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Joined:
April 2008
Posts: 1851
Location: Newington, CT | I know it's kind of an yawner of a topic, but I came to Ovation via a kind of an interesting path...
I started out as just a guitarist...mainly electric. Didn't much care what guitar I was playing...figured I'd look cool with the popular ones.
Bought a bunch of mid-range things, but really started out with a Fender MusicMaster, of all things! Actually kind of fun...I'm a pretty big guy -- 6"4', 280 lbs...and the MusicMaster looked like a ukelele when I played it, but it was the perfect beginnner's axe, and graduating to the Les Pauls, Strats, etc., was a logical move...
I had an old pot acoustic that I ran around with, when not playing parties and the like with various bands...
But, then, the inevitable happened...my playing bored me, and I put down the guitar...forever, I thought.
That was 25 years ago. The long drought lasted some 23 years.
The real reason for my abandoning the wonderful guitar is that I knew I was a fraud. I was a "rocker," and I played it well. I even had fans and groupies...But I knew that what I was playing was garbage.
Then, 23 years later, one of the finest guitarists in the world, a largely unknown guy named Frank Varela, let me noodle around with his Elite. I HAD been playing a low-end Takamine that was like playing on a spider-web. Yeeech! But, not having played better, I didn't KNOW there was better!
The Elite was smooth, sweet and made me -- nearly instantly -- a better guitarist than I had EVER been! Even when was been playing all the time some 23 years before!
After that incident, the fever came back...Kind of like GAS, but also like a hunger. I went out and bought an Ultra 2071. Not as nice as the Elite, but not bad at all. I was still hungry...So I bought an Adamas 2080, and -- here's what I think the Ovation "magic" is -- any talent that I may have, seemed to have all obstacles removed. What a SWEEEEEET guitar!
Since then, I've played at several parties, and even had someone tell me that I was the best guitarist she had ever seen. In fairness, she is not all that knowledgeable, and I have a somewhat distinctive style, but it was nice to hear. And, it's nice to think about playing out again.
You have to understand that at the parties -- friendly crowds even! -- I was TERRIFIED. And my 2080 didn't let me down for a moment.
Lessons:
(1) Equipment IS important. You can't improve your playing with a lousy guitar. Duh! But not that obvious to those who don't have the opportunity to assess various levels of equipment.
(2) Ovation is a superior brand within the "mid-range world" (for lack of a better term), at least from the perspective of "playability." You don't wrestle with your Ovation. Desirability of sound is subjective, but your Ovation will not fight with you to produce that sound.
Ovation guitars did nothing less than bring my love for the guitar flooding back after a long, long dry spell...
I'd love to hear how it is that YOU all think so highly of Ovations or Adami...If, that is, it's not too much of a pain. |
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Joined:
November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | There were many times I saw/heard Ovations but, what put me over the edge was seeing Dire Straits live and hearing Mark Knopfler play that Adamas.
Tingled my gibbs [jibs]...
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Joined:
January 2009
Posts: 379
Location: Alagoas, Brazil | I was out to buy some strings. Don´t recall exactly, but I think this Adamas here followed me home... |
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Joined:
February 2008
Posts: 747
| Pretty much when I heard these guys play this song at a concert in or about 1973. Same group of people but the lead player used an electric balladeer on stage.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=beATl3QI2X8
I'd been playing mostly rock stuff on a solid body with a band but I wanted to get into electrified traditional music like Fairport, Steeleye Span and the Pogues.
The acoustic Ovations seemed like a good choice because of the fast neck and good pickup. So I bought an electric artist in 1974 and still have it today.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=I1gopdN3yTI&feature=related |
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Joined:
March 2005
Posts: 12750
Location: Boise, Idaho | Interesting variation on a familiar theme, Alan.
Mine's not so interesting. I started playing guitar because someone in the college choir was playing the intro to "Diary" by Bread incorrectly. It pissed me off that someone who was a good guitar player could screw up such a simple intro, so I played the album and figured it out on my little brother's toy guitar. The next time the guy played it, I took his guitar and showed him how.
Never touched a guitar again for a year or so until a broke friend sold me his Univox 335 clone. Learned a little on that and bought an acoustic that someone had made. Cool guitar, but it was a fingerbuster and no way to lower the action. Since David Gates of Bread played Ovations, I noticed them. My girlfriend had a cousin with a Legend that played so fine, so when she said she'd help me buy a new guitar to play at our wedding, we went looking for an Ovation.
