The Ovation guitar was a revolution in the history of guitar making. Its innovations include the use of synthetic materials in guitar construction, the mathematically designed "bowl back", the use of onboard preamps and piezoelectric pickups, and the offset soundholes of the Adamas series. This article provides a glimpse into the origins of this American original, and its lower priced cousin the Applause guitar.
Charles Kaman, an aeronautical engineer and amateur guitar player, was born in 1917. He played the guitar from an early age, and studied aeronautical engineering in college. After college he worked in helicopter design. At some point, Charlie entered a national guitar competition and made it to the finals. As a result, he got the opportunity to play guitar with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra. Dorsey offered him a job in the band, but Kaman was committed to aeronautics and turned it down.
In 1945, Charlie founded his own helicopter design company, Kaman Aircraft. The company was quite successful and grew steadily until the early 1960s, when the commercial flight division failed. As a result, Kaman was looking to diversify outside of the aircraft and defense related business.
At around this time, Charlie took his warped Martin guitar to the Martin factory for repair. He toured the plant, and was shocked that Martin was building guitars by hand with hammers, animal glue, and clothespins. He offered to buy the company and modernize their manufacturing, but C.F. Martin refused, wanting to keep Martin a family business.
Kaman decided to start his own guitar manufacturing business. He assembled a team of aeronautics engineers to design the ideal acoustic guitar. The result was the Ovation "bowlback", a rounded back made of a fiberglass composite similar to materials used in aircraft construction. The unique shape of the back as designed to focus the soundwaves inside the guitar to maximize the sound transmission.
The first Ovation guitar, the Balladeer, was introduced in 1967. In 1971, Ovation pioneered the acoustic-electric guitar, adding piezo-electric pickups, onboard preamps, and equalizers to some of their guitars. By the 1980s, Ovations had caught on with professional guitar players and were used onstage extensively. Guitarists using Ovations onstage included Glen Campbell, Al DiMeola, Jimmy Page, and many others.
If Charlie Kaman hadn't played the guitar, or hadn't studied aeronautics, or if his Martin hadn't needed a repair at the same time that Kaman Industries needed to diversify, we wouldn't have the Ovation guitar or the Applause guitar today.
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