Ovation Guitars acquired by GEWA music

Ovation
(Image credit: Ovation)

Gear 2021: Following on from Mesa/Boogie's move to Gibson, an iconic name in acoustic guitar has found a new home with GEWA music's announcement that it has acquired the Ovation brand from Drum Workshop, Inc.

The German company had previously been the exclusive distributor for Ovation throughout Europe and soon began developing Ovation designs for that market. From 1 February GEWA Music USA will take over distribution from Drum Workshop in the United States. 

• NAMM 2021 is cancelled, but we'll be covering all the big January gear announcements right here on MusicRadar.

Associated brands Adamas and Applause are also included in the deal and Ovation‘s New Hartford Custom Shop will now focus on the manufacturing of high-quality Adamas models.

"No other guitar brand has shaped the sound of the 1970s and 1980s like Ovation"

Hans-Peter Messner CEO/President GEWA music GmbH: "We look forward to using our knowledge and expertise in the guitar field to link new ideas and concepts with one of the most legendary guitar brands of the 1970/1980s. 

"We are already working on the implementation of several ideas that will soon be presented to our worldwide Ovation fans & trade partners. No other guitar brand has shaped the sound of the 1970s and 1980s like Ovation. It is a very special challenge to continue the legendary story that began with Charles Kaman's vision. We dedicate ourselves to this with a lot of enthusiasm! We would like to thank Drum Workshop for the fair and open discussions and the good cooperation over the past years."  

For more on Ovation Guitars visit ovation.com

Rob Laing
Guitars Editor, MusicRadar

I'm the Guitars Editor for MusicRadar, handling news, reviews, features, tuition, advice for the strings side of the site and everything in between. Before MusicRadar I worked on guitar magazines for 15 years, including Editor of Total Guitar in the UK. When I'm not rejigging pedalboards I'm usually thinking about rejigging pedalboards.