Ovation Celebrity Guitar Review: Acoustics Under $500 Reviews

Hello and welcome to my Ovation Celebrity acoustic guitar review.

In this review I’ll cover the following for Ovation’s Celebrity Standard Acoustic-Electric:

• The Tone;
• The Playability;
• The Materials the Celebrity is made from;
• Who the Celebrity is best suited to;
• The Celebrity’s value-for-money

I will also show videos of the guitar being played to give you an idea of the sound and some user reviews so that you can get some other people’s opinions in addition to mine.

There are a couple of different models of Ovation’s Celebrity guitar. The one I am reviewing is the CS24 model, aka The Celebrity Standard Mid-Depth Cutaway.

O.k., let’s get right into it.

The Tone

I found the Celebrity to have a nice even compact tone. It’s not a super expressive tonal character but you could definitely get some energy and projection out of it.

It also has great clarity between notes. You can hear everything come through when strumming chords. I would say its strength is definitely in strumming and not so much in playing leads and single notes. But it’s also decent for fingerpicking.

It is definitely a guitar that makes it easy to control the sound which makes it (amongst other things) a great guitar for a beginner.

In terms of brightness, I would say the CS24-4 has a crisp bright tone. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being very warm and 10 being very bright the CS24-4 was about a 7 to my ear.

The Materials

Here’s a quick overview of the materials used that have an effect on the sound.

Top: Solid Spruce

Back & Sides: well back only – Ovations don’t have sides really! The back is made from Lyrachord – which to the best of my knowledge is some sort of fiberglass. It has a mid-depth bowl.

Bracing: Scalloped X Bracing

Bridge: Rosewood. A very popular option for guitar makes, it is considered one of the best woods for acoustic guitars. A solid choice.

Nut: ABS – one step up from plastic but not as nice as other materials

Nice to see a solid top in this price range. It’s the kind of price where you sometimes get solid wood for the top and sometimes laminate wood.

The unique feature of Ovations is their rounded back. This is made from Lyrachord. I tried to find out exactly what this is but the best I could find was that it was some kind of fiberglass. Whatever it is, the design is made to try to produce the best volume, projection, and tone.

The Celebrity Standard has a mid-depth back – as its full name reveals (Celebrity Standard Mid-Depth Cutaway). There are slimmer and deeper depths you can get with Ovations.

I didn’t feel the guitar was that loud but it had decent projection.

Electronics

The Celebrity Standard comes with an OP-4BT preamp and Ovation Slimline Pickup. It also has a built-in tuner.

Videos

Check out the video below to get some idea of the sound for yourself.

Playability

I found the Celebrity standard super easy to play both technically and physically which was nice.

I’m not used to playing Ovations so it took a little getting used to playing sitting down with that rounded back. But after a few minutes, I didn’t notice it at all.

Action

Set up is actually really good as is. I don’t know that I’d adjust anything – it was just nice to play straight away. I might measure it up and see if there were any slight tweaks I could make but you can definitely play this straight out of the box.

Nut Width

The width at the nut is 1.6875. (42.86mm) which is narrower than your average acoustic guitar width. This helps to make it physically easier to play – especially if you have smaller hands.

Fretboard (fingerboard)

The Celebrity Standard has a rosewood fingerboard.

Scale Length

The scale length of this guitar is 25.25. (642mm) which is pretty standard.

Who this Guitar is Most Suited to

I think this would be a great beginner guitar because it is nice to play both physically and technically and also because the tone is nice and compact and it stays in tune really nicely – I didn’t have to tune it at all the whole time I played it and it was in tune when I pulled it off the rack (definitely not always the case).

But it’s certainly not just for beginners. This guitar would be a great guitar for playing live or jamming with others as a rhythm guitar. It’s got a tone that doesn’t overpower. It’s great for that constant strum.

Probably not the instrument I would buy as a solo guitarist for performing – but each to their own on that – but perfect as that accompanying rhythm guitar.

Value for Money

Yeah, definitely value-for-money. It’s got a great sound for the price and really nice to play.

Although this guitar has an MSRP of like $500, in reality (the funny thing with guitar prices!) you will probably find it for between $350 – $400.

One great thing is that you actually get decent strings with this guitar (D’Addario EXP11 Coated 80/20 Bronze) – so as well as probably not needing to adjust the action, you also don’t need to change the strings. This is a rarity on a guitar in this price range.

More Info and Where to Buy

Disclosure: Links below are affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you make a purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you.

Overall this is a nice little guitar all around. Easy to play and nice even compact yet bright but not too bright tone.

Check out the links below to learn more about the Celebrity Standard and some online stores where it is available.

• Ovation Celebrity Standard at Amazon.com

Thanks for reading and I hope this review has helped you to learn more about this guitar. Check out more guitars under 500 reviews at the link below.

• Guitars Under 500 Reviews

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