{"id":1331,"date":"2021-11-27T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-27T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skierpage.com\/blog\/?p=1331"},"modified":"2023-11-30T21:13:31","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T05:13:31","slug":"the-rise-and-fall-of-ovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skierpage.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/the-rise-and-fall-of-ovation\/","title":{"rendered":"The rise and fall of Ovation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I blogged about the crazy auction prices<\/a> that guitars owned by Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour attained, particular those he’d never even used. The example I gave was a Ovation 12-string acoustic<\/a> bought from the factory along with several other models, that he never composed on, never recorded, never played on tour, estimated to sell for $1,500<\/em> tops, sold for $93,750<\/strong>, 60 times its estimate<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s not to say that Ovations aren’t interesting guitars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reinventing the back and sides of the guitar<\/h2>\n\n\n
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tough as nails on the back and sides<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Back when I fantasized about having musical talent beyond rote skill, I bought an Ovation Folklore. I had damaged my classical guitar, so a guitar with nigh indestructible fiberglass back and sides appealed, and the sound projection of the resulting bowl shape was extraordinary. In the 1960s and 1970s this space-age reinvention (literally, founder Charles Kaman worked in aerospace and developed helicopters) was very popular. Glen Campbell made Ovation guitars famous, then Ovation over-expanded into oddball electric guitars<\/a>, supplying them to the TV show “The Partridge Family.” The show made teen heartthrob David Cassidy famous, and destroyed any street cred that Ovation had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rethinking the front of the guitar<\/h2>\n\n\n
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“High Strung Suite” is great, like the guitar. Photo by Jeff Sacks, \u00a9 1994 (probably) Relativity Records<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Ovation later rethought the front of the guitar, coming up with the gorgeous Adamas with sound holes in the upper bout, instead of a gaping hole under the strings that requires lots of bracing to avoid the guitar self-destructing. The wonderfully talented Adrian Legg played one. But tastes have shifted back to authenticity and “naturalness,” plus as I understand it guitar makers have figured out how to get as much projection from conventional all-wood guitars, and Ovation is a shadow of its former self. A nice history.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s Adrian playing “Cajun Interlude” off Guitars and Other Cathedrals<\/em> on his Ovation Adamas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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