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Location: Omaha | I'm sure this topic has been discussed before, and maybe even "beaten to death," but does Ovation have any kind of reputation for having any "golden years" of production - the really good stuff, or - for lack of a better term - any "rust years" of duds to avoid? It seems like almost every American instrument company went through the Dark Ages of the '70's, but I've never heard anyone here say that Ovation was "plagued" (no pun intended!) in such a way.
???
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | some would say early mid 90's was a rather dark era. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Round center hole Adamas was a bad year(s). |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | For me, 67-69 were by far the Golden Years. A renaissance occured in the late 70's with the original Adamas guitars but that was later snuffed out. Some would argue there is is a bit of a resurrection with the LX and Contour Bowl guitars. Ice cream? Brief periods of Hagen-Daz seperated by years of store brand plain vanilla.
Flash back to early 80's. The suits tell you that they are going to push k-bar necks, supershallow bowls, colored tops, celebrity models, and position themselves as the plugged in guitar. As the marketing manager who loves quality acoustic sound how are you going to deal with THAT? And the ironic thing is that once the whole unplugged thing comes around everyone flocks to Tak and Martin because AR has been asleep at the wheel.
As Ovation fans we are lucky that we 1) have this site, 2) have each other, 3) have dealers like Al, and 4) have places like ebay, to search out the real gems. And make no mistale there are some like I mentioned above. God forbid if we were at the mercy of the chain stores.
Dave |
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Location: SoCal | 67-69 were great. The 70's, for the most part, sucked (exception being the Adamas, and the Custom Legends). 80's with advent of the A bracing pattern, and the 1537's, were good, but the trend started towards the SSB. 90's sucked. No way around that. There were still good guitars out there (I have a 93 Adamas I deep bowl that's outstanding), but the push was for stage guitars, f*#k the acoustic sound. In the 2000's, with the LX and contoured bowls, things are looking up again.
Also, to add to Dave's things to be thankful for list, add Kim & John, and the rest of the customer service guys. They have a real love for the older instruments and it shows in their work. |
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Location: Tennessee | The 70's, for the most part, sucked True enough. But the 70's was when every way you turned, a major artist was playing an Ovation. From rock, to country, to fingerstyle. The list of endorsees was huge, and the sheer market presence of Ovation was even bigger. It's hard to argue that when you're on top of the game you're not in your golden years. |
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Location: Chicagoland | That's becuase Ovation was the only true aucostic/electric guitar for quite awile. No one really had any choice. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | I would have to say that the 70's weren't that bad for Ovation. Yes there were some bad models but there were a ton of good ones and it was the company's leap to center stage. Gibsons and Fenders weren't that good then. I would say that the early 80s were darker years for Ovation.
There were maybe three periods (maybe more) that stand out as brilliant.
1. 66-69 Bringing a great idea to reality. Not sure how to do it but doing it anyway. Once it got perfected, it started getting too smoothed out to make production easier and the specialness slipped away.
2. 76&77 Slothead production. Same reason as above.
3. Now. Completely different reasons. Dedicated people reinventing the guitar and making great products. Struggling to succeed (and doing so) in a corporate environment where it's just another product line (with abnormally huge costs associated with it that other lines don't have, read factory). |
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Location: SoCal | Please keep in mind that my comments were generalizations. There were great guitars built every single year. I've got guitars built in 68, 69, 72, 83, 87, and 93. All are great guitars.
Also, I tend to judge guitars by their acoustic sound, not whether you can plug them in, or who was first to plug in. |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Bill sounds like he actually knows what he's talking about! Dave |
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Location: SoCal | But he's a retired gas station owner for cripes sake..... |
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Location: Omaha | Not to steer my own thread off topic, but Bill's comment(s) raises another question...who really owns Ovation today? The Kaman family? A corporation? Stockholders? _____________? (Doesn't "sound like" it's the employees...)
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Location: SoCal | Ovation is part of Kaman Music which in turn in owned by Kaman Corp.
