Recent threads finally pushed me to screw up some courage, in a tactful kind of way, and try to contact someone....anyone....at DW about our favorite instruments.

A fellow by the name of Bill Xavier responded within about 24 hours. Although I wish there was more detail, I certainly cannot fault their overall response. Here is the entire digital conversation. My flagging hopes are just that much higher this morning.....I think....might just be internal percolation from a poor diet yesterday too. Either way, it is a cautiously optimistic feeling that something is on the move.

My thoughts are in blue and Bill's Answers are in red:

Good afternoon,

My name is Patrick McGuire, and I was hoping that you might be able to fill in a blank or two for me and many friends who happen to be passionate fans of the Ovation/Adamas instrument brands.

I realize that your company only recently acquired the brand from FMIC, so I am certain your responses must be couched with a certain level of caution, but rumors have begun to fly about the internet, so I was hoping you might be able to provide some honest direction, or at least shoot some of the more blatant fantasies out of the water completely. In an effort not to waste too much of your time, I will try to make my questions succinct:

Are there any plans to start building Ovation/Adamas guitars in the USA again? (Is there any flesh to these plans if they exist? Are you in a position to elaborate at all?)

There has been absolutely no reference at all regarding the Adamas line. Any specific news there? Do you own that brand as well?

Rumor has it that much of the tooling specifically geared to Ovations in New Hartford, CT was dumped when the factory was closed. Would a re-tool of the brand have to re-build from the ground up?

Do you also control the overseas construction of Ovations still in production?

And finally, despite trying not to get my hopes up, or those of people I know for that matter, is there by chance some sort of time frame at least laid out in theory?

Please understand that I stand to gain nothing from the re-invigoration of the brand other than the chance to add to a collection of Ovations that already makes my wife's eyes roll with patience. I did know many of the former employees in New Hartford, as I live within driving distance and picked up many repaired and new instruments there in person. (Why trust a shipper when you don't have to right?) I have also written and laid out Ovation-themed calendars for the Ovation Fan Club for the last three years. In short, I love these instruments.

I am truly just trying to sort through the rumors as best as possible.

So thank you kindly for your time. I sincerely look forward to your response.

Hopefully yours,

Patrick McGuire

And here is Bill's response:

Dear Patrick,

I cannot go into details but I will respond to your questions below with very little detail if that is ok. You are welcome to email me anytime.

And I wouldn’t mind from time to time asking you questions as a loyal Ovation fan.

Bill Xavier

Are there any plans to start building Ovation/Adamas guitars in the USA again? (Is there any flesh to these plans if they exist? Are you in a position to elaborate at all?)

• Yes 100%!

There has been absolutely no reference at all regarding the Adamas line. Any specific news there? Do you own that brand as well?

• Yes we do own all things Ovation (Adamas, Applause and Ovation)

Rumor has it that much of the tooling specifically geared to Ovations in New Hartford, CT was dumped when the factory was closed. Would a re-tool of the brand have to re-build from the ground up?

• That’s a bad and 100% untrue rumor.

Do you also control the overseas construction of Ovations still in production?

• Yes!

And finally, despite trying not to get my hopes up, or those of people I know for that matter, is there by chance some sort of time frame at least laid out in theory?

• Don’t want to jinx our plans so my lips are sealed…

Please understand that I stand to gain nothing from the re-invigoration of the brand other than the chance to add to a collection of Ovations that already makes my wife's eyes roll with patience. I did know many of the former employees in New Hartford, as I live within driving distance and picked up many! repaired and new instruments there in person. (Why trust a shipper when you don't have to right?) I have also written and laid out Ovation-themed calendars for the Ovation Fan Club for the last three years. In short, I love these instruments.

• You will be proud soon……

Ok...So the words were his and that last bit of emphasis was mine, but what can I say? I'm a little more hopeful now...or maybe it's all the coffee this morning. Now it's all y'all's turn to hash it out a bit.

FIrst... does this sound familiar in any way ??
"DW pioneered the timbre-matching technique of grouping a set of drumshells together by listening to the note each shell holds before it is sanded. Each shell that comes out of the DW factory is stamped with the note of that shell on the inside. DW offers pre-made standard sized sets as well as custom drums made to customer specification."

