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Ovation Guitar Company
Headquarters
Subsidiary
Industry	Musical instruments
Predecessor	Ovation Instruments, a division of Kaman Aircraft^[1]^[2] (c. 1964)^{[history 1]}^{[history 2]}
Founded	c. 1965,^{[citation needed]}New Hartford, Connecticut
Founder	Charles Kaman
Products	Acoustic guitars
Parent	Drum Workshop
Website	ovationguitars.com

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The Ovation Guitar Company is a manufacturer of guitars. Ovation primarily manufactures steel-string acoustic guitars (both 6 and 12-string versions) and nylon-string acoustic guitars, often with pickups for electric amplification. In 2015, it became a subsidiary of Drum Workshop after being acquired from KMCMusicorp.^[3]

The company's Ovation and Adamas guitars are known for their round backs, which gives them a recognizable shape. The latter are also well known for the use of carbon fiber tops (instead of the typically wood tops for acoustic guitars). Among musicians the relatively thin neck stands out as well, compared to other acoustic guitars.

3Initial marketing
4Design innovations
5Model Overview

History[edit]

A mid-1970s Kaman Ovation Custom Balladeer 1612-4 acoustic electric guitar, next to a lute.

Founder Charles Kaman (1919–2011) developed the first prototypes of the Ovation guitar in 1965–1966.^[4]^[5]^[6] Kaman, an amateur guitarist from an early age, worked on helicopter design as an aerodynamacist at United. Eventually, he founded a helicopter design company, Kaman Aircraft, in 1945.^[7]

The Kaman Corporation soon diversified, branching into nuclear weapons testing, commercial helicopter flight, development and testing of chemicals, and helicopter bearings production. In the early 1960s, however, financial problems from the failure of their commercial flight division forced them to expand into new markets, such as entertainment and leisure. Charles Kaman, still an avid guitar player, became interested in making guitars.^[4]^[8]

From 1966 to 2007 Ovation guitars, and later on Adamas guitars, were a brand of KMCMusicorp, which itself was a subsidiary of Kaman Aircraft.

In 2008 KMCMusicorp (and with that the Ovation brand) was sold to the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.^[9] In 2014, Fender announced that they were closing the Ovation guitar factory in New Hartford, Connecticut, leaving all production of Ovation guitars overseas.^[10] Before that announcement Fender established a U.S. production of various acoustic guitars in the New Hartford factory. Alongside Ovation and Adamas guitars, which were produced there for decades, Fender started a U.S. production of other Fender-owned brands in that factory, as is known, Guild (Guild Guitar Company) and Fender.^[11]

Shortly after closing the New Hartford factory^[when?] it was announced that the Ovation brand had been sold to the company Drum Workshop, alongside a few other previously Fender-owned brands. The announcement was made on January 7, 2015. In addition to the Ovation brand, Drum Workshop also bought the New Hartford factory and reinstated the previously ceased U.S. production of Ovation and Adamas guitars, basses, ukuleles and mandolins.^[12]

Research and development of first models[edit]

Fiberglass round-back body (medium-depth) of Ovation Balladeer (1968)

Charles Kaman put a team of employees to work to invent a new guitar in 1964.^[4]^[13] For the project, Kaman chose a small team of aerospace engineers and technicians, several of whom were woodworking hobbyists as well. One of these was Charles McDonough, who created the Ovation Adamas model.^{[history 1]} Kaman founded Ovation Instruments, and in 1965 its engineers and luthiers (guitar makers) worked to improve acoustic guitars by changing their conventional materials. The R&D team spent months building and testing prototype instruments. Their first prototype had a conventional 'dreadnought' body, with parallel front and back perpendicular to the sides. The innovation was the use of a thinner, synthetic back, because of its foreseen acoustic properties. Unfortunately, the seam joining the sides to the thin back was prone to breakage. To avoid the problem of a structurally unstable seam, the engineers proposed a synthetic back with a parabolic shape. By mid-1966, according to Ovation, they realized that the parabolic shape produced a desirable tone with greater volume than the conventional dreadnought.^[14]

Once the engineers had settled on a parabolic shape, they turned their attention to developing a substance that could be molded into this bowl-like shape. Using their knowledge of high-tech aerospace composites, they developed Lyrachord, a patented material comprising interwoven layers of glass filament and bonding resin.

The first successful design, built by luthier Gerry Gardner, went into production soon after the company was established.^[15]

The first Ovation guitar made its debut in November 1966. Its Lyrachord body gave the instrument, according to the company, unprecedented projection and ringing sustain.^{[history 2]} Compared to modern Ovation Guitars, the initial instruments had a shiny bowl that was used again, for example, in the Balladeer 40th anniversary re-issue.

Initial marketing[edit]

Custom made Josh White model built under his guidance.

Glen Campbell(pictured) gave national publicity to Ovation's round-back guitars.

The introduction and promotion of the first Ovation was closely associated with two performing artists, the blues-performer Josh White and the country-music singer Glen Campbell.

Josh White[edit]

In 1966-1967, the Ovation Guitar Company produced a signature guitar for Josh White, which was the first signature guitar made for an African American.^{[model 1]}^{[model 2]}^{[model 3]}^{[model 4]} White was the first official Ovation endorser.^{[history 3]}

Upon completion, the first Ovation Guitar was called the 'Josh White Model,'^{[model 5]}^{[model 6]} which White played at the Hotel America (Hartford, Connecticut), 14 November 1966; at the same show, the Balladeers played Balladeer models.^[2] The show was witnessed by '300 representatives of the press and the music industry'^[1]

Glen Campbell, 1968[edit]

The Ovation Roundback Balladeer first caught national attention in 1968 when Glen Campbell hosted a variety show he called The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS, and in the following year, 1969, he became one of Ovation's first endorsers.^[4]

Design innovations[edit]

Ovation Adamas has multiple sound holes (11, 15, or 22 by model) on the upper-soundboard. (11 of them are visible in picture)

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