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March 2011
Posts: 10
| Hy guys,
I've heard people describe Ovations as sounding like "a spare tire with strings" ... I currently have three and I beg to differ. But I am wondering as to what you think is the reasoning behind the roundback design?
Here is my idea: I don't think it has anything to do with focusing the sound towards the sound hole. That would not make sense for the Ovations without a soundhole. I think the reason for the roundbacks is for better player comfort ... and also to eliminate the need for corners and seams. The entire back and sides are one piece and therefore is able to resonate better as a whole. And this is what gives Ovations their "sound"
What do you think?
1761 Balladeer
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Originally posted by makonnen:
[qb] Hy guys,
I've heard people describe Ovations as sounding like "a spare tire with strings" ... I currently have three and I beg to differ. But I am wondering as to what you think is the reasoning behind the roundback design?
What do you think?
It's explained pretty clearly in the Carter book. Ovations came out of a need for an aerospace company to diversify into other markets. They worked with fibreglass and spruce in the manufacture of helicopter rotor blades so when they decided to build guitars they worked with materials that were to hand and with which they had experience. The first few fibreglass body prototypes were a regluar flatback design, but they were floppy and needed braces like a wooden guitar. So they went to a bowl design because that structure is self-reinforcing (the eggshell principle) and did not need to be braced. Pretty much everything else, including "focusing soundwaves towards the soundhole" and "braces interupting soundwaves" and "sound gets trapped in the corners of standard guitars" and the rest of the crap that was sold as "science" is essentally marketing BS |
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Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Marketing Rhetoric. |
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March 2011
Posts: 10
| I realize that "focusing the soundhole" etc... is BS, that is not how an acoustic guitar works. The whole acoustic in unison works like a speaker to vibrate the air around it.
My point is that you can't tell me the age old design of a typical acoustic guitar is the best design for acoustics. Like you don't see too many other designs that have remained unchanged for hundreds of years... |
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March 2005
Posts: 12750
Location: Boise, Idaho | Why do you think the roundback was a change from the "age old design" of a typical acoustic guitar, rather than the other way around? Ever heard of a lute?
My bet is that someone decided that a squareback was easier to build than the age old design of a lute and came up with the "traditional" guitar design. Lutes evolved from drums when someone decided to replace a skinned top with a wood top. I also recall reading somewhere that "traditional" guitars evolved from banjos. You can start your chicken and egg question pretty much anywhere. |
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Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Yeah Mark!
In a book that I've got the author is discussing the History of Stringed Instruments in general...
Most "ancient" instruments had round backs. The Lute is always used as an example...
Mandolins, Sitars, Bouzouki, and such.
Box-Shaped guitars are easier to Make (mass produce), but not necessarily better sounding. |
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March 2005
Posts: 12750
Location: Boise, Idaho | There are several theories, but most go back to the lute. Put some strings over a bowl and see how it sounds. Add a neck. Add some frets. Add some strings.
For those of us who were teenagers in the 60s, it was all about breaking tradition. My concept of breaking tradition usually meant doing the opposite of what my parents did.
If Beal could remember the 60s, he could just tell us about it. But his dad was the rebel who was breaking tradition. "Thinking outside the box" could have applied to Ovation if someone had come up with the phrase back then. |
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Theory behind roundbacks? 1761 content - pic
