Not Exactly A Carbon Guitar But ...

[SpruceTop]

Hi Folks,

A few days ago I received my Ovation ExoticWoods Elite Plus Contour Multi-color Bubinga from a major dealer who is blowing out these guitars at $500 off the normal MAP price. Having owned over a dozen high-end Ovation and Adamas models over the years, this is my first offshore-model Ovation. The guitar is equipped with Ovation's current, top-of-the-line Op-Pro/Studio preamp which features an Exciter circuit (Aphex-style?) and a Compression circuit as well as three-band EQ, and onboard tuner. The guitar features the Deep-Bowl Contour body which is very comfortable and helps the guitar stay put, whether sitting or standing, compared to the older roundback bodies. The Korean craftsmanship of this strikingly-pretty, Bubinga veneered, AAA Spruce top Ovation offshore model is flawless, and the setup is almost electric-guitar-like. The $699 price includes Ovation's really decent, molded, hardshell case. Initial impressions from acoustic and plugged-in playing are:

1) Somewhat compressed acoustic tone compared to similar American-model versions, and its acoustic tone would never be mistaken for the tone of my now traded-in 2009 Adamas 2080 NWT with VIP 5 preamp;

2) Balanced acoustic and amplified tone with the Op-Pro/Studio preamp's onboard controls yielding useful settings for amplified tone shaping.

In summary, I feel the Ovation ExoticWoods Elite Plus Contour - Multi-color Bubinga would be a nice live-performance instrument and good guitar for sitting around and noodling on.

[GuitarLuva]

Congratulations on the new Ovation! I think being made of composite materials it still makes sense to have it posted in the carbon fiber section of the forum. I used to have a lower end Ovation celebrity years ago (which I gave away to a relative). It did make for a nice stage guitar for sure. The only thing I didn't really like about it was, due to the back contours, I found it uncomfortable to play sitting down. Standing up was a different story. Hope you enjoy the new guitar.

[TjthePhD]

My first real acoustic guitar was a used Ovation Elite. It was an awesome guitar and got the hell played out of it at open mikes back in my open mike days. Loved it. I hope you enjoy this one.

[Kerbie]

An Ovation is indeed allowed here by the description on the main index page. For this forum, it reads, "A place to discuss carbon fiber and composite guitars and other instruments."

That's a beauty, SpruceTop! Congratulations. I had an old one years ago that was just beautiful and had one of the slickest necks I've ever played. Hope you enjoy.

[David Eastwood]

That's a really nice looking Ovation! The first decent acoustic guitar I ever played was a Custom Balladeer back in the 70s - it belonged to one of my students, and was *way* better than the guitar I owned at the time

I bought this Applause a couple of years ago when Sweetwater was blowing them out for $215. I found it after reading a very favourable review in Premier Guitar - I really wanted a guitar I could leave out on a stand during a Minnesota winter.

I wasn't expecting much, but to my surprise, it turned out to be a nice sounding, easy playing instrument that fit the bill perfectly - until my X20 came along

[SpruceTop]

Update: The fact is that being a "modern" acoustic guitar, you don't play this guitar quite the same as a Martin HD-28 Dreadnought! Being an acoustic guitar with an electric-guitar setup, I needed to go down in flatpick thickness a notch or two when playing this Ovation ExoticWoods Elite Plus Contour - Multi-color Bubinga guitar. Once I did this, I found this guitar will yield decent acoustic and great amplified tones and works very well with reverb and chorus effects.

[Captain Jim]

Very nice! Congrats! I like Ovations; I played one for 14 years. Wish I would have kept it. Decent tone plugged in, that guitar got hauled all over, by boat and RV, for thousands of miles. Never gave me a problem, just kept going.

Yours is definitely more "upscale" than mine was - that buginga is pretty!

Congratulations on a beautiful guitar.

I've had or played Ovation nylon string guitars. They are very nice instruments, but I play seated and could never overcome the slippage. Although, the thin bodied nylons were pretty sweet.

[Earl49]

Congrats. I started out on a well-used Applause model in the early 80's and upgraded to wood (Sigma DR-28) after a couple of years. As a rule, the Ovation round backs do not "sit" well with my rounded front but they are still nice guitars.

We currently own a koa-topped resonator prototype with palm tree sound holes that a friend brought back from Hawaii. I'd love to post a picture, but that just isn't happening. (Please don't bother explaining how -- I've tried multiple times and have given up).

[Captain Jim]

For my buddy, Earl, here's the photo of his Ovation reso...



Very cool!

And from my archive: playing out with the Ovation I had at the time...

Nice looking guitar Earl. Nice work Captain.

[jdinco]

Never seen a resonator Ovation, thanks for posting that. Beautiful top on that one !

[Earl49]

It is a prototype intended for the Hawaiian market, where Ovations are quite popular. We particularly like the palm tree sound holes. I don't play it much, but it is a fine piece of sculpture anyway.

[kramster]

I was just gonna post that guitar but got home too late..so here be a wee one

[steelvibe]

My first acoustic was a CC057. It served it's purpose well until purchasing a much higher end guitar. Yes, great stage guitar but unplugged it sounded like a wet dog smells. I did play some Ovations exceeding 1K and they were actually pretty good unplugged.

Well wishes for a flawless surgery and speedy recovery Earl.