I BOUGHT a cheap USED Ovation SIGHT UNSEEN from Guitar Center! (Unboxing & First Impressions) 

Same here!

Thanks, and agreed!!

These really are awesome guitars!

Haha thanks! I was very excited about it, and still am! Hope to have a follow up review on it soon. Stay tuned!

Yeah..love my Ovation more than my electric..

I was not aware of that! Very cool!

I have an Adamas 78 and I love it. It has been though hell. Hundreds of river trip, rolled over top loaded on a mule that flip over and a small plane wreck. Still kicking it. 🤗‼️

Leaves are called epaulettes 🍃

Thank you! It has been an amazing guitar. I should be putting together a full review, and my thoughts on it, now that I have had it a while here soon (hint: I really like it)

Thank you!

Thank you, really appreciate it! It does sound great, it has new strings on it now, and sounds even better.

For sure! I was excited to get this one from the 90s. I have always been a fan of older guitars, knowing that they have some form of history behind them.

Thanks! This has hands down been one of my best recent purchases. Just go done playing three worship services yesterday for Easter, and have no regrets on this being my main guitar.

Yeah, because Ovations don’t fit a standard guitar case, you can’t really shop around for a deal. Nobody else goes to the trouble and expense of making one, so the company has you right at its mercy!

That's awesome! I really hope it goes well for you, mine has been fantastic!

It has been amazing so far!

Thats awesome! What Ovation do you have?

I'm a huge fan of Ovation, this has been a fantastic guitar for me!

Very cool!

That is awesome! I've always been a fan of the super-shallow bodies like this one here, however I had a chance to play a mid-depth the other day for the first time, and was impressed! I definitely had a difficult time with a deep body that I played years ago. All of them are amazing guitars though, and definitely up there as one of my favorite brands.

Very cool!! Where did you buy yours?

That's awesome, I hope it goes well!

Very cool! Plugged in is definitely where these shine. I always missed my old Applause by Ovation, and am very happy to finally have this one, as I always regretted selling it as well. I've had it for a bit now, and am just as impressed with it and more. It sounds fantastic through the church's system, and am getting quite a few comments from other musicians on the sound of it, especially for the price.

For sure! I find the super-shallow bowl like this one does a great job of fixing that, but the mid-depths and deeper are definitely an issue. I played this one for around three hours yesterday, without much issue of the tilting.

you just to get fit and find your way around playing the deep bowl it haha@@Gear_43

Thanks, appreciate it!

That is really awesome! Where was the crack? I know my Applause by Ovation Super-Shallow had a superficial crack from the bridge down to the base of the guitar. I totally agree though, its been a decade since I have played one (until this video) and it didn't let me down. I added new strings to this one, and sounds much better, hopefully will follow up with another video on this guitar soon. Don't forget to subscribe and like, always helps me out!

@@Gear_43 The crack was in the same exact spot. Center line of the guitar from the bridge to the base of the guitar. Humidity strikes again!

@@garyjouvelakas2475 No kidding! Thats interesting its in the same place. Looks like I need to get a dehumidifier for mine!

@@Gear_43 my high school ovation was over 20 years old and sat in a case for more than 15 years so it's not a surprise this would happen but at the time I was unaware that this would happen. All in all, it worked out. I got a new Ovation that I play all the time plus 2 new Gibson LPs (a Slash Signature and Standard) with a Fender Custom Shop Jimi Hendrix Voo Doo Child Journeyman Relic on the way. I maybe going overboard on my guitar collection as of late. ;)

Very cool! I was just able to get mine plugged in, and am very impressed as well!

Glad to hear you are learning about your guitar, they really are great!

Thanks for all of this information, sounds like you have had quite the collection!

@@Gear_43 You can never have too many guitars. It's called GAS (guitar acquisition syndrome). It's worse for me because I play multiple instruments so I have to have multiple of each. So far I only have one banjo and one violin. I need to work on that.

Yes! That is generally the major concern most people have with their Ovation. I don't have too much of an issue with my Super Shallow body Ovation. Is yours the Super Shallow?

Yes, it's been an awesome guitar! Great to hear your experience!

Thanks for the comment! Sounds like you have quite a bit more experience with this instrument than I do!

Thanks!

These really are amazing guitars!

Thanks! It’s been a great guitar!

Glad to hear it!! You can reach out to Ovation directly, and they can get you all of the info on your guitar, but I will say that it seems the super-shallow are considerably more popular (especially in the newer guitars), and is likely what it is. The Koa or the Spalted Maple are both some of my favorite Ovations finishes!

@@Gear_43 thanks again because some internet folks opinions are shallows don't have a true Ovation sound..come on, GC I would like to hear for myself!!

Glad to hear it!

