This Is A Seriously Rocking Electric Acoustic Guitar
Written: May 20 '07 (Updated Sep 22 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Combination of great electric and acoustic sounds in one package
Cons: None, except maybe price
The Bottom Line: The Ovation VXT is a guitarist's guitar, ideal for performers who play both acoustic and rock. It's got great growl and superb acoustic presence.
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| buffoonery's Full Review: Ovation Vxt Acoustic/Electric Guitar |
Ovation Guitars was founded in 1966 by Charles Kaman, an engineer who cut his teeth designing helicopters with the legendary Igor Sikorsky. The company has always focused on producing acoustic guitars. It pioneered the use of synthetic materials and, perhaps more importantly, on board preamps and piezo pickups. These innovations helped make the firm’s guitars increasingly popular in the 1970s and the firm’s guitars now are a mainstay of acoustic players across the country.
I, on the other hand, am a Martin man so Ovation guitars have played no role in my guitar-playing life until now. This entrée occurred when I stumbled across the new Ovation VXT when I was recently trolling around at the local Guitar Center. I was actually there to mess out the new Digital Les Paul but the slugs didn’t have one yet. After fooling around with the new VG Stratocaster for a while (a guitar I like but I still think it’s overpriced, see my review http://www.epinions.com/content_341064126084 ), the sales guy pointed me in the direction of VXT.
This. . . is a very interesting machine, a cross between a humbucking electric and an Ovation or Taylor piezo-equipped acoustic. More specifically, the VXT (the initials stand for “variable cross tone”) is an acoustic-electric hybrid. In other words, you can use it for either acoustic or electric purposes, or blend the two sounds. The guitar is about halfway between a Strat and Les Paul in weight and is thinner than a typical acoustic instrument, maybe about the width of an LP or a little wider, I didn’t measure.
The body is a one-piece chambered Honduras mahogany with a solid spruce top that produces a nice, bright sound. No sound hole. The neck is also Honduras mahogany with a rosewood fingerboard and pearl inlays. The black instrument that I played looked sharp though a little non-traditional to a Strat-head like me. The body has a mild single cutaway that offers good access to all twenty-two frets. The scale length is 25 ¼” and nut width is 1 11/16”. The neck reminds me of a slim Les Paul and the guitar plays more like a LP than a Strat. It doesn’t feel like an acoustic guitar at all; this is an electric guitar with acoustic gizmos attached. There is through-the-body stringing with individual intonation and saddle height adjusters for each string. Look closely at this guitar it screams “quality”.
Now, so far you’ve got a something that feels like a typical solid-body electric with some high-end materials. The guts of the guitar, as one might guess, are in the hybrid electronics. On the electric side, the VXT includes two 57 Seymour Duncan humbuckers, one at the neck and one in the bridge. For the acoustic tones, there is a Fishman power bridge pushing a VIP power amp.
On the front of the guitar are three control knobs and a selector switch. Directly below the bridge is a single pickup control for the two pickups (I would prefer separate controls for each pick-up ala a Les Paul, but you can’t have everything). The middle tone control affects the humbuckers, which acts by cutting high frequencies. The third control blends the sounds of the humbuckers and acoustic pickup, from 100% acoustic to 100% electric and points in between. Finally, the three-way pickup selector lets you choose neck, bridge or both humbuckers. There is a quarter-inch output jack on the lower right side.
The reverse of the body has the six string anchor grommets, the battery compartment for the 9V battery required to power the guitar, and the LED that tells you when the battery is low. Lastly, there is a mono/stereo switch for output jack configuration. In mono, use a standard guitar cable, plug it into your amp, and the output will reflect the acoustic/electric mix you set with the pickup blend control on the guitar’s front. In stereo, employ a stereo Y-cable and plug into two separate amps for electric sounds from one and acoustic from another. (My demo guitar was plugged into a Peavey head and cab and a really sweet Fishman Power Box 120 that I can’t review despite my pal sparkospunky’s best efforts to get it on the board.)
Question: So how does it sound?
Answer: Really cool.
You going to be scratching your head over the versatile and terrific sounds that this guitar provides. The two Seymour Duncan humbuckers produce a warm sound with a surprising amount of bite and growl. Playing through the Peavey head, I was able to get good jazz and blues tones through the clean channel with saturated overdrive when I pushed the guitar’s volume control to ten that makes it well suited for rock hard rock. I mean, I was really surprised: this is a very good electric guitar with natural distortion resembling a Gibson SG.
But it was the acoustic tone that blew me away. I mean, I freaked when I dialed up the Fishman. This thing sounds great whether you use fingerpicking, a pick, or hybrid picking. Playing ELP’s From the Beginning and the Allmans’ Sweet Melissa, I thought I was on my Martin, it sounds so clean. There is nothing about this that sounds processed (unlike the Stratocaster VG and some of the Variax acoustic models). You can even get nice classical tones. The fact that you can blend the acoustic and electric sounds is a real bonus (although I didn’t try this because of the stereo configuration, I can only imagine how cool the acoustic with a little humbucker bite would sound, or maybe 90% humbucker with a little acoustic to add body). And, because it’s really electric guitar, when dialed acoustic you can do a lot with it that you can’t with a traditional acoustic.
At $1700, this guitar ain’t cheap. But I think it’s worth it. It has high quality construction and amazing versatility. The acoustic sounds on the VXT simply blow away the acoustic component of the VG Stratocaster and the humbucking sounds are also far superior (of course, you get a single-coil wail from this guitar). The blend option has real potential. The whole thing is really cool. So who should consider buying this guitar? I think it’s designed for serious performing guitarists who need to switch from a growling rock sound to a fine, clean acoustic and do so quickly. Solo performers who play different music styles in the same on-stage act will find also this particularly intriguing and convenient. Straight electric and acoustic players will find much to like but can probably find the equivalent tones in cheaper, non-hybrid guitars and better tones in non-hybrids at the same price. Novices, rookies, poseurs and heavy metal types should stay away.
Have fun. This guitar is pushing its way to the top of my Christmas list.
Those who want to see some very good videos of this guitar in action should go to YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=theVXT .
Technical Specifications:
Type 6-String Hybrid Electric/Acoustic
Finish Options Teardrop Burst, Black
Top Solid Spruce
Body One-Piece Chambered Honduras Mahogany
Neck One-Piece Honduras Mahogany
Neck Finish Gloss
Nut Width 1 11/16"
Fingerboard Rosewood
Fingerboard Inlays Pearl Dots
Scale Length 25 1/4"
Bridge Fishman Power Bridge
Tuners Chrome
Magnetic Pickups Seymour Duncan '59 Humbuckers
Acoustic Preamp VIP Microphone Imaging
Schechter Diamond C+1
PRS Single Cut
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Recommended:
Yes
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