My Ovation Celebrity Custom CS-247

    Isn't this guitar just beautiful?  It was love at first sight!  This was bought at a time in my life where I had almost no money but was trying to serve God the best way I knew how.  This guitar will always hold a special place in my heart as the guitar that was with me when I needed it.  God truly gave it to me: I only paid $300 for it, and they usually sell for $600 and up.  Thanks Holly!

How it treats me

    This guitar has always treated me great!  It's pretty easy to play for open chords, and decent for runs.  It has onboard electronics, which is a very big plus.  It has three EQ sliders and a "preshape" which scoops the EQ.  Usually I play it in preshape or no EQ at all, and it sounds great.  I use D'Addario EXP16 strings on it, as the manufacturer recommends.
    The only trouble I've had, if you can call it that, is the battery life when you forget to shut off the volume when you're done using it.  It feels just fine while I'm playing it, but the neck is not a thin neck.  It's more of a normal or maybe C shaped neck.
    As for looks, it is absolutely beautiful!  The top is quilt maple and is absolutely beautiful.

Taking care of it

    First, this guitar has a high gloss top.  If you use good guitar polish, it will be absolutely stunning!  It's important to clean the fretboard too.  Me, when I change the strings, I put lemon oil on it (usually meant for furniture).  DO NOT use anything but either lemon oil or something meant for rosewood fretboards on it.  Anyways, the rosewood loves the lemon oil.  You just put some on a paper towel, then wipe it on the fretboard.  You don't need to soak it, just spread some on and let it sit for a while.  Once you do that, the wood feels softer, and looks a lot better.

How it sounds

    This guitar does sound a bit trebly, a bit bright.  But that's the quilted maple top mainly, or so I am told.  That and the phosphor bronze tends to make it a tad bright.  You can use the EQ on it, and it works well.  Mainly I hear this when preshape is on (because it slightly boosts the treble and bass frequencies while reducing the middle frequencies).  But as for a rhythm guitar, something a lead singer would play while singing, this guitar is perfect.  I think Ovation might market their guitars mainly for lead singers.

Overall

    Overall, I love this guitar!  It is so beautiful and is great for singing with and for playing rhythm.  It's a prize.  If it were stolen, I'd probably buy another Ovation, hopefully one that's quilt top and a green tint.  This is the guitar that got me into the whole "colored" guitar scheme (i.e. my ovation is quilt green, my ESP tiger red, my Ibanez is blue, my effects pedal is blue, and my cables are all different combinations of colors).  Hopefully if I ever have to buy another, God will drop a couple thousand dollars on me so I can get something even better.  In the end, God has always provided me the right gear at the right time, so I can't complain: in fact, I'm very thankful!