Ovation Celebrity Elite CE44L-5-G

I was in the market for a new acoustic that would be louder and with better projection than my old acoustic. And since Ovation has a name with their "deep bowl" models that they acoustically project well and are often loud as a cannon, I decided to take the plunge and ordered this " mid bowl" model.

Well, I didn't expected this Ovation to be loud as a cannon, but it turned out that it indeed projects well, and is loud enough to be heard in an acoustic setting. The acoustic sound is very even, with focused mids and sufficient lows and highs. It sits in the mix perfectly, due to its somewhat archtop mids.

The build in tuner is a bit barebones but does work well enough, and the amplified sound can be tweaked to taste with the versatile three band equalizer. Does it sound good amplified? Well, I never been a fan of the piezo pickup system, it's workable, tweakable, and sounds fine with a little personal adjustment on the eq.

Tuners are a bit stiff perhaps with the .012's , but do their job fine.
Neck has a nice v shape feel to it, and the somewhat shorter scale makes it - even with 0.012 - play like a dream, almost somewhat "electric" feel. Only setup out of the box was some adjustment of the trussrod, but that's pretty mandatory for a lot of new guitars!

I have it for a couple of months now and I can truly say:

Love: the acoustic focused even sound, projection and its archtop mids, the lovely neck, compact shape, the looks.

Just fine/ not that important for me: the electronics, was really in the market for an acoustic without the electronics....

Hate: nothing actually, only gripe is that you have to unscrew the back disc for adjusting the trussrod..

Back in the 80s these guitars were all the rage. I couldn't afford one back then. These are now made in China so more affordable, but don't let that put you off, the quality of build is excellent. Lovely feel to the soft V neck. The sound is really nice un-plugged, and plugged in it has that Ovation sound. Not really aimed at modern finger style tapping, It excels with a pick, great for lead work with a nice spank which cuts through. They should, in my opinion, have upgraded the electronics to make this more modern. The only niggle I have is the tuner is a bit weird, you press the button and sometimes nothing seems to happen, and to turn the guitar back on after tuning you have to press and hold the button. I have kind of got used to it now. All in all though a very nice guitar.

At this price you would struggle to find another left handed electro acoustic guitar anywhere near as good as this. Even unplugged it sounds great; loud, lots of projection, very articulate with a well defined bass. I know the roundbacks are not everyones cup of tea, but you will not be disappointed with either the sound or the playability. Also it is very well made and finished. If I could change two things: a) I would like a wider neck (this is 42mm at the nut) because I fingerpick a lot and I am used to a slightly wider neck, and b) the tuner isn't the easiest to use, but it is accurate. Value for money wise this is an unbeatable buy for left handed players as our choice is so limited!

This Ovation lefty was a joy to play straight out of the box. The action is really impressive for factory set up and the (almost v shaped) neck feels lovely and thin enough for me to wrap my hand around and fret with my thumb when required....never been able to do that before...the strings are as close together as my electric but this makes it easier to transition between the two and th sound is crystal clear.
It takes a bit of getting used to the round back but that's just a familiarity thing. The tuner didn't, and still doesn't work on it...I was in need of this guitar as a music teacher and didn't want to send it back and risk further damage (and be without an instrument in the classroom). I hope to get the tuner issue sorted at some point. It is this point that lost it a star for quality.