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Location: N W Ohio | Posted to another topic but didn't want to change the course of it, so I'll start a new thread. As I stated before, I play occasionally with some guys(when time permits) that do a Bluegrass jam type thing. I had always taken one of my Martins and was never questioned. Showed up one night with an Ovation(1617 Legend) and you'd have thought I committed a mortal sin. As a Martin owner I know what they are. But by the same token,as an Ovation owner I know what they are. The Martins do roll like thunder when necessary but the Ovations sing like none else when necessary. Anyone else have an experience on Bluegrass to share? |
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Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | I've posted on this topic several times in the past...
I play with Bluegrass and Old Time players...Guaranteed that they want to poke my O with a stick...
I've played enough now that they have come to accept the guitar, because they do like the way it sounds, And it is good that the ol 1537 is loud so I can be heard from inside the closet. |
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Location: Connecticut | I played at a festival a few years ago way up in Maine where I left my old D-28 at home and played with my FD-14 and nobody said anything about it except for how good it sounded. We had another guy who also played it on stage who loved it and he usually plays a D-45 as his regular guitar.There have been times when people say things about the roundback but the sound speaks for itself. |
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Posts: 2246
Location: Yucaipa, California | ...ya know that if you plug in an 18" patch cord and leave it dangle... the "other" guitarists in the Bluegrass Jam might just figure you're playin a possum ! :eek: :rolleyes: :D |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Yup...
Out came my morning coffee.... |
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Posts: 2503
Location: Fayetteville, NC | Coffee??my Diet Coke is Everywhere! Thanks Cuz!! :eek: :) |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Or armadillo. |
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Location: Snellville, GA | Road kill armadillo is possum on the half shell... |
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Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | I can see an Armadillo on the new O catalog...where the guitar logo should be |
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Posts: 939
Location: Fort Worth, Texas | Hey, how about an Ovation Armadillo special, the bowl will look like an armadillo shell!! And armadillo insets on the fret board and armadillo tear drop eyes for the sound holes. We'll skip the ears on the head...
Then those bluegrass guys will have something to talk about.
Geez, slow day at work....
:cool: |
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October 2004
Posts: 81
Location: N W Ohio | The critter comments cracked me up! I usually get the common tupperware and plastic toy comments. I guess the good thing is most,not all, but most come around after I hand them an Ovation. (Most of them play better then I do,which probably has a lot to do with it!) |
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Location: Las Cruces, NM | Islander
I have played bluegrass for many years and you have asked a good question. I have not found much bluegrass jams in New Mexico, but in California I participated in many jams in the 70's and Ovations showed up now and then. The general feeling was that they were as good as anything else if the PLAYER was bluegrass, I recall some sounding very good in the jam and I recall a few where the player tried to cover his inability to keep up by knocking the music as not something worth playing. I could say the same about a few Martins that were displayed to be part of the "genre", but only showed that the owner had more money than talent.
Ovations do fine if the player is bluegrass, no bluegrass player will look down on anybody who can hack it, the instrument is only the tool that reveals the truth, Ovations are as great as any. |
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Location: Yucaipa, California | ...once again, the erudite Mr. Bailey has struck the fastening device squarely on the place appointed. |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Tim,
Your assessment of the venerable Mr. Baily, be true and accurate.
You can bet, however..
The next blugrass player I run into, not familiar with an Ovation, is likely to ask if it will heat his dinner..
No better ice breaker in the world than a good sense of humor, and blugrass players tend to have it in abundance. |
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October 2004
Posts: 81
Location: N W Ohio | Bailey, and guys. I think as Tim said I think, you have hit the nail on the head. I'm the new guy to a group of good Old boys, they have played together for years. I have been a Bluegrass fan for years but never was exposed to the playing situation as I am now. These guys can pick! When I showed up with my Martin D1 as a rookie I was accepted for what I was. Several sessions later when I took the Ovation, all I got was a cold shoulder ar first. After I handed my Legend to one of the oldtimers and he made it sing, everything was good again. Actually I think they were pretty impressed with the guitar, just not in my hands. Garage bands in the late sixties and solo folkie stuff during college days to the present didn't make me the picker that some of these guys who have been long time bluegrass players were as kids. |
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Location: Las Cruces, NM | Islander et al
Thanks for the nice remarks, I and my buddy who owned Poway Music in CA, formed the Poway Bluegrass club to give as many people as possible a chance to jam at our sunday sessions at Poway Lake. We tried to encourage anybody to join us no matter the level of expertise and tried to discourage our "regulars" from making any remarks that weren't positive to the newcomers. Some people who showed up very nervous became good pickers and were able to join in some of our gigs after a season of jamming. The thing they seemed to benefit by was getting a feeling for the sound and chord structure of common instrumentals and going home and working on them so eventually they could take a break in a jam. The process is, learn the chords, learn to stick in a run here and there, then learn the melody. Type or brand of instrument never was important if it could stay somewhat in tune. |
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March 2005
Posts: 1
Location: West Plains, MO | There is an open bluegrass jam session every Thur. night where I live here in southern Missouri. Although Martins, Taylors, and Gibsons predominate, nobody said a word when I and another player brought Ovations to sessions. Heck, one can find everything from Taylors to Chinese-made Blueridge at these sessions. In a group that defines the difference between a fiddle and a violin as "the fiddle is carried in a flour sack while the violin has a case," there's not much elitism. The music is all that matters. |
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November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | I'm guessing; Many of you Bluegrass players have heard this joke. I heard it, a good while back, when I first joined the Bluegrass jam...
How many Bluegrass Muscians does it take to screw in a light bulb?...
...One, reluctantly...as the rest complain it's electric. |
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Location: Las Cruces, NM | Right on Boney Bones
We do tend to look down on plugging in. We do, however, love mikes so I guess it all comes down to being heard. |
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Bluegrass and Ovations
