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Location: Fort Worth, TX | merlin666 - 2014-05-29 5:50 PM
I think he may not have invented THE model airplane but A model airplane:
http://content.lib.auburn.edu:81/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/lad...
You're probably right... or I guess we both are to an extent. In any event, his life story is fascinating. Talk about being in the right place at the right time with the right idea! I still think the proto O might be a concept along the lines he would come up with and that is an awesome example of forward thinking guitar design. |
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Location: Taxed To Death State | Personally I feel change is good sometimes. I like the new headstock design but really don't dig the bridge and the odd shaped sound hole. Like everyone else said, I bet it plays and sounds great considering who made them. From a marketing standpoint I don't think Fender did their homework on the design change. I work for a large advertising agency and while I'm not involved with clients, I do know that when the design team comes up with new concepts for clients, they hire focus groups, conduct surveys, hire more focus groups and really dig to see if these new concepts are well received by the public. You think maybe they'd make one or two of these puppies and get them in the hands of say folks here on this web site or other guitar consumers too get feedback before investing a ton of time engineering them and building a bunch. I certainly don't know enough of how musical instrument marketing works but definitely makes you wonder what went on in the marketing dept. at Fender with this new model. I guess time will never tell where they were going with these new model designs. |
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Location: Fort Worth, TX | danomyte - 2014-05-30 5:34 AM
Personally I feel change is good sometimes. I like the new headstock design but really don't dig the bridge and the odd shaped sound hole. Like everyone else said, I bet it plays and sounds great considering who made them. From a marketing standpoint I don't think Fender did their homework on the design change. I work for a large advertising agency and while I'm not involved with clients, I do know that when the design team comes up with new concepts for clients, they hire focus groups, conduct surveys, hire more focus groups and really dig to see if these new concepts are well received by the public. You think maybe they'd make one or two of these puppies and get them in the hands of say folks here on this web site or other guitar consumers too get feedback before investing a ton of time engineering them and building a bunch. I certainly don't know enough of how musical instrument marketing works but definitely makes you wonder what went on in the marketing dept. at Fender with this new model. I guess time will never tell where they were going with these new model designs.
During the 40+ years I owned a sign company I did a lot of projects for ad agencies. My biggest customer was the prolific freelance art director Brian Berlusconi. I got to see my work on two Ford commercials. He lived here in north Texas in a very upscale neighborhood and every Thursday evening flew to Manhattan and back home Monday morning. I always liked the fact that EVERY project for an ad agency was accompanied with an impossible last minute deadline I thrived on. With the added advantage of being able to charger five times my going rate for anybody else because of their enormous budgets. I also got to do projects for celebrities with ad agencies. They were immediate payers as well. |
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Location: Taxed To Death State | Dave the advertising business can be really neat. I always get a kick out of telling my kids "we made that commercial" when I see them on TV. I work with a woman here who worked on the 2007 Hamer (New Hartford) color collectors catalog at another agency. It's really nice. She gave me the copy. They made some frigging sweet solids man. Those are the ones to watch. I bet those will be very desirable some day. |
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Location: Utah | danomyte - 2014-05-30 4:34 AM
Personally I feel change is good sometimes.
Yes, a brand needs to keep evolving. Build on top of the good features you have, but don't let the product get stale or stodgy.
danomyte - 2014-05-30 4:34 AM
You think maybe they'd make one or two of these puppies and get them in the hands of say folks here on this web site or other guitar consumers too get feedback before investing a ton of time engineering them and building a bunch. I certainly don't know enough of how musical instrument marketing works but definitely makes you wonder what went on in the marketing dept. at Fender with this new model.
We would be the worst place to bring something radically new because we are for the most part old, stale, and stodgy! Many of us were inspired by Glen Campbell in the 60's or the singer-songwriters of the 70's. A brand cannot attract new young buyers by appealing to old throwbacks like us.
Imagine the magazine or tv ad: "Newest Adamas model gets 5 Star review from a bunch of old guys, but they still prefer the styling on guitars from 45 years ago".
Ovation/Adamas could still sell us OFCers leading edge technology guitars, and we would appreciate the latest improvements. But to sell to young new buyers they need to create the image that an O or A is a fresh modern instrument. I hate to say it, but O/A needs to compete with the image of Seagull and Taylor as being modern and hip.
So they wrapped up the latest (and best) innovations in the industry with some new styling. I think it was a smart move, but too late to save the company. |
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Location: south east Michigan | Maybe this was not a case of being negatively received.
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Maybe it was a case of vast dis-interest.
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Now the price they were asking... that would be largely responsible for any negatively.
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Edited by Slipkid 2014-05-30 8:53 AM
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Location: Pueblo West, CO | DaveKell - 2014-05-29 2:54 PM
It's in the first few pages of a book about him. I guess I could scan it and post the image? Actually, he was 11, not 17. I had no ideas rubber bands were around in 1871. It's interesting your post referenced the French Academy of Sciences. Loewey was French.
Here's an excerpt from Loewey's book, "Never Leave Well Enough Alone":
See: http://books.google.com/books?id=ZFdl0gC5P50C&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=A...
I can see from what is written that he was one of the earliest builders and in on the ground floor of not only model aviation, but of aviation, itself.
So, I guess you could say he invented the prototype for the model airplane business.  |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | C'mon guys. Yes, the OFC seems to be an old fart club, but you could show a Martin or Taylor to a focus group of kids and they wouldn't know how old it was. You could show the same focus group an old Adamas and they'd think it was revolutionary compared to the Martin or Taylor. But they'd want the Martin or Taylor because that's what today's stars are playing. If Fender had any Ovations in the hands of the stars, like Ovation used to do, the young crowd would buy them. They just weren't out there. Instead, they had all the Celebrities in the stores. Taylor took the opposite approach and had all the stars playing their expensive guitars and they didn't have cheap entry level Taylors in the stores. I'm not saying that Taylor's aproach was better, since someone who couldn't afford a Taylor would have to buy a different guitar, but Taylor and Martin seem to be doing OK without coming out with any new designs. |
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Location: Jet City | I'm in agreement with the semi-retired lawyer... 100%
New innovations were not needed. Relevant endorsers and signature USA models were, along with the marketing to back the endorsements up. I love Melissa, Al, and Kaki, but that just plain wasn't nearly enough.
RIP Ovation |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Everyday I go out and Play my Ovations on the Street. (if it ain't raining)
Everyday I get compliments on my Ovations.
If they were in the stores people would have bought them.
But that is all water under the bridge.
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Is the Proto O negatively received and why?
