When I go shopping, for an acoustic, I will just strum the guitars as they hang from the wall, listening to the tone. Things such as the action can be addressed later but tone is set in stone - so to speak.
Ovations - either you love them or hate them. I happen to have been in lust for one since the early 1970s. When I finally decided to begin looking for one, I was surprised to find the Celebrity line. Inexpensive Chinese builds, they are Ovations 100%. The tone, the feel, the appointments.
You can see where cost cutting took place - the material used in the bracing structure, even the "multi piece exotic hardwood rosette" feels relatively cheap. Liberal use of foam materials to buffer or dampen. When I opened the backing plate it appears as though the cap is one piece? I was under the impression that it is laminated. The top has a small dimple near the bridge at one end (there are several pencil marks on the inside indicating why it could not be used for the side that will show).
Very typical Ovation neck - which is to say, fast. Frets are well set, the undercut is evident under the binding, which is thick. There is abalone binding on the face to compliment the stunning quilt.
One of the abalone fret markers is the exact same color as the portion of the fretboard it occupies...and so is invisible. There are numerous pin marks from the manufacturing process on the back of the neck, I would assume marks from hanging.There is a small gap as the binding transitions from the body to the neck.
The pre-amp OP4B is serviceable - a three band EQ and a built in tuner, but nothing special as far as bells and whistles. As far as delivering tone - in spades (with the EQ left neutral).
The action is adjustable? Yeah, remove the strings and carefully lift the bridge and there are shims underneath/inside. By adding or removing shims the end user can adjust the action, which as far as I know is very unusual for acoustics. Just one innovation among the many Ovations brings to the table.
Other innovations (also cost cutting) are a pinless bridge (through holes, like any modern tailpiece) the multi sound holes (which I have to believe increase cost - access to the truss rod is via a removable panel on the back) and of course the spherical composite bowl for a back. That allowed for some very innovate bracing structures such as the X or in the case of the Celebrity it is a Quintad.
The tone is Ovation. It is so distinct and easily recognized. A Strat can be heard coming from a mile away whereas humbuckers as practiced on Gibsons are oft copied and so have attained almost a generic status, like a Q-Tip or Xereox - most humbckers sound similar. (I think only the player hears the differnece much of the time - our perception of the sound is very different from the audiences)
Ovations have a touch of reverb and much fuller mid range frequencies. The upper registers can get somewhat brittle. That can be altered with a string change.
The guitar just rings. This thing fairly warbles in my ear. Never mind that they string it with a wound 'G' at the factory, bronze - too. They are also pretty loud even before you plug them in. The slimline pickup when coupled with the OP4B preamp deliver beautiful Ovation shades. There is almost a buzz when they play, an electric snap. They are also the only guitars I have seen people physically play the life right out of. They thrash and beat them as though they were playing the nastiest metal imaginable.
None of the flaws really took anything away from this guitar. It seems to be priced at $499 for the flame quilt top, but if you're willing to buy through GO-DPS/Amazon as I did, you can score one for $449. (Tell Joe that Ernie sent you).
Retailers/Ovation portray it as a starter guitar and because of the inexpensive nature, I'd agree, but for sound quality it is incredibly difficult to tell it apart from a more expensive brother.
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