Ovation USA closes down

[almeriastrings]

My first "good" guitar was a Guild D-40, and I also had an Ovation Legend way back when... in that brown thermoplastic case. Recorded really well. This is unfortunately the way of the world... small companies gets subsumed into mega-corporations, cost-cutting, and other things follow. The "real article" finally just becomes "a brand" - stuck on something made by someone else.

[f5joe]

The "real article" finally just becomes "a brand" - stuck on something made by someone else.

True in many ways. I guess Gibson became a brand around 1902 or so when Orville sold his name. Yet, Gibson's Golden Period was after Orville.

[Bob Clark]

It would be cool to see a new quality brand arise from the ashes in Connecticut. I would love to see a Heritage or a Weber type company develop and reenergize those talented folks. Tough timing, but it was also tough times when the afore mentioned companies began.

+1 to this posting. Talented, experienced workers and the necessary tooling are present right there in that Connecticut location. It's a shame to see the opportunity wasted and to see those workers facing difficult times. Best wishes to each of them.

[Adam Sweet]

Paul Simon also. A buddy of mine had a couple of their mandolins http://www.ovationguitars.com/guitars/mandolin/

[Eddie Sheehy]

Paul Simon also. A buddy of mine had a couple of their mandolins http://www.ovationguitars.com/guitars/mandolin/

Except all the mandolins in that link are PACRIM...

Ovation USA Mandolins/Mandolas were the MM68 and MC868 - and I have owned several of each - still have an Elite MM68. The USA made MM68 was head and shoulders above the Korean/Chinese/Phillipines/ Celebrity and Applause models, both in quality of construction and materials - the MC868 (Mandocello) was only available from the Connecticut factory.

The latest offering in Ovation Manolins was the Adamas carbon-fiber topped MM80-NWT (retailing at $3,500). Presumably (at that price) made in Connecticut... will that be 'outsourced'?

[mandroid]

If they were hard to find, as They have been, then the sales would, of course, fall ..

[DHopkins]

........ and China, right?

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...ese-Breedloves

Oops, my bad. Every Breedlove I've ever owned or seen was made in Oregon. I guess I haven't seen all of them.

[Mandobart]

I guess I'll be hanging on to my '82 tobacco sunburst Ovation 12 string for a while. I've always loved its sound. Also have a late 70's 6 string Applause (integral aluminum neck and fingerboard; can't replace the frets without replacing the whole neck!) I used to take it out to sea on the submarine.

I'll admit this is the main reason for my bias against Fender; they have bought out and shutdown some very good instrument brands.

[R. Kane]

My memory of the Ovation Company in New Hartford is connected to the deep pool (known as Factory Pool) on a sharp bend in the Farmington River, in the catch and release area where one could fish all year. We parked in the employee lot. My favorite spot on the river was a little ways up from that, a wide flat called the Boneyard. The factory never looked like much of a going concern. I was working at Sikorsky when I first saw the place, and thought that Charlie Kaman's ideas were way out there. But we sure do need creative thinkers and business activists like him today. Let's hope that the factory stays a factory and doesn't become a condo complex.

[dang]

As a former Ovation and Hamer dealer, I think I can say with some authority, the essence of this move was ultimately a lack of sales volume.

I purchased an Ovation from your downtown store back in the late 90s, and later an ovation mandolin, and then ended up trading BOTH into your store for a Gibson A-9... No regrets (except letting the A-9 go years later). So in the end you had to deal with having the instruments in stock twice (and I was out some cash).

I liked the playability, sound was fine... I just never was able to "bond" with the instruments. Maybe because they were always slipping off my lap.

[delsbrother]

Where did you guys get your Ovations repaired? Where do you think you would send them now? I have a mandocello that needs some repair/refinishing, and I actually had a quote from the factory to do the work, but I balked at the shipping both ways. Now I may be forever balking...They certainly had some idiosyncratic items that could go wrong; I'm guessing a regular repairman might not have access to replacement epaullettes, for example.

[Tim2723]

Where did you guys get your Ovations repaired? Where do you think you would send them now? I have a mandocello that needs some repair/refinishing, and I actually had a quote from the factory to do the work, but I balked at the shipping both ways. Now I may be forever balking...They certainly had some idiosyncratic items that could go wrong; I'm guessing a regular repairman might not have access to replacement epaullettes, for example.

I think you've struck on something significant. In past threads we've heard from several of our community's luthiers saying that they are not well equipped to repair Ovations. When I damaged my first one I ended up replacing it because the factory repair costs were too high. It was simply cheaper and easier to buy a new US made MM-68 than to have the old one fixed. As the existing US made instruments sucumb to age and accident, Ovations may become very rare things indeed.

[nickster60]

I lived in CT for 30 years and never made it over to the plant, I kind of wish I did now. The business climate in CT is hostile at best and there has been a exodus of companies and residents for many years, me being one of them.

[Django Fret]

I think you've struck on something significant. In past threads we've heard from several of our community's luthiers saying that they are not well equipped to repair Ovations. When I damaged my first one I ended up replacing it because the factory repair costs were too high. It was simply cheaper and easier to buy a new US made MM-68 than to have the old one fixed. As the existing US made instruments sucumb to age and accident, Ovations may become very rare things indeed.

I would hope that there will still be repairs available for Ovation instruments although maybe fewer in the future than there are now. It will be interesting to see how this list of authorized repair shops changes over time.

