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Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 234
Location: Phoenix, AZ | I frequently take guitar books out from the library. Sometimes I look at them before checking them out, sometimes I just grab them without looking. Well, I blindly grabbed two books this week. One, "The Complete Guitar Player", has a picture of the author, Russ Shipton. And, he's holding an Ovation!
The other, "Total Guitar", has a sidebar entitled "The Modern Acoustic Guitar":
"There can be no doubt that Ovation is the most significant acoustic guitar manufacturer to emerge over the past 50 years. Founded in the early 1960s by aerospace engineer Charles Kaman, Ovation guitars have revolutionized the world of the steel-string acoustic guitar.
The fundamental design principle replaced the back and sides of the traditonal guitar with a one-piece fiberglass rounded bowl. With no corners or struts, the soundwaves were no longer trapped in the corners of the soundbox allowing more of the natural sound to be heard. Following these first experiments, Ovations went on to experiment with a variety of synthetic materials, as well as combinations of fibergalss and wood.
The Balladeer was Ovation's first production guitar, launched in 1966. Four years later an electro-acoustic version was launched, with a piezo-electic transducer pickup fitted on the underside of the bridge saddle. This system created a more natural acoustic guitar sound than could ever be achieved by fitting a pickup across the soundhole of a regular acoustic instrument.
It's not much of an exaggeration to suggest that the name Ovation is now pretty well synonymous with the term "electro-acoustic"."
How's that for a glowing historical summary? Can you see that on a hangtag fitted to every new O and on all the O literature? |
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Joined:
March 2004
Posts: 201
Location: Vernon, CT | A true statement to a great instrument. A writeup on the LX's and other great O guitars would be way cool! Play On!
John L.
(Cobalt Blue) Balladeer LX
(Burgundy)Legend LX
Std. Balladeer
Celebrity C026
1970 Tornado
Takamine 12 String
Martin D16GT
Fender P-Bass |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 1817
Location: Minden, Nebraska | David, thanks for reminding us that not all guitar 'authorities' are victims of prejudice, idiocy, or clever marketing. |
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Joined:
July 2003
Posts: 1922
Location: Canton (Detroit), MI | If that's the book I'm thinking of, that is the last edition, and the current one totally eliminated the Ovation pages, along with those words. I have the last edition, and won't bother with the current one.
Too bad, they had it right the first time.
Roger |
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Check out this O reference from "Total Guitar".
