you know, the last time i went to buy an acoustic, i went and was prepared to spend upwards of $2000 if i needed to to get what i really w2anted. i played every single guitar in the acoustic room at the store, many of them over $1000. you know what i got? the least expensive Taylor there. it cost me $450 but sounded amazing to me. i say go and try all of the guitars that are in your price range. when you find one you love the sound and feel of. do it, no matter what the name is on it or how little it costs.good luck!

I have a masterbuilt epiphone guitar and it sounds awesome. Cost me around $488.00 after negotiating from 596.00 (list price 1,200.00, yeah right).

And also try them all plugged in if that is a feature you want and need.

I have never played an Applause I like. If you've got the money, I'd shell it out. Applause guitars generally only go up to about $200, anyway, so unless you're really strapped, a real Ovation should be within reach. My current guitar is an Ovation Elite 1760 and I love it.

Ovations are not true acoustic guitars. They're great plugged in, but if you attempt to record one acoustically, (meaning with mics,) it's lack of acoustic texture is glaring! All that plastic, curved or not, adversly affects the final acoustic sound. That being said, Applause is even less of an acoustic than an Ovation.

Do yourself a favor and get a REAL acoustic, if that's what you're looking for, and skip the pretenders.

(Guess you can tell I don't have a lot of love for plastic guitars!)

Out, evil Ovation hater! Ovations are great guitars.

It's true that they are better performing instruments than recording instruments. That said, I use my Ovation for recording and it sounds just fine as long as the strings aren't too old. I have a pretty nice one, though; I'm not sure I would be so eager to record with a $400 Celebrity.

LOL... I gained my opinion from playing them and listening to them recorded acoustically. (The rounded back also makes them more difficult to sit and play.) They are great performing acoustics, and from the point of view of most people sound great. But when you scope them in the studio and see what they're really putting out compared to a pure acoustic, they just don't stand up and require more control room fiddling to get sounding as full as an acoustic should sound. Good guitar for an electric player looking to switch back and forth as they are a bit easier to play than many other acoustics. (I'm a 12 string guy and I don't at all like the 12 strings from Ovation.)

Remember this is all personal opinion and the only one you have to please is yourself. As long as you don't get tunnel vision for this guitar and make the effort to check out others in the same price range, if it's the guitar that makes you happy, it's the right guitar for you!

I must admit I am the only exclusively acoustic player I know whose primary instrument is an Ovation.

I decided against Ovation the first time I tried one, it kept slipping off my lap. To be honest I haven't given them much thought since then but I do view them as a performers guitar and since I don't perform I haven't consisdered them. I really don't know how much difference there is between Ovation and Appause but like any other guitar maker there is a reason why Kaman gave them two different brand names. This also goes back to my views on First Act guitars if you are going to devolpe a product sold in Target and Wal Mart Please rename your High end guitars to something else.

i view them as complete crap. .... cmon guys.... what did you EXPECT me to say!?!?!? IM SATAN!!!

Xark is right about recording Ovations acoustically. If you try to mic the soundhole it does sound as good as other acoustics. If I plug it in and mic the amp, it sounds great. Especially through my Marshall acoustic amp.

Usually when I record, I put a mic in front of my old Yamaha and get a great sound. But when I play out, Nothing beats the sound of my Ovation.

I was very much a purist about acoustics for a long time. I would only consider guitars that looked like Hank Williams would have played them. The thing that motivated me to get the Ovation I play now was economics. It was used, and I had limited funds to work with. I've had it for around three years now, and it has really grown on me. Actually, about a week and a half ago, I used it at a gig in a little coffee shop where the space was so small that I didn't need a sound system at all. I went totally unplugged with my Ovation and it sounded great. I only wish the sustain were a little better.

As I said above, though, I have no such illusions about cheap Ovations.

I own an 1861 Balladeer that I've had since 86' and you couldn't get me to part with it. It doesn't have the sound that, say, a Taylor has, but Ovations are made to be played out live, not for camp fire sing alongs. I love the action on that guitar, and it stays in tune! If you put a strap on the guitar, that should solve the problem of it always sliding down. If you want something that sounds great acoustically, I would go with another guitar. This one's meant to be plugged in. It's all in what your looking for. I would follow Satan's advice. If you like it, can afford it, buy it.

All my acoustics are also electric and I still prefer to put a mic in front of them, because I'm having a lot of trouble getting the piezzo pickups to sound right.

I only tried an ovation once, when I was looking for a 12string. I didn't like the idea of plastic but I gave it a try anyway. As soon as I sat down I knew the turtle-shaped back felt wrong. I guess being used to playing a jumbo acoustic also made me biased against the bowl-shape. If it would have been my first acoustic I might have liked it a lot more.