On 2004-07-08, Lee gave this Ovation Acoustic Guitar a 5


Purchase: Purchased w/Visa at Mothers Music - Calgary AB, Canada for $495 to replace older bulkier acoustic...
Pros: An Awesome guitar. It has already helped me improve my playing and is so fun to play, the sky is the limit. Firstly it looks great. It is a super shallow style, deep purple with a rosewood fretboard and dots and diamonds inlay. It has the classic Ovation Headstock with chrome machines. It looks like a rock star guitar... Then you pick it up to play it. It sounds great. It came strung with D'Addarios and that won't be changing. It has a "shimmering" type sound, similar to the sound you get with a 12-string. It also has the Ovation pre-amp for plugging-in, which also sounds great. The kicker for me, is the easy to use on-board tuner. I'm not far along enough in my playing to tune my guitar quickly or easily, but with this guitar its both. I've even started playing using alternate tunings which can be adjusted in a flash.
Cons: I have no complaints with this guitar as of yet, but I can't see any negatives. I've read that some people have problems with it slipping off while playing, but I haven't...
Quality: This is a suprisingly sturdy guitar and always stays in tune. To me that must mean its a high quality product.

Summary: When I went looking for a new guitar, I decided on either a smaller body Yamaha, Takamine or Ovation, in the $500 price range. The Yamaha looks nice, but has a generic sound to it and doen't have the on-board tuner. The Tak sounds more like the Ovation ("shimmering")and has the tuner but is a little too plain looking and is priced a little higher. In the end the choice became obvious and I went with the Ovation. If you are in a similar scenario I would suggest the Ovation or maybe the Tak.