Ovation CU147

A very pretty guitar, especially for the price. It is all well finished and I especially like the mother of pearl in the frets and around the sound hole. Some people have said the fret markers are too small but it doesn't bother me at all, I can only see it being a problem for someone who is just starting to play guitar.
The inside of the bowl isn't particularly nice to look at; bog standard stickers have been used to show model and producer etc. which looks all the more utilitarian against plastic.
The neck shape is brilliant, it supports my hands better than the usual flatter shape. The thicker neck doesn't impede the action because the varnish is nice and smooth and not so glossy my hands sick.
The shape of the bowl also makes it comfortable to play.
The tuner is a great help though on my guitar the green light seldom flashes, indicating that the tuning isn't quite right when it is.

I had been looking for a non electo acoustic for some time but when I picked this up the sound was perfect and I decided to buy it before even trying it with an amp. The sound is bright and clear though not tinny. It is loud enough and doesn't give off any kind of booming like most of the other guitars I have tried in the price range.
The sound when plugged seems good though I don't have much experience with electro acoustics.

The the wires inside occasionally vibrate against each other and make a buzzing sound, which can be annoying. Though it's not anything to be upset about. The action is a bit high for my tastes and I may get it lowered.

It seems pretty sturdy, the neck is strong and the plastic bowl is durable (doesn't get scratched aganst my belt or shirt buttons).
A scratch guard would be useful, though I don't really like the look of them and I think one would retract from the lovely pearl inlay. Perhaps a transparent one could be fitted?

n/a second hand

I have been searching all over for a nice sounding, good looking acoustic in the price range and didn't find anything near as good as this. The fact that I can plug it in is simply an added bonus.

this guitar is made in korea but the bowl is made in USA whit the lyrachord ovation patented. the top is solid stitka spruce AA grade and the nek is two piece sandwich of mogany, the fretboard is dark rosewood and the tuner machines are gold plated whith pearloid buttons. this guitar have a nice abalone rosette and little abalone marker dots.
the pre is OP30 whith electronic tuner incluted

clear voice whith excellent sound plugged and none

perfect for my style

i have a pinnacle made in japan (year 1989).........it's perfect

no comment

i play in flat picking now are 20 years

it is made in korea, this guitar have the slid top AA grade whit a very nice abalone insert.the bek is made whith two piece of mogany and the freatboard is make in black rosewood. this guitar have a OP30
preamp whith cromatic tuner and equalizer 3 band

i playing in fingerstile and this guitar is very balanced on the bass and treble.
the sound unplagged is pretty but plug in is fantastic, this is the true sound of ovation. I think this guitar is better of ballander special made in USA and is not expensive

when i bought this guitar the action was hight and the 3? fret is not allineated whith the other, but i setting the instrumet for my stile and now is perfect

I am 39 old and i play the guitar when i had 6 year and i had four ovation and the durability is very longer

No comment

I play a guitar when I had 6 year now I have 39 year.I love the ovation sound and i like the roundback style

Pickup is awesome, tuner built in invaluable.

harmonics all the way down to the 4th fret.
Beautiful Sound, rich and full,
got that ovation 'bass' to the pickup sound.

plays smoothly, hangs perfectly balanced on a strap.
Only flaw: the polish of the outer trim had spread onto the black roundback material, leaving some cream-colored marks...

withstands live playing.
Seems durable - can hammer it and it still handles beautifully.
Do use it at 3-4 gigs a week without back-up.

n/a

Playing for 5 years, have a Yamaha APX. This leaves it way behind...
Wish I'd got a red one instead of a natural one! - mere asthetics!;)

Love the instrument. It is one of the more beautiful looking ovations with the abalone rosette, gold keys with the pearl handles. The OP30 tuner, EQ ETC. is very handy. It has memory so that you can set your bass tuning value and the tuner will respond accordingly. TheSolid spruce top with the sunburst design twists alot of heads. Very very nice!