I know now that this was just a trick to get me to marry her, but then all we could scrape together after selling both my guitars was enough for a Matrix.
I was a marginal player and refused to play in public except at another couple weddings. That fear turned to refusal when a friend would bug me about "sharing my talent" at every party. She thought Elvis was a great guitar player.
I played less after the kids were born and also put the guitar down for around 25 years until our neighbor tried to sell me his Legend. Teenagers and a new laptop led me to ebay and the Ovation Fan Club and all hell broke loose. |
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Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | 1973. I went into a local music store while on a trip to Boise looking for a Gibson acoustic to replace my pawn shop beater. The salesman grabbed one of two funny looking roundbacked guitars off the wall and said this one was getting all the attention in the pro world because of its great tone and indestructibility. He then swung it like a baseball bat hard against the very corner of the counter and it bounced off without any apparent damage whatsoever. I bought the other one and have owned at least one ever since. |
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Joined:
February 2003
Posts: 86
Location: northern virginia | Mine is much too simple… (I’m not making this up) - when I was a ‘youngin, I watched the Glen Campbell show, and I was hooked from that time forward on the cool looking guitars that he played. |
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Joined:
June 2006
Posts: 7307
Location: South of most, North of few | I too saw Glen, and finally was given an Applause by my ex wife (guitar that is) and played it not too many times in the 15 or so years I owned it. (see, I can keep a guitar for longer than a few days). I ended up selling it to Gway, and the rest, as they say, is history. |
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Joined:
October 2008
Posts: 489
| I too, thought Glen's guitar looked cool, but on side shots you could see it had a BOWL for a back!? What the hell? Even at 14 I'm thinking "marketing gimmick".
Shortly thereafter I happened to be at a music store. The Ovation detail man was there, explaining how the bowl shape was the best for reflecting sound, but was too expensive to mass produce with wood, but now WE'VE found a WAY with SPACE age materials to do this! I'm thinking, "marketing gimmick."
Fast forward a decade or so and and I need an acoustic to use in a high db band environment. I buy and Ovation. Yeah, I know it's a marketing gimmick but the pickup and pre-amp is there already, so what the hell?
Fast forward another decade and I'm tired of the Martin getting beat up on solo gigs. I go get an 1869 because the old Balladeer (now sold) was indestructible.
I STILL think it's a marketing gimmick, but it works for me, so what the hell? |
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Joined:
May 2008
Posts: 1553
Location: Indiana | Glen snagged me too. |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15654
Location: SoCal | Originally posted by Jeff W.:
There were many times I saw/heard Ovations but, what put me over the edge was seeing Dire Straits live and hearing Mark Knopfler play that Adamas.
Tingled my gibbs [jibs]...
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Joined:
September 2005
Posts: 3618
Location: GATLINBURG TENNESSEE :) | I remember seeing different artists in the 70's playing Ovations, but I had never seen, played, or heard an Ovation in real life. In 1988 I was looking into buying a "nice" guitar and had started playing around with everything I could get my fingers on in music stores and pawn shops. I got my hands on a brochure in one music store I frequented (I still have that brochure)and spent days looking over and over at it. Then one day I stumbled upon a pawn shop in Savannah, GA. I saw this cool looking Elite 1537 and took it down from a wall. The moment I touched it I fell in love with it and instantly knew there was a special magic about it. I put it on layaway and paid the $400 off within a month. Then I went to Japan the same year and experienced the Adamas I and IIs in a couple of music shops there. From then on the fever never left me. |
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Joined:
November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Don't wear sweat bands. |
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Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Air Supply
their guitarist played Taylor so I went another direction.......... |
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Joined:
November 2005
Posts: 4817
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Good band name tho |
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Joined:
November 2008
Posts: 83
Location: North Wales, UK. | For many years I have played solids mainly Fenders but knew that if I was to buy an acoustic it would be an Ovation.
