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Location: Marietta, Ga | I bought my 1617 in vintage sunburst in 1979 and still have it. I was in college at the time and fell in love with it. It was my main guitar until 1997. I purchased a new pickup in 2002, so it still sounds pretty good electronically. I have a Taylor 814ce now, so I don't play it much anymore. However, it sounds surprising good acoustically.
Bing |
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December 2003
Posts: 420
Location: On the beach in Southwest Florida | First Ovation was a super shallow bowl celebrity. When I tried a midbowl elite 1778T, I had to have it. Now I am lusting after an Adamus. Tried out a Melissa Etheridge 6 string signature model that I wish I could afford...maybe after our new house is completed in March...extra cash will magically appear. |
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Location: San Pedro, CA | Hi all. New to the BB. Thought the question was worth pondering, and responding to. Got my first O in 1978...a Custom Legend Stereo (Legend Ltd.). $1,200 or so out the door then...took my entire savings. And thats a lot of hours worked at Disneyland, let me tell you! Nutmeg beautiful, and rich in tone. Sold a Fender Strat to help buy it. I'm really sad that I'm gonna list it on eBay next week. As a 53 year old player now, I can finally afford to buy the axes I always wanted. Got a Ricky 381/12string/V69 last year, and last week got the Gib Les Paul Studio Lite I always wanted as well. Last year, bought a decent Celebrity shallow-bowl to goof around on...but not even close to my 1978 in quality and sound. Geez...finally... guitar rich, time poor, and now overstocked on axes. The wife if having a tizzy fit. Too many axes (4) and amps (4) in the house...no more storage room. So...moving on and up. If anyone's interested in buying my axe, email mail quickly, as it goes on the block sometime next week. |
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Posts: 1922
Location: Canton (Detroit), MI | Jim, just my opinion.....wow, I'd put the Celebrity on eBay and KEEP your Legend if it were me! However, being in a similar place (5 guitars, the sixth coming), I can understand your need to move something, and the Legend would certainly bring more money. I'm at the point now myself, where it is "one in, one out". Good luck.
Roger
1976 Applause AA14-4 6-String
2001 Adamas 1598-MERB Melissa Etheridge 12-String
2003 Celebrity CC01 Spruce Top 6-String
COMING SOON - 1986 Glen Campbell 12-string |
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Posts: 15677
Location: SoCal | It was very cool to go back and read this whole thread started a year ago.
I'd keep the Legend and sell the cheaper guitar. Personal opinion. Tell your wife that 4 guitars is not that many. I've got (gotta think now) I've got about 11 guitars on stands and walls around the house, all but one are Ovations.
Guess I'm lucky. when I talk about selling something I'm not playing my wife's comment is "I cannot condone the selling of a guitar". I know I keep posting that, but it is just so fucking unreal to me, to be married to somebody so understanding.
Then she goes off and picks her nose. I take the good with the bad. |
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Posts: 13996
Location: Upper Left USA | Just after High School ("78") the group of guys I hung out and played guitar with pointed me to a used Standard Balladeer that had been in case about 3 years. $300 and I was playing Stairway to Heaven and trying to figure out how Nancy Wilson did it! I had learned on and been borrowing my sisters Guild.
PS - I would be happy to store/play/send you pictures of your guitars if your wives think you have too many! :D |
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Posts: 1498
Location: San Bernardino, California | 
I had traded a Gibson SG for A Fender Telecaster Thinline Deluxe. After sending the Tele back to the factory four times to have the neck replaced, (wasn't CBS great???) I went back to the dealer and demanded a refund (which I got). For about two week there-after I would go into the store and try different guitars. I had just about settled on a Gibson LP but, found some low frets on it. The store owner told me to try the Breadwinner. I found it so comfortable that I bought it immediately and ordered the case. I've had it ever since. |
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Location: Las Cruces, NM | It is great to read this thread from last year, what is sort of weird is this thread reappearing right after I pulled out one of my Glen Campbell Good Time Hour video tapes last night and saw Glen, Johnny Cash, June Carter, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Mel Tillis, Liberache, Neil Diamond, Jerry Reid, Linda Ronstadt, and more, and many beautiful Ovation guitars in Glen's and Jerry's hands. I was transported back to the 70's, as all these stars were young again as we all were when we first encountered our Ovations. And the shows were GREAT.