And look at their endorcers..   Remember, unlike guitar endorsers who may play a particular brand guitar on one tune, drummers generallyl pick a brand and stick to it, are known for it, and play it every time, all the time.  It's their reputation.  I imagine a pretty likely conversation would be "hey... DW is building Ovation guitars, lets check'em out." 

Now look at who's playing DW drums...  I've actually heard of most of these people or at least the bands they play in.  I wish I could say the same about the resent Ovation endorsements.   Me thinks that's gonna change.  Also note, while some great drummers "use" DW drums, they make the distinction of those who are endoresed by DW Drums.  That also seems significant to me.

"Many highly regarded drummers endorse[5] DW, including Virgil Donati, Joe Morello, Derek Roddy (Serpents Rise), Dave Grohl, Stephen Perkins, Dominic Howard (Muse), Luke Holland (The Word Alive), Alejandro González (Maná (De la Tierra) Steve Jocz (Sum 41), Brooks Wackerman (Bad Religion), Scott Travis (Judas Priest), Scott Phillips (Creed and Alter Bridge), Abe Laboriel Jr. (Paul McCartney), Neil Peart[6] of Rush, Nick Mason of Pink Floyd, Will Berman of MGMT, Dave Matthews Band's Carter Beauford, Zak Starkey, and Nickelback and Martone drummer Daniel Adair. Thomas Lang has also recently switched to DW drums. Terry Bozzio and the late Troy Penland use them as well. Tony Royster Jr. is on their endorsment list along with Max Weinberg and José Pasillas from Incubus (band) And Atom Willard(Angels & Airwaves).

Others include Jason Bonham (Black Country Communion, Led Zeppelin) Tommy Clufetos (Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent), Kelly Keagy (Night Ranger), Bruce Becker (David Becker Tribune), Victor Loyo (Luis Miguel and studio session drummer), Thomas Pridgen (The Memorials, The Mars Volta, Christian Scott, Wicked Wisdom, Keyshia Cole), Eric Moore (Suicidal Tendencies and Infectious Grooves), Rex Hardy Jr. Mary J. Blige, Cobus Potgieter and Matt Greiner (August Burns Red) Venzella Joy Williams (Beyonce).

Eagles drummers Don Henley (main drummer) and Scott Crago (backup drummer) are well known users of DW and are endorsed by the company. Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac is also a DW artist."

I like this company the more I read about them.

Miles

Those are pretty much the best drummers in the freekin' world... Bozzio, Peart, and Beauford are my personal top 3 favs.

It's been said in other discussions that endorsers mean very little. I disagree 100%. If that were the case, why is there so much emphasis placed on it with advertisements in the mags? You nearly ALWAYS see a familiar face backing it up, from $.25 plectrums, to $5k guitars, to $20k drum kits.

I still want an Alex Lifeson signature ES-355... Wouldn't mind his new Lerxst Omega amp either. If Alex plays 'em, I want 'em too. Guess what nylon stringed instrument he played last time I saw him here...

I want one of those too.

Well how's this for a pleasant surprise?

Bill Xavier called me earlier today and we talked for over an hour. I promised and re-promised to maintain an appropriate level of discretion about everything we discussed, but I can admit to a couple of things:

• There is no small amount of thought and effort being directed at re-launching the brand.
• If Bill is any indication, customer service at DW is the equal of the venerated mothership. He's easy to talk to and seems to genuinely, and respectfully, appreciate input.
• And most important, he and his colleagues are....repeat....ARE paying attention to people like us. Many things he said have been topics of debate on this site more than once.

All in all, my hopes are trending up.

How about something like this Paul? It would enable you to be able to play that elusive 4th chord. (Click on the link below)

http://youtu.be/cXgB3lIvPHI

Well that's the purpose of every business isn't it (maybe with the exception of Ubuntu). So unless you have some benevolent sponsor there is always a need to be profitable to be able to pay for supplies, labour, infrastructure, research, etc in the long term and provide a readson for the the enterprise to exist. Its not constructive in this thread to look backwards on how to NOT accomplish that goal, but rather appreciate the idea that the new owners seem to be commited to finding a way on how this could be done with Ovation. This has been discussed quite a bit over the last few days/weeks and I think most have come to the realization that this will not be an easy task and will have to overcome a lot of hurdles. But I think we all hope that there will enough goodwill, skills, assets, innovation AND financial backing to make this work somehow and hpefully in a few years we will have opportunity to buy a new Adamas again.

