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May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Last night I was reading Lester Scrugg's classic, How to play the Banjo to my wife, it puts her to sleep. Anyway, there's a chapter in there about the history of the banjo, and there's a picture of "the first banjo" from 1831 owned by sweeney. I was looking at the banjo headstock and it dawned on me how similar it was to bass or fiddle headstocks, how it had been laid on its side and flattened, and then I realized that if you made it flatter and processed thru an art deco / 1940's industrial filer you'd come up with the fender headstock. So old Leo got his idea from someone else! I tried to explain how wonderful this was to my wife, but she was asleep.
Then I looked at the ovation headstock, and I know the guy who designed it claimed to have based it on a vase, but, if you give it a good think, you can see (or I can)how it's based on some headstock designs from the 30's which are similar to the "fiddle" body design headstocks of the Gibson Banjo. Gasp!
It makes sense (to me) because Leo was looking for a way to make the strings pull straight over the nut to the tuner, as was the guy who designed the ovation headstock (compared to a gibson guitar or a martin). Maybe they didn't do it intentionally, but, I think they looked at some banjo headstocks, or guitar headstocks influenced by banjo designs, when they (Leo and the ovation designer) came up with their headstock designs.
They'll probably never admit it.
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May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands |  |
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March 2005
Posts: 12759
Location: Boise, Idaho | Next time, just go to sleep. The thought of Ovations being related to banjos will keep me awake nights. |
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Joined:
May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | I pulled this off the internet. Note the headstock. Sweeneys was even more like a fender.
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December 2003
Posts: 13996
Location: Upper Left USA | Up until recent times (80 years) you had one Luthier passing tradition down to the next group with little variance from what was "right". Shapes and form were kept due to material and tooling characteristics as much as the discipline of the Master Luthier.
It is still a balance of standing out yet fitting in. I think its one of Stephen28's that has the "knock-me-off" ears removed on the peghead. It actually seems more functional. |
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Joined:
May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | I feel the ears add panache and are sort of protective of the upper tuners. Certainly makes it distinctive. A good design is a good design no matter the source. |
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April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 |  |
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Joined:
May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | More banjo / fender headstock info.
I'm sure Leo went to the Los Angeles museum and saw this:
Note the headstocks
Also, one of them looks like a parker ...
I wonder if the Boucher company could sue ... |
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Shape of Ovation Headstock / Banjo / Fiddles / Fender and Style
