This is an original instrument that combines the acoustic qualities the brand has accustomed us to with a clever technology capable of playing and recording MP3s. Its onboard preamp has a digital display that lets us manage audio files and also transfer them to our computer via USB.
Construction
This guitar features the brand's signature construction, Ovation's classic Mid-Depth composite body. This gives the instrument the familiar tone of the company's guitars: broad sonic projection and a solid tone. As for the neck, it has an electric-guitar feel: it's slim and has 20 hand-finished nickel-silver frets.
The back of the body has the brand's conventional curvature, made popular by virtuosos such as Al Di Meola, among others. It's a combination of exclusive materials that gives these guitars a personal look and sound. There are three soundholes on the top and a comfortable cutaway for reaching the highest notes on the fretboard (rosewood, by the way).
Electronics
Well, it's more than likely that the name of this instrument, Ovation iDea, comes from its very particular preamp. On the one hand, you'll find the usual features of an “electrified” acoustic: your good old female ¼" TRS jack to plug in your standard cable and sound amplified. But the fun isn't there. The preamp, located on the upper side, is quite special: besides the volume controls and a three-band equalizer (treble, mid, bass), we find a headphone output and a USB input. What do you think?
So What Is a USB Port Doing on an Acoustic?
The preamp has a digital display and a kind of mini joystick for navigating it. Besides a handy digital tuner, there's an MP3 player and a record option. We move through the menu and select the file we want to play, either through the headphone output (headphones included with the guitar) or through the instrument's direct output. The factory setup comes with a preinstalled demo and a series of lessons. That's neat, because you can put on the headphones, listen to the lessons, play along and practice.
This is where the USB port comes in. You can connect your guitar to your computer and, thanks to the Internet and the relevant apps, download lessons, songs and backing tracks and transfer them from your instrument to the CPU, and vice versa. You can also record, for example, a rhythm track of your own (or a vocal, or...) and solo over it. In short, your imagination can really put this practical and novel device through its paces.
So, in short, what can I do with this preamp?
1. Record your own guitar as you play, or your voice (thanks to a built-in mic). You can even record both. Hit rec and start playing and singing. The guitar will pick up both signals and record them. Up to 100 minutes in MP3 files.
2. Play back. Now you hit play and listen to what you recorded. You can also change the tempo without changing the pitch. And while you're at it, you can lay down a little solo over your sung backing track.
3. Compose. It's a useful tool for capturing ideas and later transferring them (via the USB port) to your computer. Once they're copied, you can open your usual audio editing program and work on the song in more detail.
4. Learn. As I mentioned above, you have a series of preinstalled lessons, and you can download many more. And since you can change the tempo without altering the pitch, you can slow a lesson down to play more slowly, or speed it up as you get the hang of the lesson in question.
Our Test Bench
Besides all these technical bells and whistles, we carefully tested its acoustic qualities, feel and playability, tuning, blend and sound.
Step by Step
The feel of the fretboard is comfortable. It has the typical firmness of acoustics, but at a reasonable tension. We can therefore say the guitar is comfortable, especially considering the slimness of the neck, electric-style.
Regarding tuning and intonation, the instrument arrived practically in tune. We used its digital tuner to dial it in and recorded four or five tracks alongside an EVH® Wolfgang Special electric (amplified with a VOX) and a Squier Vintage Modified Precision Bass®. All of it in Pro Tools. The idea was to see how it blended and how the acoustic, the subject of our test, meshed naturally. The conclusion on this point: accurate intonation and stable tuning. In terms of tuning, it feels like playing a mid-to-high-end instrument.
Now let's look at sound and tone. The construction of Ovation® guitars gives them very specific acoustic characteristics. I've tried quite a few, and, allowing for the obvious slight variations between models, they all point in the same direction. The sound is bright but thick, with a very full blend in chords and no harshness. For solos and riffs, the well-defined thickness of these guitars is truly unmistakable.
Balance
One of the things I like most about the CC54i acoustically is the perfect blend of volume and tone across its strings. There's no harshness, and whether strumming open chords, playing barre chords or playing melodic solos, we get a certain confidence in how we shade our intentions. No sudden surprises from a string that goes rogue, either in intonation or in volume.
Conclusions
I get the impression that the guitar was conceived for the intermediate player. It isn't a beginner's guitar or, if it is, its quality is more than ample for that category. The USB features, MP3 recording and playback, the ability to store lessons for practice and so on probably aim it especially at the amateur guitarist. Still, there's a discrepancy there, given its sound and feel, because in our eyes the instrument sits above the student level.
We always recommend learning on instruments of at least decent quality, since mediocre ones make studying harder. In this case, we think it's a very good guitar to start on, thanks to its sound, tuning and digital features. So much so that it's perfectly valid for more experienced guitarists who, besides capturing ideas, composing and working through tougher lessons, want to use it live and even in the studio.
Ovation® lives up to its reputation. And now in digital.