"purpose" Actually no.   For some yes, but not for all by long shot.  Investment Cap companies and the like look at how to make money.  Money is their commoditiy.  But for the rest... most of the most successful companies and corporations make a product or provide a service they are best at... the money is just icing on the cake, the reward if you will.    

I've spent the weekend mulling over my conversation with Bill. And though I certainly retain a respectful level of caution about getting my hopes too high (Who wouldn't after last year huh?). I have come to one conclusion that is too positive to keep to myself.

Everything he said had far too many details to be nothing but pure market-speak. His ideas were thought through with some sincere attention to detail. His questions for me were based in reality and often related to many topics discussed on this forum and others with regards to strengths and weakness of the Ovation BRAND and CONCEPT, not the guitars themselves. This is an important distinction. He knows , just like we do, that the instruments are good. He is focused on getting them into people's hands to see for themselves.

In other words, they are taking their time, thinking things through, and nosing around in both obvious and discreet ways to get feedback from the people who play guitars at every skill level. It is difficult to not be at least a little impressed with the effort if nothing else.

So I remain cautiously hopeful. Which is a darn sight better than how I felt about Ovation a week ago.

But for the rest... most of the most successful companies and corporations make a product or provide a service they are best at... the money is just icing on the cake, the reward if you will.   

If there were no icing...they would not be a successful company. The bottom line is always the purpose...or it's a hobby or Radio Shack, Edsel, Kodak, Ovation, etc. This is probably a chicken/egg discussion.

I've always felt that there is a great difference between turning a good, comfortable profit and squeezing every thin dime from an enterprise to the exclusion of all other business concerns.

The second can only be accomplished by trading off quality and stripping down labor cost. Such slash and burn profit mongering does not lend itself to long-term business success for a variety of reasons.

I don't think Ovation will ever regain anywhere near the reputation it once enjoyed. Too many guitarists regard it as a cheap low-medium quality (crap) guitar and I firmly believe the reason behind it stems from somebody's STUPID decision to call Celebacies 'Ovations'. 

Regardless of the quality of the products that may come of this venture, it's going to take some pretty nifty marketing to shift the attitude of established guitar players, which is where I assume the US made product will be aimed. Nifty marketing, AND innovation, AND quality.

Thats a big ask. 

I think that just before the end they did some tinkering with a new logo and headstock and a bridge with pins. There was some prototype that was released and discussed here. I don't think that was the right direction to go, though.

Hi guys, tomorow the german music fair starts at Frankfurt, Namm's European equivalent.

Found out that Ovation will be there... so I did a bit of research.

The address given on the fair's website for the brand is

Lunar Court 3450

93030 Oxnard CA

you may know that one?

Then I Found out that the Guitars will be shown by GEWAmusic, a distributor. they also do DW drums in Germany. So I guess they are the actual distributor in Germany ( which used to be Fender).

unfortunately, or, strangely, the GEWA website does not work. But on their Facebook account I found a photo. (Which  is just an illustration).

anyway, with Ovation Logo . Will try to post it.

Georg 

Sorry for the mistakes. My "german"  iPad's word correction is getting on my nerves...

That's it, you did better than me....will be there on thursday 

Good idea....

Hopefully then I do not struggle again to post them.

When I wrote the post, the photo first was shown, later gone.

Anyway, I remember you did a post with how to do it, Nancy....   

But I know that I am not the only one who has/had difficulties, so there is good company.

This is one of the things I suggested to Bill Xavier in our phone conversation. Here's hoping....

arthurseery - 2015-04-15 1:51 AM Okay... If anyone from DW is reading this... PLEASE don't use that crappy FendrOvation logo. Go with the tried-n-true Ovation logo... The one that lasted since the 1960's...

I love the original too, but, this logo works, in person. Plays and sounds pretty good, too:

One of the last... I think

Yeah, I actually almost bid on one of these fugly "protovations"

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2014-Ovation-Proto-Series-Acoustic-Electric...

