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Posts: 19
Location: new jersey | I stopped by the major chain of guitar sellers name not mentioned to protect the guilty.
Just to look at what was new and they had a pretty
good selection of Ovations. However the minute I picked up an Ovation the sales people started telling me.
Why Ovation guitar were no good,and Taylor's were
better and Ovation's only sounded good plugged in
because of the plastic back and the plastic really
hurt the sound coming from the guitar.
Well I guess it is true Ovation's really don't get
any respect as is say's in the Welcome to this Bulletin Board
After I told the that I toured the factory and saw the care and the effort that is put into these
guitars and that the purpose the the dam plastic back was to get better sound. Ovation measures the top movement with a dam laser to get the best bracing pattern. Ovation guitar would be the only guitar I would buy and they didn't have a clue about what the were selling I left.
boy that was fun and as i looked back 2 of the sales people were taking a closer look at the Ovation guitar I handed them. it was a 2002 collector's that was just perfect in everyway
but not in the cards for me now maybe some day. |
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December 2001
Posts: 7236
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Please take no offence to the following slightly ethnic intended compliment.
YOU GO GIRL!!!!!!!
I usually start off with "it isn't plastic you moron" and the conversation degrades from there. |
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February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | It's amazing how salesmen who diss Ovation always seem to prefer Taylor, the most over-rated, over- hyped, insipid-sounding, uninspiring instruments I have ever had the displeasure to play. Anyone tried the new Taylor Expression pickup system? Nearly as crap as the Baggs I-beam. |
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December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | I walked around the Taylor display listening to people playing the guitars. The new idea is to make the backs with big wood imperfections to show that the guitar has built in from the factory character. What amazed me was that they were all too consistent and sounded too much alike.
Now don't even ask me about the Compost Acoustic booth!!!! |
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November 2002
Posts: 1196
Location: Lafayette, Louisiana | Viking, I know what you have been through! But I have a weapon to use in my Ovation fight. ADAMAS! I wish I could tell you the stories I have where I have been in a music store, and overhear someone dogging Ovations. I just go home, pick up my Adamas, and tell them try this. Works every time. |
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Posts: 105
Location: San Francisco, CA | Don, are you kidding us? It's incredible that any sales person would trash the products they are selling in the store. You should have talked to the store manager so that prospective Ovation buyers would not be misled.
I currently have over 15 Ovations - 1687, 1681, 1581, 1537, 87/93/98/2001/2002 collector, ... and a couple of high-end Taylors.
It's unfair to compare Ovation with Taylor. They are different in terms of design, sound, price.
My $4-5k Taylors sound better than my Ovation, including 1687, acoustically. So what? They better be. Porsche Turbo should be faster than Accura RSX. When you talk about driving in stop & go real world environment, the difference is not day & night.
For plugged in, Ovation is second to none. Period. Many, even high-end Taylor, sound like crap playing live plugged in.
Al - Taylor sound consistent because of consistent design & material of use. Every Taylor, except Baby Taylor, from top to bottom (3xx to 9xx) use solid wood, ebony fingerboard, ebony bridge, same bracing, etc. Koa series sound the most inconsistent, however. |
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Posts: 1196
Location: Lafayette, Louisiana | Ralph, your Taylor sounds better than you 1687? Say it ain't so! (LOL). |
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Posts: 398
Location: So. Cal. | There is always that one guitar from every brand that sounds great, especially the more expensive ones. A D-45 is a D-45 for a very good reason (I should know), each of the 40 series Martin I own are uniquely awesome sounding instruments. Nonetheless, the Adamas's, Custom Legends etc. move me like no others. All I am saying is, Ovation is one of the top guitar makers, sharing the spot light with Martin and to a lesser extent Taylor (they have a long way to go still).
As a side note, my friends in college used to call me Michael "Martin-Ovation" Wong. (I swear it's true.) That's how I felt and 20 years later I still feel the same way.
Just me & my Adamas! |
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January 2003
Posts: 105
Location: San Francisco, CA | Agree. Ovation is definitely one of the best guitar makers in the world. Their innovation in R&D is the best, I suppose. Easy access from the back, smart preamp/battery system, brilliant pick-up, rugged design, reliability ...
In my opinion, it's silly to spend more than $2k on any guitar for plugged-in application. A lot of people go for Taylor blindly because of peer pressure or marketing effect. |
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Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | Al - Taylor sound consistent because of consistent design & material of use. Every Taylor, except Baby Taylor, from top to bottom (3xx to 9xx) use solid wood, ebony fingerboard, ebony bridge, same bracing, etc. Koa series sound the most inconsistent, however.[/QB]
You missed my point. They have no soul. |
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Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Taylor guitars are incredibly well put together generally from very good materials, and on every one I've tried the factory set-up has been exceptional. It's easy to see why they are popular & succsesful, esspecially given the way they are marketed. But Al nailed it; as good as they are, they are totally devoid of anything to get passionate about. I can't critisise anything about them from a technical standpoint, especially their consistency, I just find them consistently soulless & uninspiring. |
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Posts: 35
Location: Lincoln, Nebraska | I feel your "pain," Don.
As a co-owner of a four-store chain in Nebraska, it amazes me when my sales staff "dis" the Ovations--despite some respectable sales. It's hard to pound it in their heads that it's not what THEY want, it's what the CUSTOMERS want.
