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Posts: 888
Location: Louisville, OH 44641 | Can someone please explain the fundamental differences between the Ovation Legends and the Ovation Elites. Thanks. |
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Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | The Legend has a central soundhole & A-brace the Elite use the Adamas-style multi-hole layout & quintad bracing. In terms of materials, level of ornamentation, electronics & price point they're pretty similar. Same with the Custom Legend & Custom Elite. |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | The fundamental difference is that the Elite is made to look like a Celebrity Deluxe and the Legend is made to look like a Celebrity 057. Dave
PS - Actually I was just driving home another point. Paul's description is correct. |
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Location: Louisville, OH 44641 | StandingOvation: Would you like to explain more clearly the point you are trying to make? |
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Location: SoCal | Jim:
SO was being sarcastic. The Korean made guitars were made to look like the USA built instruments, not the other way around as SO said. |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Jim,
I was poking a little fun at Kaman's bizarre marketing approach. They (Ovation) invented these really great guitars back in the late 60's. They can compete with the upper end of any other line (Gibson, Taylor, Martin, etc.). The sound is just fantastic and really put Ovation on the map, so to speak. Then the heads decide to make am "economy line" and call it Celebrity, build it off shore, use laminated tops, cheaper wood, cheaper components, etc. Nice guitars, but you get what you pay for. But the strange thing is that they put the Ovation logo on the guitar and make it look cosmetically very similar to the original USA Ovations. The result is that they sell a lot of these, because people think they are getting an Ovation for $400-$500 bucks but then the owners can't understand why it doesn't sound like a top of the line guitar. It "looks" like a $1200 Ovation, but it sounds like it cost $500. Over time more and more people associate the Ovation "sound" and craftsmanship with these economy line guitars. The result has been that the reputation of the real USA Ovation guitars has been tarnished to the majority of the public. The exception being the many members on this board. Dave
PS - I guess to answer your original question, I assume you are looking for a new guitar and all I can say is that which ever you choose (Legend or Elite), you will be thrilled. They sound different, but both sound very, very nice. |
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Location: Louisville, OH 44641 | Standing O: Thanks for the explanation and I happen to agree with many of your comments. I think the original designers should be given a medal for creativity and quality of design. I also happen to feel the marketing people at Ovation should be shot. When developing product lines, companies need to make a distinct separation between different lines. This is marketing 101. By whoring out their fantastic design to the low end products with lesser quality and poorer sound, they give their core products a black eye. |
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Posts: 266
Location: Tampa, Florida | I agree. I absolutely love O's and have had 5 of them over the years. They all served me well. People do rip Ovations a lot, but its just a matter of taste. Ovation would do itself some good if it signed up some more Signature artists. M.E. is great, but she also causes (unfortunately) a lot of divisiveness. The reason I play, own, and am proud of Ovations, other than their playability and sound is because of the people I looked up to and played with when I started playing. They both were Ovation fanatics. They had a lot if influence on me.
Takamine has done the same thing as Ovation with the popularity of the G series. People think Takamines are crap, but have never played a Nashville or Supernatural model. Could it be Kaman's marketing, not just Ovation's? |
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Location: Australia | I think O's problem is one that many guitar companies suffer from - too many models.
Part of the problem is they are continually working on new models for NAMM etc and as new models are introduced many times old ones aren't deleted.
Also specific models which don't sell in one country may well be popular in another.
It does make things confusing for the buyer though and having a whole other range models made offshore just compounds the problem.
It's the trying to be "all things to all people" senario. |
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Location: Scotland | Too many models? Compared to Martin, Gibson, Fender or most other "big-name" manufacturers Ovation's line is pretty sparse and comparatively easy to understand. Try figuring out what's going on in a Fender catalog. |
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Location: Las Cruces, NM | Paul
I agree, this month's Guitar Player has a Martin OM-28 John Mayer signature model, a copy of an OM-28V Martin that John Mayer played at one time. Why not just market the OM-28V, or was it not good enough until John Mayer played it? Seems as if there is a new Martin signature every month, I'm waiting for the Willie Nelson signature with the hole in the top and the Prismatone pickup.
Bailey |
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Location: NJ | Flendor put out a poster of all the strat models about 4 years ago. There were so many there is no way in hell anyone can tell them apart. I think this is what keeps the guitar price guide people in business. |
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Understanding the different Ovation Models
