You Know What I Like?

SpruceTop · #1 12-05-2020, 02:27 PM

I like the plugged-in tone of my new Adamas I 2087GT-8 with its onboard Op Pro Studio Preamp/OCP1-K pickup system! With all guitar and PA EQ controls set flat, I get an even, full tone complete with top and body percussion should I want it (think Kaki King). I also get very little of the "quack" associated with most UST pickups or the "hollowness" that often has to be EQ'ed out of SBT pickups. The onboard Op Pro Studio preamp has 3-band EQ and a harmonic enhancer effect (think Aphex Aural Enhancer-type effect) along with a variable compressor effect. This afternoon I'm playing my Adamas with the Carvin WG5 wireless system into my LR Baggs Synapse PA and getting a clear and full amplified tone without the fuss or muss of endless dial twisting. In summary, although there is little interest anymore in Ovation products, I think their American-made guitars with the Op Pro Studio Preamp/OCP1-K pickup are wonderful-sounding with this preamp/pickup being as state of the art as any pickup/preamp system out there. Thanks, for looking in, and your comments are welcome!

My review of Adamas I 2087GT-8

jonfields45 · #2 12-05-2020, 03:42 PM

How does it stack up acoustically against your D-18, a guitar I'm familiar with, for volume and tone?

SpruceTop · #3 12-05-2020, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonfields45

How does it stack up acoustically against your D-18, a guitar I'm familiar with, for volume and tone?

Acoustically: My 2016 Martin D-18, being strung with medium-gauge strings can be pounded harder than the Adamas with its light-gauge strings. This makes the Martin when pounded to its fret-rattling limit sound a bit louder but it also has a loss of focus compared to the Adamas when pounded to its fret-rattling limit with its light-gauge strings. The Adamas, overall, is more balanced in tone and has a sweet treble content on a first-position G-chord compared to the Martin D-18. My Martin D-18 is a superlative example of the model (my dealer says that he'll get it if I ever trade it in--he knows me!). To summarise my feelings: If a player wants a bluegrass thing, my Martin D-18 is perfect for it. If a player wants a modern guitar tone, the Adamas I is perfect for that.

dcopper · #4 12-08-2020, 12:41 PM

Hey SpruceTop,
Thanks for sharing. I had an Adamas back in 1998 or so and it was a monster playing live. It had such great amplified acoustic tone and sounded good through just about anything. Not sure what happened - I think I traded it for one of my first Taylors. I still have the 1985 Ovation Collectors Series with the wood epaulets (I think that is what they are called) My Adamas was a mid bowl in a deep blue. I like how they have now sculpted those deep bowls out so they don't slide all around on you.
I bet this sounds great through the Synapse. I have not heard a Synapse live but LR Baggs put a lot of effort into that system.
Great pics of a classic.
My first real acoustic was a Glen Campbell Ovation back in 1977 or so...
davidc

SpruceTop · #5 12-09-2020, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcopper

Hey SpruceTop,
Thanks for sharing. I had an Adamas back in 1998 or so and it was a monster playing live. It had such great amplified acoustic tone and sounded good through just about anything. Not sure what happened - I think I traded it for one of my first Taylors. I still have the 1985 Ovation Collectors Series with the wood epaulets (I think that is what they are called) My Adamas was a mid bowl in a deep blue. I like how they have now sculpted those deep bowls out so they don't slide all around on you.
I bet this sounds great through the Synapse. I have not heard a Synapse live but LR Baggs put a lot of effort into that system.
Great pics of a classic.
My first real acoustic was a Glen Campbell Ovation back in 1977 or so...
davidc

Thanks, David, it's always nice to hear a player's account of their Ovation experiences! Over the years, many players have held a warm place in their hearts for Ovation/Adamas guitars and I hope for a continued Ovation presence and success in the marketplace.

noledog · #6 12-13-2020, 10:30 AM

Yo ST,

That is such a beautiful guitar, really a work of art, yet such a great functioning workhorse as a performing instrument... I know how wonderful that pickup system sounds as a fellow local full time musician uses it as well. Plug n play is very easy to dial in great tone.

Congratulations and hope you enjoy it to the fullest my friend!

eric

SpruceTop · #7 12-14-2020, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noledog

Yo ST,

That is such a beautiful guitar, really a work of art, yet such a great functioning workhorse as a performing instrument... I know how wonderful that pickup system sounds as a fellow local full time musician uses it as well. Plug n play is very easy to dial in great tone.

