Adamas 2080

The Carbon Fiber Natural Weave finish is excellent and consistent and looks very nice. It is a standard flat finish. Through Ovation's custom shop, you can do a high gloss finish that looks incredibly nice but comes with the burden of getting smudges and needing to be cleaned practically between songs, let alone between sets to stay looking decent. This flat finish is very low maintenance to maintain its good aesthetic value. Body shape is Ovation's Contour Bowl which for me took no getting used to despite not having experienced it before. I do prefer Ovation's Shallow Bowl body type in feel though. The tuners I was very impressed by. Schaller Tuners with closed backs! Exactly what I would want from an instrument this high end. The neck is also great, a dark walnut I think. 22 frets with side markers only, just a 12th fret neck marker looking like the Nike shoes symbol. Frets are well ground and even. Ebony fingerboard is wonderful! The electronics really shine. Ovation's VIP system does a superb job of replicating various nuances of mic'd sound. The EQ is standard fare but good. The features on this guitar are outstanding.

This guitar produces a good variety of tonal variation but all within the expected "Ovation sound". Bright, snappy, crisp and running the risk of being almost tinny if one isn't careful. The Phosphor Bronze that it came strung with I ditched as soon as I wore them out. Replaced with Martin Lights to remove the tinny sound. I knew getting into this guitar the sound it would produce and normally I prefer the opposite. I like a resonant, rich, earthy tone and this guitar for me would be my one instrumental choice to sound otherwise. It does its job well. For the price, I would have expected more bell-like highs.

Decent but also mildly disappointing. Had this guitar been several hundred dollars, all would have been fine. But for near to a couple thousand dollars I expect better. Factory set action is always high for me, no problem there after a couple of shims are removed. However, the top strap button was very loose and the screw needed tightening. The rear access plate was also loose. There was very faint finish wear at the neck joint, almost imperceptible but I'm a bit of a perfectionist. There was some bizarre white fuzz stuck around the trim to the sound hole. Looked like cotton ball strands. Irritating work with tweezers to remove it. Also, the "new guitar smell" was slightly strong; gone in about 2 weeks of uncased storage. None of these issues were major but again, for the price paid it was a bit disappointing.

The guitar is very solid and well put together. It withstands gigging just fine. By lacking in wood it also withstands humidity and other climatological issues very well. Playing under an open-sided tent with a pouring rainstorm outside but it's still 85 degrees with like humidity and your lead guitar player is cursing as he retunes between songs? Not an issue for this guitar.

Not used.

I realize that Ovations have mixed feelings and knew getting into this that they produce a sound that is not generally in keeping with what I personally look for. Nevertheless, this was my first "break" into the higher price range of instruments and a satisfying one. I would have looked for a bit better quality in the simpler things like mentioned above but the instrument itself is very nice. In fairness, I paid 1700 for this out-the-door and would cringe for anyone paying 2000+. The list of 2999 is a joke and the typical going rate of 2250-2400 is very high for what you get I believe. Among guitars in general, this instrument is wonderful. Among higher end guitars, this is good.

The guitar has a texture woven carbon fiber top in natural grayish black, ebony fret board and what I beleive is a black walnut neck. It is a cutaway with the VIP electronics package (new this year to Ovation/Adamas) that offers some preset sampled settings for various mic'd guitars, onboard tuner, and both 1/4" and XLR plugs. The body is the contour bowl which is supposed to give the deep bowl sound from a more compact package. The hardware is brushed aluminum looking with black tuning knobs and the sound hole is a "cats-eye" in the bass bout only trimmed in aluminum and ebony. I like the look, quite understated except for the "nike swoosh" at the 12th fret. Could have been something else, but it is not horribly obvious to most folks.

The biggest quirk is that the VIP requires something to be plugged into the 1/4 to activate the tuner and electronics. They even supply a dummy plug with the guitar. Very odd. Further, although I need to explore this some more, it does not appear that the XLR will power the guitar with phantom power from my board as nothing comes online until I plug in the dummy plug too. Some have indicated that it may be the way my XLR is wired.

Another thing I would like is a slightly thicker neck. This thing is thin with a soft V and very elegant with the satin finish, but even with my smaller hands, I find that just a tad more width and depth would help me with the chords down low.

I was looking for an "all-in-one" guitar to replace my faithful Ovation 1537. I had tried a few other guitars including some Martin's, Taylors, Seagull, and a few others in the $2000 price range. While I know it is subjective and will get many "boo's", I could not find a guitar that played as easy, was as loud, and sounded as good as my Faithful 1537. I used an Adamas W597 for a while and it was unique, but still not what I was looking for.

The 2080 comes very close to the 1537 with a deep rich acoustic sound unplugged and while not projecting as the Ovation, is still a loud guitar. The sound is quite balanced, and articulate in that you can hear the individual strings. It is lacking a bit on the treble side, but in a strictly acoustic environment, that is not a bad thing.

The guitar also has a very percussive top, that easily projects and muting, slaps or taps. Not the drum that the W597 was (you could fire your drummer with that thing) but still allows you some nice thumping when the mood strikes.

The action wasn't bad, but a bit high so I pulled out two shims and now it is really pretty sweet. A trip to my set-up guy would make it play like an electric, I am sure. I can play up to the 14th fret with light Adamas strings without and buzz or flat spots.

Finish is generally good, but I noticed some sanding marks in the binding where the neck and body meet. You must look close though. Neck and frets are all perfect with no roughness and properly dressed and finished.

There is no more reliable guitar than an Adamas. let's face it...very little to break. I hate to admit it, but I was doing an outdoor thing yesterday and a brisk wind knocked it off of my cheap stand (that is getting replaced) onto asphalt.

Not a nick, scratch or anything. It didn't lose it's tune, nor any problems with electronics.

I am convinced you would never be up a creek without a paddle if you had your Adamas as it would make an effective paddle and still be ready to play by the campfore.

Straplocks are Dunlops and work perfect.

Huge Kudo's here. When I first got the guitar, there was some intermittent cut outs somewhere in the VIP package. An email to Ovation support got me a full electronics package replacement in two days.

Took me all of five minutes to swap the old and new from plugs to can to module. Problem solved that fast. These guys are amazing (thanks John).

I have been playing bass for 30 plus years, and acoustic and electric for over 20 years. Yet, I am not a very good guitar player, mostly a hobbiest and helping with worship at church. But I have been doing sound for that 30 years and I know what I like to hear.

I can afford whatever I want to buy, but when I took my old 1537 into the expensive guitar room at a large store, neither my wife nor I heard anything that sounded as good (in our opinion) as the 1537 until we got well in excess of $3000. Plus none of the actions were even close. So, I started looking back to Ovation and finally Adamas. After toying with a variety of Adamas and liking the contour sound, I bought the 2080 for it's "new tech" yet understated looks. I am very pleased. The contour bowl is taking some getting used to, and I want to have it set-up a bit better, but if it were lost, I would buy another. My main complaint is the oddity of requiring a dummy plug to power it up. Beyond that....nearly perfect.