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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15677
Location: SoCal | I've got 4 round hole wood top Ovations. And playing them all, I've come to a decision on which sounds the best.
1. 1968 Deluxe Balladeer. This guitar has a deep mellow, yet crisp sound. It's the best sounding round hole O I've got. X bracing.
2. Close behind is my early 69 Glen Campbell Deluxe Balladeer. It's not quite as deep, and doesn't boom quite as much, but it's a great sounding guitar. X bracing. Structurally, it's the same as the DB.
3. 1972 Balladeer. This guitar was at the bottom of the O totem pole, but it's got a great sound. It's a very crisp sound, but it's got depth. I played it last summer around a campfire and you would have sworn that it was a Martin. Very very surprising. X bracing.
4. 1978 Legend. Total crap. Bass strings sound very plastiky. It's with my niece right now, but when it's with me, it's strung Nashville. Works real well like that. VT10 bracing.
Oh yeah. My 1537. Whole different animal and whole different sound. |
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Joined:
September 2003
Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | I don't have that many to compare but my DiMeola Custom Legend (AD-II) gets the nod (but not by much) over my '70 Balladeer. That old Balladeer does have a certain character.
The only complaint I have is that my Breadwinner sounds very, very weak unplugged. |
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Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 3651
Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | Another vote for old Balladeers. Mine has a 60's neck & '80's body (that's the speculation, anyway). Great tone, volume, and feel. Were those old necks a trifle thinner than the later ones? It doesn't seem much different than the 1127 I also love dearly. |
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Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 13996
Location: Upper Left USA | You want me to choose between Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Orange Sherbert?
My elite LX is the most flexible for styles. The Custom Balladeer is a Travis Pickin dream.
I have picked up the BW and worked out tunes unplugged, sometimes late at night. There is just enough resonance to sound ok. It is a kinder gentler way to play and not disturb! |
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Joined:
June 2002
Posts: 6202
Location: Phoenix AZ | I love these discussions. It's like trying to describe the sound of a rainbow. The nice thing in Moody's post is that he finally admits that he holds MARTIN as the standard bearer.
To me, the comparison in center hole Ovations is more generic. X bracing GOOD, VT bracing BAD. AS far as the early shiny ones go, at one point I had 3 ribbon rosette Balladeers, 3 Deluxe Balladeers, and a GC Deluxe Balladeer. All 67-69 vintage and all are basically the same structually (top, bracing, etc.). So how did those compare? They didn't "group" by model or price. They basically all sounded different. The GCDB was at the top and one of the DB's was at the bottom, but it was pretty random. So I would say that the observation of Paul that his DB sounds better then his GCDB is probably not a hard rule, just variations within the "same" line of guitars.
Among my own guitars I have a hard time using the term "which one sounds the best". I think a better classification is "which sound is most appealing to me". And that could vary depending on the particular song I'm playing or mood I'm in. Of my center soundhole guitars, my personal preference is my Martin Slothead. Sorry - but I freakin' love it. Of the O's, I really prefer the sound of the FD14, followed closely by the Josh White. Others disagree, but to me these are really nice tonally balanced guitars and I love the wide neck, especially the FD14 which is not quite as wide as the JW. Plus I love the looks of those guitars and I think my eyes have an influence on my ears. After that, I prefer the sound of the old shiny bowl Balladeer/DB/GCDB. Of my particular crop, the GCDB sounds the best of the group but as I said that's probably just guitar to guitar variation. As Paul said, multi-soundhole guitars (and adamas guitars) are a whole other discussion. |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15677
Location: SoCal | I never said that Martins were the standard. I said that my Balladeer sounded like a Martin. |
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Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 1071
Location: Carle Place, NY | What is VT10 bracing?
Every Legend that I've owned had Ovation A bracing; however they were all post-1981.
To my ears the Legends with A bracing sound much fuller and brighter than the Balladeers with the modified X bracing.
My favorites- 1619 Custom Legend and 1117 Legend. |
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Joined:
June 2002
Posts: 6202
Location: Phoenix AZ | Hey Paul, I just funnin' with ya. For the record you SAID -
"It's a very crisp sound, but it's got depth ... and you would have sworn that it was a Martin."
From that I would intrepret that you think Martins are crisp and have depth. I'll keep working on ya.
Dave |
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Best Sounding O?
