| The Ovation guitar was a revolution in the history of | | | | At around this time, Charlie took his warped Martin |
| guitar making. Its innovations include the use of | | | | guitar to the Martin factory for repair. He toured the |
| synthetic materials in guitar construction, the | | | | plant, and was shocked that Martin was building |
| mathematically designed "bowl back", the use of | | | | guitars by hand with hammers, animal glue, and |
| onboard preamps and piezoelectric pickups, and the | | | | clothespins. He offered to buy the company and |
| offset soundholes of the Adamas series. This article | | | | modernize their manufacturing, but C.F. Martin |
| provides a glimpse into the origins of this American | | | | refused, wanting to keep Martin a family business. |
| original, and its lower priced cousin the Applause | | | | Kaman decided to start his own guitar manufacturing |
| guitar. | | | | business. He assembled a team of aeronautics |
| Charles Kaman, an aeronautical engineer and amateur | | | | engineers to design the ideal acoustic guitar. The |
| guitar player, was born in 1917. He played the guitar | | | | result was the Ovation "bowlback", a rounded back |
| from an early age, and studied aeronautical | | | | made of a fiberglass composite similar to materials |
| engineering in college. After college he worked in | | | | used in aircraft construction. The unique shape of the |
| helicopter design. At some point, Charlie entered a | | | | back as designed to focus the soundwaves inside the |
| national guitar competition and made it to the finals. | | | | guitar to maximize the sound transmission. |
| As a result, he got the opportunity to play guitar | | | | The first Ovation guitar, the Balladeer, was |
| with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra. Dorsey offered | | | | introduced in 1967. In 1971, Ovation pioneered the |
| him a job in the band, but Kaman was committed to | | | | acoustic-electric guitar, adding piezo-electric pickups, |
| aeronautics and turned it down. | | | | onboard preamps, and equalizers to some of their |
| In 1945, Charlie founded his own helicopter design | | | | guitars. By the 1980s, Ovations had caught on with |
| company, Kaman Aircraft. The company was quite | | | | professional guitar players and were used onstage |
| successful and grew steadily until the early 1960s, | | | | extensively. Guitarists using Ovations onstage included |
| when the commercial flight division failed. As a result, | | | | Glen Campbell, Al DiMeola, Jimmy Page, and many |
| Kaman was looking to diversify outside of the | | | | others. |
| aircraft and defense related business. | | | | |