Saw on the Acoustic Guitar Forum Ovation has a new owner and will be putting new models on the market.
I'm intrigued, but having never played one (other than tightening the truss rod on a cheapie), I dunno. Anyone played one of the higher end ones?
They are acoustic guitars for electric players and aren't known for having great timbre and tone. Their main selling points are ergonomics, electronics and aesthetics.
I have. I really liked it.
Snowdog got it right. The ergonomics were great (IMO).
I will say that the one I played had a deeper "bowl" so it had a nice depth to the sound.
The whole start of the run it through the PA acoustic game , I have played some that sounded great both ways and the exact opposite also. Had a Yamaha APX 500 for 20 years or so was a pretty dern spiffy Ovation wannabe with a bigger body too. Ease of play with the slimmer necks and ability to plug it in was what they were designed to do.
I liked it plugged in but unplugged I was never impressed.
In the old days your only options were to mic a guitar, use a magnetic soundhole pickup or modify a guitar to take a piezo. Putting a mic on a guitar was awkward because the sensitivity of the microphones caused feedback issues onstage. Magnetic soundhole pickups were awkward because you had a cable running out of the soundhole which reduced mobility. Lastly modifying a guitar to take a piezo wasn't the greatest solution because you often didn't have room for an oboard preamp and you would get a weak low fi signal that was hard to amplify. The Ovations addressed a lot of these problems, but to an extent they have been technically superseded and there are plenty of guitars today that have superior acoustic properties and have built in electronics.
It was the ergonomics part that attracted me. That and nostalgia. Those Adamas guitars look quite spiffy.
I would love for them to start their electric line back up
Ergonomics?
I despise the bowl. It makes the guitar turn at an odd angle.
I almost pulled the trigger on an Ovation electric CL deal last year , but was a bit short on cash as always.