Back in the day I bought an Ovation Balladeer (sp) circa 1970's. I had no money and spent $170 (a fortune)for it.

In it's defense, compared to the import acoustics at the time (Yamaha comes to mind) it sounded way better. Plus Cat Stevens played one.

Reciently I bought a Taylor and have not picked up the Ovation since.

Guitars I hate. Hate is the wrong word but when I bought the Taylor I actually wanted a Martin D28 or D 35 or whatever. But I went to 7 music stores multiple times each and I swear to God the vast majority of Martins had dead strings! I'm going to risk a couple of grand on a guitar with dead strings. I don't think so.

All the Taylors had Elixir's and I could at least tell what the guitars actually sounded like.

Tom