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ericthegreat « Made for beginners »
Published on 11/24/11 at 23:27The BreadWinner by Ovation is part of the ESP LTD F series. These guitars are aimed at people who are looking for a guitar on a budget, and the F series appeals to those who are more into the whole Japanese Visual Kei thing. Along with its extreme looks, it features a basswood body, maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, 24 extra jumbo frets, two humbuckers, a hardtail bridge setup, one volume, one tone and a three way switch.
UTILIZATION
The guitar feels pretty haggard, to be honest. The frets are fairly sharp and aren't fully crowned. This is always a big issue with the super low LTD line. The fretwork on these is really off putting. The actual body and routes are clean as all the bodies are CNC'd, so there are no issues there. The neck joint has some play in it, and this is also a common issue with the low end LTDs. The tolerances aren't nearly as tight as the higher end line, and I feel that can hinder tone. The body shape is, of course, purely in the eye of the beholder, so I won't comment on that. The rest of the guitar is fairly typical.
SOUNDS
The Ovation Breadwinner sounds pretty dull, and the stock pickups aren't helping. The bridge humbucker is pretty thin sounding, and the neck is pretty muddy. Replacing these with some real electronics can help, but it really depends on the specific guitar you happen to own. If the guitar sounds dull and lifeless, like a lot of these do, you're not really going to be able to fix it by a simple pickup swap. If it were me, I'd probably slap some EMGs or Blackouts in it to help allow for the pickups' internal preamps to add some character to the guitar.
OVERALL OPINION
These guitars are obviously geared towards beginner players who are on an extremely tight budget. If you're looking for that somewhat Visual Kei guitar body shape, your choices are pretty limited, so you're probably going to be looking at this. I recommend at least getting one a few models up, if you can. You'll have a better chance at getting a nicer sounding guitar that's more consistent with its fretwork and tolerances.
UTILIZATION
The guitar feels pretty haggard, to be honest. The frets are fairly sharp and aren't fully crowned. This is always a big issue with the super low LTD line. The fretwork on these is really off putting. The actual body and routes are clean as all the bodies are CNC'd, so there are no issues there. The neck joint has some play in it, and this is also a common issue with the low end LTDs. The tolerances aren't nearly as tight as the higher end line, and I feel that can hinder tone. The body shape is, of course, purely in the eye of the beholder, so I won't comment on that. The rest of the guitar is fairly typical.
SOUNDS
The Ovation Breadwinner sounds pretty dull, and the stock pickups aren't helping. The bridge humbucker is pretty thin sounding, and the neck is pretty muddy. Replacing these with some real electronics can help, but it really depends on the specific guitar you happen to own. If the guitar sounds dull and lifeless, like a lot of these do, you're not really going to be able to fix it by a simple pickup swap. If it were me, I'd probably slap some EMGs or Blackouts in it to help allow for the pickups' internal preamps to add some character to the guitar.
OVERALL OPINION
These guitars are obviously geared towards beginner players who are on an extremely tight budget. If you're looking for that somewhat Visual Kei guitar body shape, your choices are pretty limited, so you're probably going to be looking at this. I recommend at least getting one a few models up, if you can. You'll have a better chance at getting a nicer sounding guitar that's more consistent with its fretwork and tolerances.