NGD - GSR F30CE

HeyMikey

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About a month or so ago I jumped on this one but am now finally getting to spend some time with it. I took a drive down to the New Hartford CT area and picked up this 2014 repaired beauty from a guy who works at the Ovation shop. It was a great opportunity to try a guitar on my want list that normally I would never be able to afford.

This one has a veeeery long, but nicely repaired crack on the bass side of the rear that doesn’t seem to affect the sound. Other than that, a couple nitro finish cracks near the bridge and some pick swirls she is in mighty fine shape.

Carpathian spruce top, Cocobolo sides and rear, ebony fretboard and bridge, nice open back tuners, classy abalone appointments, and most importantly a comfortable size and that 1-3/4 nut width.

The neck feels as perfect as anything I’ve ever played. Almost effortless. The tone is what you’d expect from Coco in that it is crisper than EIR, accentuating the mids and highs, and has great sustain in the finish.

The EJ16 phosphor bronze strings did not complement it as well as I’d like, making the tone sound a bit brittle. However, the EJ40 silk & steels that Woody recommended (thank you sir!) made all the difference in the world in rounding out the harshness. Sounds, plays and looks like a million bucks.

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walrus

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The cocobolo is beautiful - so is the whole guitar!! Congratulations!

walrus
 

chazmo

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Love the cocobolo, Mikey. Very beautiful guitar. My F-40 GSR is cocobolo too, but the grain is not nearly as eye-popping.

Enjoy!!!
 

twocorgis

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Beautiful guitar Mike! I hope those tuners are better than the ones that came on my Orpheums! They got swapped out in short order.
 

PreacherBob

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That…guitar…is…😲!!!💥!!🤯….mind..blown

Me..thirty minutes before the UPS truck arrives…two words:
Bubble….Wrap

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Westerly Wood

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Really gorgeous guitar, Mikey. The back/sides are beautiful. Have not seen a lot of that wood before. There’s a beautiful knot on there too. Striking.

+1 on the EJ40s too. They really give my Br more of a vintage wood sound. They really mellow out well too but keep a bronze character that is clear. Not to mention they’re super easy to fret and play.
 

Boneman

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That’s very striking looking, and I like the 12th fret marker. So cool, thanks for sharing!
 

HeyMikey

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Thanks everyone for the kind words. Yeah, I’m very pleased with this guitar. I was expecting it to be in worse shape as he described it as being in fair condition. I think that scared others away and allowed me to take a chance on it.

It had never been set up so the saddle and action was very high, and there was fret buzz because the neck had zero relief. Easy to assess and fix along with minor fret leveling on the bass side that luckily made it play right.

Interesting to note that there are about five people left at the Ovation shop working on high end models. He said there was talk about expanding it to include custom shop type work but that remains to be seen.
 

tommym

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Carpathian spruce top, Cocobolo sides and rear, ebony fretboard and bridge, nice open back tuners, classy abalone appointments, and most importantly a comfortable size and that 1-3/4 nut width.

What is the string spacing at the bridge?

It's simply amazing the spectrum of acoustic guitars that Guild managed to produce in their seven years in New Hartford, CT. Let's not forget their repair/restoration service too! For me, New Hartford set the high water mark for Guild Guitars.

Tommy
 

plaidseason

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Thanks everyone for the kind words. Yeah, I’m very pleased with this guitar. I was expecting it to be in worse shape as he described it as being in fair condition. I think that scared others away and allowed me to take a chance on it.

It had never been set up so the saddle and action was very high, and there was fret buzz because the neck had zero relief. Easy to assess and fix along with minor fret leveling on the bass side that luckily made it play right.

Interesting to note that there are about five people left at the Ovation shop working on high end models. He said there was talk about expanding it to include custom shop type work but that remains to be seen.
As sad as I was to see Guild leave southern New England a second time, it's good to know that there is still some kind of Ovation operation going on there. My very first non-garbage acoustic was an Ovation overseas made Applause, which I chose in part because of the Connecticut connection. I didn't even know Guild was in Westerly (and I'd been regularly going to Westerly my entire life) until the mid 1990s.
 

chazmo

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As sad as I was to see Guild leave southern New England a second time, it's good to know that there is still some kind of Ovation operation going on there. My very first non-garbage acoustic was an Ovation overseas made Applause, which I chose in part because of the Connecticut connection. I didn't even know Guild was in Westerly (and I'd been regularly going to Westerly my entire life) until the mid 1990s.
Chris, I agree completely. Ovation was there before Guild and the business took things as it did. At our first LMG event, I was glad to see Frank Untermyer and the rest of the crew looking at Guild as an opportunity and not as an interloper destroying a home brand. Anyway, I came at Ovation completely differently, obviously, but am very glad it's still happening there. Do you know if they're still making Adamas?
 
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