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Posts: 6
Location: Wichita KS | Describe the first time you saw or heard an Ovation guitar.
For me it was in 1972 at an America concert: The band best know for the song "A Horse With No Name" probably better titled "A Song With No Tune". Nevertheless I was greatly impressed with that weird looking acoustic guitar. At first I thought it was made from a giant gord. Didn't have Google back then! Took quite a while for me to discover that it was a a high tech spin on an old idea. |
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March 2006
Posts: 1634
Location: Chehalis, Washington | I walked into a music shop at 15 and saw a cherry Custom Legend on the wall. The guitar guy pulled it down and proceeded to play every type of music known to mankind...VERY well. Enchanting was the only way I could describe it. I was hooked...after 6 months on lay-a-way, that CL became my first real guitar.
25+ O's later... |
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November 2006
Posts: 2241
Location: Simpsonville, SC | 1975, her name was Janie McKnight (good friend's girlfriend), don't know what the model was, but she played it plugged into a Pignose amp (some song about paving paradise). Nothing like I had ever heard before. After that, I always said "one day I will get an Ovation". 31 years later I did. It's never too late. |
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November 2006
Posts: 2241
Location: Simpsonville, SC | I can't wait to hear Mauvais' story. |
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December 2003
Posts: 13988
Location: Upper Left USA | It was cold and dark and I was alone...
Had a friend named Ken that was an Ovation nut. He introduced be to a Balladeer and a Pacemaker. Soon I had my 1112-1 that is on my wall today.
I think I got it in 1979. |
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July 2005
Posts: 1609
Location: Colorado | Glen Campbell's TV show |
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May 2005
Posts: 486
Location: North Carolina | Late sixties/early seventies (?) Was at a music store and the Ovation saleseman brought in a guitar that he was pitching to the owner. He was explaining that the best configuration for resonance was a bowl, not a box, but the cost of making them out of wood was prohibitive. Now, with this new material, they could be produced in a cost effective manner. So I tried it.
Thought it felt stiff and sounded very thin. Liked the neck. But I essentially wrote them off for twenty years or so. It wasn't until I needed an amplified acoustic in a rock band that I took another look. |
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April 2006
Posts: 1017
Location: Budd Lake, NJ | Up close and personal, as opposed to on TV--1972 (I think.) A fellow led music at a Sunday night service with this weird-shaped guitar that sounded just incredible. This is the one that eventually became known as "Gertrude" and lives at my place.
--Karen |
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March 2005
Posts: 5563
Location: Blue Ridge Mountains | 1967 - Worthington, Ohio visiting my Cousins...We went to the local music store and there I saw my first Ovation: it was up high and probably a Balladeer; all I know is it looked cool...later saw with Glen Campbell on his show and the Smothers Brothers...Bought ny first one in 1976 - a Pacemaker 12; the first of 25+ O's continuing to this day...I have 8 now including finally an Adamas! I love em!
Blessings... |
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January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | xpogi, whenever you're ready to bring the National back to life let me know.
Ovations were always there, always around the house. No big deal, just like air you breath.... |
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June 2006
Posts: 7307
Location: South of most, North of few | Saw GC playing one on TV, then, a few years later, my ex wife bought an applause for me which I played for about a year then left it set in the case for about 20 yrs. Started playing again, sold the applause, bought a celeb., then the GAS thing hit, and the rest, as they say, is history. |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | 1971. Needed a new guitar and walked into a music store in Orange County looking for a Gibson. The saleman handed me an Ovation and said this new type of round bowl back was technologogically superior to wood backs and was "sweeping the nation." It was somewhere around $300. Probably a Legend, not a Balladeer. He said the bowls were indestructible and proceeded to wrap it against the very corner of the sales counter. It bounced back a few feet with, as I recall, very nice tone. I bought the other one hanging on the wall. |
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June 2002
Posts: 863
Location: Central Florida | 1969 - Saw first on the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour
1970 - Played one for the first time.
1971 - First one bought, a Standard Balladeer.
2007 - First time in 35 years w/ no Ovations in the collection (but that's about to change). |
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May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | They got my attention, when Bruce Springsteen played them, (before he became famous), and then the clincher was seeing Dave Mason at an outdoor concert, and then shortly thereafter seeing Al Dimeola with John Mc, and Paco Delucia. After that I had to have one, you could play anything on them, rock, blues, jazz, country ... and they sounded so purty.
I reckon that this was between 1975 and 1980. |
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October 2006
Posts: 5575
Location: big island | 1972ish. cat stephens and america in concert. never played one until 2006 though and it was a cvt adamas that i bought online on a whim, looking for a gigging guitar that would hold up in hawaii's environment. |
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November 2005
Posts: 4832
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | My first time?
Back seat of a .... wait! that wasn't the question?
But I'm sure an Ovation was the reason I got as far as the back seat.
Someone Who Is Cool. |
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March 2007
Posts: 841
Location: CA | Glen Campbell show. Checked one out at a local music store and bought it in 1971 (1111-4). Still have it, still play it. |
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May 2007
Posts: 166
Location: Veedersburg, Indiana | For me it was 1973. I was selling insurance at the time and had stopped at a client's house. His son was in a band and proudly showed me his new guitar. That was pretty much it - although it took me until 1982 to finally get a roundback (Applause). |
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September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Around '71, some traveling hippie came through our home-grown circle in Cape Cod, Mass.
I liked the sound of the Ovation he had, and the design was completely different than the other guitars I had seen. He said that he had a Martin/Guild/Whatever at home, but he got the O because it was a better guitar for Hitch-hiking. Not so influenced by weather-change. (You wouldn't think that by all our discussion about humidity and such!)
He let me play (with) it awhile. I liked the sound, and the neck was the easiest to play of any guitar that I had touched before. And there were quite a few guitars in the neighborhood.
Then I saw an O in a shop about a year-and-a-half ago, and that rekindled that memory...
The rest is History! |
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January 2007
Posts: 672
Location: New South Wales, Australia | It was a warm summer night..she was older than me but we wanted the same thing. The moon shone through the window and her silhouette was driving me crazy. I thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest.
......and then I saw it...her brother's balladeer on a guitar stand in the corner of the room. It was 1979 and I'd been playing guitar for about a year at that time.
After she stole my innocence I momentarily thought about stealing her brother's guitar but was content to just strum it for a while. It took me 15 more years to get my O.
If instruments could talk they'd have some great stories to tell |
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March 2005
Posts: 12759
Location: Boise, Idaho | In the early 70s when I became interested in guitars, everybody was playing Ovations. I sold 2 guitars I had and my future bride kicked in the difference (she had a job and I was still in school) for my first O in 77. |
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July 2004
Posts: 812
Location: Hicksville, NY | I was once a member of the glee club in my high school. In one of our performances, the guitarist of the band that was accompanying us played an Ovation guitar. I didn't know anything about Ovations back then, but I found the round, composite back very odd. It would also be the first time that I had seen an acoustic guitar that could be plugged in directly onto an amp, like a solid body electric. At that time, I'd only known of acoustic guitars, that's equipped with a pick-up on the sound hole. The guy was not only awesome with his playing, but I loved the sound that I was coming out of that guitar. It would take me many, many years to finally own one, and it was well worth the wait.
p.s.
-- xpogi: you have a very interesting username. based on my attempt to translate it, does it mean, "a gentleman who was once good looking, but not anymore?" |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | I was thinking "Expo Guy" (??) |
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April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | ODDS...one of Canada's best kept secrets. Man, they had some great pop tunes.
Saw and bought my first "O" in '74 when our hard rock band needed an acoustic for our more "mellow" side. |
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Your first time.