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November 2011
Posts: 741
Location: Fort Worth, TX | You can't help but notice that in the guitar universe, most people consider Ovation players to be from another planet. Even on Acousticguitarforum, a place known for its tolerance and profound lack of bashing, you occasionally hear the "plastic salad bowl" comments. I started thinking about this a little while ago as I am sitting here awakened from sleep by the pain I deal with. I'm looking at my 1768C Elite on its stand across the room from me wondering what drew me to Ovations in the first place.
When I was a kid, I nearly wore out an lp of Glen Campbell's called The 12 String Guitar of Glenn Campbell. In fact, I'm gonna search Amazon in a bit to see if it ever became available as a cd. By then, I already had a Gibson Melody Maker basic electric I had gotten as a Christmas present. My dad used to bring home musicians from bars who needed a place to crash for the night. One time we hosted Roger Miller's guitarist who made my Melody Maker do things I never dreamed possible. The impact of that night is still with me some 45 years later. My heroes were guitar players, and Glenn Campbell in particular. Then came the night in '63 or '64 when I watched the Beatles on Ed Sullivan Show and the race was on for real.
In the days before the internet, it took me forever to find out what that radical guitar was Glenn was playing on his tv show. I was fascinated with the round shape that reminded me of an old lute a neighbor had, and of course Glenn ripped off things on it that seemed light years ahead of my ability, as they in fact remain to this day! It took me several more years before I ever acquired one, but finally I owned a GC model O. Even way back then I still liked looking at myself holding it in a mirror, although it's a bit embarrassing to admit that. As I sit here now, impressed with the design of this Elite, I know the aesthetics of the guitar is a big part of my attraction. On a more practical side, I've never owned another acoustic guitar with a more comfortable neck that is so entirely playable all the way up the neck. Plus, there has been a very noticeable difference in the sound in all the O's I've had so far. I'd have to say this Elite tops the list as my all time favorite, I think it even sounds better than an early Adamas I thought I was going to trade another guitar for recently but the deal fell through. Overall, I'm a fan because I think O's are beautiful and I love their distinctive tone. I recently saw Cat Stevens playing some of his old repertoire and couldn't help but notice immediately the profound lack of the O sound in them. The songs sounded markedly different from the way I hear them in my memory, and it wasn't just his different voice from being very much older. They were missing the sound of the O that made them famous in the first place.
I know this is a long post, but I'm interested in hearing an in depth analysis of what drew you to Ovation guitars. We're a very diverse group of people but we share this common attraction to a guitar many people have very dismissive opinions of. I'm infinitely curious as to why that is? |
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August 2009
Posts: 1137
Location: Germany, where delicious wine is growing (Rheinh) | Once, a bit more than 30 years ago, I saw Nancy Wilson playing a Custom-Legend, Cat Stevens playing a Folklore or Glen Campbell. The guitars had all really taken shine of me because of the clear and bright sound. One day, I found a used 1127-4 GC in a music store. I went in an played it only for a few minutes and was blown away by the sound and the playability.
In that time I played a very cheap classical guitar but I can't afford that Ovation. So I was dreaming of it for more than 20 years. 8 years ago as I changed my job I came back to guitars and bought my first Ovation, it was an Applause 127-1. A Celebrity CC65-12-string followed soon. Then I took the chance to get a 95's Collectors for cheap and sold the Applause. I was working hard on my ability and got the chance to play a friends 2007 Collectors', I never knew he owned one. At this day I became ill with "gas". Now I own some of the best O's and A's and I don't want to miss one!!!!
Bernie |
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October 2005
Posts: 4081
Location: Utah | I grew up in the 60's and 70's. Thus I saw the revolution of Ovation in the hands of the musicians I liked. Glen Campbell, Nancy Wilson, Cat Stevens, and many others.
When I was in high school in the mid 70's I saved up enough to buy a nice acoustic guitar. I played all kinds in the local stores and then went out to what was the equivalent then of Guitar Center called Rondo Music on rt 22 in New Jersey. They carried Ovations. I played a bunch of them several times. That cemented my lifelong appreciation of Ovation. |
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Joined:
January 2009
Posts: 4536
Location: Flahdaw | I agree. We started as Ovation fans cos all our heroes played them. They may (or may not) have been the best choice out there for us, but they were what we demanded. Most of us have grown to love other makes as well, and have included different brands into our stables.
