas. It looks stupid because it's the only non black part of the whole guitar, but it's just an experiment. As a "normal" preamp it seems to work very well. Sound quality is as good as Optima (Ovations best preamp) or OP-Studio and VIP. I'm not crazy about Volume being a slider because in time it will get scratchy, oh well.
7. All controls seem to work fine. The menu system is straight forward and easy to navigate, although impossible to see clearly (for me) without reading glasses. The buttons and joystick are pretty small but not all that difficult to use.
8. I recorded little guitar part, then was able to play it back and do a lead line on top of it. Also tried out the mic and it works fine. Quality is about as good as a telephone but it's enough to get some musical idea into memory.
9. I interfaced to Mac OS-X with one click and everything works smooth as silk. As expected. Proceed with extreme caution and knowledge of registry errors if you are using a PC.
OK that's it for now. Like I said this will be a lot of fun. Initial impression for $300. it's a steal
Toby |
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March 2005
Posts: 12758
Location: Boise, Idaho | Thanks, Dave. I guess I'll drop by GC again on the way home and hassle them into putting a battery in their iDea, dammit. What kind of screwball store gets a new electronic gizmo and sets it out without the power necessary to make it work? They may as well say you can't plug in their amps or electric guitars to try them out. I supposed if they tried to sell Ovations I wouldn't find any good deals on them. |
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Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Will it fit into the 2080D? |
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September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Mark... Bring you own Battery. :p Just not a new one in case they make you leave it. :D |
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Posts: 12758
Location: Boise, Idaho | Good idea, Arthur, except that I like hassling the kids that work there. Like when I walked out of the acoustic room after someone was trying out amps at about 3/4 volume and told the saleskid that I was going to buy the $2500 Martin if it sounded OK, but couldn't hear it because of the kid wailing on the amp. I think he believed me.
Or when they offer me a pick and I tell them that real guitar players don't use them.
This one's getting to be a matter of principal. I'm thinking about waiting until after Christmas and then asking them in front of a bunch of customers how many they sold. When they say none, I'll say, "Well maybe if you'd put a frickin battery in it." |
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Posts: 6268
Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | Thanx Toby for the initial review!
I just unwrapped Al's hermetically sealed package which included what looks like two pastry box halves. :p
There was no Installation Guide (IG) nor a comprehensive User Manual. Just a Quick Start guide. Couldn't find the IG on their site although the box said to go there. Am I missing something obvious?
I'm considering my new 2171 as a transplant recipient for experimentation. I'll hold off on the aux input for now. Hopefully Ovation will sell the aux cable separately for multiple installations if so desired.
Looks like some fun in the near future... :D
Oh, BTW, Al has the BEST price to be found. Everywhere else I looked it was $399! Not at Al's! ;) |
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April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Originally posted by (Mauvais) Beal:
Will it fit into the 2080D? I'll let you know tomorrow! |
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May 2008
Posts: 4996
Location: Phoenix AZ | Originally posted by (Mauvais) Beal:
Will it fit into the 2080D? YES. Fits in any standard OP can. Or you can swap the can for the idea can that comes with it if you want to use the aux in. |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | OK spent some time playing with it and this thing is FUN FUN FUN. I just recorded a simple chord progression and set it to loop and started playing lead lines over it. Over and over again. Something I would have NEVER done before. I used the computer interface and listened to my recorded progression right over iTunes. Very neat. I transferred the old "Linus and Ukey" tune from the OFC CD onto it in mp3 format and started jamming guitar lead lines to it. NO QUESTION ABOUT IT - THIS WILL MAKE YOU A BETTER GUITAR PLAYER. BUY ONE !!!
A few comments/cautions/nit-picks:
1. Dispute my earlier comment the tuner isn't very good at all. It has a lot of trouble locking on a note. I'm trying to tune E and it;s dancing around from E to C# to A and D#. I now I'm close to E so ignore all the garbage and zone in on E but it's pretty annoying. The other gripe is that the "OK" range is pretty wide. Not precise at all. I can tune it from "noticeably sharp" to "noticeably flat" and the tuner still says right on. I guess this is good to get you close but you'll have to use your ear or a quality external to really do the job.
2. The headphone jack is not isolated so there is a loud POP when you insert or remove headphones from the jack. Do NOT have the headphones on your ears when inserting or removing the jack.
3. The live feed from your guitar is only hot through the phones when in playback mode. Would be nice to have headphones as a quite practice option when playing solo.
4. The usb jack on preamp side is very very tight. I was afraid I would break something but finally got it it. Also beware that the usb jack and headphone jack are very close together. You may have to remove the phones to insert the usb cable. This isn't a problem since inserting the usb turns all other functionality off anyway.
These are all sort of minor things, the bottom line is as I said this thing is a great learning tool and is serious fun. Do your self a favor and BUY ONE !!! But don't discard your old preamp.
Toby |
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Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Thanks for the poop. |
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May 2008
Posts: 4996
Location: Phoenix AZ | One last comment: There's No Operators Manual !!!!
There's a little "getting started guide" but that only covers the basics. You would screw around for a long time before accidently figuring out how to raise and lower the headphone volume on playback (hint: move joystick up or down). How do you delete files (it's in the Advanced Menu, that is not described anywhere). And how about a simple diagram of the display telling what the icons are. I'm guessing that the little % number is the amount of storage space remaining. |
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Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | Wait a minute, Toby. Are you saying you can't hear the live guitar when playing with a backing track through the headphones?
Whay about when playing out the 1/4" jack into an amp? |
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December 2006
Posts: 6268
Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | Originally posted by Gallerinski:
One last comment: There's No Operators Manual !!!! OK, looks like the 'Ovation Hive Mind' will have to accomplish what the 'O' corp. didn't. That's not counting the installation instructions. Shame... 
