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Location: south east Michigan | Grrrrrrr.
At the Folkin' Friday the other night I was tuning up in the acoustic room. I was standing right behind a "guy" who was talking to BrianT. When I let loose a couple chords he turned and gave me a "look". Just before Brian & I went up this "guy" walks over and says, "That sounds very nice.. (one-two-three).. for an Ovation". I was already wearing a grateful smile before he finished his comment. When my smile changed to a noticeable frown he tried to cover by saying that he is just not used to an Ovation sounding "that good". Okay...you want to try that again????
Well, we talked about the features of my AD-II and I offered to let him try it after our set. We did not connect after so I'll just look for the guy next month.
I guess it's just one more skirmish, within the battle, within the war.
"very nice.... for an Ovation" indeed. :mad:
edit: AND he reffered to the bowl as "plastic".
It's a wonder I did't get thrown off my game and ruin our set.
double edit: And no Waskel....I did not play my special version of a G chord to cause him to turn around. |
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Location: SoCal | Brad, I thought the music store where Folkin' Friday was held had closed. Good to know it's still out there.
There are a lot of people out there that think for a guitar to sound "good", it has to sound like a Martin dreadnaught. As Nick has learned, there are a lot of differnet, but great sounds out there. The guy who spoke to you has a narrow concept of what sounds "good". His loss....... |
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Location: south east Michigan | The coffee house (Now & Zen) we played at closed.
The music store (Huber-Breese) is doing fine. |
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Location: East Tennessee | Slipkid,
You get a star next to your name for maintaining your composure. :) :) :) |
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Location: Canton (Detroit), MI | Brad, your ADII sounds better than 99.994% of guitars in existence. And the other 0.006% costs at least half again as much, or are at least 20 years older......
Roger |
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| I hear this everywhere I go. There are those who don't consider a great guitar unless it has an exotic wood back and sides. This is another device to build ones humbleness. You know better, that's all that matters. |
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Location: Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey | There's been a lot of similar discussions on this board from time to time. The way I see it, if you're going to be different, you've got to expect that sort of thing. To many people, Ovations are different. Just ignore them and enjoy your Ovations! Life's too short. |
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Location: NJ | brad welcome to my nightmare |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Slip, The guy at the Folkin' Friday was RIGHT. Your guitar DOES sound good "for an Ovation". There is nothing wrong with that statement. We have to realize and accept that the roundbacks that the vast majority of the population hears sound like crap. I'm talking about the plywood import shallow bowls with rusted strings at GC and stuff like that. That's the meat and potatos of Ovation and that's what the public bases their opinions on. They don't hear the great higher end stuff that we around here own and play. They probably don't even know it exists. So, yes to the general public, your guitar sounds great for an Ovation. Just smile and take it as a compliment. If you want revenge, the next time you play someone's Martin tell them that neck plays "pretty well for a Martin". Dave |
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Location: Yucaipa, California | I was playing my S771 Balladeer with a die-hard Martian friend the other day, and he quipped "... wow, that Ovation is sure developing a good tone! It sounds much better than it did before!".... seems like it isn't ONLY the Wooden Ships that devlop great tone after a few years of being played....so does Tupperware! |
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Location: south east Michigan | ..sigh... You're right Dave. That's a better way to look at it.
Another story....
Most Monday evenings I have about a hour to kill between appointments. Often I will go a music store and play a bunch of different guitars.
Usually I'm just left alone but last night at GC the manager struck up a converstion in the "high end" room. "You come in often but never take anything home. It's quiet tonight, we need a good sale."
We talked about the "on sale for $2877" Taylor I was playing. "See anything you want to take home tonight?" he asked.
I said, "No...you don't handle the next guitar I want....an Adamas."
"No we don't...we can't stock something that will sit. The middle of the road Ovations move well....I can order an Adamas one for you." he replyed. |
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Location: NJ | Shoulda' corrected his statement:
"...we can't stock something that will sit . . .
. . . up by the f@cking RAFTERS where no one can REACH it . . " |
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Location: Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey | It's easy to blame the retailers for this sort of thing, but Ovation chooses to flood the market with cheap guitars. You can't blame the store for selling them. Like Dave said:
"We have to realize and accept that the roundbacks that the vast majority of the population hears sound like crap. I'm talking about the plywood import shallow bowls with rusted strings at GC and stuff like that."
That sums it up perfectly for me. If Ovation wants to be taken seriously for the so called "high end" market, they need to stop putting so much garbage out there on the market. Especially given the fact that the cheap plywood models look almost identical to the better models (other than Adamas).
I think that this is more of a problem for the pride of the Ovation fan than it is for the company. It doesn't seem to bother them, so we shouldn't let it bother us. I'm sure they are making lots of money with the low end stuff or they wouldn't continue to make it. |
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Location: SE Michigan | From Tim Chapman "I was playing my S771 Balladeer with a die-hard Martian friend the other day"
It was only a matter or time until the good people of Mars gave up their all-wood-or-nothing snobbery and accept synthetic materials. Word from NASA is that trees are pretty scarce on Mars these days leaving them little choice. |
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Location: Yucaipa, California | ....well, he still is rather a snob (Martian or otherwise).... you can guess his comments when we play at the Church Potlucks: tupperware, salad bowl, pop'n fresh.... |
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| Tim, maybe the guy's just a snob because he's insecure with his mainstream martin's acoustics...I have always thought the high-end Ovation's and Adamas' were a whole new ball game for acoustic guitars...it's an 'apples and oranges' kind of thing...
Steve |
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Location: Canton (Detroit), MI | Tim, "firewood" seems like a proper rejoinder to me to describe a Martin to someone with that attitude. If he can't take it as a joke, he shouldn't dish it out....
Roger |
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Location: Yucaipa, California | ...nah... he's very good natured and we swap "jabs" at each other's guitars... one thing I must give him though: He's right handed and several years ago he had an accident where he lost the ring finger on his left hand(fretting hand) at the middle knuckle. Instead of selling his guitars and giving up on guitar playing,(like I would have done)he bought himself a Lefty guitar and has re-learned to play. He's actually become quite proficient.... kudos to him, regardless of his Martian tendencies! |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | The FD-14 has becomee something of a star with the Old Time folks I play with..."it's got THE sound." This from the hardest-core Gibson, Martin (and such) crowd you'll find.
...this makes me proud of course, except that they prefer it to my 025 Lowden too...(a guitar that is ABSOULTELY BREATHTAKING, both sonically and astethetically)
Brad,
He mighta been distracted by your fishnets?? |
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Location: south east Michigan | Imagine Jeff.... imagine for just a moment the responce you would get if you learned a few chords and brought a uke to the Old Times Folks house. Why, I am positive that for each minute played, two would be added to their lifespan.
Kidding aside...I think your vists are a very cool thing to do. |
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Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Originally posted by Slipkid:
Why, I am positive that for each minute played, two would be added to their lifespan.
for every second they shortened mine. |
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Location: Omaha, NE | Originally posted by John B:
I think that this is more of a problem for the pride of the Ovation fan than it is for the company. It doesn't seem to bother them, so we shouldn't let it bother us. I'm sure they are making lots of money with the low end stuff or they wouldn't continue to make it. Indeed.
I know I'm the FNG here, but it does seem to me that there is something of an insecurity regarding Ovations. I guess it is natural to like our guitars, and to want others to respect our choices. But at the end of the day, who cares? We play what we like, and if someone else likes something else, that's ok.
That having been said, I agree that there seems to be a large number of guitarists that have biased views of Ovations. Luddites.
Cheers!
Jeff |
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"That sounds pretty good....for an Ovation"