Today's kids only see Taylors on tv or the net, so that is what they are demanding. In general, the best sounding guitars at Guitar Center ARE Taylor higher end models. The customers play cheap Ibanez's, Taks, Washburns, Yamahas, Ovations...THEN play a Taylor 414 or higher and are convinced that Taylors are the best sounding guitars in the world. |
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September 2003
Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | I purchased my first Ovation (40 some years ago) after a couple months of nerd like research.
It wasn't just the bowl ... it was the science behind the bowl.
Celebrity players never entered into the equation.
When I purchased my Al DiMeola model, I didn't know (or care) who Al DiMeola was.
Edited by Slipkid 2013-01-26 2:41 PM
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September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Besides TV, I had seen actual Ovations played in pot-circles back in the early 70's.
I lived on Cape Cod, and hitch-hikers would come through from Boston and NY and further just cuz the Cape is Nice.
A few brought Ovations because they were good Traveling guitars.
Sitting in those circles I was exposed to them in my wasted youth.
Flash forward 35 years to 2006...
I had bought a Lyon pseudo-Strat at Target (still got it) and I was looking for an acoustic...
I had played a few wood-boxes in various shops when I saw an Ovation at Portland Music.
I was reminded of those Round-back guitars from way-back-when...
I did some research online and visited evilBay for the first time.
I found a 4861-4 Korean Balladeer... I also found the Ovation Fan Club.
I have owned and played a few really nice wood-boxes.
I have a nice sounding Epiphone "Advanced Jumbo" and I have owned a couple of Morgan Monroes.
There is just something about an Ovation that wood-boxes don't have.
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Joined:
August 2006
Posts: 3145
Location: Marlton, NJ | I don't really recall being influenced (at least consciously) by any celebrity playing O's. That being said, I did watch the Partridge Family and my Mom was a big Neal Diamond fan. What I do recall is that when I went to buy my first new guitar - a Matrix - it just stood out to me from all the rest. My first new electric was a Preacher, purchased about a year later. |
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April 2008
Posts: 2985
Location: Sydney, Australia | I was watching Simon & Garfunkel's concert in Central Park on TV with a bunch of friends. I didn't play guitar but was fascinated by the black Custom Legend Paul Simon was playing. My friends told me it was an Ovation. "That's what I'm going to play if I ever learn guitar" I proclaimed. Cue raucous laughter - Ovations aren't cheap in Australia. I took up guitar a few months later and bought a 1117 Legend when i travelled to the US. Now who's laughing? |
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Joined:
January 2009
Posts: 4536
Location: Flahdaw | Oh, c'mon. If 30-40 years ago everyone laughed at Ovations and NO celebrity would allow themselves to play one in public, do you really think you would have bought one?
The reality is that ALL the celebrities played them and they were THE guitar to own. That fact HAD to have SOME influence on your decision to buy one.... |
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Joined:
November 2011
Posts: 741
Location: Fort Worth, TX | I just learned that "fan" came about as a shorter way to say "fanatic, which is a much better description of me with O's. I envy you guys with a posse of them. Someday. |
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August 2005
Posts: 3736
Location: Sunshine State, Australia | Celebrity had nothing to do with it for me. In the early 80's I saw a duo in my local and I was blown away by the tone of one of the guy's unusual looking guitar. I'd never heard of Ovation guitars before that day.
I still didn't get my first one until the late 80's. I had to make do with my old Yamaha until I rescued a BFLG Balladeer project that the local guitar shop had taken in as a trade but was unwilling to spend any time fixing it up. |
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Joined:
March 2008
Posts: 2683
Location: Hot Springs, S.D. | It was different for me. I was a Gibson person who got a job at Ovation. I literally played THOUSANDS of Ovations in my job as an inspector. After work and on weekends when I would jam with my friends I wanted to play one of my Gibsons, but after playing Ovations all week my fingers were spoiled. I wanted to sound good and I knew that if the guitar was easier to play, I would sound better.
And then of course there were all of the bluegrass festivals I used to go to. The Ovations would hold up where a wood guitar was more fragile. I'll never forget the time I was jamming at the campsite at the Cajun and Bluegrass festival in Escoheague (I think I spelled that wrong) Rhode Island. There was a guy there with a Martin HD28 who BEGGED me to trade with him. He wanted my black Legend. I knew that financially, I would be getting a better deal, but the Legend plugged in and the Martin didn't. I told him no deal. He kept bugging me about it all weekend, but I stuck to my guns. I still have that guitar to this day. |
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Joined:
May 2006
Posts: 4239
Location: Steeler Nation, Hudson Valley Contingent | I saw my first Ovation when I was a cadet at the Air Force Academy long ago. I had not started to play yet; had not even considered it actually. But I did sing in the cadet choir and my best friend and I formed the first contemporary christian group to play Easter service there. (It is simultaneously cool and terrifying when a 3-star General approaches several Doolies (freshman cadets) after service to compliment their efforts.)
