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Location: Austin, Tx | Just wondering what the take is on the guitar? |
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Location: Upper Left USA | I don't see it as an improvement over previous models.
They could use the same shape on a Fender acoustic and it would make more sense. |
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Location: Austin, Tx | Still thinking about getting one, talk me out of it! |
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Location: Flahdaw | Do it! I mean, SOMEONE has to finally buy one, right? |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Is the Proto O negatively received and why?
It's Fugly.
It was designed by and for people who don't like Ovations.
If you don't like Ovations, buy something else... Don't change the Ovation.  |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | It was poorly advised, poorly executed and poorly received. Other than that I'm sure it's a fine instrument. |
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Location: Upper Left USA | It was the Ted McGinley of Ovations... |
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Location: Upper Left USA | ... I mean Fenders. |
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Location: Utah | I am surprised at the negativity. One member here has played one and said it sounded great. The design is a total refresh yet pays tribute to the original design elements. The old look is now nearly 50 years old, and in the view of younger adults associated with elderly people. Those who played them in the 1960s and 1970s are now geriatric.
Those of us who have explored the variety in O and A are impressed with a new iteration such as the wood topped Adamas, adding the suspension ring to a wood top. But to the masses it is just another one of those out of date Ovations. They want something belonging to their generation, not to their grandparents' generation.
I think it was a good idea to introduce something new in styling, something much more modern. |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Martins sound great, Breedloves sound great, even Taylors sound okay.
I don't think that anybody has said that the Protos sound bad...
I just would give Fender $3500 for one.
But Wait! The prices seem to be going down.
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Location: Utah | Well the price is a different issue. |
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Location: Upper Left USA | I am a little sorry for coming off so negative. Still in denial...
If Fender really wants to compete with Taylor and Martin then they should have started a new line (possibly built in CT) instead of derailing an existing one.
Of course if Fender really wanted to compete with Taylor they could just buy Taylor and close down their factories... whatever. |
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Location: New Hartford CT | I'm not surprised at the negative comments at all. It's symbolic of Fender's missteps in handling Ovation Instruments and represents the end of the line.
Patriot - I like your avatar, brother. And only posting 10 times in 10+ years...that's got be an OFC record for 'Men of Few Words are the Best Men' award. |
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Location: SoCal | I gotta vent this somewhere. Fender bought KMC in what 07-08? They said they had all kinds of ideas to rejuvinate the Ovation brand. Instead, all advertising stopped. They had road shows and a web page, and that was it. If you wanted to play an Ovation, you really only had asian models (and I like asian models -- when they are women). Nothing else.
Then after 4-5 years they come out with the Proto O and that's it. Again, no promotion, no advertising. And then Fender shut the company down because it wasn't profitable? It's starting to look very much like that was the goal from the beginning.
I'm done buying at Guitar Center, and I'll never buy a Fender product....... |
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Location: Pueblo West, CO | The only Fender product I own is a chipboard guitar case for my Yamaha 6-string that I bought back in 1984. |
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Location: Canada | The design is a total refresh yet pays tribute to the original design elements. The old look is now nearly 50 years old, and in the view of younger adults associated with elderly people. Those who played them in the 1960s and 1970s are now geriatric.
I disagree, look at Martin and Gibson who have done little change to their models in 80+ years. "Retro" and tradition has always been popular with acoustic guitarists, and I think the success and demand for Ovation re-issues is another indicator for this phenomenon. While Ovation was built on innovation, this may also have been a weakness. Maybe they should have kept producing their succesful 70s models just like Martin and Gibson do with their oldies. And why talk about Proto ... it's all done and over with and less than a blip in rich Ovation history anyway.
Edited by d'ovation 2014-05-20 1:42 PM
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Location: Phoenix AZ | On the list of things needed to save Ovation from the damage already inflicted by Fender, I don't think a new logo, new soundhole and new headstock would rank high on the list. At least not if I was given the task to do the saving. Doesn't mean that it's not a nice guitar. Just means that it's a solution to a problem that didn't exit, while ignoring the obvious problem that did exist. CLICK ... |
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Location: NJ | if you want one let me know I may still be able to get one |
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Location: Flahdaw | Personally, there only reason I can THINK of to buy a new guitar might be a newly shaped soundhole |
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Location: Austin, Tx | George Frey - 2014-05-20 12:18 PM
I'm not surprised at the negative comments at all. It's symbolic of Fender's missteps in handling Ovation Instruments and represents the end of the line.