[Eddie Sheehy]

Where did you guys get your Ovations repaired? Where do you think you would send them now? I have a mandocello that needs some repair/refinishing, and I actually had a quote from the factory to do the work, but I balked at the shipping both ways. Now I may be forever balking...They certainly had some idiosyncratic items that could go wrong; I'm guessing a regular repairman might not have access to replacement epaullettes, for example.

The guy I use for mandolin repairs in Tustin/Santa Ana also repairs Ovation guitars - Certified by Ovation I believe. PM me and I'll give you his number - might be advantageous to both of you.

He recently worked on the electrics of my MM68

Eddie.

[Eddie Sheehy]

Actually, Delsbrother, he's listed in the OVATION AUTHORIZED REPAIR SHOPS -

GUITAR REMEDY
13361 YORBA STREET
SANTA ANA, CA 92705
714-544-8350

guitarremedyATgmailDOTcom

His name is Paul Stebner - Use an email to contact him - the phone won't pick-up - he's a one-man shop.

[foldedpath]

Some Ovation repairs could be done locally, depending on the setup work or repairs needed.

I once owned a Legend that managed to jump off a wall hook when someone slammed a nearby door. It landed vertically on a hard floor. The bowl flexed, the soundboard didn't, and the result was a big crack along the soundboard. I took it to a local luthier, and he cleated the crack and refinished the top so you couldn't tell it had ever been damaged unless you looked close. OTOH, anything involving the bowl like a neck reset might be tricky.

I got rid of that Legend many years ago when my tastes changed. Of all the recent news from Fender, I think the saddest is the imminent loss of Guild production in the USA. It's a shame that the Guild brand never managed to build on its success in the 60's and 70's, and that it had to go through all those changes of ownership and factory moves. I always thought it could have evolved into a small shop, higher end brand like Collings or Santa Cruz, but maybe the market timing was just never right, or the owners were too busy chasing mass market sales.

I still own two Guilds -- a mid 70's D25M beater, and a limited edition double cutaway Studio 24 model, from the brief period when George Gruhn and some other investors owned the company.

[Caleb]

I used to have an Ovation guitar and used it for stagework in a church setting. It worked very well for what I needed it for. It's sad to see them close down though. They must've made a fortune back in the 80s when every hair-metal band pulled out an Ovation for the ubiquitous "ballad," with all the guitar players in the audience taking note and buying them to look like their heroes.

[Michael Weaver]

It is sad, but I guess inevitable. When I read most of the posts on the forum it seems most people push for pacrim instruments. I am not saying that they are all bad instruments but when we suggest that every new player buys one this is what happens. I understand the fact that a lot of people can't shell out big bucks for a quality instrument. How many times do people say I want to upgrade and then end up buying another pacrim instrument? Quite often it seems like to me. We have a lot of independent and talented builders here in America that are willing to bend over backwards for our business. Yet we tell people to buy now instead of saving their money up and buying a quality product. I guess it is the nature of current generations to have instant gratification. If a company makes a crappy product and they go under it doesn't bother me. It's the nature of the beast. Hopefully seeing things like this will spark the next generation of buyers to save money and seek for what they want. Who's next? Which company will be the next to crumble? It's scary to think about.....

[Jim]

Sad to hear that, My first quality steel string acoustic was a 75 Custom Balladeer, Great guitar that I played until 2004 when the headstock broke off. Loved the instrument and got lots of compliments on its sound. I think the deep bodied instruments from Ovation can sound quite good unplugged but the shallow and mid depth really need to be plugged in. Shame to see any manufacturing go away in this country and like others have expressed I would love to see a new company develop using those skilled workers from the Ovation plant.

[Charlieshafer]

Supply and demand can be a cruel beast. It just came down to demand. I have a few friends, now retired, who worked at the plant when Ovation was just starting. What was a great idea at the time just never caught on enough over the long term. And, it's not the pac-rim competition, different price points entirely, and the vast majority of players on any instrument buying pac-rim do so as an entry-level or one step up. After that, most will graduate to better handmade instruments or just not play much at all, essentially giving up.

Martin and Gibson, and Fender themselves, have all faced stiff competition through the years, been through their "dark days" and have stood the test of time, so one can't really fault anything but a product that just wasn't interesting anymore.

[Michael Weaver]

You don't think pacrim competition has an effect on the market? Also, there are a lot of American made instruments in the same price range as pacrim instruments. I'm not even speaking of the used market either.

[Caleb]

Ovation also made (still makes?) a line of pac-rim instruments.

[Charlieshafer]

You don't think pacrim competition has an effect on the market? Also, there are a lot of American made instruments in the same price range as pacrim instruments. I'm not even speaking of the used market either.

Of course competition has an effect. Just not here. In this case, the Ovation was a totally unique design unto itself. The price point of the higher quality Ovations made in Connecticut were unappealing to contemporary buyers of guitars in that price range. The Ovation pacrim instruments are much less expensive, and a different beast altogether. Martin sells instruments made in their Nazareth plant and in Mexico. Do you really think the buyer for one is the same as the other?

[almeriastrings]

Instruments only compete head-on in the same, or at least similar price range. If you are seriously looking for a "high end" and "prestige" instrument, whatever is on the market for $500 or $800 is totally irrelevant. If you were talking about what happened to Harmony (remember them?) then yes, imports did hurt them, because they were after the same market - and frankly, the quality and reliability of the imports was often better than what they could offer. Ovation had a unique product, which really just went out of fashion. That was the real problem. They were not losing sales to imports (except some of their own), but rather, people wishing to spend significant sums on a higher-end guitar just did not spend the money with Ovation. Lots more quality guitar makers out there these days.