My friend noticed one day that my left hand was double-jointed and badgered me to learn guitar, thinking it would be easier for me to fret the chords. (He was wrong.) So my dad bought me a used Kay to learn on and I loved the process of teaching myself. I also never forgot that aerospace-looking, 12-string guitar I had seen a year before.
About a year later, I bought a Celebrity 6-string, and soon after found a new 1655 Custom Balladeer that the shop owner was willing to do a lay-away on. My sister still has the Celeb, and my trusty 1655 has been with me ever since. I'm never selling that guitar, but the reason I offer lay-away options so often when I sell something is because of the kindness of that shop owner decades ago. Without him, who knows if I would have ever owned a USA Ovation. And for the love of Pete! Look what he started!!!!!!!!!!! |
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Joined:
September 2002
Posts: 806
Location: Seymour, Tennessee | My Dad's 68 DB was always beautiful to me and it was the first Ovation I ever saw.
He and my Mom scrimped and saved to buy it as my Dad played and sang in bars as a second job to feed us.
He was inspired by Glen Campbell who was of course playing Ovations at the time.
They got it in 1969, it was new, just hadn't been sold yet at the music store, Lipham Music in Gainesville, FL.
I knew of lots of celebrities playing Ovations "back in the day" but they really didn't have any influence on me loving these guitars.
It has always been firmly planted in me since my Dad played it, he gave it to me just before he was killed in 1987 and it was actually my first "Real" guitar.
It just turned out that my beloved and cherished Ovation turned out to be a relatively prized Shiney bowl.
I eventually bought my 88 Collectors Series and had my 12 String Custom Legend custom-built in his honor with some of his life insurance money.
The remainder of my Ovations all have special stories behind them as well and I have given a few of them to my Son who is quickly coming to the point of surpassing my playing ability.
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February 2008
Posts: 158
Location: South Windsor Connecticut | I have hosted many jams here at my house, and seen many Ovations come and go. I decided to dabble in a few but nothing has hit me like my current one. Great reading from everyone.
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November 2008
Posts: 400
Location: Northwest Arkansas | In 2004, around Christmas, I went into my favorite music store. There on the wall was the Adamas W597 I had been playing for months. It was on sale at half price. I called my bank and told them how much money I needed. I wrote the check and I left a convert to Ovation. That was just a little over 8 years ago and I have purchased upwards of 11 or 12 Ovations since then. There is not another guitar that plays like an Adamas, for that matter, sounds like one. You can see in my signature what guitars I own. These will ALWAYS be in my collection. I've said 20 times on this forum it was 2006. I did a little math and found out it was Christmas 2004. I look at guitars through a different lens now. I was one of the scoffers. "I'm not playing one of those roundback piles of crap." To me, they are the best acoustic-electric on the planet. I have used the xlr-out and all the soundmen are like, "That sure has a hot signal!" Yes it does. There hasn't been a picture taken of me playing acoustic guitar, that I'm not sporting one of my O's or my Adamas. They are quite simply great guitars. |
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December 2001
Posts: 7247
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | I never really had the "I wanna sound like that guy/gal" moment.
My first Ovation was an acoustic. I was going to college, needed a guitar, I grew up in Connecticut, Ovation has a factory outlet store in Middletown and my mom was their accountant, Ovation was made in Connecticut... no brainer.
My first Ovation electric was because I liked my acoustic so I thought I would see what they had for electrics. I noticed the feel of the neck was very similar. Again, no brainer.
I really didn't start to appreciate Ovations until about 20 years later. Playing Ovation electric's was kinda my thing. Never really thought about anything else except some really cool high-end guitars that I couldn't afford.
Over the years I tried other guitars but none ever made an impression. Les Paul's were heavy and clunky and didn't generally have a tremolo. Strat's didn't have enough frets. If neither of those worked, might as well stick with what did work.
It wasn't until I started shopping for that "perfect electric guitar" that I realized the only way I was gonna beat an Ovation, was to have a guitar built for me. I have a couple of MCS customs, but there's an Ovation Viper custom that has had some Woody-treatment that I need to finish as it may end up being my ultimate electric.