Patriot - I like your avatar, brother. And only posting 10 times in 10+ years...that's got be an OFC record for 'Men of Few Words are the Best Men' award.
Yeah but when I write them I wear my old OFC hat! Actually bought my Patriot in '76 back in Houston. Its still mint. I think a restringing is in order...
Edited by Patriot 2014-05-26 9:52 AM
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Al stated "it sounds good" and that's really enough for me. I'm not in love with the headstock, but in the scheme of things, why not try something different. That was what Ovation was all about afterall. If people who already love Ovations really don't like the the design, nothing lost nothing gained. If the new design DID attract new people to the brand, then all is good. |
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Location: Fort Worth, TX | I have always been fascinated with a branch of design called industrial design. It encompasses a wide variety of things. Raymond Loewey is the recognized founder of the discipline. I actually saw him when I was a child touring the Studebaker auto factory where my grampa worked his entire life. Loewey had a place in the design studio where he completed a number of Studebaker car designs, most notably the Avanti. He also designed the current paint scheme for Air Force One, the interior layout of the space station, double decker Greyhound buses, the current Shell and Exxon logos, the swirl Coke bottle, was responsible for the waist concept of car design, designed a number of refrigerators (a few of which are actually collectors items now), and was responsible for inventing streamlining first in locomotives and later on in cars. When he was 17 years old he invented the rubber band windup balsa wood airplane. In fact, it would be easier to make a list of things he didn't design as opposed to things he did work on.
I have thoroughly studied Loewey and have two books about him. I think the proto O is probably something along the lines a genius like Loewey would have envisioned as an updated look for Ovation. From a designer's standpoint, the guitar fulfills the awesome aesthetics the original O's had. I think they're incredible and would give anything to own one. It's too bad it will never be developed into a multi soundhole version as well. I liken it to the redesign of the Volkswagen beetle. Very true to the lines of the original but a completely new product in its own right. If I knew where I could obtain one I'd sell everything I have to raise the money to buy it. |
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Location: Pueblo West, CO | DaveKell - 2014-05-29 1:31 PM
...When he was 17 years old he invented the rubber band windup balsa wood airplane... Hmmm... I'm not flaming you, but I'm not sure Loewey invented the rubber-powered airplane. If you have a source, I'd appreciate seeing it. It's generally acknowledged that the first flight of a rubber band powered model airplane was made in 1871 by French scientist Alphonse Pénaud when he flew his model in front of the French Academy of Sciences. (See: Alphonse Pénaud - The Planophore) The rubber powered helicopter dates to the late 1700s. After Pénaud 's demonstrations, toy makers started creating rubber-powered flying toys. "In 1878, Bishop Milton Wright brought this toy home to his sons Wilbur (age 12) and Orville (age 8) and started them dreaming of flight. It soon wore out, but they made copy after copy. They were still making copies to delight their nieces and nephews in 1903 just before they made their first powered flights in a real airplane." See: History of Aviation and Rubber-Power |
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Location: Fort Worth, TX | DanSavage - 2014-05-29 4:02 PM
DaveKell - 2014-05-29 1:31 PM
...When he was 17 years old he invented the rubber band windup balsa wood airplane... Hmmm... I'm not flaming you, but I'm not sure Loewey invented the rubber-powered airplane. If you have a source, I'd appreciate seeing it. It's generally acknowledged that the first flight of a rubber band powered model airplane was made in 1871 by French scientist Alphonse Pénaud when he flew his model in front of the French Academy of Sciences. (See: Alphonse Pénaud - The Planophore) The rubber powered helicopter dates to the late 1700s. After Pénaud 's demonstrations, toy makers started creating rubber-powered flying toys. "In 1878, Bishop Milton Wright brought this toy home to his sons Wilbur (age 12) and Orville (age 8) and started them dreaming of flight. It soon wore out, but they made copy after copy. They were still making copies to delight their nieces and nephews in 1903 just before they made their first powered flights in a real airplane." See: History of Aviation and Rubber-Power
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. |
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Location: Canada | 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... |
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Is the Proto O negatively received and why?
