Maybe I'm missing something here.

I go to two or three live music performances (acoustic) a month. The absolutely worst acoustic "plugged in" guitars I have heard were all Ovations. The sound is muddy with little definition amongst the notes in a chord. They have little or no acoustic warmth.

Takamine makes guitars with the same goal, to be played "plugged in" and sound much better. I have just never heard an Ovation I liked. Yet this is not the first time they have been praised as a road guitar.

Of course, neither brand sounds too good without being plugged in. When I go into a store and start strumming one, the clerk usually comes up and says, "You really ought to try it plugged in." I suspect they figure their unamplified sound will not sell.

That's my two cents worth.

Roger in Baltimore