That's awesome!! How are you liking it so far?

It's a great guitar! Should have a more comprehensive review coming soon.

Thanks! It's been an awesome guitar. I should have a follow up video soon!

I'm pissed that none of the HBO-series guitars are available as left-handed models...

Did you really get that cheap?

Harley Benton's do look awesome! I considered them, however it seems shipping has gone up... which makes them just as expensive as something like an Ovation.

@@AUGUSTALLEN28 Yeah, I really did "get that cheap." I was desperate. I tried to find an Ovation but no stores in my area had any new or used ones and none of the U.S. based Internet retailers I knew of had any in playable condition, either. Searching led me to the Thomann website and the HBO 600. I almost DID NOT buy my first HBO 600. I assumed it was too inexpensive to actually be any good. To be honest, even after I cashed out on the Thomann site, my expectations were really, really low. The best I was hoping for was something to tide me over until I could get my hands on the real Ovation thing. But what I received was an instrument with correct neck angle and neck relief and 1st and 12th string height all set to minimum Ovation specification with the saddle height right in the middle of the Ovation specification height range. It was cosmetically flawless and I can't say that about every Asian-sourced Ovation Celebrity Series or Applause AE 128 I've ever had. What I got LOOKED like an Ovation. It FELT like an Ovation. It PLAYED like an Ovation. It STAYS IN TUNE like an Ovation. It SOUNDS like an Ovation is supposed to. It has the very even volume and sustain response up, down, and across the neck that Ovations are supposed to have. I had nothing whatsoever to complain about. I was so impressed with the first one (natural finish) that I bought another (piano black finish) later that same night. The second was as impressive as the first, so I bought another....... I am a worship pastor / praise and worship leader, so in a sense, I am a "professional musician" who makes my living playing and singing in front of people at least 104 days out of the year. I also front an "acoustic power trio" outside of church that consists of me on guitar, a bassist who plays an Ovation bass, and a percussionist who makes a cajon and various little trinkets sound like a full drum kit. We primarily do contemporary arrangements of traditional hymns and do about 25 shows a year. Then, there's a mid-week rehearsal and two pre-service sound-checks to play. And, like everybody else, there's practice time, working up new material, and so on, on top of all of that. I mention this not to brag or anything, but to give my comments a bit of perspective. If the HBO-600 wasn't something I could do a professional live performance with, I'd have ditched them pretty much immediately and stuck with the piezo-electric chambered-body Telecaster-style guitar that I built from parts. Now, the first HBO-600 I bought shipped with a defective pre-amp that died to or three days after it arrived at my front door. Fortunately, they use a common Belcat 505R preamp. I bought a new one from Amazon, had it in less than two days, paid about $10.00 for it, and it took me ten minutes to swap the defective one for it. Other than that, and the occasional truss rod tweak to keep the neck relief where I like it, and batteries for the pre-amp and fresh strings, I haven't had to touch the things except to play them. The tuners and everything else all work flawlessly in spite of all of the playing time the instruments get. The frets are still in good shape, too. I still can't believe I bought these things for $79.99 each plus shipping. I've bought six of them over the last 2.5 years, selling two just because people were willing to give me what I was into them for in order get a known good example and not risk getting a dud. So, I use four of them in total. I actually like these HBO-600's BETTER than any real Ovation I've ever had. These days, with Ovations not being particularly popular, and the current GEWA-Ovation being kind of a shadow of what KAMAN Ovation was, I like the fact that the HBO 600 uses common, easy to source preamps, pickups, and bridge saddles. I can get those thing from Amazon and have them shipped wherever I am in 2 days or less. If I was stuck with a real Ovation's proprietary pre-amp, bridge saddle, and pickup, and needed a replacement item, I might have a problem. Ovation of today doesn't offer the support to working musicians that the original company did. The HBO 600 uses a DOUBLE-ACTION truss rod. I like that. I can instantly set the neck relief how I like it. I don't have to wait for string tension to pull out a back-bow. MOST real Ovation-branded instruments have single-action truss rods, to my knowledge. The only one I ever had that didn't was an Applause AE-128 made in the Cor-Tek Indonesia factory. The bowl size is unlike anything Ovation offers today, aside from the Matrix series of instruments "Crafted in China." The current Matrix bowl is close but not exact. Ovation used to market a nylon string model made in the Cor-Tek factory that had a bowl like the HBO 600. It feels like a super-shallow when you're standing up playing it, but it is deep enough to actually work as an acoustic guitar if you need it to. The unique bowl size of the HBO 600 allows you to use a standard and common slope-shoulder dreadnaught case to protect it during transport. You don't need a proprietary and now hard to find case like you do with most real Ovations. Ovation always put the output jack on everything but stereo Adamas guitars in the the stupidest places. It isn't in a stupid location on the HBO-600. The HBO 600 top bracing is different than on a real Ovation, too. A real Ovation not properly stored can have the top belly up behind the bridge and sink into the bowl near the neck, and if it happens, it is a hard thing to fix. The HBO 600 is forward-shift X-braced and helps prevents this from happening. I'll address the elephant in the room here. The tops of the HBO-600 are LAMINATED spruce but frankly, on a guitar of this design, that''s what I want the top to be made from. The inert synthetic bowl doesn't change with changes in temp or humidity but a solid top is going to want to. This is why real Ovations with solid tops and modified fan bracing or A-braced tops get splits in the tops behind the bridge. Laminated tops deal with climate changes batter than solid ones do and offer more feedback resistance. They can also be thinner for the same strength as a solid board. They last longer, too. A laminated top, if cared for, is probably going to sound the same 30 years from now as it does today. Solid tops improve with age -to a point.... Then, beyond that point, they don't, and they can actually sound pretty awful I'm in the "Seven Years of Useful Life" camp where all-solid wood acoustic guitars are concerned. But the camp I'm most at home in is with a guitar like my HBO 600s that sound AWESOME plugged in or played into a microphone, right out of the box, and will KEEP sounding awesome indefinitely. Finally, nobody knows what a "Harley Benton" is. They think they're looking at and hearing a real Ovation when I play mine. They don't know I only paid $79.00 + shipping for them. At least once or twice a month, I have some teenager come up to me after the service or a show I do with my trio outfit and ask about my guitars. Often, they;ll say they want to do what I am doing and want a guitar just like mine to do it on. The first time that happened also happened to be the first time I played my first HBO 600 in public. I let this teenage girl try my guitar through my stage-rig pedal board, She found the instrument MUCH easier to play than her friend's guitar that she'd learned a few chords on. When she said, "Well, mom, I know what I want for Christmas," her mom shot that down immediately. "Sweetie, this nice man here is a professional, and I'm sorry but I can't afford to buy something like that guitar.." I told the mom what I paid for it. She didn't believe it, either. I didn't understand or appreciate that playing a cheap guitar in church might have some unintended or unforeseen benefit, but imagine if I had a $3,000.00 Taylor stropped on...... First off, I can't do on a Taylor what I can do on a guitar like the HBO-600 or a real Ovation as easily or in some cases even do at all. I'm often trying to create the illusion of playing a rhythm part and a lead line at the same time and that is while singing a lead vocal, too, so I need a guitar that is easy to play and doesn't run out of gas at the dusty end of the fingerboard, but lets me use the whole board, if I need to. So I doubt if I'd be inspiring many to follow in my footsteps if I played a different type of instrument. And if I did, but was playing some Collings or Huss and Dalton or whatever, that would be unobtainium to a stuggling single mom in a way that a $79.99 + shipping HBO -600 isn't. That girl did end up getting one of her own. She's now leading worship, too. That to me is priceless.