Congratulations and hope you enjoy it to the fullest my friend!

eric

Thanks, Eric!

bsman · #8 12-14-2020, 05:07 PM

My first "real" acoustic after having only played electric for about 20 years was an Ovation MIK Celebrity Deluxe I bought second-hand back in 1990 or so. I wanted one because it played very much like an electric. The acoustic tone was nothing to write home about, but I played the heck out of that thing until something perhaps climate-related happened and the neck separated from bowl. I sometimes look wistfully at them on the SW site, but between my (two) CFs and my wood acoustics, I can't really find a need for them anymore.

Budman1 · #9 12-14-2020, 08:23 PM

QUOTE:
SpruceTop,
“You Know What I Like?”
I read the headline, and in a flashback I was in 1958, listening to The Big Bopper singing Chantilly Lace....

.....honey, you know what I like,
Chantilly lace and a pretty face
Ponytail a-hangin' down
A wiggle in her walk and a giggle in her talk, Lord
Make the world go 'round
Ain't nothing in the world like a big-eyed girl
To make me act so funny, make me spend my money
Make me feel real loose like a long necked goose
Like a girl, oh baby, that's a-what I like.......

( 1958, the Big Bopper, J.P.Richardson)

But, that was another world, another time

Thanks for the memory...

Edit: I completely forgot...thatsa very nice guitar!

Captain Jim · #10 12-14-2020, 08:42 PM

My mind went a slightly different direction from Budman1's...

I like big bouts and I cannot lie...

Nice guitar!

MrErikJ · #11 12-14-2020, 08:50 PM

That’s beautiful and I have always wanted an Adamas. Just this year, I purchased an USA Elite LX from Red Blanket guitars. It sounds great but I have struggled with its playability. The action is fine but the v-shaped neck causes fatigue when I’m playing pieces that require the thumb on the back of the neck more than over the fretboard. I wish the nut was 1.75” but that’s less of an issue for me than the profile.

The pickup is great, as you said, combining elements of UST and SBT. I’m not as wow’d by the Op-Pro studio preamp but it’s definitely good. However, I like the compression and saturation features of the Baggs Session more than the Op-Pro but it’s still good in a pinch.

I wish the Ovation line had more fingerstyle friendly features, but it is what it is. As much as I enjoy it’s tone, the discomfort I experience has forced me to list it on Reverb.

Guitarplayer_PR · #12 12-15-2020, 07:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrErikJ

That’s beautiful and I have always wanted an Adamas. Just this year, I purchased an USA Elite LX from Red Blanket guitars. It sounds great but I have struggled with its playability. The action is fine but the v-shaped neck causes fatigue when I’m playing pieces that require the thumb on the back of the neck more than over the fretboard. I wish the nut was 1.75” but that’s less of an issue for me than the profile.

The pickup is great, as you said, combining elements of UST and SBT. I’m not as wow’d by the Op-Pro studio preamp but it’s definitely good. However, I like the compression and saturation features of the Baggs Session more than the Op-Pro but it’s still good in a pinch.

I wish the Ovation line had more fingerstyle friendly features, but it is what it is. As much as I enjoy it’s tone, the discomfort I experience has forced me to list it on Reverb.

Get an Ovation Folklore, period. The most fingerstyle friendly guitar you can find, especially if it's from the 80s.

PHJim · #13 12-15-2020, 07:55 PM

The first thing that came into my head was:

Chantilly lace and a pretty face
And a ponytail hangin' down
A wiggle in her walk and a giggle in her talk
Make the world go 'round. . .

Oh Baby - You know what I like!

MrErikJ · #14 12-17-2020, 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guitarplayer_PR

Get an Ovation Folklore, period. The most fingerstyle friendly guitar you can find, especially if it's from the 80s.

Yeah, I've heard nice things about them. I got the impression they're intended more for accompaniment than solo-instrumentalism, which the Elite and Adamas does well, but I'd love to try one some day.

Guitarplayer_PR · #15 12-21-2020, 11:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrErikJ

Yeah, I've heard nice things about them. I got the impression they're intended more for accompaniment than solo-instrumentalism, which the Elite and Adamas does well, but I'd love to try one some day.

Curiously, they've always been marketed as fingerpicking guitars, so I think it's the contrary, that they're intended for soloists.