My son has always wanted to by an Ovation so we went looking. We played about twenty of them unplugged and plugged. There is a HUGE difference between the American made Ovations and those made in Korea. The Korean jobs were poorly set up, hard to play, had laminated tops, and didn't ring equally across the strings.The American models sounded great and played smoothly. They cost about a grand more (Canadian.)I have an Ovation (Korean) mandolin. I bought it for stage work because of the built in electrics. It's OK, but it dousn't have much sound acoustically. Also the original set up left a lot to be desired.