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..

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.