1973 Ovation Breadwinner Vintage Solidbody Electric Guitar USA Made Blue w/ Original Hardshell Case

Up for sale, a 1973 Ovation Breadwinner in excellent condition and in perfect working order. One of the earliest and rarest Breadwinners produced by Ovation, this guitar sports its original sky blue Lyrachord finish and deeper blue pickguard, being one of only a few dozen made in this exceedingly rare color. What's more, the original form fit chipboard case and hangtag are also included! This USA made Ovation solidbody electric guitar is an extremely well crafted and tonally unique guitar, with a pioneering tone circuit and a set of Ovation's early toroidal single coil pickups that have a very detailed and clear sound. The guitar chimes and twangs with the best, and the solid Honduran mahogany body and neck give the instrument a strong fundamental acoustic tone that translates well through the pickups. Despite the unconventional body shape, the guitar balances well on a strap and sits comfortably in your lap, weighing in at 9lbs. Professionally setup here at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar, this Breadwinner is strung with fresh 10-46 strings, with low action and solid intonation.

The bolt-on mahoagany neck has a slender C shaped profile, with a bound ebony fretboard and pearloid diamond inlay. The neck is quite slim and allows for very quick and accurate lead work, with a smooth gloss finish on the profile that feels great on the palm. Th guitar has a scale length of 24 3/4" which will feel intuitive to any Gibson enthusiast. The stock fretwire shows moderate wear in the first position, becoming more faint as you move up the board with almost no wear after fret 7. The frets have been leveled and crowned in the lifetime of the guitar, so the fret crowns are a bit flatter than stock, but they still have plenty of life left and the guitar plays well with no buzzing or dead spots. The nut is a full 1 11/16" width and is a hand carved piece of bone for optimal sustain and clarity. On the headstock, the black Ovation silkscreened logo is present, along with a set of black and chrome Schaller tuners which turn smoothly and hold pitch as they should. The tuners are of a style adopted by Ovation in the mid-70s, and while not original to the guitar, they are a proper style and look for a vintage Breadwinner. A set of original mounting holes (one per tuner) have been filled and touched up as well.

The Breadwinner has the same electronics configuration as its "deluxe" older brother, the Deacon, delivering as the Ovation catalog put it, the "sounds of tomorrow." It's also notable as the first solidbody to have a built-in FET preamp. This means that the low impedance double pole Ovation pickups can be used with a high impedance amp. This produces less hum and more sound; a recording engineer's dream. There's an electronic notch switch which controls the phasing between pickups, producing some surprising midrange tone variations, as well as a standard three-way pickup selector toggle and Master Volume and Tone knobs.

Cosmetically, this is an extremely well cared for and clean instrument, finished in Ovations signature "Lyrachord," which has a textured, matte appearance. This is truly a near mint vintage instrument, and the Lyrachord finish is extremely resistant to wear. As a result, there are only a few faint finish scratches on the guitar as a whole, and the chrome hardware is in equally stunning condiiton. There is one professionally repaired crack on the back extending roughly 2" from the north edge of the battery compartment which does not pose a structural issue.

The original form fit black Ovation chipboard case is included along with the original hangtag. The case is very clean, with a few vintage stickers from various states in the USA on the exterior (the graphics are so cool, we couldn't bear to remove these stickers).