See the video review of the Ovation iDea

Founded by aerospace engineer and guitar buff Charles H. Kaman, Ovation Instruments has always produced instruments that have been ahead of the curve. Instead of traditional wood back and sides, the earliest Ovations, introduced in 1966, had fiberglass bowls, one of the first instances of building acoustic guitars from alternative materials, and Kaman’s addition of electronics to some of these guitars helped popularize the acoustic-electric guitar.

Some four decades later, Ovation has unveiled the iDea guitar—the first acoustic or electric guitar to include a built-in MP3 recorder and player. The iDea has tremendous implications for composers and singer-songwriters, who can now easily record riffs, lyrics (through the guitar’s built-in mic), and even entire songs on the go. This is especially remarkable considering that similar recording gear would’ve taken up an entire room back when Ovation was introduced.

INTUITIVE FUNCTIONALITY, EASY PLAYABILITY

For an acoustic guitar, the iDea is anything but traditional-looking. It has a thick, satin platinum finish, three elliptical soundholes, black hardware, and a single i inlaid at the 12th fret. Overall the craftsmanship is very good—the nut is neatly cut and the frets are smoothly polished. The iDea’s intended function is as a learning tool and sketchbook for musical ideas, and singer-songwriters and other players will definitely appreciate the guitar’s playability. It has a slim and comfortable neck, low action, and accommodates any style you might want to capture on the fly, from basic cowboy strumming to complex melody lines. The fretboard is buzz-free and the unplugged tone is even and clear in all registers, though a bit on the thin side. But this can be addressed with a good acoustic amplifier and the iDea’s built-in three-band equalizer. Plugged in to a Fender Acoustasonic amplifier, the guitar sounds fairly natural and is crisp and well balanced across all registers.

ONBOARD LESSONS AND JAM TRACKS

The iDea’s preamp has both analog and digital functionality. The analog features include an ¹/₈-inch headphone jack and ¹/₄-inch instrument jack on the back of the guitar. The digital features are accessed with the OPi-1 preamp, which is housed on the side of the bowl in a removable module and includes a preamp, MP3 controls, tuner, built-in condenser mic, USB connector, and volume and three-band EQ controls. The OPi-1 is activated by plugging in headphones or a guitar cable, a slight drawback because it requires an additional piece of equipment.

The MP3 recorder/player, which has a nonexpandable 128 MB of memory, allowing approximately 100 minutes of recording time, comes with some preprogrammed content, courtesy of online music-instruction site WorkshopLive.com. There are a handful of “Jam Trax”—full-band backgrounds that you can play along with, such as “8-bar Shuffle Blues in A,” “Carefree Folk in D,” and “Texas Swing in C.” And at ovationidea.com, these materials are supplemented with free PDF lead sheets of the tracks, along with the appropriate scales from which to improvise. There are also several MP3 lessons on songwriting and guitar playing loaded into the iDea, and ovationidea.com has additional content.

RECORDING IDEAS

The iDea’s most exciting feature, however, is its recording capability, which works with just the click of a button. Within moments of taking the guitar out of the box, I improvised several tracks and was pleased with the quality of the playback sound through a pair of Grado headphones. With the built-in mic, I was able to dictate a few notes about each track for later reference. Then, using the USB port and included cable, I transferred everything to my iMac. Very simple. The iDea’s recorder doesn’t allow you to title your tracks, but that’s easy enough to do when you import your MP3s to iTunes. It would be nice if the iDea’s display were larger, because I found it slightly difficult to read; and to save battery life, estimated at around 20 hours, the display shuts itself off every ten seconds when not in use, which can be inconvenient, although it does come back on as soon as you touch any of the player’s functions, and you can program it to stay on longer if you wish.

Another handy aspect of the MP3 recorder/player is the speed control, which allows you to slow MP3s down with no change in pitch, which is a great help in deciphering fast pieces, either those you’ve recorded yourself or imported from your music collection. Another convenient feature is that the recorder pops right out of the guitar when the release latch is depressed, providing access to the nine-volt battery compartment and allowing you to use it away from the guitar—perfect for working in front of your computer.

POWERFUL SCRATCH PAD AND LEARNING AID

With its great playability and recording capability, the Ovation iDea would make both a great beginner guitar and an excellent scratch pad for a working pro. The MP3 recorder/preamp is available separately ($429 list/$299 street), but it only works with select Ovation models. If the company were to tweak the unit slightly and make it compatible with any make of acoustic (or electric) guitar, they’d be on to an even better idea.