Last year on jolly hols in Pafos, Cyprus we went ito the El Paso bar near Chlorakas and there was a duo on with a Fender bass and the guitarist on an Ovation SSB??? (I will find out which model wgen I go back this June) Well impressed with the sounds this guy was getting out of it so I bought one and now have another and could be the owner of a 12 stringer today!! |
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Joined:
September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Real quick... Back around '71-'72 this pot-smokin' hippie drifted into our town to sit in the "circle" on the Library lawn... We were partaking of the noble weed and beer, and grown-up tourists would be running from Boston or NYC and coming to Cape Cod. Back in them days somebody usually had a guitar, Epiphone or Harmony or Guild.
This dude came by with an Ovation. It was the loudest thing! (and he wasn't beating on it either)
He let me play with it (Leaving on a Jet Plane) and it was the easiest guitar I had ever played in the Library Park.
-{Decades Pass...}-
In 2005 I bought a Lyon Strat Pack thingie, cuz it was cheap and I was bored.
After abit, I decided that I really wanted an acoustic and I went searching. I found a total import Ultra with eppies, but for $500 they weren't gonna give me a case!
So I went to eBarf and found me 4861 Korean Solid Top Balladeer with a case (nice guitar too)
And the OFC...
The rest is History! :p
[The 4861 is gone but I still got the Lyon... tuned to open G, in a gig-bag behind a chair. Never play it] |
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Joined:
April 2006
Posts: 1017
Location: Budd Lake, NJ | Our worship leader gave Jack his 1111-4 Balladeer back before we were married; for years, Gertrude was our only guitar, and I mostly played her, because she was too narrow for Jack's stubby carpenter fingers--but she was just perfect for me. :D
The stable is much fuller, now...funny how that happens after you discover this place........... ;)
--Karen |
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Joined:
March 2004
Posts: 1388
Location: Paris/France | In the early 70's, I must be 5 years old and I went every year with my parents and my uncle on vacation in south of France.
My uncle will never leave without a guitar and he often played with his harmonica.
Fascinated by the music of Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, Doc Watson etc. ... and Marcel Dadi of course, he dreamed of owning an Ovation guitar and later an Adamas.
He gave me the taste of that music and guitar and I think that is where it all began for me.
I just realized his dream through my passion for O's and I was so happy to show him my guitar collection last year for the very first time.
He's now 76 years old but he still a good guitar player and my inspiration for years.
I bought my first Ovation in 89 (an old Balladeer from 1976) and it was the beginning of the great adventure for me...
J :)
PS: a picture of Bernard (my uncle) with my Custom Adamas in hands.
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Joined:
November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | No thumb pick....
Are you sure he's French? |
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Joined:
March 2004
Posts: 1388
Location: Paris/France | He asked me one but I did not ... :D
J :) |
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Joined:
December 2006
Posts: 6268
Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | Almost exactly two years ago I purchased my first Ovation, a Celeb CC057 locally via CL. A little Googling and I found the OFC and the 'O'GAS set in.
All this after a 30 year+ hiatus from guitars. What a 'ride'! |
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Joined:
June 2005
Posts: 1320
Location: Round Rock, TX | In the late 70's I played with a coupla guys, one of whom had an Ovation. It sounded great and played great - much louder than my Japanese Washburn dread, which was my only guitar for a long time (I was poor).
A coupla decades later a friend's wife mentions that he plays guitar very well (true) and my wife responds that I play very well (please) and we decide to get together and play. As it turns out we sound good together and decide to work some stuff up. It becomes very clear that my Washburn isn't able to keep up with his Martin D-35. By this time I'm making good money and decide to get a new guitar. I wind up with a Celebrity CS2000. Real pretty, but not the sound I remembered and the longer I owned it the less it moved me. By this time I had moved into a lead electric position in the band and wasn't playing much acoustic. I would still try out O's in the local guitar shops, but never played one I had to have. Until I played the 1778LX. To my ears it was such an improvement, plugged and unplugged and I took it home. Now I have 4 O's, plus I bought one each for my daughter and son. With my interest in acoustics all aflame I also fell in love with the woody sound and playability of Larrivees. Now between my O's and Larrivees I just pity poor Taylor owners and think, "There, but for the grace of God and the talents of Charlie Kaman and Jean Larrivee, go I." |
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Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 1330
Location: ms | Glenn, Jim and America. O yea the Doobies. O yea when i was in the 10th grade our band started opening up for a band calld David and the giants. David used an Ovation for everything back then. |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | one day there was this funny looking green fiberglass backed guitar in the house instead of the Martin.............. |
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What's your Ovation story?
