Ovation primarily manufactures steel-string acoustic guitars (both 6 and 12-string versions) and nylon-string guitars, often with pickups for electric amplification.

In 2015, it became a subsidiary of Drum Workshop after being acquired from KMCMusicorp.

The latter are also well known for the use of carbon fiber tops (instead of the typically wood tops for acoustic guitars ).

Apart from guitars, the company currently produces acoustic basses, mandolins and ukuleles.

Eventually, he founded a helicopter design company, Kaman Aircraft, in 1945.

In the early 1960s, however, financial problems from the failure of their commercial flight division forced them to expand into new markets, such as entertainment and leisure.

Charles Kaman, still an avid guitar player, became interested in making guitars.

Alongside Ovation and Adamas guitars, which were produced there for decades, Fender started a U.S.

Fender-owned brands in that factory, as is known, Guild ( Guild Guitar Company ) and Fender.

In addition to the Ovation brand, Drum Workshop also bought the New Hartford factory and reinstated the previously ceased U.S.

Ovation and Adamas guitars, basses, ukuleles and mandolins.

One of these was Charles McDonough, who created the Ovation Adamas model.

The RD team spent months building and testing prototype instruments.

The innovation was the use of a thinner, synthetic back, because of its foreseen acoustic properties.

Unfortunately, the seam joining the sides to the thin back was prone to breakage.

To avoid the problem of a structurally unstable seam, the engineers proposed a synthetic back with a parabolic shape.

By mid-1966, according to Ovation, they realized that the parabolic shape produced a desirable tone with greater volume than the conventional dreadnought.

Using their knowledge of high-tech aerospace composites, they developed Lyrachord, a patented material comprising interwoven layers of glass filament and bonding resin.

Its Lyrachord body gave the instrument, according to the company, unprecedented projection and ringing sustain.

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Ovation guitars replace the instruments conventional back and sides with composite synthetic bowls.

Kaman felt there were structural weaknesses in the orthogonal joining of the sides, and that a composite material could provide a smooth body.

Ovation claims the parabolic bowls dramatically reduce feedback, allowing greater amplification.

Ovation developed a thin neck, striving for the feel of an electric guitars neck, but with additional strength from layers of mahogany and maple reinforced by a steel rod in an aluminum channel.

The composite materials and thin necks reduced weight.

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