$3,700 Ovation?

[MikeZito]

Because I was out of the mandolin loop for many years, I thought I would bring this one up. Does this limited-edition Ovation command a $3,700 price tag?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ovation-MM68...YAAOSw-K9ZGNos

[Bob Clark]

Does this limited-edition Ovation command a $3,700 price tag?

Certainly not from me!

[William Smith]

Certainly not from me!

I agree!! I never played one of their mandos but personally their guitars stink! Never liked any that I played. for that kind of cash wow!,one could buy something real nice, something new from one of the many mandolin builders or even something vintage! guitar or mando.

[Dave Bradford]

The USA made MM-68 is the best sounding plugged in mandolin that I've ever played. This one is a very limited edition model, but I've never seen any Ovation "book" Mandolin ever sell for more than $2,000 when they do come up for sale. Will be interesting to see if it sells for that price.

[Ted Eschliman]

That's a pretty ambitious price, for sure.

[Ray(T)]

OHSC? - looks like a standard TKL "F" style case without the blanket to me. If the mandolin was that special, you'd think they'd have commissioned a special case for it.

As for Ovation guitars, whilst others are going up in value, I get the impression that Ovations are going down.

[AlanN]

their guitars stink!

From a thread on the UMGF.

In Tim Stafford's book about Tony, Still Inside, Rice says he got an Ovation as part of an endorsement deal in the late '70's. He played it on the title track to Manzanita , several from Mar West and every song but one on Backwaters. The one tune he used the D-28 on was "Common Ground." It also says he used it on other recordings as well. The guitar he is pictured with in several photos in the book is an Ovation Legend.

There never was a Tony Rice model Ovation. His was a stock instrument according to what I have read and Ovation has gone through a lot of changes since the late 1970's.


I always found it tough to ID a sonic difference on Backwaters for those tunes he played on the bone (1) and on the Ovation (all others).

[MikeEdgerton]

That's a pretty ambitious price, for sure.

Ambitious is a good word. It's probably better than saying the price is in Hollywood.

[Jeff Mando]

I had a friend who got signed with a major label in the early 80's and the first thing he did with his advance was to buy his dream guitar, an Ovation Adamas, an acoustic/electric 12 string....if memory serves me correctly, it seems like it was $2200 or so, back then. Huge, huge money, back then. I was playing a used 70's Fender Telecaster, which you could pick up back then for $150-200 or so, for comparison. Ovation had their fans, especially for those doing a rockin' singer/songwriter type of thing. But, it got so I would have to avoid him, because I knew he would want to talk about his Adamas..............................

[Mandoplumb]

Seems about $3,600 high to me.

[MikeZito]

The 2nd mandolin I ever owned was an Ovation - I think I paid $150 for it. It was fun, and not a bad instrument, but I always thought of it as something more like a small guitar than a mandolin. I'd do $150 again - but $3700? I'll pass.

[jmkatcher]

I actually had an Adamas (a 12-string Melissa Etheridge to be precise) and it was an excellent 12 string. Super nice neck, very tuning stable, and 12 strings were enough to drive it to sound good plugged in or not. I wouldn't swap it for my Santa Cruz but it was a serious, well-made guitar.

[Seter]

Kaki King plays Ovation guitars (I think her signature model is about $1200), but I think she likes their durability given her percussive playing style

[Explorer]

Although I doubt it will sell for that much to anyone but a collector (and they do exist), it's probably a nice sounding instrument.

It's always interesting to read assertions that the high end of an instrument line should be judged by the low end of the line.

The Adamas line, until fairly recently, had a composite sandwich soundboard, with carbon fiber on the outside and a thibpn layer of balsa IIRC in the middle. The soundboard was thinner, stiffer and lighter than even most soundboards today, and was consequently louder and more responsive. It didn't hurt that the soundboard suspension system was more flexible at the edges than conventional-construction instruments, reducing construction-related damping and giving the instruments far more sustain than other instruments.

Here on the Café, there are a lot of hidden assumptions supporting answers to the question, "What's the best-sounding mandolin?"

