Ovation acoustics, are they still going?

icu81b4 · October 2021

Just watching Simon & Garfunkel’s show in Central Park and noticed that Paul uses a couple of them as well a session guy in the band backing them.

I think they were known for being good live instruments.

Tannin · October 2021

Actually, they were well-known for being awful. But in those days there wasn't anything else acoustic you could play at decent volume on stage, so Ovation was the go-to for live performance in the 1970s.

Ovation was yet another of the successful acoustic guitar makers bought out by Fender (along with Tacoma and Guild). Fender apparently wanted Ovation mostly for their modern factory in Connecticut. Fender shut down the Tacoma factory in the Pacific North-west and shifted Guild production to Connecticut alongside Ovation. Later on, Fender shut down that factory too, buying in all Ovation-branded guitars from cheap contractors in Asia.

Like Guild, Ovation was eventually sold and is now a real company once again. They make a small number of top-end guitars in Connecticut but the vast majority come out of somewhere undisclosed in Asia.

I have played a few Ovations while guitar shopping recently. Yep, they used to be awful back in the day, but that was 40 years ago. Presumably (I thought) they would have improved a lot since then. They haven't. Just as awful as ever. But for reasons I don't pretend to understand, some people like them. Maybe you will. Try one and see. You'll know inside 20 seconds whether it is a possibility or not.

icu81b4 · October 2021

I have never played one, but as you say probably not a lot of live options to chose from in the 70’s

Tannin · October 2021

It's a sound. Most people hate it but some people (according to the chap in the guitar shop) really go for it. His one word for Ovations was "polarising". I dislike the sound and I hate the way they slide off your knee - you can't play them without a strap - but give one a go. You never know.

Grangousier · October 2021

Well, they're certainly idiosyncratic. I've had experience of quite a few, though I usually only bother with the super-shallow body ones, as I find them comfortable to play. The build-quality does vary quite a lot over the years - older ones are built like tanks, 2000s ones not so much, and maybe they've got beefier again now they've moved production back to the U.S., and beefier is definitely better. And, of course, they sound unusual. They certainly don't sound like "proper" acoustic guitars, either acoustic or plugged-in, but I don't find the sound particularly ugly. Good for lead playing, if you want to do lead playing on an electro-acoustic.

I suspect what most people see is the lower part of the range (and the budget Applause series, which I really don't like).

I have a couple of Ovation nylon-string guitars - one from about ten years ago, the other one from the 1970s - that I prefer to more traditional nylon-string electro-acoustics I've had (rock solid into a PA, at open mics and so forth, and I like the acoustic sound a lot, too).

Definitely an acquired taste, but not unacquireable.

Anyway, mileages vary.

Winny_Pooh · October 2021

Disliked all I tried in person but Al di Meola got a really good sound out of his. Adrian Legg by contrast sounded awful.

lustycourtier · October 2021

My Dad has one and the neck is amazing. very electric feeling. His high E popped finally through bridge after 25 years of looking like it was going too, so currently looking into repair, which is silly on a 70 quid guitar or whatever, but oh well.

EricTheWeary · October 2021

When I saw Billy Ocean the other week he pulled one out for the ‘unplugged’ section. So, I had that gosh I’d forgotten they existed moment.

A friend of mine had one and I tried it ( maybe ten years ago now) and it was so keen to slip off my leg that I found it unplayable sitting down.

Gassage · October 2021

The only guitar that gets literally closer to the audience as you play it.

By saying that, I love them.

ICBM · October 2021

They were the first tolerably good electro-acoustic, which is why they were popular with professionals in the 1970s. They have a very distinctive sound, which you may or may not hate...

Interestingly the piezo bridge pickup - which is a complete encapsulated unit with the soft plastic saddle, unlike later ones (eg Fishman, Baggs) which use a separate transducer under a standard hard plastic or bone saddle - is a real tone-killer. If you've ever played one of the rarer *non*-electro models you will probably be surprised how good they sound as an acoustic.

The sliding-off-your-knee problem is annoying though, and they even try to rotate into 'lap steel position' on a strap.

Fun trivia fact - Charles Kaman, who founded the company, made the money which allowed him to go into guitar manufacture by making composite helicopter rotor blades (made from a very similar material to the guitars) which were supplied in huge numbers to the US military during the Vietnam war... somewhat ironic given that many of the guitarists would have been committed opponents of the war.

sev112 · October 2021

Brian May (Love of My Life, 39 etc) seemed to get a very good sound

melissa Etheridge has played them since the 80s and she gets a good sound on record and live, and she knows her guitars

Keefy · October 2021

A friend had a non-electro model in the early 80s. My recollection was that it played and sounded wonderful.

Switch625 · October 2021

Richie Sambora uses them, particularly the double neck on Wanted Dead or Alive when playing live. Think he has a signature model. He had a triple neck back in the 80s too which had a mandolin I think?

hollywoodrox · October 2021

I was gonna say Richie Sambora , yes the triple neck was totally rad

crunchman · October 2021

The round back makes them unusable.

