Ovation Breadwinner 1970s - Gold Sparkle Customized Refinished - So Cool

Up for sale is a mid 1970s Ovation Breadwinner that I picked up a few years ago and had refinished locally here by your professional guitar refinisher. In fact, he’s the guy that does all the sparkle guitars for Kiss that they sold on their last tour.

I put a high price on this just because I wanted to entertain offers. I’m not in any gigantic hurry to sell.

When I got this, it was black and had obviously been a punk rock guitar as it was covered in stickers and had a great deal of cosmetic damage. I took it to a local luthier he stripped it, sanded and filled in the gouges and other defects. I then took it and had it refinished in sumptuous gold sparkle. I patterned the colored gold sparkle on the same color used on Ludwig drums from the 60s.

I’ve never been a big fan of the pickups and the electronics in the old Breadwinners and Deacons as they were active and had a tendency to be kind of ice picky. So I have replaced the pick ups with GFS mini Firebird pickups and put in an all new wiring harness, pots, knobs, and switches. The only thing original is the bridge. The tuners are modern Schallers. I also put a white pearloid pickguard on it and a humbucker tap switch for the bridge PKUP. 

I had it refretted with gold fretwire that are essentially medium jumbo but kind of their own thing. They’ve been expertly installed, crowned and polished to perfection. Action is low. Neck is straight.

The one and only caveat: at a gig it took a bit of a tumble and at the headstock on the rear, the clearcoat cracked around the edges. I had it inspected by a luthier, and he assured me that it was just in the clearcoat and not in the wood underneath. He buffed it out with some wet sanding, but I never did bring it back up to a glossy finish. With a little bit of elbow grease and skill you can probably buff it right back out. I don’t notice it when I’m playing it because it’s just above where your hand rests when you’re playing open chords. There was one other nick on the guitar on the front that I had the refinishing guy fill in. You have to get way down close and look just to see it. I included pictures of both of these issues.

It comes with a hardshell case that is original to the guitar. The handle is just some piece of junk off of an amp that I halfassedly put on there. The case is in OK shape, it has the requisite punk rock stickers on it. It’s functional, but not beautiful.

So I’m not in a massive hurry to sell this thing, and I’m only listing it here on Reverb and not locally. This is a very niche item and feel free to ask questions and send offers. I do not want to trade for anything.

It weighs just under 9lbs

See the short video!