One of the trademark characteristics of Ovation guitars are their rounded-bowl backs. Made out of fiberglass, the uniquely shaped backs help move the sound waves toward the sound holes more efficiently. In addition, Ovation guitars often have more than one soundhole; the guitars in the Adamas line sometimes have over twenty. These features help make the sounds produced by the guitars brighter and louder than normal acoustic guitars.

Ovation was also one of the first companies to successfully create electric-acoustic guitars, which combine aspects of both electric and acoustic guitars to produce a unique sound. A piezo transducer picks up the vibration from
the strumming of the guitar strings, allowing
the sound to amplify as an electric. They also have tone and volume control knobs and input jacks. But the warm sound produced by the thick acoustic steel strings reassure us that it is indeed also an acoustic guitar.