The sound is not quite as Bassy(did I spell it right?) as I would like but it is the pure Ovation sound. The sound booms out of the box and plugged in it is A W E S O M E! While it is not a Taylor/Martin ETC. for 2/3 rds the price you get really nice sound.

Factory setings suited me perfectly. The finish is fantastically done. However the small abalone inserts on the neck vary in color and could be much larger than they are. The abalone rosette around the sound hole is equal to and as nice as $2500.00 guitars. The instrument should come with a pick guard as the finish is much too nice to be dicked up by a wild mans strumming.

N/A

I e mailed ovation customer support with some questions about this model and where it fits in on the scale of worst to best. Have not yet got a response. This dissappoints me.

Overall I give the instrument a very high 9, If not for the fret markings and lack of a pick guard possibly a 10.

This Ovation (Pinnacle CU 147) was made in Korea. It sports a AA - grade solid spruce top and a sunburst finish that has been done very nicely. The bridge I belive is made out ouf walnut with the infamous Ovation Thinline pickup seated in it with pinpoint accuracy.

You will find a pretty nice abalone inlay around the soundhole and the edge of the body. The mid-depth bowl body itself is made out of the same material as the ones made in the U.S. (actually I believe they just make them there and ship them over to Korea). It has a single cutaway design so you can easily acces the upper regions of the fretboard.

The fretboard is made out of dark rosewood with small abalone dot inlays and has 21 frets finished somewhat nicely except for the second fret, which causes the e-1st string to buzz slightly everytime you fret an f# note. I have spoken to the store where I bought it and they will fix this for me. I might be picky, because the buzz is very slight, but compared to all the other notes that will ring out even and nicely ALL OVER THE FRETBOARD (!) this one simply stands out too far.

The nut is made from some synthetic material I cannot seem to identify and I am thinking about having it replaced with a bone-nut.
This guitar has a matching headstock; it has a spruce veneer painted in the same sunburst color the body is finished with. The neck is made out of two piece mahogany with a wax & oil finish that has a nice feel to it.

The closed tuners do have pearl buttons and a gold finish; they do have an OVATION logo on the back but I believe they're Gotoh tuners.

The reason I finally decided to buy this guitar was that, besides the solid top it features this OP-30 preamp with a built-in chromatic tuner and a graphic three-band EQ. It sounds really good and you really tweak the sound in any direction you will like.

Which leads us to the point why I am not rating this guitar at 10: On darker or dim stages, you will have a hard time finding out to which position the pre-shape, the EQ in/out or the mid-shift buttons are set. Also, I would be glad to see the return of the check-button for the battery status like on the older Ovations!
Another point is the fact that this instrument does not even come with at least a gig bag. I mean, it's not the most high-prized instrument on the market, but it ain't no cheapo either! So I would be glad to see that change in the future.

I am using this guitar mainly in a band where we play rock and pop standard tunes like from the Eagles, Heart, Bryan Adams, Def Leppard, George Michael, Dakota Moon and others with acoustic guitars catching up the spirit of the MTV-Unplugged Days.

It sounds just like you would expect from an Ovation: Played through the P.A., it cuts through no matter how muddy the overall sound might be and it is f***ing loud played acoustically compared to "normal" acoustic guitars like, let's say Dreadnoughts, although it does not have as much bass as those, due to the mid-depth bowl body.

When I employ the pre-shape button, there's a bit of a hiss, so I have to rearrange the EQ setting. Maybe the guys at Ovation could do some revoicing here so one could toggle between the settings better.
Maybe then I would give away a 10 here...

Setup was perfect for me, since I prefer a slightly raised action.

Like I stated before, the bridge was routed perfectly for the Thinline pickup system.
The beautifully bookmatched solid spruce top has been finished perfectly with absolutely no flaws. The bracing has been made really well, in fact it is far more better than the one of the first Ovation I have owned back in 1990 (Balladeer with Super Shallow Bowl body).
The neck is perfect, tuners work smooth and accurate and the strings wound up at the factory (D'addario EXP16, I suppose) make a perfect match for this guitar.