A housemate had one (a proper full fat US one) when I was a student in the early 90s. My acoustic sounded better, despite nominally being about a quarter of the value.

Mellish · October 2021

An Ovation was Val Doonican's guitar of choice. Joan Armatrading another fan

maltingsaudio · October 2021

Had one in the 80’s great guitar despite the round back swivelling when played standing up and the awful sweaty patch you got playing one under hot stage lights due to the plastic back.

Then I discovered Fylde guitars and never went back!

more · October 2021

Ovation is now a subsidiary of a company called Drum Workshop . I met Charles Kaman at the Chichester guitar festival . The music business was his hobby . He developed the Ovation guitar for stage performance. The idea was to have a robust instrument that had the best electronics and be distinctive from a distance.

icu81b4 · October 2021

Fylde guitars deserve their own thread - Super instruments, I have an Alchemist.

Snags · October 2021

I hadn't seen or played one since the late 80s/early 90s until yesterday afternoon, when a chap pulled one out at an open mic. It wasn't the worst sounding guitar there, although how much of that was down to the players and how much the instruments.

I remember the neck being very friendly for electric players, but the sound being a bit thin and bright (at least unplugged - plugged in you can mess with it a bit).

malcolmkindness · October 2021

Mellish said:

An Ovation was Val Doonican's guitar of choice. Joan Armatrading another fan

That's really because there wasn't much choice for an amplified stage guitar and they looked cool at the time.

malcolmkindness · October 2021

Many years ago I owned a nylon string model and it was really very good once amplified.

Fuengi · October 2021

I had one for a good while, they do some sounds really nicely, a lot not so well. They do seem to have really comfortable necks and play really well.

Handy to have a nice neck to hold on to as the body slips off your lap. Again.

ICBM · October 2021

malcolmkindness said:

Many years ago I owned a nylon string model and it was really very good once amplified.

So did I - more natural-sounding than the equivalent steel-string model. The pickup/preamp sound seems to suit nylon better and you don't get as much of that exaggerated tizzy attack.

Lewy · October 2021

malcolmkindness said:

Mellish said:

An Ovation was Val Doonican's guitar of choice. Joan Armatrading another fan

That's really because there wasn't much choice for an amplified stage guitar and they looked cool at the time.

Glen Campbell was a big user too. I think he claimed to have had some role in the development. He was interviewed on Michael Parkinson and was taking about how the lamination of wood and graphite was the same on a molecular level as 150 year old wood or some similar nonsense.

Mellish · October 2021

Mellish said:

An Ovation was Val Doonican's guitar of choice. Joan Armatrading another fan

That's really because there wasn't much choice for an amplified stage guitar and they looked cool at the time.

AFAIK, Val Doonican didn't play amplified

Mellish · October 2021

Sorry forgot to add who had posted the message i quoted

EricTheWeary · October 2021

Val was often pictured with an electric, or least a semi acoustic, which presumably was amplified a bit. Just on my phone so I'm not going to faff with Imgur but he had and used a 1958 Clifford Essex something like the one Vic Flick used on the Bond theme and that he later gave to jazz guitarist Martin Taylor.
Val also had a Martin although I think using that preceded the Ovation. Maybe the Ovation was easier for TV work although it seems unlikely that he would normally be plugged in.

BluesLover · October 2021

Do you remember fuzzy felt toys? My sister had a circus one. Well the material you stuck the shapes to, you could buy a self adhesive shaped jobbie from similar material that you stuck to the guitar body where it sat on your leg. No more slippage. They used to be advertised in acoustic guitar mags in the 80's

PhilKing · October 2021

I have 3 and like them. My original is a non-electric from 1976 and is one of the Matrix prototypes (with the aluminium neck and frets). I have played and recorded with it for years, but the frets are finally wearing down. It is very fussy about strings, but once I found a type that worked, it has been great (Silk & Bronze). It records really well and is even on all strings and notes. Many players have commented (and borrowed it), for that. The neck is very electric like in it's dimensions. I then bought a 12 String Celebrity, which I still have and like for live work. In 1989, while going though a divorce, I bought an original shallow back US made Elite but neve bonded with it, and gave it away to a friend who was going though a divorce too.

The last one I bought about 4 years ago and it is a doulble neck 6 & 12 string. I always wanted one, as I think they look cool and they are interesting because you have drone strings that sound in sympathy with what you are playing. I have many other acoustics, including Gibsons and Martins, but always come back to the Matrix when I am noodling and writing.

Mellish · October 2021

Never saw him with a Martin, thanks for that. I met him, boy it was many years ago. No different to just a normal guy if I'm honest - very approachable and a chatterbox

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Ovation acoustics, are they still going?

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