Jinder Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 How is that all-plastic beast shaping up? I would be intrigued to hear such a guitar in action. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksdaddy Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 All I did was give it a good bath and change strings. It is nothing short of amazing for a cheap guitar. The neck has that odd aluminum feel which was expected. I have actually smoothed out the 'frets' on these and I will on this one at next string change. Most Ovations I have owned have had a very bright tone with immediate response but not a lot of depth or rumble. This one has a big, deep, hollow tone that is disconcerting to hear from a plastic salad bowl.... it just ain't right. The difference has to be in the top, as a bowl is a bowl provided they are of the same depth... some O's have shallow bowls for ergonomics but there's a drop in volume too. So setting aside any Ovations that came passing through that got 'flipped' on ebay within a couple weeks, in the past couple or three years I've owned a blinged out Custom Legend that sounded good, a junk Applause with a plywood top that sounds better, and a plastic topped Maccaferri-esque student guitar that sounds like a good Ovation going through an active pre-amp with the bass and treble cranked and the mids scooped down to a negative number. Seems like people who have actually played an Academy like the tone very much. http://www.angelfire.com/me4/ksdaddy/acad.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TommyK Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 Am I right that the frets are molded part and parcel with the aluminum neck? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksdaddy Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 Yes. Think of the 'frets' as the uscathed part and the space between them as what was milled away. The neck is actually a t-bar of sorts and the 'roundness' of the neck is courtesy of urethane foam with some kind of skin over it. Feels no different than any other guitar in that respect though; it just feels like a finished neck. Mine is a KA-14 but they actually made an Academy with a real wooden neck (KA-17) and those seem to be held in higher regard but I dig my Loonium Tupperware. I'm still a little disappointed it has a wooden bridge.... seems like they could have used some kind of Kevlar fortified thermosetting plastic. Bulletproof Bakelite! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinder Posted March 19, 2009 Author Share Posted March 19, 2009 How very interesting...I expected the tone to be a horror story, but whaddya know! Is it wrong that I'm kinda GASing for one now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksdaddy Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 I don't know if I would go gassing but my advice to anyone who sees a good deal on one of the Academys or early Applauses, don't walk past without giving them an honest try. The almost never go over a hundred bucks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.