Of course I feel badly for the good folks who will lose jobs as a result of this but I won't miss Ov*tion one bit (anyway they will still be produced in Asia).
From the article: "Ovations made in New Hartford have been praised for their craftsmanship and tone."
Obviously.... no one interviewed guitar repair folks here.... Ov*tions are often turned away from our shop as a matter of course and typically because once they reach a certain age all manner of stuff goes wrong. This in and of itself would not be the major issue but the fact that Ov*tions were never built with serviceability in mind being one of the very worst offenders they are not serviceable mostly assembled with copious amounts of vibration dampening epoxy....
Sure they can be repaired but many shops won't even try because you have to throw away the "fixed price" pricing and go hourly, perhaps weekly to fix the dang things....
More woes for Fender, the parent company, and likely a contributor to Fender's current financial woes since they acquired Ov*tion in 2007 in the early days of the great recession, a time when musical instrument purchases went south.
Watch though, the ceasing of US manufacture of these things will likely make them an instant ebay hit so that the next unsuspecting Keith Partridge fan can "win" one on ebay and then once they take delivery and fully understand what a piece of crap they just purchased commit suicide in the garage....
Can you tell that I'm not a fan.....
One forum that I participate on that is repair centric even the word "Ov*tion" is considered foul language....