As for acoustics... As I have said many times before.. I really thought based on my first Ovation in '76 that "wood box" guitars were done. To this day I don't see why wood acoustic guitars are still popular. I have to hear a non-Ovation acoustic guitar with consistent tone and volume up'n down the neck, and full tonal range from deep bottom to high top and plenty of middle. Most have plenty of middle and sound like a wood box.
Besides tone, the whole "wood" process for making a guitar just seems pointless... and here's a bit of irony..
Violins have been around for LOOOONG time. The violin itself is one of the most respected instruments, yet... people play all sorts of composite violins without anywhere near the disrespect that Ovation has gotten for the audacity to use better materials than wood.
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August 2003
Posts: 396
| Heart 1978 |
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September 2012
Posts: 815
Location: Thredbo, NSW, Australia | A friend of mine who was a semi-pro musician used one for gigs. I always loved the big sound and strong bottom end.
30 years later I bought my first Ovation, and within a few months had acquired 3. Now I want and Adamas, thanks to TAFKAR.
I think I have terminal GAS!
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Joined:
March 2005
Posts: 12761
Location: Boise, Idaho | I don't remember wanting an Ovation because of any particular celebrity playing one, but they all were back in 1977. I wanted a better guitar than the fingerbuster that I had in order to play at our wedding. Ovation was better than state of the art It was way ahead. It was the only guitar company that was doing anything new at the time and I liked the high tech idea. The Matrix was the best new guitar we could afford. |
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Joined:
December 2006
Posts: 6996
Location: Jet City | In 1982 I didn't know nuthin' about nuthin' or who played what. I kept visiting the little music store on the corner, and the UKII was the one that felt best to play. Couldn't afford it so I bought the next best thing, the Preacher. I traded up to the UKII a couple months later.
FWIW, the runner's up were not Ovation. Had they not sold Ovations, I would have bought either the Takamine Explorer copy, or the Ibanez Roadstar II they had hanging on the wall
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November 2005
Posts: 4833
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | My buddy bought one, used, in 72-73 partly because we were into Jim Croce, America, etc. at the time. I don't know if it was the sound, the feel, peer influence, or what. The neck was comfortable in my (small) hands and it was the loudest acoustic at the guitar pull.
I had the first A/E Ovation in town and was therefore the one least likely to feedback when we started plugging in, liked that too. Had to loan my guitar to a couple local rock bands for their acoustic bits for that reason.....meant getting in to everything for free...."I'm with the band!" |
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February 2012
Posts: 32
| Robert Fripp and the league of crafty guitarists. It was the recommended brand/model for pupils. Then I noticed dimeola had one, coryell, pat martino...So you knew this was a quality instrument. |
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October 2012
Posts: 349
Location: Denver, CO | Well, I'm a drummer, so I never really took a lot of notice of the Os and As I did see. I do remember being impressed with their sound, and I was aware that Neil Diamond and Tom Sholtz played them. I've seen Alex Lifeson play one a couple of times. Been a fan of Al DiMeola over the years but was unaware that he was an Ovation endorser.
When I started playing guitar a few years back, I was borrowing a friend's Takamine for a while, but wasn't blown away by it. I decided I needed to buy an acoustic of my own, but was surprised how little $1000 gets you, in the world of acoustic guitars. I played a few Celebrities, and they were nice but in that "not quite as good as I want" range. I was very impressed with the electronics, and even spent a couple hours with 2 or 3 different models at GC one day, but when it came time to buy, I had to pass...
The K1111 is the first actual 1st-line Ovation I've ever played. Liked it enough to let Dave take my old dreadnought away from me in trade. Since, I've acquired the Elite, and I really like it a lot. However, the real reason I'm a fan is because of the OFC! Glad I met y'all, and hoping for many more years with you, along with a few more of Mr. Kaman's toys! |
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Joined:
December 2009
Posts: 79
Location: So Cal | My first guitar was a Silvertone 6 string hollow body electric. A birthday present from my parents. In my late teens I decided I really liked the sound of a 12 string and bought a Yamaha...the tone was ok but, really hard on the fingers. At the music store looking for a fix, the salesman handed me an Ovation 12. I sold the Yamaha. I have tried many other guitars over the years but, the Ovations feel and sound right to me. I still have that Ovation 12. |
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Exactly What Made You A Fan?
