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November 2004
Posts: 34
Location: Germany | Hi,
Im sure this is the right board to help me with this question:
I went to a blues concert and there I met one of these O haters. Well, after the gig we went into a discussion about what are good guitars for what kind of music... and for what reason using modern, innovative guitars for traditional music... and stuff like that.
This guy argued that he had never heard about a famous blues guitar player playing an O. Well, I know of many great musicians playing Ovations but, honestly, I was rather ill-prepered to answer this statement.
:(
So now you guys help me out. Do you know if someone of the big shots in blues guitar had frequently used an Ovation? Would be nice if you can give me a hint for some mojo hands doing blues on Elite or Adamas.
Thanks |
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Joined:
February 2004
Posts: 2487
| I'd tell him Blues music sucks anyway, so who cares!
You know I'm kiddin right? Man that would get em going though !
I wish I could help there are a lot of great guitarists who use Ovations but I am not that well versed with this topic. I sure hope someone here can help. These are great guitars and rival any of the famous traditional gutars.
If the comment about the blues music does not work try this;
Blues players are more traditional and it gives a much more sad and authentic bluesy impression to use a plain and/or even "beat-up" guitar when stompin out a blues tune with that one good eye, two good teeth, and a pair of ripped up jeans! It also helps if you walk to your gig's and if you have no case for the guitar!
Be ready for a stompin though Blues players take their music pretty seriously! |
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Joined:
July 2004
Posts: 338
Location: Omaha | Mukke,
Tell that guy he's an idiot, because he doesn't even know Ovation history. (BTW, most idiots are absolutely convinced of their opinions...) One of the first endorsers of Ovations, who even had his own signature model, was Josh White, a black folk blues player - he loved the roundbacks! His model was (I believe) an 1114 (no pickup) or 1614 (with pickup) Folklore model. You can look it up on Ovation's website, and read about Josh White in the Ovation book.
I have a compilation CD of Josh's music; he's the real deal. I'm sure others will offer you some more examples as the week/weekend wears on; but Josh White is the blatantly obvious one.
Hope I didn't come on too strong, there!
:cool: |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 613
Location: Zion, Illinois | I try to avoid those "Ovations aren't really guitars" arguements. They are pointless and kind of silly. Ovations are guitars. Like ANY guitar, they have an unique voice. My Adamas sounds different than my Haida Gwaii rosewood. My Haida Gwaii rosewood sounds totally different than my Paragon Maple. They are the exact same size, body style, etc; made by the same luthier! Just different, but still guitars.
When tempted to argue with an idiot like that, think about the sign in my boss's office:
NEVER TRY TO TEACH A PIG TO SING. YOU'LL JUST FUSTRATE YOURSELF AND ANNOY THE PIG! |
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January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Blooze, my favorite!
There is the whole National side of it. Ovations can't go there.
Then the regular side. I'd plug in my 84 C-Series and put it against any of the others. Overdrive it and you get one set of sounds, back it down and fingerpick, a whole nuther set.
I play Collings alot and they are great but if you have to listen to somebody play lead how many minutes does it take you to get sick of listening to that same thin tone? Tell the truth, anybody make it to double digits?
As with all these things, sitting around your living room is one thing, on stage trying to put on a show for the audience is a whole lot different. I'll take the Ovation everytime. |
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Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | I've played blues on an ovation many times but I am a nobody |
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February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Bill, you nailed it. Resonator guitars aside, I know Blues players who will use anything that fits the image, whether it does the job or not. If they played with their ears instead of their eyes there'd be more of them playing Ovations. |
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Posts: 2487
| I tried to teach a Pig to sing once........ Then I decided he'd be better in a sausage! |
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May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | I am sure many blues players like us, maybe not famous but lovers of blues music, have played Ovations. Another similar roots music is Rastafarian, and some of the best and famous played Ovations.
If you are observant, you can see Ovations being played by almost every music star at some time or another. |
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Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | No doubt there are other guitars that really look the blues part. Fine, use that for the album/cd cover art. When you record, get the one that works. |
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February 2004
Posts: 116
Location: Freeport, IL | CWK said: Quote: "When you record, get the one that works."
Yeah, and when you perform as well. Who cares what it looks like? Vibe is great, but ultimately, it's about sound.
Jon Van Gilder |
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June 2004
Posts: 365
Location: NC | I play blues and jazz but who am I? Oh yeah, a Ovation fan.....tell that guy to kiss your #$%! |
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January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | as a side project I find it interesting to try different types of music on models not thought of as being "right" Play some big jazz chords and rhythms on a brass bodied tricone. Works great! Try bluegrass flatpickin on a styleO. Now picture your self in the mountains 39 years ago and this was all you had so make it the best you can. It's a good test. One that should drive home the notion that the majority of the music is in you, not the instrument. |
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Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | CWK2
Sometimes I think you might have hung around those early Ovation bluegrass players and got infected with the mountain mystery. Wandering around those Appalachin winding roads makes Dobros and banjos sound good ringing accross the holler and echoing off the ridge on the 'tother side as only they can. I now wonder if you are a hillbilly "gigantzer", they have one leg shorter than 'tother from walking around the mountain sides all their life.
