

In addition to the Ovation brand, Drum Workshop also bought the New Hartford factory and reinstated the previously ceased U.S. The announcement was made on January 7, 2015. Shortly after closing the New Hartford factory it was announced that the Ovation brand had been sold to the company Drum Workshop, alongside a few other previously Fender-owned brands. production of other Fender-owned brands in that factory, as is known, Guild ( Guild Guitar Company) and Fender. Alongside Ovation and Adamas guitars, which were produced there for decades, Fender started a U.S. production of various acoustic guitars in the New Hartford factory. Before that announcement, Fender established a U.S. In 2014, Fender announced that they were closing the Ovation guitar factory in New Hartford, Connecticut, leaving all production of Ovation guitars overseas. In 2008, KMCMusicorp (and with that the Ovation brand) was sold to the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. įrom 1966 to 2007, Ovation guitars, and later on Adamas guitars, were a brand of KMCMusicorp, which itself was a subsidiary of Kaman Aircraft.

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

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. The Kaman Corporation soon diversified, branching into nuclear weapons testing, commercial helicopter flight, development and testing of chemicals, and helicopter bearings production. Eventually, he founded a helicopter design company, Kaman Aircraft, in 1945. Kaman, an amateur guitarist from an early age, worked on helicopter design as an aerodynamicist at United. A mid-1970s Kaman Ovation Custom Balladeer 1612-4 acoustic electric guitar, next to a luteįounder Charles Kaman (1919–2011) developed the first prototypes of the Ovation guitar in 1965–1966.
