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Joined:
June 2002
Posts: 6197
Location: Phoenix AZ | Originally posted by Designzilla:
a majority of guitarists want to check 'em out, just to see what the hype is all about and to dream a little. Yup. I agree. Somehow the same store that does not carry high end Ovations does seem to carry high end Martin and Taylor. Therefor the natural conclusion is that M & T are the "best" guitars. Plus it helps that almost every professional musician of any note is playing one.
Originally posted by northcountry:
with that said this answers back to the fact that Ovation is loosing ground in it's "respect" department. I'm not sure if they are losing or gaining ground, but the fact is that they are far, far behind. Don't let the enthusiam of us fans here in the club fool you, in the grand scheme of guitardom, we are playing tupperware. Btw, I' think Kaman is the largest musical instrument distributor in the country, so why mess with success.
That being said - I do in fact love all my Ovation and Adamas guitars and have the upmost respect for those who make and sell them. I just wish we could somehow help to change the perception.
Dave |
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Joined:
January 2004
Posts: 338
Location: SE Michigan | I think the most effective (and maybe the most difficult) thing that Ovation needs to do to get respectibility is to get their guitars in the hands of some top artists.
In the 70's it was Cat Stevens, Heart, Geln Campbell, John Lennon, etc...Look at how dominating Ovations were in the 70's.
Can you imagine what it would do for Ovation sales if you saw Eric Clapton, Sheryl Crow, John Mayer, Chris Martin, Billie Joe Armstrong, etc.,etc., playing Ovations on their videos and at their shows? GC would not be able to keep enough of them on the walls. I dont know how you get celebs to play your guitars though, other than maybe make the very best guitars that you can. |
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Joined:
December 2004
Posts: 2150
Location: Orlando, FL | It was those Pete Townsend Ads in Guitar Player Magazine that first got me interested in Ovations back in the 70's... |
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Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 13987
Location: Upper Left USA | Found it:
"MWoody, your soldering license is hereby revoked. Please turn in your soldering iron at your earliest opportunity. While it may be appropriate for chewing gum... "The bigger the gob, the better the job" is not your typical solderers mantra."
We have talked. I am bad. I will not make microwave Popcorn in a small office or solder unless extreme need arises. |
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Joined:
January 2004
Posts: 123
Location: Massachusetts | I posted over on the AGF about my positive impression of the Collectors because of the contoured bowl. Most over there just immediately dissed Ovations end of story.
A few were open minded and said..it's your flavor of ice cream enjoy so to speak.
Others surprisingly said they USED to be loyal to Ovation but not anymore because they prefer the all wood tone.
Personally, I love the sound of my Gibson Songwriter Deluxe but it doesn't play as easy as the Collectors. When recording them I can get the Ovation to sound fairly close to the Gibson tone by adding more bass and mids in the eq.
Up until the contoured bowl(even I got pissed at the roundback design..hence my Gibson) people didn't like the bowl cause it doesn't rest flat on the belly and it slides off the leg and sounds plasticy.
To my ears the contoured bowl ends all that and I sincerly hope wood snobs get to play and try one.
Sadly, we aren't going to see any contoured bowls for a long time. I don't see CL in the stores anymore at all anywhere and that is the first place they are being put.
And finally, yep go to GC and the Adamas and Collectors are at roof level and made in Korea crap is right in front. People walk right past.
Maybe Ovation should tell GC to put the high end stuff, even a few, in the rooms with the Martins and Taylors. |
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Joined:
September 2003
Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | ***Maybe Ovation should tell GC to put the high end stuff, even a few, in the rooms with the Martins and Taylors***
Yeah...that will happen when Al starts playing Grateful Dead songs.
I put my 2 cent in on that thread. I thought long & hard before I did. I tried to be reasonable, fair, and balanced. You can guess how far that got me. |
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Joined:
August 2004
Posts: 604
Location: Tampa, FL | Just as in a train wreck, I had to go look...
Actually, I was a little surprised at how even tempered most responses were. There were the brainless responses of course, but at a lower rate of appearance than I would expect in the population at large. I thought the response was fairer than I expected. Although, I wonder if Mr KamanSucksAss is a counter-troll attack in repsonse to CorvairFan initiating a veritable troll first-strike into the pristine all-woodlands. |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | DoubtIt.
Those guys just tend to keep their NarrowMinds to themselves . . . . |
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Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 4413
| I think the answer is, at least in part, the Emperor's New Suit. People have got far more money these days and they can be convinced that they really need the extra bling of more exotic/ more tightly grained/ more inlay/ more whatever. They do not buy for value like us old codgers do - the best example is PRS guitars. The base models are as beautifully built and sound identical to the $10,000 plus Brazilian/Paua/Artist models. All the bling does NOTHING for the guitar, yet people buy them in the 1000s. Look at how many Custom Shop guitars Gibson and Fender sell every year. Yet I would bet that not one guitar player in 10,000 could hear the difference between a production model and a custom shop model.
Ovation's problem in this context is that they don't have the ridiculously overpriced in their range of guitars. You know that your 2005 collectors/U681/AdamasI sound and play WAY better than the money they cost, but increasingly these days people don't believe their ears they believe the marketing hype put out by guitar companies.
Seems to me that Ovation need to be a little tougher with dealers and insist that they stock a minimum range if they want to do business - and they need to REALLY differentiate the USA guitars from the imports. That way the reason for paying a premium becomes clearer. It's been mentioned on several threads lately - Ovation's marketing doesn't do the guitars any favours at all. |
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Joined:
January 2004
Posts: 627
Location: Cherry Hill, NJ | Yea, the Celebs do detract from the Usa O's, especially when they're on the same wall. All those custom acoustics with all those fancy woods, are really eye candy. 90% of the sound of an acoustic guitar is determined by the top wood. The mid-bowl, is much easier to hold and finger, than those clunkly wood boxes. The final point is that Ovations, are made for guitar players, and not guitar makers. |
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Just a little respect...
