Applause AS-28

This is a roundback thin-line flat-top acoustic guitar from Ovation's low-end label. Made Korea in 1997. Top is laminated, back/side's bowl is the familiar Ovation style molded synthetic material. Rounded treble side cutaway. Factory under-the-saddle piezo passive pickup with volume and tone controls. The neck has an opaque satin finish, but feels like it might be some kind of synthetic instead of wood. Fretboard is rosewood, medium frets. Neck is farily thin for an accoustic, fretboard radius and width is non-remarkable.

As you'd expect from it being an Ovation design, and a thin-line, it's bright or you might say thin, acoustically. On the other hand it it's fairly loud for such a small body guitar, and the tone can cut in a modest volume acoustic music situation better than you'd expect. For a budget instrument, there is some "sing" to the higher register notes making it suitable for single string lead even when not plugged in. I played 3 or 4 same model units that were in stock when I bought this one, and for some reason this one sounded better acoustically, a little louder and richer than it's duplicates. Perhaps it was string age, action height, my imagination. I don't know.
Plugged in, it sounds OK despite the passive pickup. Fair amount of piezo "quack", but cutting all the treble on the tone control helps reduce this. Mixing an external microphone with the piezo creates a decent tone blending the attack of the pickup with the air of the acoustic sound.
In general I've always liked the "Ovation sound" and small body guitars in general. I like my acoustics' notes to be distinct and cutting, and I want the bass notes to be clean and non-muddy. This Applause doesn't sound like a $1000 Ovation, but there is a family resemblance. I also like acoustic archtop sounds, and most archtops aren't "rich" sounding like a nice Martin dreadnought, but go for a sweet treble with some "bark" and "cut". I think the "archback" sound and the "archtop" sound have some similarities too.
I play with a flat-pick in an instrumental style that stresses alternate string picking patterns and two and three note clusters with a varied attack that can be quite heavy and involve percussive hammer-ons and right hand damping. A guitar has to respond dynamically to this kind of treatment to please me. For a budget instrument, this one does that pretty well. Whatever the bolt-on neck is made of seems especially connected to the acoustic sound of the guitar. If I hammer on a note on this neck while picking it really rings out from the non-hammered notes.

I picked this one from several on hand. It had nice low action, no buzzes and good fret work for a budget line. Some of the others didn't. There were noticeable finish flaws on some of the units in stock. They were stamped "used" at the store, but none of the group of three or four had other signs of significant use. Perhaps they were short term student leases, or factory seconds. Mine has a spiderweb crack in the finish on the lower bout that might extend into the soundboard. It's not visible unless you look at it from less than a few feet away.
Color is black. Simple tasteful ornamentation. No fancy inlays.

It's an acoustic guitar, but the Ovation design is often granted durability even by its detractors. I tend to carry it around quite a bit because it's fairly versatile and I have a separately purchased good quality Ovation case for it. So I probably play outside the home with this unit more than any other acoustic I own.

No experience, no data.

I've played acoustic guitar for 25 years. Other flat tops I own and play include a 70's Japanese 000 Martin copy and a Seagull S6 Folk. Someday I'd like to afford a better Ovation, and that would make this one dispensable. Until then, this one's fun to play. Even though it's a thinline, I'm playing it more acoustically than plugged in, so I might go with a larger bowl Ovation.
The round back IS hard to keep on an even keel when playing sitting down (and I almost always play sitting). Doesn't make any difference if I'm resting it on the right (folkie) or left (classical) leg, it can slide out of position.
I play capo'ed up and then up the neck a fair amount, so the cutaway is appreciated. The Ovation pin-less bridge design is so simple and right I don't know why it isn't copied more.
For what I paid it's a nice guitar for the price. There are some good choices a bit higher up the price range, such as the Seagull line.