Bailey |
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Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 34
Location: Germany | Thanks for the answers. I also count myself into the blues playing nobodies. So, good to know that we are at least three people doing blues on Os :) . But, well, it looks like even idiots can be right some times. It seems that O is not the most wanted guitar for players who dedicate themselves to Blues.
Well, it's not the only true accolade for a guitar, if it is used in Blues! The old blues men had taken what ever guitar was reachable for them. No matter if it was build of a shoe carton with rubber bands. Well, I don’t favour O because my favourite guitar hero is playing an O! When I went on stage at a school anniversary years ago, singing the Beatles “Rocky Raccon” to 700 audiences, it was not possible to amplify my Martin for that event. So, my music teacher gave me his guitar – which was a Legend - and that was love of the first strum.
Anyhow, I found elsewhere that Mr. Clapton was an endorsee for ovation in the 70ties. But has anyone ever seen him playing an O? However, we have Josh White on our side and he really counts.
“leftovertion” thank you for that hint, I had overseen this guy for years.
Hm, this leads me to the question why we find less Os in Blues music? Maybe because of - looking on Blues history O as a brand is simply to young. When the old country blues men had their great time O was not around. And the last Blues revival with JWinter, MWaters, JHendrix, … was on electric guitars. Ever since there was no new development in Blues – particularly not in the acoustic style. What we find today is mainly a coverage of the old heroes. Hence, going into Blues you never come across Os.
So, lets wait for the next revival. ;) |
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Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Just remembered! Kevin Brown, probably the only Brit slide player apart from myself to use Ovations
http://www.kevinbrownmusic.com/
check the guitars link |
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Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Paul, Do you like glass or metal slides? |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | Last I recall, Master Templeman was a fellow devotee of those great hand-blown glass slides b/w/o Matt Smith . . .
GREAT slides!!
They're also incredibly handy when you've got multiple guitarists, only one bottle of tequila, and no glasses . . . . . ;) |
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Joined:
July 2004
Posts: 338
Location: Omaha | Mukke wrote:
Hm, this leads me to the question why we find less Os in Blues music? Maybe because of - looking on Blues history O as a brand is simply to young. When the old country blues men had their great time O was not around. And the last Blues revival with JWinter, MWaters, JHendrix, … was on electric guitars. Ever since there was no new development in Blues – particularly not in the acoustic style. What we find today is mainly a coverage of the old heroes. Hence, going into Blues you never come across Os.
I think part of it for the "new blues players" is that the only way some of them can "look the part" is to use the "right" instrument...after all, they haven't had the hard life or come from Mississippi, etc., so all they have left is cosmetics. Lots of that going on in all styles of music today, though, not just blues. But everytime I see another wanna be new blues player with a strat, I think, "You know, if they wanted to be original, they'd use a Peavey T-60 or a Washburn 335 copy semi-hollowbody (but Clarence Gatemouth Brown plays one, so maybe that's derivative, too...)"
Just keep playin' the music and don't think about it too much... |
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Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Bill, my favourite slide is one I've hade for over 20 years & was custom made by an engineer friend. It's nickel-plated brass with an internal taper, weighs a ton, fits my pinky like a condom and sounds great. This was the only slide I needed until I aquired one of Matt's, which I use for the acoustic guitars & clean electric. I think Matt's are absolutely the best glass slides available. On lap steel I use a Shubb-Pearse SP1. I sell handmade slides by a UK company and I've been using their solid glass tonebars on my Weissenborn rip-off, they're very cool bars and sound great on square-neck dobros & tricones. I also have the Tequila shot-glass that Cliff gave me, which is a neat slide, and a couple of wine-bottle necks. I think they're from Mateus Rose, but personally I prefer something a lot drier. |
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Posts: 15682
Location: SoCal | Fits your pinky like a condom???
Does that mean that it keeps you out of trouble, or that it causes you to go places you shouldn't go, thinking you're protected? |
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Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | musically speaking, the latter, for sure. |
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May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Mukke
I just have to remark on your Townes Van Zandt quote. He lived and wrote the Texas blues a significant offshoot of the black blues. Part of Texas is next door to Louisiana and has a blues heritage as good as Mississippi. Townes was a pioneer followed by people like Steve Earle who made a new Texas sound that made Austin an artistic world center. |
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November 2004
Posts: 34
Location: Germany | I find it a lillte knotty to play slide on my ovation. The distance betwen strings and fretboard is to small for me. And the strings are also slightly courved (looking from the low to high e) that makes it difficuld for me.
What I like for fingerpicking don't work with me in slide playing. Maybe because I dont have a pinky that fits in a condom. For slide guitar I take an old guitar with a bowed fretboard (looking down the strings). And I definitely prefere metal slides.
Bailey
Was something wrong on my Towns quote? Hey, I just love his songs. I have been on a concert on his last tour to Germany just a few month before he died. And what I felt there I can't express in english.
leftovertion "Just keep playin' the music and don't think about it too much... "
Hey, how do you fill the gaps beween playing your guitar? :) |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | It's almost impossible to play slide on a guitar with a standard set-up. I have 2 Ovation acoustics & 3 electrics set up for slide with heavy strings and the action raised (slightly) at the nut & saddle |
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Blues on Ovation?
