Product: Ovation 1860 Custom Balladeer
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted
01/04/2008
at
05:05pm
by
Kompressaur
Features
:
9
made in 1993,in New Hartford,CT,USA.super shallow cutaway,gloss black over solid spruce top,2 pc oil finished mahogany neck,rosewood fingerboard,twin diamond inlays at 12fret only,pearloid rosette same as legend models,rosewood headstock veneer,Ovation branded chrome tuners,walnut bridge,FET-3 preamp with volume 3 band EQ and battery check,Ovation standard case
Sound
:
9
unplugged sound is tight,focused,bright and with great sustain.great definition to each string - plugged in the FET-3 sounds wonderful.maybe not in the same league as the Optimas and OP-Pro but really good - never mushy or fuzzy,maybe not so warm and a bit bass light but sits great in a mix.out live in a band mix its wasy to get that almost transparent shimmery sound that sounds top drawer
Players either love Ovations or loathe them - they seem to polarise opinions and none more so than the shallow bowls..I'm a fan as they're great working guitars with a distinct character
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
9
Action,fit and finish is 1st class.no signs of a bellying top and surface cracks etc that ovations seem prone to.this one's been babied
Reliability/Durability
:
9
solid and dependable.I only take I electro acoustic to gigs and this is it
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
never dealt with them - I'm in the UK
Overall Rating
:
9
I am a bass player of 25 years...played guitar for a number of years but pretty much gave it up to concentrate on bass in the mid 90s...got back into skinny strings 4 years ago and picked up with musicman and ovation which was the same as first time around
Ovation wise I also own a Custom legend 1869 model in sunburst with the optima preamp.that is my favourite guitar but with all the bling I dont really take it out so I prefer to use the 1860 out live.another reason is that I also think the Legend "A" bracing makes for a more fragile soundboard than the "X" bracing of the Balladeers.Tonewise the Custom Legend wins out but the Balladeer strikes the perfect balance between ruggedness,tone and aesthetics.
The 1860s seem fairly rare - most Custom balladeers seem to be the 1112 acoustic or the 1862 models. I like the simplicity of the 1860
I'm hoping to keep mine but I'm often tempted to trade it in against an 1768 Elite LX which I have tried and instantly fell in love with.
is there ever an end to GAS?
