An ingenious and innovative man. I’m playing my way through my second Ovation mandolin and have owned and played several of his guitars. Farewell Mr. Kaman, and thank you.
Back in my teens I was a big Cat Stevens fan. One of my first semesters in college, I used my part of student loan money to buy an Ovation instead of paying for tuition. I had to have what Cat was playing. In retrospect, it may not have been the best thing to do with that money, but I’ve no regrets. That first Ovation is long gone, but I still have one that I use for Nashville tuning.
As I recall, it was Glen Campbell who first really publicized Ovations widely on his Goodtime Hour show in the late 60s. I remember even my non-musician parents asking, “What is that weird-looking guitar?”
I sure sold a lot of them in the early 80s when they were very much the hot acoustic. Oddly, it’s not the resin bowl back I think of first - I always considered the unassisted acoustic qualities of Ovations to be mediocre - but the electronics. Ovation were really the first to capture the then-new plug-and-play acoustic-electric market, and that’s what really drove Ovation sales to intermediate players and above. Unfortunately, it also created a generation of players who grew up thinking that that awful, twangy, pingy piezo sound is somehow OK, and that convenience can trump sound. It’s less a problem with today’s electronics, but you still hear it. Grrrr.
Still, I think you have to give the man credit for innovation, and for catching the spirit of his times. For better or worse, it’s hard to think of acoustic guitar in the 80s without Ovation.
I think one of the biggest problems with the Ovation instruments was that they superficially looked like acoustic guitars. This illusion was furthered by the fact that they made a sound when you strummed them unplugged. This led people to believe they were supposed to sound like acoustic guitars played into microphones when, in fact, they were specialized electric instruments with their own unique voice.
Agreed, Tim, and the appearance of the ultra-shallow bowl Ovations more or less confirms it. Actually, I think Kaman was very smart, and figured out how to turn a bug into a feature. That is, as long as the acoustic sound was weak anyway, why not go all the way and make a shallow body with almost no acoustic sound, and just focus on the electronics (and mic’íng possibilities). These were real popular with electric players used to playing thin bodied instruments, who just needed to double on acoustic occasionally.
But I also sold an awful lot of Balladeers, the entry-level model with no electronics, to people who really wanted to own an Ovation mostly for the cool factor, regardless of tone. Or in some cases because of tone, as people got used to the Ovation sound and that’s what they wanted. Or to parents who considered an Ovation less likely to explode when the kids decided to play El Kabong with it. 
I think you nailed it right there. Ovations had a sound all their own and it was a sound one could easily connect with at least a few really popular performers. I think a lot of us were eager for that connection in our earlier music days; I certainly was.
Your last point I hadn’t even considered, but as I think back that Ovation went all over with me and survived all kinds of things that would’ve ruined any guitar I own now (except my one Ovation probably). Damn thing was near indestructible. I wound up giving it away at some point because I had worn grooves in a couple of the frets and the guitar’s value probably wasn’t as high as the fret job would’ve cost …and by then I’d gotten myself a Martin and the Ovation went entirely ignored.
Another of my musical heroes and his Ovation…
Sure, I think there’s a great deal to be said for the cool factor and wanting to emulate your guitar hero. The un-amplified Balladeer was part of that. And I think it’s important in its way. It’s for the same reasons we can buy $100 copies of D-28s, Flying V’s, and Stratocasters. And like Messrs. Martin, Gibson, and Fender, Charles Kaman takes his place as an inventor of icon.
When the first Ovation Applause guitars came out - probably the early 80’s, I had a good friend who owned an acoustic music shop in Spokane, WA.
The Applause was the bottom of the line Ovation, and was advertised as ‘nearly indestructible’ .
He took the challenge to heart, tied a string to the headstock and dragged the guitar around behind him as he went
on his daily errands. Then, he’d show up for a gig and play that guitar. This went on for about 6 months.
Initially, I believe, he did this in protest to what he saw as a cheapening of the standard acoustic guitar market,
but ultimately, found that there was a need for an instrument that could be a dog toy and a reasonable sounding guitar.