The only pain I have with this guitar is the poorly filed fret in the second position. So again, no 10 here!

I have learned with my first Ovation that they really can withstand some rougher handling (although I would not recommend it).
Anyhow, I will get myself a good quality case in the near future.
The strap buttons are o.k., but I recommend to replace them with Dunlop Strap Locks or Schaller safety locks just to be sure...

The preamp quickchange feature seems to be reliable; I do not have the guitar long enough to share profound experience here.

Like with my first Ovation, I would definitely gig without a backup. It is mainly the reason why I decided to get myself an Ovation again and not, say, a Takamine because you really can rely on it, no matter where or what you play.

Hey, that's a 10 here!

We have a two year warranty in Germany, so we will see. I have not dealt with the company or its distributor yet, since the guys at the store were very helpful.
Maybe I will post an update after the fretjob hass been done...

I have been playing since 1978 now and this is the second Ovation I have bought. I have owned several other electric-acoustic guitars (Yamaha APX, Sae-Han), but somehow the only ones that do the trick really well on stage for me are the Roundbacks.
For a sheer acoustic sound I would pretty sure choose a Martin or a Taylor, but when I need to plug in for some unplugged stuff with a band, there's only one choice for me.

I really dig the well-balanced sound of this guitar and I wish my first one would have had the mid-depth body instead of the super shallow body, maybe I would never have sold it.

It is a good guitar and you get a lot for your money, although it is not cheap. I have tried the cheaper ones with laminated tops but they did not work for me, so I had to go for the solid top.

Anyhow, I think that there should be a way for KAMAN to include with this guitar at least that sort of gigbag that I just bought for the time being until I can afford a decent case.
So overall I would give away 9 out of 10 here.

The features are as follows:
AA solid Sitka spruce top, single cut-away body style
OP 24 pre amp with built in tuner
two piece mahogony neck
solid walnut bridge
Dark rosewood fret board

Very bright, but versatile, plugged in with the pre-amp features. I play mostly folk/Alternative so it suits me fine. It is very "loud" unplugged and has been a very good live instrument. It has a "rattle" from inside somewhere when I play the low e string fretted anywhere on the board.

The finish on mine is flawed in a couple of spots. I got it cheap, so maybe this is the reason for the price. I have played the others, (same model) that are much nicer, (but higher priced). I thought I had a factory second and contacted Ovation, but have gotten nowhere in trying to find out why mine was so cheap. I am not pleased with the response I have gotten from them. "We have no control over how our producuct is sold"...what?...Buyer beware of "music and arts centers" they sell crappy guitars....

The "rattle" ticks me off, and the finish is wearing on the neck after only a month. I would not buy this again....

They are "skating" my questions concerning why my guitar was so cheap.
The warranty is supposedly two years, but they give you a real run around about any problems.

I have been playing for 5 years and my primary instrument is bass. I wish I would have tried others in the "real" price range first to know that mine was cheap for a reason. I gladly would have paid more for the real thing.

This guitar is Korean made it has a Sitka Spruce top with electronics.
The fret are small, The boby is made of Lyrachordto to create a powerful tone you only get from an Ovation. A dark rosewood fingerboard is matched to a two-piece mahogany neck with a natural satin finish. This guitar sounds and plays great. I went to the guitar
center and tried out just about every guitar available. I cant believe
how great this guitar sound compare to some of the american made ones
that cost alot more. The tuner are gold with a soild pearl bottons
The neck it to die for smooth.

Sound out of this world. Just pick one up and just paly it!!!$%%%%^^^&&&

Nicely done,

Well, Just got it really cant say, however you know ovation they
last forever

Talk to a few people about getting a hard shell case they were
very helpful

I am very satisfy with my purchase and you will be also, I cant
believe you could get a goog quality sound form an instrutment
with out braking the bank. Believe I searched around for some time.