Pribek

Earlier today, commenting about the Ovation Breadwinner, our good friend Stratoblogster, said…

Breadwinner owners always seemed like Volvo owners. Calm, pragmatic types you felt like you should be polite to. “Wow dude, that Breadwinner is pretty cool, I’ve heard about those…” Many of them were probably into Bread and learning to play “Guitar Man” for their girlfriends.

That inspired me to do some googling. And, although I could not locate a Fender Custom Shop, David Gates Model Stratocaster, I did find something of interest at Bomb Belt.

Pow! Guitars Volvo P-1800

Even if you’ve never been on a road trip, you can be sure this guitar has. Artist and musician Pau Fuster has hand-crafted this incredible instrument from the roof and tailpipe of a vintage 1964 Volvo P-1800. An electric guitar that unleashes a sound best described as an “innocent rawness”, this piece is a rugged combination of industrial strength and an artists’ whimsy. So whether you are taking it to rock out on your next world tour, or just plucking it thoughtfully on your couch, you’ll know this guitar’s got a long history that brings an undeniable depth and feeling to your music.

Unleash the innocent rawness…

Night after night who treats you right,
Baby its the guitar man
Who’s on the radio, you go listen
To the guitar man

Guitar players; does anybody remember the Ovation Breadwinner?

The details are fuzzy but, it seemed like a momentary, “let’s take a crack at the electric market” attempt from a company that had made an inroad selling newfangled acoustics.

This is from a press release found at GuitarSite.

Eastwood Guitars debuted the new BREADWINNER tribute guitar at NAMM 2009 last month to much praise and excitement. The distinctive shape and unmistakable look of this classic model is a showstopper. It brings back memories of the most diverse cast of players like no other guitar, including David Cassidy, Glen Campbell, Robert Smith, Colin Newman, Wally Bryson, Steve Marriot, Tom Morello and Ace Frehley. We can’t imagine that crowd has anything else in common other than the weird and wonderful BREADWINNER!

I don’t recall these things having much street cred when they came around the first time. That doesn’t necessarily mean they were bad guitars. It just means you didn’t see guys wearing black, Glenn Campbell concert tees toting Ovation Breadwinners to the next keg party. Nobody trying to capture the elusive David Cassidy tone as I recall. I certainly don’t remember Steve Marriot or Ace hacking on them.

I almost bought a Breadwinner once. I say almost because I spied one at a little hillbilly pawn shop for cheap. I played it a bit and the neck was pretty funky. It was fretting out in several spots so, I told the guy I would come back and buy it if he would adjust the neck and fix the problem. So, the guy says he had someone else that was coming to look at it and he talked in to holding it for $20. Don’t ever fall for that.

Anyway, I went back and the neck was still funky. It probably wasn’t a big issue but, it turned in to a Mexican standoff between me and the hillbilly pawnshop guy. So, maybe I’m bitter about the fact that I never got to experience all of the weirdness and wonderfulness of the Ovation Breadwinner.

Still seems like an odd choice to reissue. Maybe it’s because Tom Morello is playing one, I don’t know. Does that guy have that kind of juice?

Or, maybe this reissue thing has just run it’s course. Is there anything left that needs a reissue?

Bring back the Gibson Marauder!

photo found @ vintageguitar.org