Charles Kaman, Ovation inventor, R.I.P.

[Charlieshafer]

A day or so ago Charles Kaman, founder of Ovation instruments, passed away at 92. Ovation was really just a hobby for him, even though he was a pretty avid amateur jazz guitarist. His real job was founding and running his Kaman helicopter company, founded in 1945. His aerospace achievements are pretty legendary, but between all that, he still had time to found the Fidelco Guide Dog foundation, which raises and trains guide dogs and has placed over 1300 to date.

Looking at a life like that makes you realize how little we accomplish compared to what we're capable of.

[Jason Kessler]

Looking at a life like that makes you realize how little we accomplish compared to what we're capable of.

Amen. Never knew any of that about the man.

Personally, I was never a fan of his instruments, but there's no denying that they were extraordinarily inventive and filled an important niche. And they continue to fill that niche.

Thanks for calling our attention to the passing of this remarkable man. Any man who raises, trains, and places guide dogs is OK in my book.

[catmandu2]

Thanks Charles (and Charlie).

Aside from my own interest and involvement in fostering and adoption of children and animals, and advocacy for those with special needs...as a performer I've enjoyed many Kaman products over the years.

[allenhopkins]

I had heard that Kaman got into building guitars because he had so much spruce left over from making helicopter blades. Urban legend? Kaman helicopters had spruce rotor blades up until 1961, when the composite blades became the standard. That's around the time Ovation started. Any connection?

[Mandobart]

I still play my mid 70's Applause 6 string, the first instrument I ever bought. It's been half way around the world, underwater, with me while I was on subs in the USN. It still sounds good. Also my early 80's Ovation 12 string is still sounding good. Lots of folks have their reasons for disliking Kaman instruments, but I think they made good sounding , roadworthy guitars. Never knew much about the founder other than he was a military contractor. That's neat about the guide dogs. Sounds like he contributed a lot to our world.

[Charlieshafer]

I had heard that Kaman got into building guitars because he had so much spruce left over from making helicopter blades. Urban legend? Kaman helicopters had spruce rotor blades up until 1961, when the composite blades became the standard. That's around the time Ovation started. Any connection?

Interesting question, Allen. I do know he was an avid guitarist before he started Ovation, but not sure of the overstock spruce being a motivating factor. There are a few Kaman engineers in the 'hood, so if I see them over the next few days (usually on their roofs breaking ice dams) I'll ask them.

[Big Joe]

Glad he lived a long full life. He certainly was a real help to performers who needed an instrument that could be plugged in during the early 70's and late 60's. Many of his guitars are looked down upon, but in that era it was great to have a guitar you could buy that was not terribly priced, played good, sounded OK acoustic, but great plugged in and if something happened to your guitar you could go to any music store and get another just like it and it would sound and play just like your other. That was a real help for many of us who performed in those days. Now we have much better pickups and microphones and electronics that were not available at that time. Fender bought them in the not too distant past. I am not sure that is a great thing, but it is what it is.

Also, Takamine was a Kaman product as well as Ovation. They were the Ovation of the 90's, and while not my choice for a guitar, they work well for performers.

[GRW3]

My first useable guitar was an Applause. My first good guitar was an Ovation. This was the mid '70s and Gibson and Martin were struggling. Ovation just sounded the best of the bunch. I quit playing and sold the guitar in the early '80s. When I picked it up again I bought another Applause to get going. I looked around though and saw that among aged guitar solid wood models had some mojo and Ovations were just old. Still he built a good American guitar when there was a desparate need.

I believe if you go back and look the development as 'engineering challenge' for him, not a way to use up surplus material. Ovation guitars were not his only acoustic endeavor either as I recall. His helicopter design is widely admired for its clever meshing rotors (it was often called the 'eggbeater').

[allenhopkins]

The earmark of both Ovation and Takamine was great onboard pickup systems. Playing an acoustic instrument at high volume without deadly feedback, was hardly possible until the Ovations came out in the 1960's. When I worked part-time for the late Eldon Stutzman, he used to keep sawed-in-half bodies of an Ovation and a Martin D-18* so that prospective purchasers could compare the workmanship -- and, frankly, there was no comparison. The Ovation's bracing was thick, hardly shaped, and not really fine sanded. There was a splash of black paint around the inside of the soundhole. Beside it, the D-18 seemed like a work of art.

But that didn't matter when you plugged in. Ovation necks were "fast," tuners good, and the sound, while not super-subtle or nuanced, was definitely "acoustic guitar" -- and at rock 'n' roll volume. When the Takis started being imported from Japan, they were such exact Martin copies that I believe some legal ruckus ensued. The solid-top "S-suffix" models were really good guitars, and at a fraction of the Martin price. And again, excellent pickup systems, with onboard EQ, when hardly any US-made instruments had anything comparable.

To their credit, Kaman's Ovation company came out with solid mandolins, ukuleles, and mandocellos, as well as the guitars. Nowadays, when even "legendary" C F Martin is building instruments out of "non-wood," a plastic (didn't Ovation call it "Lyrachord"?) acoustic instrument doesn't rate unusual notice. We forget what a stir it caused 50 years ago.

*How Eldon got his half Martin: he used to be the only Martin dealer in Rochester, and was noted for going down to Nazareth and picking through the guitar output to get "good'uns." One day at the factory, he asked one of the supervisors if they had a partially finished, discarded guitar body that he could take back to Rochester to show customers the interior workmanship. "No problem," said the Martin guy, took a finished D-18 off the rack, and ran it lengthwise through a bandsaw. Eldon's son Dave, of Stutzman's Guitar Center, still keeps it in the showroom as a demo.

