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tjon901 « Good playing bad electronics »
Published on 06/28/11 at 07:54This review is for the 1973 Breadwinner. The electronics I talk about are specific to this year. Ovation changed this guitar many times so I dont know much about the other years. Ovation is known mostly for their acoustic guitars but they have always made electric guitars too. The breadwinner was their most popular electric model in the 70s. It had a unique but comfortable shape with some electronics that were ahead of its time. It has a maple neck with a synthetic ebony fretboard. The fretboard has 24 jumbo frets. My particular guitar had single coil pickups which are larger in size than the humbuckers they used later on. On the breadwinners the humbuckers they used were the size of mini humbuckers and the single coils were bigger than normal humbuckers so many people get confused. There are really big master volume and master tone knobs and 3 mini switches which I will talk about later.
UTILIZATION
The neck on this guitar has a really modern feel to it. It does not feel like an early 70s guitar neck. The radius is pretty flat and the fretboard is wide like a shred guitar neck. The composite ebony like fretboard is really nice whenever they used is nice and smooth and dark like ebony would be. The unusual body balances very well so there is no neck dive or anything. The pickup selector is wired strangly which I will talk about later. To a new owner it may not be obvious but this guitar has active electronics and requires 2 9v batteries inside the control cavity. Also in the control cavity are volume controls so you can balance out the pickups without adjusting their height.
SOUNDS
The biggest problem with this guitar is the sound caused by the active electronics and the wiring. The pickup selector is like nothing else I have ever played. Up is the neck position like you would expect. The middle position is the bridge pickup strangly. But the down position is what kills it. The down position is both pickups but out of phase. Both pickups out of phase produces a pretty useless sound. It sounds quacky and weird. The sound is like a guitar sound you would hear in a comedy cartoon. There is no way to have both pickups on and in phase. The other miniswitch is the active preamp boost which doesnt do much. It just makes the guitar sound more obnoxious.
OVERALL OPINION
If they had put standard electronics in this guitar it would have been really good. The whole guitar other than the electronics is good which is sad. The two miniswitches on the guitar are just there to make the guitar sound bad it seems. They could be labeled bad tone switches. The neck and balance of the guitar is lovely. If you were to change out all the electronics it would be a great guitar. I cant really recommend the guitar to anyone though because of the electronics.
UTILIZATION
The neck on this guitar has a really modern feel to it. It does not feel like an early 70s guitar neck. The radius is pretty flat and the fretboard is wide like a shred guitar neck. The composite ebony like fretboard is really nice whenever they used is nice and smooth and dark like ebony would be. The unusual body balances very well so there is no neck dive or anything. The pickup selector is wired strangly which I will talk about later. To a new owner it may not be obvious but this guitar has active electronics and requires 2 9v batteries inside the control cavity. Also in the control cavity are volume controls so you can balance out the pickups without adjusting their height.
SOUNDS
The biggest problem with this guitar is the sound caused by the active electronics and the wiring. The pickup selector is like nothing else I have ever played. Up is the neck position like you would expect. The middle position is the bridge pickup strangly. But the down position is what kills it. The down position is both pickups but out of phase. Both pickups out of phase produces a pretty useless sound. It sounds quacky and weird. The sound is like a guitar sound you would hear in a comedy cartoon. There is no way to have both pickups on and in phase. The other miniswitch is the active preamp boost which doesnt do much. It just makes the guitar sound more obnoxious.
OVERALL OPINION
If they had put standard electronics in this guitar it would have been really good. The whole guitar other than the electronics is good which is sad. The two miniswitches on the guitar are just there to make the guitar sound bad it seems. They could be labeled bad tone switches. The neck and balance of the guitar is lovely. If you were to change out all the electronics it would be a great guitar. I cant really recommend the guitar to anyone though because of the electronics.