Applause AE-600

This is an Applause (Ovation-made, like the whole Squier-Fender deal) AE-600 acoustic-electric guitar, Korean-made, rosewood fingerboard, 20 frets, diamond inlays, rounded fiberglass back, laminated top (?), piezo pickup with Gain/Volume onboard controls, Ovation tuners, clean neck binding. That about covers it. I suppose it's a pretty fancy lookin guitar compared to some, definitely out of the ordinary for a beginner, definitely draws a lot of positive attention. The features is probably where it rates the best, at an 8.

*ACOUSTIC* At first, this guitar seemed like heaven to me. But then, after a really cheap student Yamaha with old strings, anything would be. This guitar (lovingly christened Ginger) has a very distinct Ovation sound, but does not have much projection, which is a definite problem when just playing acoustically with a bunch of people. The pickup solves that problem, if you've got an amp around :) The high end on Ginger is very nice and clear-sounding, almost clean electric guitarish.. however, it has an almost overly bright sound as a whole, and lacks in the bass - mid end. Definite letdown there.. what's an acoustic without mid?
*ELECTRIC* Ginger's got a very standard under-the-saddle piezo pickup which functions as it should... very reliable, but nearly impossible to get a truly natural acoustic sound out of. This is my personal opinion, but it sounds rather tinny and trebly, especially in contrast with transducers and onboard mics... it really comes down to what sort of sound you're looking for. I play through my church's Fender Acoustisonic Junior. This amp does incredible things to this guitar's sound, but it takes a LOT of fiddling.. gain max and treble near min on the guitar, on the amp, increased treble, lowered mid, increased bass, and some pretty hefty chorus. I can manage to get a very nice sound out of it... and with reverb.. *siiiigh* (then again, any guitar with revered..!!)
Overall, I'd give this catagory a 4, it doesn't impress me, not a lot of variation, but definitely substantial and consistant. (Really quick note on that, my elder brother owns a lawsuit model Takamine with a really rich, full sound (surprising!!) but it's consistancy is awful.. watch what you're doing with these things!)

I bought this guitar used, so I do not know of the factory setup. It has an aluminum neck reinforcement, so strings heavier than light are not allowed. The finish is decent, my baby's taken a heavy beating (everything.. I've dropped it, smashed it against tables and such, and it holds its finish rather well.. it does chip along the binding rather easily though (not the binding itself, just the finish)). One thing I noticed was the diamond inlays... while very nice looking and EXTREMELY attractive against those ugly dot inlays, not a single one is perfectly cut, they all have a really dark filler at one point or other. Again, not big, but.. hey. I have had some serious problems with the tuners.. I don't think they're cheap, they are Ovation, but 2 of them are unscrewing off of the headstock, sort of, and if you screw them on nice and tight, it gets to a certain point then releases all of the tension again... a major pain. Several sets of strings lost in this area... with certain notes and chords, something vibrates on the neck, I'm almost positive it's the truss rod. There's no cure for this, sadly. One last bone I have to pick is with the "rosette"... this is just a piece of rounded plastic around the soundhole, and I hadn't had any problems until just recently. Apparently, it's been glued on very cheaply, with a single squiggle of glue underneath. It came almost completely off.. if I wasn't obsessive about playing, I'd have glued it back on by now, so for the moment it's held down by a small piece of duct tape, resulting in a constant buzzing sound when playing... overall, I wasn't terribly happy with this catagory...

This is one thing I do like about Ginger. Very consistant, very dependable. There are no huge problems with the bridge or nut, and the strings do not break terribly often, and I play very hard. While I am planning on upgrading to a Larrivee, I do not think I will get rid of Ginger for this purpose alone.. who'd take a guitar like a Larrivee to school?? Definitely a plus of this guitar, and almost worth getting for this reason alone!!

Never had to... although perhaps something should be arranged... good idea!

I've been playing the guitar for about a year and a half, this guitar for about a year, and I also own a Fernandes Vertigo bass (I love it!! Ahh!!! Not a bass player, but if you're looking, check this one out!!) This guitar is decent for straight out chord accompaniment, but is not great for fingerstyle (new passion of mine..). It does have a really unique sound when pushed for aggresive blues and rock.. and works great for funk! If this guitar was stolen, I.. well, I'm not sure what I'd do. Im a ways off from buying a Larrivee, so I'd probably buy a Dean or Alvarez just to sustain.. both very dependable guitars, by the way. This guitar is INFINITELY better than Jasmine, cheap Fenders, Ibaanez, Peavey.. and my friend's piece of junk Gibson (where in the world did he find that thing? Cracked up, plasticky.. Gibson should be ashamed!), but definitely doesn't even come close to any of those top of the line solid top guitars. A cutaway would be nice.. Phil Keaggy's near impossible to imitate without it! At any rate, a decent guitar, for what I paid (included cheap form-fitting hardshell case), worth the money. I'd give it a 6, mostly because of the huge downfalls of this guitar. If you're STILL interested after this- ;) -I highly recommend you spend some time playing this guitar before purchasing. You won't regret it. Also.. please feel free to send me an email about anything music or guitar related, I've got quite the opinions on electric guitar, basses, acoustic guitars, you name it. Thanks!