Did I get those names right? Probably not.... |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Kaman is a publically traded company. Symbol is KAMNA. |
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Location: NJ | I'd be inclined to think that the 80's were "dark times" for ALL acoustic guitar manufacturers (punk, disco, techno, power-pop, . . name yer "poison"). |
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Location: SoCal | "I'd be inclined to think that the 80's were "dark times" for ALL acoustic guitar manufacturers"
Yet 2 of the 3 six strings I have and play the most were built in the 80's.........
There are exceptions to all the statements.... |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | My wife follows the stock for me. They recently had some sort of stock conversion, which I've been informed, makes the shares more fairly valued. Also, Kaman bought MBT, the same guys that distribute Tribal Planet, Hondo (they make the chiquita guitar) and other stuff. It'll be interesting to see how this works out. It would be great if they had TP bags specifically designed as an option. |
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Location: Upper Left USA | For the insomniacs and Economists amongst us:
Change in Stock Type
Overview
Hey Miles,
Can we get KAMNA stock in the OFC Store soon? |
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Location: closely held secret | ...zzzzzzzz... |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Buy high and sell low. Oh wait, that only applies to my guitar aquisitions ... |
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Location: Omaha | Hah! How true!
Oh boy...
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Location: Cherry Hill, NJ | Although in the early 70's O's were everywhere, I think now is the start of the golden years for Ovation. But I don't know if the current popular music could support it. There's not enough acoustic guitar based music selling as in the past. The quality of the guitars coming out of the Ovation factory are great. The new models such as the T's LX's wild paint schemes, better electronics, bracings, contour bowls make this an exciting time to be an Ovation Fan. Now is the time my friends! |
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Location: Canton (Detroit), MI | The problem is that there are too many people now who hate Ovations. I run into this every time I'm at my local GC. So many won't even give them a chance; paint schemes, electronics, bowl configuration doesn't matter.
Roger |
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Location: Central Florida | I agree with the 1966-69 camp. Ovation put out some incredible acoustic instruments during that period. Even my snob brother, who's an avid O basher, admitted that my former (now GN-Nick's) '68 Deluxe Balladeer was--in his words--a "tone monster." Eventhough the 70's were the highest profile era for Ovation (and my sentimental favorite period for Os), I agree with Mr. Moody and others... Acoustically, their tone began to seriously wane, with the exception of the Adamas and Custom Legend models. This, I believe, was largely due to their experimentation with alternative bracing patterns.
When I'm cruising the 'bay looking for good deals on older O's, these days I find myself gravitating towards the early to mid 80s models. I think that was also a pretty good period in the companies production history, mainly due to the inclusion of the A pattern bracing on more models. I used to have an Elite deep bowl from '89 that ws an exceptional guitar (another one I kinda regret selling).
I can't speak much about the 90s, the only O I've ever owned from that period is the '95 Elite SS bowl I currently own. It's a well built guitar, but because its a SS bowl, it shines when plugged in, but is limited in other applications.
Unfortunately, I can't really speak to the present quality of Ovation. They seem to be building some pretty spectacular instruments, but all I can do at this point is watch from the sidelines, since they're currently not offering any of their new innovations to the lefty market, and it appears it's gonna be a while before they do--if ever.
So, for me personally, this is how I'd break it down:
Best era so far (sonically): Late sixties.
Second best (sonically): Early eighties
Sentimental favorite: The 60s & 70s in general. |
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Location: Flushing, MI | I'm kinda wondering if their darkest hour could be right NOW. They seemed to be all concerned with the painted up tops (the Nikki Sixx lightning bolt design comes to mind), and super shallow bowls, and totally ignore the acoustic tone. I thinking their aiming for the teenage market.
They oughta be concerned about repairing their tarnished reputation. But, on the other hand, as long as people keep a-hatin' 'em, we can keep a-buyin' the good ones cheap!
Give me a deep bowl with an A bracing, or give me my Matrix! |
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Ovation "golden years" or "rust years"?
