Anybody have one of the telecoustics?

Be sure to play a few examples before you buy, and figure out a way to amplify examples the way you intend to amplify them at low and high volumes during test drives. The few thin-bodied hollow acoustics I've tried over the years left much to be desired, not only the unplugged sounds but also lackluster electronics packages. "You get what you pay for" really applies in this instrument class and if you aren't throwing down significant bones, you run a high risk of buying more of a gimmick than a performance tool if that makes sense.

I don't even like the concept, in theory.

Honestly, I think you would be better going with an Ibanez Artcore at around the same budget - a more versatile instrument, much less likely to sound thin (at least plugged in) and a lot more you can do with it, pickup wise, if you want to try to upgrade it.

For my own tastes, I play the super shallow Ovations and they sound great to me - things like the Telecoustic sound thin even compared to those, IMHO.

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Ovations

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Aren’t the telecoustics a plastic back as well? Or composite or whatever? Does anything other than Ovations sound good with a plastic back?

I think you’d buy it and then have to spend $$$ to tweak it to get it to sound good enough for a stage.

Best "acoustic" sounding Ovations to my ear are the 1778Ts. Deeper bowl and the top is still fan-braced spruce but shot with a thin layer of the bowl goop.


I had a somewhat rare USA 1778T in black that I sold to a client who begged me for it and I kinda regret it. Current 1778T are imports to my knowledge. The immediate giveaway are rosewood fingerboard and bridge on the imports, ebony fingerboard and bridge on the USAs.

I don't know the exact composition of the bowl synthetic, but I have been told it is very similar to the synthetic used to craft helicopter rotors. Ovation's parent company's holdings, if I have been told correctly, include military/defense contracts that supplies rotors and aircraft parts so it makes sense. Rigid, ultra durable and lightweight ... choppers, planes and guitars have those desirable qualities in common haha.

As for good sounding synthetic acoustics, CA (Composite Acoustics) and Rainsong are excellent choices that immediately come to mind. They sound much more like wooden acoustics compared to Ovations and they offer the benefit of being immune to temperature and humidity fluctuations thanks to modern synthetics. But they aren't cheap, particularly CAs - going back to my statement about getting what you pay for.