Ovation Academy KA-14
My taste in guitars runs all over the place. I can't really say I'm a guitar snob because I like cheap guitars too. Some guitars can be works of art with tons of inlay, superb finishes, hand shaped braces, all that. Those are attributes we can all appreciate and admire. However I also have a great deal of admiration for any company that can make a cheap guitar and make it good. Anyone can make a cheap guitar! Kay and Harmony made cheap guitars for decades. And many were horrible. The Chinese make cheap guitars that are pretty. Marvelous finishes, pretty wood.... and they're horrible. A company like Seagull makes cheap guitars and some are really good (see my Seagull page!).I thought I knew a lot about guitar history but I didn't know anything about this series until a few years ago and didn't lay hands on one until I bought one on ebay for $61. This is an Ovation Academy model KA-14. It was made in 1981. They were made from about 1978 to the early 80s sometime. The only wooden part on this guitar is the bridge. The rest is either plastic or aluminum. This one has the aluminum neck like an early Moosup Applause but with a 12th fret joint. The bowl is typical Ovation but the top is made of plastic under the trade name Kamonic. The top and braces are made in one piece. I emailed Ovation and they barely remembered making them. I went inside with a mirror and found the top and braces to be molded of one piece as opposed to separate pieces like a Garrison. The top seems very much dimensionally stable and shows predictable bulge, no more than expected and probably less than what you'd find on a garden variety "real" Ovation. The top looks white in the photos, and I'm not sure if that's what it's supposed to be.... it definitely has a blue tint to it now; no idea if that's on purpose or as a result of the plastic aging.
Plastic guitar. Think about that. Can you imagine how crappy it should sound?
You'd be wrong.
This guitar sounds fantastic. Deep hollow bass.... try to imagine yourself putting a mitten on and thumping on a steel oil barrel. Wonderful sound. It has the bass and volume that most guitars WISH they had.
Email: ksdaddy@yahoo.com
