Ovation 1578

Quilted Mahogany Top Ovation Mid Depth Acoustic Electric Guitar. I was told by a friend who had bought this guitar what a bargain they and got one and it is kill KoooooooLLLLL! The top wood is awesome beautiful. The pearl around the outer edge of the guitar is done in Korea but the rest of the guitar all made in USA, and this is what makes it such a bargain. It has gold tuners and also an electronic tuner in the USA OP PrO Electronics. The tuner is really easy to use and is always spot on. Mine is a 2007 model.

The guitar has a better unplugged acoustic sound than I expected from a quilted mahogany top. I bought it play primarily plugged in at acoustic electric gigs. It has a nice low end but the mids and highs are there too. However, the guitar came to me with a set of extra light gauge strings on it and I didn't like the way the low end sounded until I put a set of light gauge Dadarrio 12's on it. This really made the bass open up on it and it now sounds great. I play everything from John Denver to The Dead in my gigs and this guitar sounds good on all of it. I use a distortion pedal for a couple of songs and the electronics adapt well even to ZZ Top.

I drive my guitars pretty hard and when I got the guitar the action was set a little low. It played really easily for finger picking on ballads but when I drove it hard on louder songs it buzzed a bit just because it was set to low. Actually I had requested that it be set lower when I bought it but it was just too low for my style. However, with a phone call to the store and a about 3 minutes of instruction I turned the truss rod one quarter of a turn and the action was then perfect for my style. I never knew this was so easy. I have paid tons of money to get this done and it was less than 5 minutes on this guitar. Now, every time I change strings I tweek the truss rod adjustment and it keeps it perfect. It is not always necessary but when it is, it is super easy.

The gloss finish on the quilted top is really nice especially when the lights hit the pearl edge just right on stage. I have had no problems with the finish at all and it has really been put though the paces already. The guitar stays in tune better than any guitar I have ever had but Ovations are famous for that feature. It is the only acoustic I take with me to my gigs. I do have a lap steal I do a couple things with but the Ovation doesn't need a back up. I had an old Ovation Balladeer back in the 1980s and it was a workhorse too and this guitar seems to have all the Ovation USA quality that that one had. I did try an applause a few years ago and didn't really care for it. For this reason I wanted the USA made Ovation quality. I did check with the Ovation factory about the manufacturing of this guitar before buying it. I had heard that the pearl was done in Korea to save money on labor because that is what takes the longest on the guitar. I wanted to make sure that all the other assembly and build on the guitar happened in the USA Ovation factory and when I asked, sure enough, it is true, and this is how they do it. By the way, the pearl on the edge of the top looks great too.

The Ovation 1578 has a lifetime factory warranty from Ovation. The only thing I have had to do to it besides change strings is to adjust the action and I called Oklahoma Vintage Guitars where I bought it and they told me how to adjust the action and were super helpful. I have not had to have anything done on it with the Ovation factory, as far as warranty but I hear they are about the best.

I have been playing since the 1980s and have had several guitars. I have a Taylor with an expression system but I can't use it for my gigs because I get too much feedback. This Ovation can get really loud in an electric setting without feeding back, but I think this is why the designed it with the multiple sound holes. I looked at the Custom Elite Ovation guitars also because I like the pearl wtih the multiple sound holes, but this guitar has all the features at half the cost. The only thing I wish I had gotten was a hard shell case. They offer it with a bag, a hard shell case or without anything and I am using an old case that had left over from a Martin that I sold and it wiggles around a bit in this case. I do wish I had bougth a case to fit it.