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Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 1300
Location: Madison, Wisconsin | We've all heard and talked about Taylor, Martin, Gibson, ect. guitars that are very expensive but seem to be duds when it comes to sound. Has anyone ever had a dud Ovation? |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15654
Location: SoCal | "Dud Ovation"? Yeah. My late 70's Legend sounded like plasic on the bass E and A strings. I finally strung it Nashville style and it becase a very useful guitar. But prior to that, yeah, it was a dud. |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | My '72 Legend sucks pretty bad un-plugged, I use it as my acoustic slide guitar for live work & it's ideal for that. Every Ovation nylon-string I've owned or played has been pretty uninspiring acoustically but work great plugged-in. No matter now much a manufacturer strives for consistency it's never really possible & there will be variation from example to example, even of the same model. Ovation's current output seems very consistent, certainly moreso than the '70's & '80's. |
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Joined:
October 2002
Posts: 153
Location: Huntington Beach, CA | What is Nashville style? Personally, I have had no duds yet... knock on plastic. |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Nashville tuning or "high-string" guitar is where you replace the lower 3, or sometimes lower 4 strings with lighter guages and tune them an octave higher than standard. Kinda like a 12-string guitar with the thick-strings removed. It's called Nashville tuning because it became established in Nashville studios as a rhythm guitar recording technique. They would double-track a standard guitar with a high-string to produce a very fat-sounding rhythm part which wouldn't clutter-up the mix. It's a great way to record rhythm parts. I bought my '68 Deluxe Balladeer with the intention that it was to be my High-string guitar, but it sounded way too good in standard-tuning, so I'm still looking. |
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Joined:
September 2002
Posts: 153
| Based upon the great sound of my 1968 12-strings, I bought a 1982 Glen Campbell 1618 12-string. It was quite a bit heavier than other Ovation 12's I had played with electronics, and the dynamic was less than desirable. The overall sound was quite muddy, and it didn't have that "ring" that most Ovation 12's are famous for. Also, the harmonics weren't quite right.
As the guitar was set-up to its' peak performance,
I realized that I had a dud. However, thanks to the miracle of eBay, it didn't stay around the house for more than a few months.
One of the things that had attracted me to the guitar was the fact that it had the old laminated bowl, the merits of which have been discussed in previous threads. The old style bowl didn't help much, though, as I had a 1985 GC 12 that was as perfect as an Ovation can be. |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15654
Location: SoCal | It's interesting, isn't it. It's impossible to get every guitar out of the factory to be perfect. Sometimes there are clinkers. But they can be clinkers for different reasons. Sometimes it's just the bracing pattern doesn't do it (I hate hate hate the 70's VT bracing patterns -- old news). Sometimes, you get a used guitar and the braces might be loose, or the guitar might be in need of a neck reset, or any number of different reasons. It's hard to tell, but it's what makes guitar buying and playing so subjective.
There are those people out there who say that every Martian or Snailor is great. Well, it's not true. There are clinkers there as well. At least this board is honest. |
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Joined:
July 2003
Posts: 1922
Location: Canton (Detroit), MI | Once during my weekly stop at our local Guitar Center, I found they had just gotten a shipment of CC026 Celebrities and had four of them they had just put out. I played all four of them (checking tuning before starting) and found that one of them was not very good, two were middling OK, and one was outstanding. Guess that fits in with the Normal statistical distribution("bell curve").
Both of my guitars, my CC01 and my '77 AA14-4 sound great(my opinion).
Thanks to Paul for the explanation of Nashville tuning. I had never heard of it before. |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15654
Location: SoCal | Nashville is cool for a rhythm instrument. And what's really cool about it is that if you can capo up to the 5th to the 7th fret, you get a real unique precusive sound. Played behind a 6 string it really ads something without overwhelming the lead guitar.
I've got a friend I'll play behind occassionally and I'll just take an electric (Viper Deluxe on which I play really really bad lead) and acousti (Legend strung Nashville on which I play decent rhythm). The heck with regular 6's or 12's. There's a time and place for everything.
If you listen carefully, you find that there's a Nashville strung guitar on almost everything coming out of Nashville. |
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Joined:
January 2003
Posts: 1498
Location: San Bernardino, California | Another thing you can do that works well with Nashville tuning is use some chorus and/or a short delay. |
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Joined:
May 2003
Posts: 143
Location: High, in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado | I have a guitar that had a slightly twisted neck. It sounded fine, but didn’t play as good as I would like it to have. I returned it to Ovation and they very graciously repaired it in a timely manor. It's one of my favorites today.
I cannot express the warm fuzzy feelings that I have with the wonderful folks at Ovation, or the fantastic products they produce.
Some may complain about their prices, but I firmly think they are the best "bang for the buck" out there.
Dale |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10581
Location: NJ | The price of the adamas guitar did nothing but DROP over the years.
Granted it is not the same guitar but when did the flagship model of any company ever go DOWN in price. |
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Good/Bad Sounding Ovation
