applause by ovation

It all depends on what you want from it, I have one similar with double cutaway and on board electrics, and to be honest I would pick up any of my other four acoustics if wanting to play without it mic'd or plugged in. I don't personally find enough warmth from the instrument from the playing perspective. It sounds better from where the sound is projected a few feet than from where I am while playing. The mids and highs are pretty good and transparent but they do lack a bit lower down. It would be a good idea to play a similar design in a shop to see if it measures up to what you want before shelling out. For gentle playing with a body that's quite accommodating for chillax horizontal renditions it's an unobtrusive reasonable tool if not wanting to have the solidity of a conventional bodied guitar.

All the best

Tim
 
I had an applause back in the early 1980's. It had a cast aluminum fretboard and frets. I'm not kidding the freakin' frets and fretboard were one piece!
It was ok I guess. Once you screw a fret up the whole guitar is garbage though. I would try to find an old Yamaha from the late 70's for that budget. I would take a beat to hell and back scratched up Yamaha red dot over a mint condition ovation applause any day of the week
 
I had one for a few years....it's was real pretty looking guitar with a sweet honey-burst top, and it sounded OK...but I quickly grew to hate the stupid curved back with no sides, and found that it didn't play all that great, the neck seemed to be fighting me a lot. I sold it off after a couple of years.
 
That guitar already has a pickup in it, so you wouldn't need to add a pickup. Have you actually every played a plastic-bodied Ovation and listened to it?
 
I played with a friend in the mid 80's who had one. He traded in his Ibanez Hummingbird 12 string for it. It took about 3 months before the fibreglass bowl began to peel away &he hadn't been happy with the tone at all. Traded it back & still has/uses/loves the Ibanez.
 
muttley600 said:
Thats too much...
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Especially if it has a bad "fret".

Those one piece aluminum neck/fretboard/frets were suppose to be cheaper to replace the while thing than referring a worn our one in theory.

Good luck finding a replacement aluminum one piece neck now.
Lol
What a boneheaded idea
 
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I'm actually one of the few that kinda likes Ovations although they really tend to develop problems after maybe 10 years or so.

But the Applause is a totally different beast and is a POS.
As miro said ..... I don't know if the new ones still use that aluminum neck but the old ones did ..... it was a cast fretboard/frets with some kinda foam filling in the back on the neck and painted to look sorta like wood.
I would absolutely stay the hell away from one of those.
 
I think my Applause was the 'celebrity' model and was around $200 circa 1985 or so. It was a pos, but seemed great at the time because it:
  1. had Ovation as the mother company, though in retrospect it was probably just the same corporate relation by ownership and had nothing to do with quality or production of the instrument
  2. it had the single cutaway design which, as an aspiring shredder in '85, seemed nice because then I would be able to do high-fretted leads when needed on acoustic guitar songs :facepalm:

That roundback design REALLY sucked when trying to play sitting down, I certainly remember that.
 
Seeker of Rock said:
That roundback design REALLY sucked when trying to play sitting down, I certainly remember that.
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a lotta people say that but I had an Ovation and it had a piece of rubber that grabbed my pants leg right where the curve sits on your leg.
I don't remember having any trouble at all playing it while sitting.
 
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Ovation came out with a semi flat back a while back.It's been ages since I played one and you most certainly don't see as many around as you did years back.
 
I have been an Ovation owner and player since 1978, I own three Ovations. I still have the Ovation I bought in 78 and it still plays and sounds great. The Applause on the other hand is a POS and as big of an Ovation fan as I am I hate to say it, but since Fender bought out Kaman Music the Ovation brand has gone to hell. See if you can find an old Yamaha or Guild.
 
Lt. Bob said:
a lotta people say that but I had an Ovation and it had a piece of rubber that grabbed my pants leg right where the curve sits on your leg.
I don't remember having any trouble at all playing it while sitting.
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If the Applause would have come with a piece of rubber maybe it would have made a difference, but it did not come with that luxurious appointment. I remember it would slide down my thigh away from me as I would try to play. I replaced it with a Korean (I think Korean) Fender LaBrea in 1993 that was a much better sounding and playing guitar. I had that one until my Taylor purchase.
 
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