Bailey |
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Posts: 1922
Location: Canton (Detroit), MI | My turn to put my story in here.....I found my interest in Ovation guitars from watching Glen Campbell play them on his show, and it was cemented after seeing Jim Peterik and the Ides Of March play in March 1972....Jim had a Balladeer that he used for their CSNY-type songs and I was entranced by the great sound(I was in the sixth row, center). So I vowed I would get an Ovation someday.
"Someday" turned out to be after college, in January 1977. I still didn't have much money, but I was in a music store one day just looking and saw this roundback guitar hanging on the wall....it said "applause" on the headstock.....hmmmm....LOOKS like an Ovation??? Got it down and played it.....SOUNDS like an Ovation(to my inexperienced ears).....hmmmm.....only $150 with a case???? SOLD!
Enjoyed it for a year or so before I fell out of playing, but I never wanted to sell the guitar, it sounded too good to me. I never knew the Kaman/Ovation/Applause connection until this year.
It still sits in a corner of the living room in its case, although it is now in "semi-retirement"....
Roger
1976 Applause AA14-4 6-String
2001 Adamas 1598-MERB Melissa Etheridge 12-String
2003 Celebrity CC01 Spruce Top 6-String
COMING SOON - 1986 Glen Campbell 12-string |
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Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | Great question!!!!
About 1971....Balladeer #1111-0. My father & I went shopping for it. I was very attracted to the science behind it. I'm always drawn to new ideas. (my first new car was a '72 Gremlin and I had one of the first minivans). My father had a price figure in mind but was impressed with my enthusiasim. Also, my fingers are kind of short so the thin neck played easier. It sounded better than the Yahmaha I was concidering. Lasty, I had a feeling that it was crafted for durability. It must be because it has been my only acoustic for 33 years.
Again, great question.
Brad
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Posts: 2246
Location: Yucaipa, California | Ok, Here's mine.....
I was a Gibson Snob since the first time I heard Duane Allman play in 1972... in 1974 I bought a Les Paul Custom and a Hummingbird Custom. Monetary cosiderations forced the sale of the Les Paul back in 1980, but I kept the beloved Hummingbird.
With the passing of years my musical tastes have changed and I find myself playing almost exclusively in "Churchy" venues... I belong to an Elder Care Music Ministry and play a lot of Rest Homes.
I found that in order to use the Hummingbird, I needed to either use a microphone or a Dean Markley sound hole pickup. Both were poor options.
I needed some way to "plug-in" but also produce as much sound as possible.
With much searching, last year, I spotted the Ovation 6751 12-string Balladeer and fell in love with it. I liked it so much that I turned around and bought a Balladeer S771 6-string! They have become my workhorses.
After finding the OFC and, providentially, finding Saint Al, I dealt with him and he has my Hummingbird and I have a gorgeous 2001 Collector's Redwood! This is the finest guitar I have ever played!
All in all, I am a committed (or as some will say, should be soon) Ovationite!
tim |
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Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Saint Al????
Watch out for the lightening bolts!!!
or is that thunderbolts??? |
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Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | It's Lightning bolts.
Thunderbolts are those ugly guitars you let them build
:D |
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April 2003
Posts: 2503
Location: Fayetteville, NC | My First Ovataion was a Glen Campbell 12 String
That my dad helped me buy in 1978.I was a fan of the Ovation Sound and after Starting on an Epiphone acoustic and graduating to a Solid Top
Yamaha I decided I wanted an Ovation. For Some Reason I decided on the 12 String and I'm Glad I did. Played it Joyfully for Many years Then about 1987 for some reason (temporary Insanity) I sold it. Did not own another O until august this past year when my 1858 12 String Elite Arrived-Complete with Mid depth Bowl and Transparent Blue Finish. It sounds incredible. This is one i will never part with. |
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Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | Saint Al?
