Link: Ovation Adamas Models
on 1/7/2021, 5:39 pm, in reply to "Re: Lindsey and John with Ovation guitars and the last of the McGuires dies...... "
Most Ovation bowls are made of something called Lyrachord which is kind of a composite of "glass beads" and fiberglass, These have solid-spruce tops. The somewhat more costly regular line of Adamas models have the same bowl material as the wooden-topped Ovations but the tops are a thin laminate of a birch layer with a carbon fiber layer on each side. The entire soundboard is only .035 inches thick compared to a Martin D-28 soundboard at about .110 inches thick. The highest-priced Adamas I models, like mine, have a similar top as the lesser-priced Adamas models but have what's termed an Adamas Suspension Ring (AST) around the top-perimeter of a hand-laid composite bowl. The AST enables the thin carbon fiber/birch/carbon fiber top to vibrate even more freely than a non-AST Adamas top. The Adamas tops, depending on the model, have various underlying wooden bracing patterns that affect the tone. My Adamas I 2080GT-8 has Adamas Fan Bracing which results in a very balanced tone across the tonal spectrum, whereas my long-gone Adamas 2080 NWT had LX Scalloped Bracing that gave it a loud, deeply resonant dreadnought tone.
When you go to a music store these days, the Ovation models you'll likely encounter will be the lower-cost Korean-made, wooden-topped models that are well-made but don't have the resonant tone of the more costly American-made models.
By the way, American-made Ovation wooden-topped guitars and the Adamas models are made up in New Hartford, Connecticut. I've been there once and enjoyed talking to the guys! Previous Message
Ken, what are they made of, fiberglass? With a wood top? Previous Message
Thanks, Terry! For those who aren't familiar with the design, Ovations, because of their bowl design, project most of their sound forward toward an audience. The downside is that the player unless they move their head out a bit over the edge of the guitar's soundboard, will not hear what the audience hears. Also, the newer deep-bowl and mid-bowl designs are contoured and stay put much better than the original "roundback" design. Previous Message
Nice Stable!! Re: Ovation guitars. In the early 70's I thought Ovations were "Cool"..mostly because Jim Croce played one. I got a good deal on an Ovation Baladeer. Possibly from the first year of production. I gigged with it for a long time (did a lot of bars back then). Because I got it cheap and it was sort of indestructible that worked for me. One night at a jam, a let a friend play it , (something I RARELY do). I stood in the back and listened, the guitar had a really nice well balanced tone, better than I thought from listening to it as the player. In those days I had a 65 Gibson J 45 (still do) a shiny NEW Martin D 41, and the Ovation (still do). I tried every trick in the book to get the Martin to play to my liking, two times back to the factory as well as having it tweaked by a very talented tech. I found myself saying, I wish that Martin would play as nice as the Ovation. (huh?) After lotsa years I finally let the D41 go, got a good price for it, hopefully the new owner had very long fingers and liked a guitar that sounded like a piano. My two newer Martins (D 17, full gloss and an OM16CE Koa) play and sound like a dream. Different strokes etc. Previous Message
I used Ovations for years when playing out. They're not everyone's cup of tea, but I Love 'Em! I just bought a new (Ovation) Adamas I 2087-8. The Glen Campbell model Ovations in the video don't sound that good because they're being played off-axis and nowhere near the single mic. You'll notice Lindsey's guitar starts to sound better when he occasionally gets it a bit closer to the mic. Here is a current list of the guitars in my stable:
Martin HD-28 Sunburst
Martin D-18
Adamas I 2087GT-8
Huss & Dalton TD-R
Taylor 717e
Taylor 618e
Taylor 614ce
Taylor 356ce
Taylor 322ce
Larrivee C-03R TE Tommy Emmanuel
Larrivee D-40M Legacy
Emerald X20
Takamine EF360S-TT/TLD-2
Ovation Elite Plus
Epiphone DR-500MCE
Yamaha LL-TA TransAcoustic
Republic Duolian/Schatten NR-2
My newest kids: Adamas I 2087-8 Reverse Blue Burst and Martin HD-28 Sunburst
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What's the world comin to ?????????????
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