And there are still a few on Ebay, but I came to my sense and got a Guild Orpheum instead which I think represents the best of what they were doing in New Hartford toward the end.

Nancy, got pics included to my very first posts, it was easy then. We will see. Thanks for the offer!

Georg

I dunno... The new headstock is growing on me. No 'ears' to break off. 

Meh, careless players will end up busting the tip off that one too.

IMHO, the original headstocks are just as iconic to the brand as the lyrachord bowls, the oak leaf eppies and roesettes, and the pin-less bridges.

The headstock shape, logo design, etc. aren't what need revision ...effective promotion, product accessibility, and brand building management are.  2¢ 

Nice to see the patient is still breathing. I think there's a place for Ovation guitars in the market.

i'm not sure the market for guitars will ever be as big as it was in the 60s-80s.....it's just not that big a piece of the culture any more. Ukulele players have as much credibility as a good guitar player now.

Took my Legend into a guitar shop to play it through a Fishman recently. Will be buying one soon. The tech/salesman was a buddy from 'way back, asked to play my Ovation as he hadn't seen it since I brought it to gigs in an old band 30 years ago. He took a long time giving it back, after I was done twiddling knobs on the Fishman while he played.

Hi everybody,

been there today, at Frankfurt Music Fair.

Eight Ovation guitars (well, six, plus an Adamas and a Celebrity) were shown. There was one guy working on the stand, where they showed another brand as well.

He told me that the German company named GEWA is not only Ovation's new distributor for Germany, but for all Europe.

Also he said, they are still sorting things out which they took over from Fender. As for example very few Adamas guitars, which they actually do not sell!

He was confident that it should soon be able to get spare parts ( I bought two pickups last year, then tried to get another two, just to be safe, but that was when the deal was already going and Fender refused to sell them...).

They had no catalogues, leaflets etc. on the place, and he said it was decided only at short hand to show Ovations on the fair.

What GEWA did, they reserved space on the "Acoustic stage" in Hall 3, where a guy called Oliver Hartmann performed on two AX-Ovations (6string Legend and 12string Elite). He and/or a guy named Giovanni Hidalgo (percussion) will perform on Friday, 4.30 p.m. and Saturday, 11.00 a.m. as well for them.

Well, that's it, I guess.

By the way, it seems as if Gibson owns a lot of firms.... they showed not only Epiphone, but e.g. Tascam, Steinberger and.... Kramer.

See the pictures in the album here:

http://www.ovationfanclub.com/megabbs/photos/photo-thumbnails.asp?albumid=1218

I am sorry they are not good, just made with my mobile phone, but they give an idea at least...

Georg

red-twins

Fillhixx, which Amp did you decide to buy? Just asking 'cause I am interested in them for quite some time... Saw all of them on the Music fair at Frankfurt today again.  Unfortunately, prices went up on them here recently +30%....

Georg,

red-twins

Thanks for the update. You seem to be interested in Kramer ... they were pretty good guitars in the 70s noted for their aluminium necks, but when they went wooden neck they totally lost their mojo. Probably like an ovation without lyrachord bowl would be.

 /QUOTE Thanks for the update. You seem to be interested in Kramer ... QUOTE

no, I am not interested in any electrics, but the name Kramer was mentioned here during the last few weeks several times, so I thought it was of interest to some people here. I remember these guitars from when I started playing, by then I was still hoping to become famous.... 

Yes, it was possible to play the guitars, also the Adamas. I refused to do so, although it would have been easy, since there were not  many people. Never had one in hands and I  guess that's how it should remain in the future... my wallet and my wife will be happy.

The possiblities of getting the guitars repaired in the States were fascinating to me. Fortunately, did not need it so far. I do not know whether there are luthiers here in Germany being able to do necessary repairs, like dealing with cracks or setting a neck. Maybe one of the german OFC members does?

I ordered two pickups last year. It took several months for them to arrive, but they did.

I was told that it was the last box Fender Germany received from Ovation USA. Since I also was told there had been a few more in that box, I ordered another two six months later, hoping they were still there, but it was too late, Fender Germany had to transfer the parts to the new distributor. Will see whether my dealer can get them from there now....

regards, Georg