Thanks! How are you liking yours so far?

I like it plugged. It can compete with my Martin 000c (nylon) and Taylor 522e. Ovation has distinct and crisp sound. The other thing I like about the Ovation is it stays in tune unlike my other guitars mentioned that you always need to tune it esp. when temperature changes.

Thanks, appreciate it!

I think that really comes down to personal preference! I generally put lighter strings on my guitars, both because they are easier to play, but I also like that brighter sound.

Why do you say that?

12 strings are a blast! Have never played an Ovation version though, it must sound awesome!

This one is the Celebrity Deluxe CC257, its an older model!

@@Gear_43 cool thanks another questions this one made in the USA or Korea some people said the ones made in the USA has a ? Idk

Still a great guitar at that price! How are you liking yours?

Haha I've been quite impressed at how comfortable of a stage guitar that this super-shallow bowl is. Sitting with it on your lap is definitely where it falls short though.

Embarrassing comment It’s just you not the guitar. 😂

These are definitely built to be stage guitars, which is really where these shallow-bowl Ovations shine. It definitely lacks when unplugged, but is a purpose built guitar. If you don't ever plan on plugging in, you might want to look at one of their deeper bowl guitars, as they have incredible tone when unplugged.

This is accurate

The sound on this unplugged is definitely where it struggles, but plugged in is by far where it shines! It should also be mentioned, the strings on this guitar must have been 5+ years old, and the sound gets considerably better with a new set of strings. I should have a more comprehensive review of this guitar coming out soon if you want to keep an eye out!

This one is a Korean version!

It definitely shines when standing while playing!

Haha it's just how I talk, always has been

Haha fair enough! I’m going to be doing a follow up after spending tons of time with it soon, and will make sure to demonstrate the sound for yah!