Lets face it, most people who play acoustic
guitar hate Ovations. While I do like traditional all wood
acoustics, if something sounds good to me, I don't care how it
is made. The top is 2 layers of carbon fiber, with birch in
between. This design makes it stronger and more responsive
than solid piece of wood. It is the multi-soundhole design,
which, on Ovations, really does sound better than the single
large hole. The back is a mid-depth bowl, and the neck is a
5-piece mixture of mostly mahogany, with added pieces of maple
and ebony. It also has an ebony fingerboard without inlays,
just side dots. Very plain actually- much better than the
over-done abalone on some other Ovations. |
Acoustically, this guitar is LOUD, with great balance
between individual strings. The mid-size bowl is really
comfortable yet big enough to make those bass notes jump out.
I'm not kidding, you really feel those low notes. In fact,
more than one person has picked it up and strummed a chord and
said 'Whoah! What was that?!'.
I found the shallow
Ovations to be lacking bass, and the deep Ovations were too
uncomfortable to play. The guitar seems to really translate
individual styles well.
It contains Ovation's Optima
preamp system, with both 1/4" and XLR output. The preamp also
has a chromatic tuner, which is great idea. Plugged in, the
sound is unreal. Not traditional sounding (the middle strings
don't 'mush' together like on wood acoustics), again, just
great balance. Even chord played on the lower strings sound
like individual notes, not buzzy and indistinct. And for
single notes, the neck is as easy as an electric's. And it
sounds even better with some compression and reverb. Makes the
single notes jump out even more.
If you are a big fan of Taylor and Martin, probably best to stay
away from this guitar. It won't sound or respond anything like you
are used to. I string it with D'Addario Phospher-Bronze 10's. |
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