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Joined:
March 2003
Posts: 555
Location: Wooster, Ohio | When I was in Nashville a couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to be in a guitar shop that had quite a few Ovation LXs. It is a very nice guitar. But as was commented on here before they're action seems set very high from the factory. All four of the ones I played were like that. I am sure the shims could be taken out to get it where you want, but I think there are those that play them that would not know that the fix is that easy. Just seems like the factory should adjust that one.
Steve |
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Joined:
July 2003
Posts: 1922
Location: Canton (Detroit), MI | I'd comment that action preference is personal taste. I've not found the action on LXs to be objectionably high myself, though.
Roger |
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Joined:
May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Have any of you LXer's been able to measure the action on the 12th fret? Are they within the factory tolerances? I know it doesn't matter how actually high, and that feel rules, but I'm curious nonetheless and the 12th fret low e string is something we all can measure even with a kiddie ruler. |
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December 2003
Posts: 13996
Location: Upper Left USA | Mine came with all of the shims in. I removed the thicker one and it was at tolerance.
However!
The new neck system is so good that they shave down less of the frets and the corresponding depth (fretboard to top of fret) is deeper.
Better sound, but tougher on the fingers as well. |
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Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 1196
Location: Lafayette, Louisiana | My Legend LX action was a bit high for me at first. It had two shims under the bridge. One was standard thickness and one was about half as thick as that one. I took the thick one out and that helped some. But what really helped was having the nut slots cut down. I talked to Kim Keller about why the action on these guitars was set kind of high. He told me this was standard Ovation action. Well mine plays so much better now than others I have tried at the music store. You can get the action better, just find someone to work on lowering the action at the nut. That makes a huge difference. |
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Joined:
January 2004
Posts: 648
Location: Florida | My two cents on this -
I can see how its a fine line for the factories to walk. They're trying folks... the EXP strings are a good step forward for making the guitar sales ready even if its been played a bit.
But the issue of action is a bit more dicey.
My guess is they set the relief at the outer edge of whats considered good, and put all the shims in the bridge and thats that.
Considering that the guitar is going to be in a different environment than the factory... its gotta be really hard to get a decent action "in the store" when "in the store" may be all sorts of different environments. That could be just "on the wall" at mom and pops, or in a humidified acoustic room in a big box store.
Here's the thing with Ovation - if you like the tone - dont worry about the action. Just dont worry about it. They all seem to be capable of exceedingly good and low and quite easily playable action with proper adjustment. As Will Sonnet would say.. "no brag, just fact". |
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Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 265
Location: Warrenton, Virginia | Charlie
I think you are right on that.
My situation with my LX was the action was way to high for my way of playing....I removed the shims...and got fret buzz around the 12th and 14th and a few higher.
I played with it a little... replacing the smaller shim....then removing it and replacing the thicker shim...still when I tuned down to do stuff...got fret buzz
Also, I noticed on the neck a bow...more so than I felt should be there....
So I sent the thing to Kim and he reset the neck and adjusted the action low.......it plays slicker than eel shit and no buzzing....intonation is true all the way up the staff.....have down tuned and no buzzing....
Effortless to "fret" |
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Another observation from Nashville
