Yesterday I paid tribute to the late pioneer in aviation, music and other fields, Charles H. Kaman. Amongst other things, I mentioned that he founded the Ovation Guitar Company in the 1960's, to apply what he'd learned in the field of aviation to musical instruments (which it did very successfully).
In another obituary of Mr. Kaman today, Bill Sweetman, writing at Ares, linked to the video clip below. It's of British guitarist Adrian Legg playing what he calls [a] 'Cajun Interlude' on an Ovation guitar. I liked it so much that I thought you might enjoy it, too; so here goes.
I hadn't heard of Adrian Legg prior to listening to that video clip, but after hearing it, I'll definitely be looking for more of his work. YouTube has a large number of his clips, which make it a good place to start. His playing certainly brings out the best in (or brings the best out of) his instrument!
Peter
2 comments:
Wow! Thanks for the link!
Mr Kaman was extremely inventive. The Ovation guitar was the first acoustic guitar to feature the round back design. For centuries a deep round back had been used in Europe for mandolins. Kaman's theory was that a shallower, more asymetric round back would eliminate any of the standing waves that occur between the parallel top and back of a standard guitar and offer better projection. He was right. The only drawback was a slight loss of comfort and control when played standing. Which is rather interesting since Ovation was also known for it's line of electric guitars and basses that, while rather extreme (strange) looking, were very ergonomic and comfortable to play.
Mr Kaman also designed the Addamas guitar as shown in the Ardian Legg video. He redesigned the typically large sound hole into multiple smaller sound holes to better project volume and enhance the tonalities all across the register. Repositioning the holes also increased the resonating area of the guitar's top for better tone and increasedvvolume.
The original Addamas guitars also had a carbon fiber top instead of wood (except for the exotic wood inlays around the sound holes) and had to be played to be believed. Besides being incredibly expensive, and difficult to make, they were some of the most crystal clear sounding guitars you'll ever see/hear.
Today the Addamas uses a conventional wood top to keep costs down but they still sound better that the standard round hole Ovations.
Later on Kaman Music Corp. introduced the student/entry level Applause brand round back guitar that featured an aluminium neck for better tuning stability.
As far as I know, Ovation, Addamas and Applause are the only brands of roundback guitars, so if you see/hear one you can thank Charles Kaman.
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