Glen Campbell and Ovation Guitars
Glen fan and guitarist Wayne Reid has managed to acquire some of the Ovations that were owned by Glen in the past. We will feature five of these Ovations over the next few months. The following section is being used with permission of the authors.
Glen Campbell and Ovation Guitars
“A major helicopter manufacturer loses his main client. It happens that the market is booming for a totally different product–the guitar. Coincidentally this man (Ovation founder Charles Kaman) had played guitar in his youth. He decides to apply some of the technology and materials he used in building helicopters to making a new kind of guitar. And it happens that as this new guitar is struggling along, one of America’s most popular entertainers adopts it. By the time the company celebrates its thirtieth anniversary, it is established as the biggest maker of acoustic guitars in the United States. This is the history of the Ovation guitar. Who would believe it if it weren’t true?” – from “The History Of the Ovation Guitar” by Walter Carter.
Through the sixty odd years Glen Campbell has been playing the guitar he has been seen with virtually every major brand of guitar at one time or another. However, the brand most folks associate Glen with is, of course, Ovation. Ask any 40+ year old guitarist to recount his first recollection of the Ovation guitar and it will almost always be having seen Glen play one on the “Goodtime Hour”. The procurement of Glen as an endorsee was a major coup for Ovation; fifty million viewers watching one of the world’s hottest guitarists and most popular new stars play these untraditional looking guitars literally contributed to the sale of thousands of instruments over the years.
Glen didn’t just play them. He had ideas about how they should be built. His likes and desires resulted in not only his own signature series model that was produced for over twenty years but his suggestions were sometimes implemented into other models and occasionally through the entire Ovation line. His long-time association with the Ovation company, (which continues to this day) has resulted in quite a number of instruments being built specifically for Glen. Many of these guitars were prototypes or “custom built” to Glen’s specifications or desires at the time.
Ovation Bluebird 12-String Electric
With the possible exception of the early Glen Campbell’s early signature series Ovations, the Bluebird 12-string electrics remain undoubtedly, the Ovations most associated with Glen. The Bluebird guitars were made exclusively for him, a total of about eight instruments in all, probably five were 6-strings and the rest were 12-strings. The fact that Ovation would design a guitar model for the exclusive use of one artist underscores the strong company/artist relationship that Glen and Ovation had developed over the years. While at first glance, these guitars appear similar to the solidbody Viper models that were produced between 1975 and 1982, the only common ground they share with the Viper model are body and headstock shape, and bridge hardware.
Although specifics seem to differ slightly from one Bluebird example to the other, the one pictured here seems to be quite typical of the 12-string ‘Birds: It has active mono electronics similar to the production Deacon/Breadwinner models of the day, with a notch filter, combination pickup selector/out-of phase switch and a single set of volume/tone controls. Under the access cover in the back there are two miniature trim pots; one to adjust neck pickup volume and the other to increase or decrease the amount of “out-of-phase” effect as desired.
Ovation has always been known for experimenting with non-traditional materials and methods of construction and this guitar is no exception. The body is constructed of polyurethane over an aluminium frame. This unique feature was introduced to the production line somewhat later with the introduction of the UKII model. Last but not least is the striking blueburst finish, which is exclusive to these guitars. The basecoat is a cream color with a baby blue/slate grey bursting on the outer edges. Before the clearcoats were applied, gold and blue metalflake was sprayed on which gives the guitar the unique quality of seemingly change colors from blue to aqua-green, depending on the lighting situation. The “bluebird” image seen behind the bridge area of the guitar is not a decal or painted on, but is done in the same gold/blue metalflake that was sprayed over the rest of the body.
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1981 Ovation Adamas GC Prototype
Glen Campbell Classical Prototype
Ken
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