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In 1966, aeronautical pioneer Charlie Kaman did
what few have ever succeeded in doing - he
revolutionized the acoustic guitar. Ovation
guitars arrived on the scene with their round
backs and new ideas. Professional musicians
hailed the guitar's performance and purists
shook their heads.
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In the
early sixties, Kaman saw
the need to diversify his
aviation company into other
markets where aerospace technology
could create better products.
As a longtime guitarist,
he understood the needs of
players and his extensive
helicopter blade experience
gave him a better understanding
of vibration than any other
guitarmaker.
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As Charlie himself put it, "In helicopters, the
engineers spend all their time trying to figure
out how to remove vibration. To build a guitar,
you spend your time trying to figure out how
to put vibration in. But vibration is vibration."
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| "It wasn't a case of just making
a guitar," he continued, "with our background
in aerospace, we had the technology to really
make a better one." So in 1964, Charlie chose
a small team of aerospace engineers and technicians
for the project (several of whom were woodworking
hobbyists as well) and set them off to work. |
They were accustomed to doing things the Kaman
way - identify the problem; explore the possible
solutions; pick the best result and go with
it. They discovered that the flat back of an
acoustic guitar actually hindered the balance
and projection.
So they broke the first rule of
many and developed the roundback. The design
improved projection, gave the guitar a better
balance from bass through treble and made for
a stronger and more rugged instrument.
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Two years and many prototypes later, they brought
the first production Ovation to life - the Balladeer.
With the now-famous roundback, the first Ovations
raised a lot of curious eyebrows in the music
industry.
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