I'm a long time mostly electric player. I know my way around luthiery and do my own fret leveling and crowning, and nut making, for instance. I saw a video from a couple years ago of Tomo Fujita playing one of these Olivers and my wife said, "You should get one."
So I did, and it was shipped across the country immediately. I love how it sounds and plays. It has a really nice and interesting tone that contrasts with my spruce dreadnought, and I'm just amazed that a hardwood top works so well. It is a wonderful guitar regardless of price. I note that the strings are pretty widely spaced, which I assume is intended to be a boon to fingerstylists, and is a very minor concession against pick players. Also, I use lots of vibrato and the frets are very scratchy feeling and sounding due to longitudinal scratching from fret leveling/profiling and a look at them with a loop confirms the scratch pattern. I'll buff them out when I change strings, because for me it really is a big deal, amounting to constant negative feedback.
Also I notice the low E string has to be babied considerably or it buzzes which may not be a problem for a fingerstyle player who plays rather softly. But that is merely a set up issue, and does not reflect the quality of the guitar and its capabilities to make beautiful music. I really do love this guitar and grab it constantly.