[HddnKat]

I still have and love my Ovation that I got back in 1979. My son tried to take it to college with him, and I explained that while I have 4 children, that was my only Ovation - i.e. he was replaceable, the guitar was not, (JK, LOL, but I did buy him his own Tak to take to college). I have since purchased another guitar because I needed the onboard electronics, but if I am playing purely acoustic, the Ovation has the best sound projection without amplification.

[Ted Eschliman]

What's left out of the story is the importance of vibrations in helicopter blades. Conflicting frequencies wreak havoc on uber high speed rotation, not something you want to have in mid air. All the harmonic study of composites and their resonance made the material not only superior, but easily duplicated en masse. The fact that it's inventory, Charles Kaman was a rabid amatuer musician was serendipity for our industry. He applied these principles to the Ovation guitar, and a new way of looking at the instrument was born.

Charlie was responsible for a revolution in guitar making. We are better for his contribution to the industry.

[Ed Rosney]

Here's the New York Times obituary for Mr. Kaman.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/bu...kaman.html?hpw

[Steve Ostrander]

I owned one of those Takamine D28 copies with the matching script on the headstock. It did not have the built in piezo, but it was a very nice sounding guitar. Not as good as a real D28, but still pretty good. Wish I still had it, if only for a conversation piece...

[PJ Doland]

A lot of amazing players use their high-end Adamas models: Kaki King, Al Di Meola, Adrian Legg, Preston Reed, Yngwie Malmsteen...

I think their instruments would fare much better in the marketplace if guitarists were less aesthetically conservative.

[Tim2723]

I'm playing my way through my second Ovation mandolin. Farewell Mr. Kaman, and thank you.

[allenhopkins]

Couple things:
1. Those early Takamine guitars were the most blatant Martin copies I've ever seen, even to the script font on the "Takamine" headstock decals. They also were excellent instruments. The F-340S (D-18 copy, solid top) and the F-360S (D-28 copy, solid top) sounded great, and were maybe one-third the price of the Martins they were copying. Sold quite a few of them in the late '70's.

2. Many excellent players did use Ovations; I'd add Roy Clark to the list, and Glen Campbell had an Ovation model named after him. I would attribute this to a combination of factors. As stated above, the Ovation pickup system was the best of its time, and Ovations couldn't be beat for playing onstage, at higher volumes without feedback. Ovation necks were "fast," easy to play on for those used to electric guitars, and because of the good amplification system, players could use lighter strings and still get great tone and volume in performance. Also, Ovation very aggressively solicited player endorsements, providing special models to well-known guitarists, and using them in company advertising.

But -- I go back to the "half Ovation" we used to compare to the "half Martin" D-18: two guitar bodies sawed in half to reveal interior workmanship. The Ovation was much inferior, in terms of brace location and shaping, finishing and smoothing, obvious glue residue, etc. What used to surprise me, was the fact that Ovations cost as much as "conventionally" constructed guitars, when fabrication of the "bowl" required so much less in materials and labor, than cutting, bending, bracing, glueing, and finishing the back and sides of an all-wood instrument. The only parts of an Ovation requiring any skill, were the top and neck, whereas a Martin, Guild, Gibson etc. needed skilled work on the entire instrument.

I know many have had great experiences with Ovation instruments, and I'm glad that Kaman was able to innovate a very successful line of guitars etc. But I have a hard time putting Ovations at the same level as the products of other major US makers -- other than in terms of acoustic-instrument amplification.

[Caleb]

Growing up in the 80's, I always thought the Ovation guitars were cool. Every rocker who played a ballad always seemed to reach for one. I even got one at one point, one of the thin Celebrity models. It worked well and was a solid instrument. Hats off to Mr. Kaman for thinking outside the box.

[Philippe Bony]

Pick it like Tony...

[Jim]

RIP Charles, I got my first Ovation ( a deep bowl Custom Balladeer) in 1975. It lived in my Van with me summer & winter camped played indoors & out, amped and not. Not a complex sound but enough "cut" that it could be heard when playing with big loud 12 strings , Basses & even drums. When its machine head broke of in 2004 a Takamine found me. I guess I'm drawn to them & them to me

[Charlieshafer]

I'm loving these throwback stories. Reminds us all of the days when we were in what was surely the world's worst garage band(s).

[Elliot Luber]

For a while Charles felt some companies had given corporations a bad image in the music industry, so he held a press briefing in the early '80s, where he and his son Bill (his successor) and daughter Beanie played their Ovations together to demonstrate that a corporation could be human. I got to meet a great man that day. I have photos somewhere. I was traveling on business last week, and didn't see this string until now.

[gkraushaar]

Back in my college days I was about to give up guitar playing because I thought I needed to sell my guitar to buy a new set of bicycle wheels. I was on a bike racing team at the time. I went to a music store to price my current guitar and spied an Ovation Custom Legend. I was an electric player at the time. The Ovation was a perfect guitar for someone crossing over from electric to acoustic. Instead of new wheels, I bought the Ovation and my fingerpicking career really took form at that point.

I had another Ovation along the line that I liked as well. It was a 12 fret slothead. The Custom Legend and the slothead were wonderful guitars. Although I didn't stay with Ovations, they occurred at an important stage in my musical career and I look back fondly on the memories.

[catmandu2]

I had one of those 12-fret slot-headed 12-strings too. Nice inlays, great schaller tuners with pearl buttons. Nice guitar.

BTW, I have an old set of Mavic tubular racing rims with Campy Record hubs hanging in my garage that I'm not using..

[Charlieshafer]

I had one of those 12-fret slot-headed 12-strings too. Nice inlays, great schaller tuners with pearl buttons. Nice guitar.

BTW, I have an old set of Mavic tubular racing rims with Campy Record hubs hanging in my garage that I'm not using..

5 speed??I need a set for an old Italian Masi!!