Guitar Info

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I was watching Later with Jools Holland the other night, and was intrigued by the session from Grinderman whose Warren Ellis was making an incredible sound with what appeared to be Fender Musicmaster or Mustang but with just four strings (see YouTube clip below - OK, so he's obviously using a lot of loops there too).


So, a quick search shows that it's actually the new Warren Ellis signature model tenor guitar from Eastwood Guitars. The alder body is offset like a Mustang rather than an even-waisted Musicmaster, although like the latter it has just a single pickup in the neck position, in this instance it's a blade style pickup. As is common with tenor guitars it has a shorter than usual scale-length of 23", for which the Fender student-model stylings seem all too appropriate.

G L Wilson

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Last June I commented that Eastwood's proposed Breadwinner re-issue was not going to happen. Well, now it seems that the situation has changed and Eastwood are already taking orders for their Breadwinner tribute guitar which has already been shown at NAMM 2009. I guess that for whatever reason, Ovation (now owned by Fender) had changed their minds about allowing the re-issue.

Other than the obviously different-shaped headstock, there are quite a number of cosmetic features that are, quite frankly, inaccurate, and if I was shelling out best part of a thousand dollars for one of these, I'd want it to be a much more faithful replica than the guitar we see in the image above. I see from the specs that Eastwood are making trem-equipped models available, something that the originals never had.

If I was in the market for another Breadwinner I think I'd prefer to track down an original which could theoretically be cheaper than this Eastwood, although some retailers are already hiking up the prices of the originals. I bought my own 1976 Ovation Breadwinner back in 2006 for a little over £300.

Kudos to Eastwood for responding to public demand and making this re-issue available, but why the high price and why wasn't attention to detail better?

I actually got reasonably excited when I saw this photo tucked away at the bottom of a page over at My Rare Guitars. On the left is a prototype Eastwood Breadwinner guitar alongside an Ovation Breadwinner original. It's not an exact copy - you may want to play "Spot The Difference" and see how many variations between the two you can find (the most obvious being the headstock design, of course).

Apparently Eastwood Guitars were going to gauge the public interest in this re-issue with a view to launching them next year. However, according to the good folks over at The Ovation Fan Club forum, Ovation (or possibly Fender who now own Ovation) have put the kaibosh on this re-issue, wanting to retain the option to re-issue this guitar themselves. This would seem to be a very strange reaction for a manufacturer who have in recent years seemed almost embarrassed by their solid bodied electrics such as this model - which, as any guitar enthusiast worth their salt ought to know, was years ahead of its time. However, I suspect it's Fender who are pulling the strings now. Who knows, perhaps we might see a Squier-branded Breadwinner re-issue!

I said that The Breadwinner was years ahead of its time. Well, to qualify that statement let me tell you that for starters it's an ergonomic beauty, and was in turn the inspiration behind that most celebrated of ergonomic guitars, the Klein. Standing or sitting, the guitar balances just right and is an extremely comfortable guitar to play. Manufactured in the early to mid 1970s by Ovation in New Hartford, Connecticut, the Breadwinner and its more upmarket sister, the Deacon, were among the first production guitars to feature active electronics, having an onboard FET preamp, and were also one of the earliest production guitars to have a 24-fret neck.

I had been coveting one of these beasties for quite a few years, when in September 2006 I got really lucky when I found a listing by a German seller on eBay that none of the rabid Ovation collectors seemed to have noticed. (I think they must have been searching eBay listings in the USA only. They're probably wise to this oversight by now.)

I picked up my black Breadwinner (pictured left) for absolute peanuts compared with what these guitars will often fetch. It's one of the models circa 1976 with the smaller-sized pickguard and a smooth finish (many had a bizarre textured finish). Sadly it was lacking a case, but I have found that it fits quite nicely into my Flying V's gigbag.

Having said that, it's swings and roundabouts when it comes to getting lucky on eBay. When bidding on a 12-string Ovation Deacon I lost out to another bidder in the final five seconds of the auction, and for a price just a few quid over what I had bid. As you can imagine, there was much cussing when that happened.

But, yeah, I love these guitars.

Even if they don't sit too nicely on a guitar stand!

Ever Fallen In Love With A Guitar You Shouldn't Have?

Eastwood Guitars - those kings of the retro-reissue guitar - proudly present the limited edition Pete Shelley Starway signature guitar, based on a guitar with a partially broken body that Pete played in the early days of classic punk band The Buzzcocks. Judging by the headstock shape and those distinctive fingerboard inlays, my guess would be that the original was a Teisco - probably the E-100 model (look it up on the Teisco Twangers website).

Check out Eastwood Guitars for some nice affordable replicas of 60s retro vintage guitars. I especially like the Del Ray model based on the Teisco K-56.