An Instrumental Innovation

Kaman Music Corporation is a subsidiary of Kaman Corporation, a diversified company originally formed to develop and build helicopters. Charles H. Kaman, the company's president and founder, and a guitarist of professional caliber, reasoned that vibration-dampening technology could be turned around to enhance vibration, and thereby produce a guitar with superior sound. From two years of vibration analysis emerged an innovative bowl-like guitar design that Ovation researchers considered the ideal shape for full, rich and constant tones throughout the instrument's range. Ovation team delved again into aerospace lore, investigating a number of strong lightweight materials used in aircraft and helicopter construction. Initially, they came up with bonded fiberglass; more recently they added carbon graphite originally developed for supersonic planes. These materials offer a number of advantages in shaping, strength, sound, and producibility. Aerospace technology was also utilized in the manufacturing of the guitars.

Full article: http://hdl.handle.net/hdl:2060/20070018910