Prior to buying this guitar, I never really had any intention of buying an acoustic guitar. While I had toyed around with the idea, and thought it’d be nice to have one, I never really thought seriously about buying one.
One fine day, while tinkering around in Hames Music (I believe I was having my Strat set up), I wandered into the acoustic guitar section. I happened to look up and see this beautiful acoustic guitar.
This is another example of that mystical moment when a musician meets a guitar. I’ve joked around that, if the guitar could have talked, it would have said βHey. Where’ve you been? I want to go homeβ.
I took it down and played it. And I knew right away that I’d be buying it. I laid away the guitar and, when I had paid it off, fulfilled my part of the bargain that saw it going home with me.
This guitar is by no means one of the best that Ovation makes.But it’s a great example of how, even among cheaper guitars, one can occasionally come across one that is incredibly sweet.
* According the serial number, this guitar was manufactured in 1981. But I bought it brand-new in a music store in 1992. So either the serial number on the guitar is wrong, or this guitar has a more interesting history than I know of.
[hr]
Completed:
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1981*
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Purchased:
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Mar 1992
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Body Wood:
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Unknown
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Fingerboard:
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Rosewood
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Manufacturer:
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Model:
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Ultra
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Purchased:
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Hames Music
Gaffney,SC |
Price:
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$570
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Strings:
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βI know how to get there;
all I have to do is keep playing.β
– Jimmy Page
There are only a few things I regret in my life. Not learning to play an instrument is one of them. Especially the guitar.
She does look sweet.
I like it. Elegant simplicity.
It took me twenty years, but I finally wrapped my arms around the only Ovation that I ever considered to be “incredibly sweet.” Love at first site can be so very painful.
I agree with your other comment about “bang for the buck.” However, mine was the rare case where the bucks made the bang.
Ciao,
C-
WOW! What a beautiful Guitar. I started beating up perfectly good guitars while serving in Vietnam with the 5th SFG in 1969. I was sent into the jungle to play. The said I played so badly that I could do more damage to the enemy with my guitar than I could with a rifle. I happened across an Ovation Acoustic 12 String Model 1118 Glen Campbell Signature model 18 years later in Durban South Africa and it was love at first sight. The sound is jst magnificent. I still can’t play much better now than I did then, but I love it when one of my freinds picks it up and plays it like it is supposed to be played. I still have that guitar and although I only paid $110 for it, I have refused an offer of $1800 for it. The 3 things I have that I will never part with are my Ovation 12, my wife of 40 years, and my dog, in that order.
So the guitar is your favorite weapon of war, Dan? π
I’d love to hear that Ovation 12. I still think Ovations are hard to beat for the price. And if you got that one for $110, that’s an amazing find – especially if it sounds great. I catch hell from some of my snooty guitar friends, who are all about Martins and Alvarez. But I’ve had no complaints with my Ovations. And honestly, they seem to be holding up better than my friends’ more expensive guitars. π