Some mandolin players of a particular genre don't care about sustain or high end, so factors which remove those aspects (floating bridges, f-hole construction which reduce the size of the vibrating soundboard area, arched top, etc.) aren't held against an instrument, or against accessories (like thick picks) which kill high end. Those who play other genres often do notice when those facets of an instrument's potential are dampened or removed, and gravitate towards other features (flat top, fixed pin bridge, soundhole(s) further away from the bridge area, etc.) as available.

There's an audible difference in timbre between the pre-Gibson Flatiron pancake instruments and their f-style instruments. They're both loud, but the vary in sustain and tone. The people who built both understood those factors.

It's okay for people to like what they like.

It's often useful to understand *why* someone likes a particular sound, and to also know what factors either contribute to or take away from that sound.

Again, I'm not in the market for a high-end mandolin, but I'm more likely to think the instrument sounds good than to immediately dismiss their builders.

[allenhopkins]

When Ovation guitars first came out in the 1960's, the clerk at Levis Music (long since defunct) here in Rochester tried to sell me one by banging the back down hard on the counter, and saying, "It's practically indestructible!" I guess if durability is what a guitarist is looking for the "Lyrachord" fiberglas shell had it.

Lots of performers back then picked Ovations because of their slim, electric-guitar-like necks, and their onboard pickup systems which were generally preferable to the soundhole pickups and screwed-into-the-top-of-your-Martin, knobs-and-all magnetic pickup systems that amplified acoustic guitars back then.

There was a lot of sloppy interior work on those Ovations, rough-finished braces and black paint sprayed into the soundhole to conceal lack of final smoothing. But performers told me they were good stage guitars, and we sure saw a bunch of well-known guitarists playing them.

[jaycat]

I sometimes borrow a friend's Ovation acoustic at jams and find it difficult to balance on my lap . . . anyone else experienced that?

[Seter]

I sometimes borrow a friend's Ovation acoustic at jams and find it difficult to balance on my lap . . . anyone else experienced that?

That's always been my gripe with them from playing my friends' Ovations, not a big deal if playing standing up but have to get used to that balancing act when sitting down.

[darrylicshon]

My ovation only cost $100 , it's OK I take it fishing sometimes

[Timbofood]

My ovation only cost $100 , it's OK I take it fishing sometimes

Where did you fit the Evinrude?

As I said to my wife when we saw something outrageously priced at an antique show..."Askin' ain't sellin'!".

[F-2 Dave]

Where did you fit the Evinrude?

As I said to my wife when we saw something outrageously priced at an antique show..."Askin' ain't sellin'!".

True. But they probably wouldn't get 3.7K if they didn't ask it.

[darrylicshon]

I hate to say it but I have sold a few instruments for more than I thought they should sell for, so you never know what could happen

[Timbofood]

Anytime I ever got my asking price, I felt like I went too low!
Human nature to try for a "deal" I suppose, I am not a big one for haggling, if something strikes me as within what I think is fair, I don't tend to even bother. I got a very agreeable price on a very old machinists case and a very solid bookcase from a guy who then agreed to deliver the bookcase for 10 bucks! It must have cost him 25 to feed the truck to get here but, he was on his way to another show so, I guess we all won that day. I'm about due for another day of fair trading!

[Jeff Mando]

I hate to say it but I have sold a few instruments for more than I thought they should sell for, so you never know what could happen

I think you can "push" the market, when the economy is doing well on certain things. I'm not sure the economy has bounced back much from 2008, though. Seems slow to me. And, I'm not sure an Ovation is the instrument to do the pushing. That being said, many times in the past I used the logic, "hadn't seen one of these up for sale in a while. Last one went for such and such price. I think I'll ask a little more for this one and see what happens."

[Timbofood]

My ovation only cost $100 , it's OK I take it fishing sometimes

Oh, I forgot to ask, how was the catch?

[jefflester]

One of those limited edition "book" MM68s was here in the classifieds within the last year or two. IIRC, seller was asking $2500 (maybe 2200 or 2300?). It hung around for a month or two.