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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Curious if their personal paths ever crossed. Both engineers, both obsessed with sound and tone, both very technically innovative, both founded a successful guitar manufacturing company, etc. One lived on the east coast, the other on the west coast. One was a musician, the other was not. There appears to be at least a few years where their personal involvement in the guitar industry overlapped. |
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Location: Copenhagen Denmark | Now , There is a Good Question... Looking forward to see some light on this.. :)
Vic |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Let's petition The Rock&Roll Hall of Fame to induct Charlie...
For heck of it... |
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Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Um....I'm stumbling a bit here...
Which one wasn't a musician.I have albums by both. |
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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | According to all the Fender history books I own, Leo Fender did not know how to play a guitar. When he was young, he took some lessons on something else, brass if my memory serves me correctly, but gave it up early. |
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Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Ooops, I was thinking Les Paul.
Coffee just kicked in.
Nevermind. |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | After Leo sold the company, he was just a consultant, as I recall.
Then, back in the early 1980's, according to my Fender Telecaster book, Kaman was one of the serious suitors for CBS fender. That deal didn't go thru, so looking for an electric solid body guitar company they bought Hamer in the late 80's.
By the time CBS sold Fender, Leo was out of the picture and he went on to found Music Man and G+L.
That said, I don't know of any actual contact between the men, Fender and Kaman. I'm sure they were aware of each of other, but I can't say I've ever heard of any significant contact between Leo and Charlie. Could've met at NAMM shows? |
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| It's all useless speculation unless and until Beal chimes in. |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | I'm shocked, shocked to find useless speculation here! |
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Location: Upper Left USA | Then how about this rumor:
"Unca Beal is Leo Fender's Love-Child and now owns the whole $&*@%$ shoot'in match!"
My story stands until you make up a better one... |
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| :D |
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| I can't see it yet but some how I know this thread is going to end up changing to a topic about ebay? |
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Location: Nashville TN. | Originally posted by Jeff W.:
Let's petition The Rock&Roll Hall of Fame to induct Charlie...
For heck of it... I think you can make a very good case that Charlie had more inpact than Leo. Had Fender not come along Gibson Gretch Epiphone Rickenbacker and others were still there making Electric Guitars.
The hollow body electric may have taken the role that Ovation had as acoustic guitars.
From start up to 50% market share in 12 years
attests to impact. Without Ovation would the acoustic electric guitar come along at all?? |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Never met. |
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| Two little words and the dream is dead....
Beal - ya gotta learn to lie to us. |
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Location: Burbank | What makes you think he hasn't? |
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Location: closely held secret | Mario... he would know. |
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Location: Burbank | I know that. I was referring to that fact of him lieing to us about anything. Nevermind, just a bad joke, I now return you to your regular scheduled BS....... |
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| Of course the Acoustic Electric would have been designed without Ovation. This inovation was was not designed as some kind of a bastard of the hollow bodied electric. They were Acoustic Guitars that bands wanted the sound you can only get from an acoustic guitar but had to play to a massive crowd and the convienence of pickups in comparison with being tethered to a mic stand, and the movement toward electrified guitars in general made an acoustic electric inevitable. They were created to meet the demand and an inevitable outcome.
John Lennon had one I remember seeing in that movie they made "Hard Days Night", it had knobs on the top like an electric but he must have used steel strings and not bronze because it was a basic magnetic pickup mounted at the end of the fret board. Crude but it worked and looked good.
Another quick example was Jimmy Page playing his acoustic sets in 1970-71 using his Acoustic with the wire for the bridge pickup taped to the side and top, He did not want to drill his guitar to mount one permenantly. You could see the need for a great acoustic electric all through the 60 and right up until they came into the mainstream in the 70's.
Ovation and C K's answer to this problem was so far ahead of everyone elses......This places him in the music history books alone. He and the guys at Ovation made so many inovative changes to acoustic guitars and later electrics it all get blurred into one statement of awe now. But there are about a dozen seperate significant inovations that these guy's came up with that were each worth historical mention.
But what do I know, Al is just a guy who sells guitars. |
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Location: Nashville TN. | It may have come around but when???
The major professional grade instrument makers were not in any hurry to inovate.
Acoustic-Electric propelled Ovation sales but it was mated
a body that did not crack and a neck that not twist or bow and played as easy as an electric guitar. And still sounded great.
Plus leaps forward in manufacturing technique.
You had a pefect storm come toegather.
An afordable tough great sounding acoustic guitar you could plug in.
When you think about it Charlie Kaman did for the acoustic guitar what Henry Ford did for the automoble with the model T. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | the guy with the idea always needs somebody to carry it through for him. Henry Ford had them. |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | For questions about the induction process, write to the following postal address (the Foundation does not have an e-mail address):
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation
1290 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10104 |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | I'm happy to write the letter... |
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Location: Copenhagen Denmark | Reflector , coupled to a folded infinite baffle , shaped as a guitar , joined to a driver , the Essence of the Ovation Guitar ,.. YES !!...I Agree , that C W Kaman has Earned the Right to be Inducted into the Hall of Fame..
Vic
..just my honest opinion.. |
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Location: Nashville TN. | He already in Inventer Hall of fame. |
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Location: Nashville TN. | oops forgot the link
http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/190.html |
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Charlie Kaman and Leo Fender