Maybe we should start a iDEA operations thread to share our 'discoveries'. Sure, we can all hunt 'n peck through all the combos and translate the icons, but, come on... again, shame! I guess we'll plod on through...
Oh yeah, I'll hold off on the 7 day free WorkShopLive trial until I get the ops under my belt.
Don't mean to be a wet towel here. Ya'll know I try to keep a positive attitude, (here's another one) BUT... |
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Posts: 3145
Location: Marlton, NJ | I don't know if I can wait until Christmas... It's sitting up there going "open me... please..." |
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Posts: 198
Location: seattle | I know the op30 and the oppro are not interchangeable - the conector is different - so i'm assuming the iDea work in the oppro only? help me out here ... |
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Posts: 198
Location: seattle | also, how is the quality of the recorded guitar?
does the mic always record, or can it be disabled?
thanks |
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August 2004
Posts: 709
Location: Germany | Thanks a lot, Dave, for your impressions. Seems to be a useful toy. Unfortunately I don't own a OP can Ovation.
This week I discovered the first ad about the iDea preamp in a German guitar magazine. The new Ovation distributor in Germany is .... Fender.
Karl |
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Posts: 2985
Location: Sydney, Australia | I hate to say it, but Fender as a distributor might do a better job. At least you can buy a Fender almost anywhere in Australia. If they push the shops to stock and display Ovations like they stock and display Fenders, they might sell a lot more Os. |
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Posts: 198
Location: seattle | Originally posted by Gallerinski:
Originally posted by (Mauvais) Beal:
Will it fit into the 2080D? YES. Fits in any standard OP can. Or you can swap the can for the idea can that comes with it if you want to use the aux in. |
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May 2008
Posts: 4996
Location: Phoenix AZ | Originally posted by ovationluver:
I know the op30 and the oppro are not interchangeable - the conector is different - so i'm assuming the iDea work in the oppro only? help me out here ... I don't have an OP-30 guitar to try it. The box says in BIG BLACK LETTERS ...
DIRECT REPLACEMENT FOR ANY OP SERIES PREAMP
Originally posted by ovationluver:
also, how is the quality of the recorded guitar? Through the headphones it sounded OK, also through my monitor system not too bad. Bear in mind it's a cheap mp3 recorder so don't expect miracles.
Originally posted by ovationluver:
does the mic always record, or can it be disabled?
Mic can be disabled. There are two modes 1) Guitar and Mic, 2) Guitar and Aux. If you choose Guitar and Aux with nothing plugged into the aux, then it's just guitar |
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February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | Originally posted by The Wabbit Formerly Known As Waskel:
Wait a minute, Toby. Are you saying you can't hear the live guitar when playing with a backing track through the headphones?
What about when playing out the 1/4" jack into an amp? |
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May 2008
Posts: 4996
Location: Phoenix AZ | Originally posted by The Wabbit Formerly Known As Waskel:
Wait a minute, Toby. Are you saying you can't hear the live guitar when playing with a backing track through the headphones?
Whay about when playing out the 1/4" jack into an amp? Just the opposite, guitar plays through the phones ONLY when you are playing back a recorded track. What I was saying is that it would be nice if you could buster the guitar and just use the phones to practice withOUT having to be in playback mode.
1/4 output is always active. Have not tried XLR yet. |
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February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | I asked that wrong, but I think you answered it anyway.
You're saying you can't hear the live guitar through the headphones when you are recording? Strange, but I suppose given that it's designed for use with an acoustic it doesn't really matter.
How's the balance between recorded and live when playing live against a recording through an amp? |
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January 2006
Posts: 2120
Location: Chicago | Question Dave: I've been "working out" with my Boss Loop pedal. I agree: it DOES do wonders for the woodshed. However, I can't imagine doing competent looping without a foot-pedal to activate the loop. How does it work on the new O? |
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Posts: 4996
Location: Phoenix AZ | Waskel - When recording the phones are silent. Not sure what happens if you are recording with an aux in. I didn't have the right sized drill bit.
The GUITAR level is controlled by the Vol slider, the PLAYBACK level is controlled by the Joystick.
Dobro - It's not really a looper. You can't pinpoint start/stop points and you can't easily jump from record to loop with out masterbating the little joystick in a few different directions. All you can really do is set the recorded track to repeat indefinately. At least that's all I've figured out so far. You need the Boss Loop pedal or similar to do real looping in performance. The IDEA is really just a practice tool.
But what you CAN do this (and yes I have had very little sleep since getting this baby)...
I went into LOGIC and pulled out the tune I did for the Mermaid last year "Where you gonna go when de hurricane comes to town", and I muted the guitar track, mixed everything else incl. the vocals down to mono mp3 and saved it. I Mac'd it to the IDEA and then just took the guitar into the family room along with a small amp. No easy feat since I'm on crutches. I told the wife "Listen To This", I press PLAY and out comes the whole freaking song minus the guitar track, and I just play the guitar part along live. HOW FREAKING COOL IS THAT ?!?!?!?
Slipkid - You can fire Brian
Beal - You'll be the hit of the Mermaid
Cliff - One Man And A Gadget Group
Al - Sue can stay home and cook
Moody - You'll finally have "someone" to play with
THIS THING IS WAY WAY COOL. IT WILL MAKE YOU A BETTER GUITAR PLAYER. YOU NEED THIS. CALL AL. NOW.
OK, I'll shut up for awhile and make some music !!! |
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Got my IDEA PREAMP - First Impressions