funny it seems to have a nice ring to it... |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | Maybe you're thinking of Saint Alphonso
(". . don't go where the huskies go and don't you eat that yellow snow . ."). |
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December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | and I do love pancakes for breakfast!!!!! |
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February 2003
Posts: 299
Location: Netherlands | My first Ovation was a '92 Korean Ultra about a year ago. Why? Because I went to buy a set of Ernie Ball Super Slinkys .009
BTW: Ralph, you're probably the only person in the world that says I look better now than back then :) :) :)
Thanx
Martin |
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September 2003
Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | Great reading here. Two things stand out to me. First, i'm suprised at the number who were influenced by celebrity usage. Second, how many of us still have that first Ovation years and sometimes decades later. That might have something to do with the love of the instrument but I think it has more to do with the durability and craftsmanship that went into it. I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that the Yamaha I was considering in 1971 has long been put to rest.
Brad
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Posts: 77
Location: Texas | My first Ovation I purchased new back in '76-'77.
I don't know which model it was, probably a Balladeer. Mid-bowl, natural top, single volume control on upper bout. Nothing fancy. Came with a brown/tan hardshell case.
I bought it because I was in a band, and wanted an acoustic that could be amplified. I believe I was influenced by the artists of the day, many using Ovation.
After 3 years (approx. '80), out of band, sold that guitar, needed the cash to eat.
Flash forward to late '03, volunteered to play for the church children's choir. Went straight to Ovations again. Tried a used Celebrity, exchanged and paid extra for a used '99 S771 Balladeer. Fits me like a glove. Easier to play than the original Ovation I had years ago.
-Gary K |
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October 2002
Posts: 170
Location: The Shop | OK Here is mine---- A custom built 1778T Bass with the op -pro preamp. I may be wrong, but I belive that this is the only Ovation acoustic Bass ever built with a maple neck. It was my first, because I play bass and I didnt like the elite basses that we build(not that there is anything wrong with them)so I waited till we built something that looked really cool and turned it in to a bass. Plus I couldnt afford a Ovation Bass until now! |
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May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Great stories, keep it up everyone, only a couple thousand untold member's stories left to post and that might get us a Guinness record for the longest post on any website in history. 1778T Bass is very intriguing.
Keeep it up, let's get that record and then Miles can publish it as a book. "Over 2000 Exciting Tales of OVirginity Lost, a Guinness Record". That title will sell millions of copies.
Bailey |
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August 2003
Posts: 4619
Location: SoCal | First Ovation was a slothead, dark sunburst Custom Legend 12-string. Came out of the 1981 NAMM so probable late 1980 model; acoustic. Had a Martin D-18 12-string from 1970-1978, all types of problems (crack in top through wood, stripped tuners, etc.) Sold it in 1978, no guitar except for an inexpensive classical until 1981 when started playing with a group called the Jolly Troubadors in Oregon - a little of this and a little of that plus as a church group. Had to sell it in 1991 - financial. No Ovation until this year. Now 12...3 CL 6's (incl 30th anniv, 3 CL 12's, GC 12, 2 basses (Typhoon and Viper), 1763 Classic, 2002 Collectors, and a Balladeer. Why did I buy the Ovation? Lousy service by Martin - sealed the crack instead of replacing the top even though under full warranty, crack was still very visible. Also, the combination of playability, abalone and pearl, and dark sunburst - it was like I was under a spell. Helped that the guitar store owner sold it to me for $635 - 1/2 the retail. May St. Peter give Marty of Marty's Guitar in Portland, OR his own 30th Anniv. |
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September 2003
Posts: 53
| hi,
as a bass player my first Ovation was a USA viper acoustic bass. Brought in the last quarter of 2003 with the help of many people here. I had fallen in love with the bass ever since seeing Richie sambora play the normal acoutic of it, to my delight when I saw a Bon Jovi Video Alec Jon Such was playing a bass version. It was from that day that i made sure that when i had the money i would get one. Havent looked back. |
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December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | xcms man you need to bring that bass to the jam after the tour. Kim usually plays bass but I am sure he would love to have someone else give him a break! |
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What is your 1st Ovation? When & why?
