[HANASHIR:14664] Re: guitar advice

[Ethan Leigh Bueno de Mesquita <mesquita...>]

Hi

I'd like to add my two cents in opposition to buying an Ovation as a first
guitar. For a few reasons.

The main reason is that, when played non-electric, many ovations have a
rather thin, tinny sound, especially in the bass. I think a lot of people
get tired of/frustrated with the sound of their Ovations after a while
(the one acception I can think of to this is Josh Miller's really lovely
custom Ovation, so Josh, don't take offense :)) In general, though,
the Ovation sound is just not the sound you want, say, sitting around
teh living room singing folk music. Secondly, Ovations tend to have very
low actions (so as to facilitate electric playing) which can be nice when
you are juststarting but doesn't help, long run, in building strong
fingers.

My recommendation would be to look into some of the very fine guitars now
being made with solid tops and laminated backs and sides. These guitars
are much more affordable than all solid instruments (they tend to be
priced between $300-$60), they sound great (much better than a
guitar that is all laminated), and (perhaps most importantly for a new
player) are usually made with very high quality tuning machines (there is
nothing more frustrating for a starting player than having their guitar go
out of tune every 15 minutes). I know companies like Guild (I think the
D-4), Yamaha, and others are making such guitars.

Good luck,

Ethan


*******************************
Ethan Bueno de Mesquita
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
Washington University
CB 1063
1 Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO  63130

mesquita (at) post(dot)harvard(dot)edu
www.fas.harvard.edu/~mesquita

"Prudence is a rascally virtue." -- Benjamin Rush


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