Maybe not in the private playing moments in the intimacy of their front porch, but if one is plugging in before any kind of crowd, there is nothing better than this line.
The world is ROUND, Galileo, and so is the back of my Ovation! |
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May 2003
Posts: 69
Location: UK | I think Paul hit on the major feature of Ovation, they sound and play differently. I've only got good things to say about Gibson, Martin, Collings and Goodall but imho they are often very similar and predictable in their sound.
Ovations have an originality and uniqueness which makes them stand out from the herd.
Unfortunately, a lot of guitar marketing is about herd instinct so a lot of consumers buy with their wallet rather than their ears (and I confess to having committed that sin a few times in my life). I'm just glad I've reached an age and station in life where I no longer care what others think - I just want the best tone for the buck - and that's where Ovation scores very highly at present.
To get a better tone than both my Elite Special and Adamas II I'd have to spend at least $3000 on a quality handmade guitar or vintage instrument (by my reckoning about 4 times the price of an Elite and three times a s/h Adamas). Is it worth it? I predict I will pay that price at some point but for the moment I'm happy to live by the following formula:
Ovation = ridiculously undervalued guitars
My advice? Buy 'em while their cheap because in the guitar market what goes around comes around and it won't be long before the consumers wise up, buy-up and push up Ovation prices. |
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Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | You all run on about Taylors so....
Simply put, they are a glass of luke warm 1% milk. |
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Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Bill, I aggree, I wouldn't give a Taylor house room. I think there is a place in the market for every manufacturer & once you get to a certain level it's about personal taste rather than anything to do with build quality, materials, playability or whatever. Every manufacturer offers something that will appeal to specific players. It's taken me a long time & many, many instruments to realise why I go back to Ovation every time & personally it's because the response is absolutely consistent right accross the playable range. This is even more apparent with the graphite guitars. I have a '64 Epiphone Texan which is the best rhythm guitar I have ever owned (though since I've gotten the '68 Deluxe Balladeer the Texan is up for sale) but it's useless for anything else but that big first position chord thing.
If you strum chords in the first few positions most guitars will do a good job & the chioce is down to feel & tone. If you play lead or fingerstyle guitar, acoustically or plugged-in, over the entire fingerboard then the response of the guitar must be consistent. Very few factory built flat-tops plugged-in or otherwise can compete with Ovation in that respect. |
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December 2001
Posts: 7236
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | I had a discussion not to long ago who came up with this great promo idea for Ovations. Put two little removable labels on fretboard.
Betweeen frets 3 and 4 frets:
"If you play above here, there are many choices."
Beteeen the 4th and 5th frets:
"If you play below here, there is only one choice." |
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July 2002
Posts: 150
Location: Minneapolis, MN | This may sound a little cynical, but is there room for the idea that perhaps the salesmen viking dealt with was more concerned about his commission? I haven't done the homework but I think Taylors simply sell for more than Ovations do... just my two cents :) |
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December 2002
Posts: 19
Location: new jersey | Well I don't think it was commission. They just didn't know what they were talking about.
They had no Idea what they were doing. There is more to the story the Collectors 2002 I was looking at didn't have a label in it there was just a glue mark where the label had been. I told them, in collectors guitar's the label is very important. And a ture Collector wouldn't even buy the guitar without the label for that price. They went to get the manager and I was looking at the guitar I heard something move in the guitar
it was the label it had come unglued. They came back and said they would drop the price of the guitar by 100 bucks That's when I left before I got in big trouble. So I just think they were not all there. I have pondered this dam guitar all weekend it was quite a deal But I can barely play
my Ovation electric guitar I have so it would be wasted on me. Yeah that sounds like a good reason!!! |
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Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | maybe the salesman likes luke warm 1% milk? |
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January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | In fairness I have recently seen some Taylors that were very reasonable guitars. Maybe a cool glass of 2%. They seemed to be the guitar of choice at the guitar summer werkshop. In the class I was in there were 10 people, 4 Taylors, 1 laravee, 1 guild, 2 Martins a Collings and a Celebrity but he dropped out after the first day to a beginners class.
There, I've been fair and said something nice about Taylors. But as for their crank 'em out budget made by computer loend models, those suck. I'd rather have a Mother of Bucket. |
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Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | There you go, if ever you need a textbook example of the phrase ""damned with faint praise" that was it. Bet I can guess who owned the Collings |
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January 2003
Posts: 105
Location: San Francisco, CA | W2, you didn't bring an Ovation to the class with you ??? |
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February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | At over 25lbs they were just too heavy to carry. Those real wooden guitars are much lighter. |
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January 2003
Posts: 105
Location: San Francisco, CA | That may explain why :-) |
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May 2003
Posts: 69
Location: UK | I thought the approbrium heaped on Ovations by guitar salesmen was bad enough but last night my woman disrespected my 1581!
"What's that!" she exclaimed as her eye was caught by the gold highlights glinting off the coal black top. I explained it was a groundbreaking instrument utilising a unique carbon fibre soundboard.
"You mean you bought a plastic guitar?" was her dismissive response.
At times like this the decision is tough. The guitar or the woman? If we hadn't been married for 21 years I'd have seriouisly contemplated trading her in for a new model. I can feel the blues coming on, something like:
"My woman don' treat me right, Oh Lord
She done dissed my guitar....."
:) |
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Ovation respect
