I've been eyeing Doves - played a 1968 model a friend has and it sounds beautiful but my impression is they don't all sound like that. That plus (a) the high prices they're fetching these days and (b) Olive's bittersweet tale has me a bit nervous about buying one online. In particuIar, I've noticed that a lot of the Doves on Reverb seem to be shipping from Japan, which I gather is the source of a lot of the fakes. I know at one point Gibson tried to outsmart the 'clone' market in the East by partnering with a Japanese company to produce and sell "Orville by Gibson" guitars over there, including a Dove model. The headstock reads "Orville" in Gibson-y script. Has anyone played one of these? Would be interested in how they feel and sound as they seem to go for quite a bit less - also a fair bet that no one has counterfeited the Orvilles... Thoughts?
