Joined:
February 2020
Posts: 1
| I was first introduced to Ovation back in mid 1970s when one of my “eclectic” neighbors bought one for their daughter Kelly.
They had an experimental California concept Reynolds Aluminum & brick house. (This was in Ohio) Of which only four were built in the entire country, you had to drive over a bridge which spanned a ravine to get to the house & a black Ferrari Daytona in the carport
It was the hang out house for the neighborhood kids.
We would ride our little Yamahak 80s down there & practice jumping them & climbing hills.
I still remember Kelly sitting on the couch playing this beautiful, great sounding guitar with the round black bowl shaped back on it. She was always playing that guitar. I remember holding it and admiring how cool & unique it was! Fast forward 40 years & I finally got one like it!
We have a big guitar center nearby in Alpharetta, Ga. And I stopped in a couple of weeks ago to take a look around in the Acoustic Room.
I have a Yamaha FD01S that’s a great sounding larger acoustic. I was looking at some of the thinner, smaller Yamaha APXs, Fender Malibu, Smaller sized Breedloves and A beautiful Cherry Red Ovation. The Yamahas & Breedlove sounded good & the Ovation sounded really good. Across the room l spotted a used Honeyburst Ovation. All I could see was $59 on the price tag, since my view was obstructed I assumed it was $259.
So I didn’t think anything more about it & kept looking at the Taylor GS Minis, Ibanez & some used smaller Yamahas. When I got closer to the used Ovation, the unobstructed view of the price tag showed $59!????
I grabbed it off the wall & looked it over & fell in love!
The tag said “ Applause AE28” shallow bowl & the tuning keys had “Ovation” stamped on them.
It was in very good condition, just below excellent. And but the pickup (and factory make & model label are missing/removed so they had just put it out as a used acoustic only model. 59 dollars plus tax and 16 dollars for a two year bumper to bumper warranty & some new D’Addarrio Elixr 10s & was mine. Turns out it just been put out just before I’d stopped by. I even managed to talk to the tech who’d set up. Super nice guy who said he had a higher end Ovation for 10 years and out a good bit of time & TLC in setting it up since he was partitioned to them!
To make things even better. A buddy of mine is an electrical engineer, who plays also sings plays guitar around Atlanta occasionally. I’ve seen him many times. What I didn’t know was that he’s made it to round two of “The Voice” twice and had played an Ovation Celebrity for 20 years! He’s always playing a full size wood grained top p
Ibanez or something when I’ve seen him. He played mine Last week & made it sound amazing!
So far I’ve wiped it down & cleaned it up, cleaned & polished the frets with steel wool & Meguires Mag Wheel & Aluminum Polish. Cleaned the fretboard with 000 steel wool & oiled it it with Tru Oil. (I use to refinish gunstocks & grips) I’ve also had humidifiers inside of it for the past week to fix any wood drying out issues it might have.
(Big Thanks to Phil McKnights Know Your Gear channel on YouTube for giving me the confidence to do all this!)
Really looking forward to learning to play it hauling it around with me!
Thanks for having such a great site & letting me join it
*Music is the breath of our soul”
Eric
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40 years later I finally got one!
