Unusual Guitar

Lt. Bob said:
It's hard to remember now but there was a time when it was almost impossible to get a good and loud acoustic sound on stage.
In the earliest days we were all blown away by the Ovations because of that one thing
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Bingo! When something has been around for your entire life, you often don't realize that there was a time when that might not have existed. Go back and watch Woodstock and see how they had to mic all the acoustic guitars. That's 1969, which for many of us were high school days.
 
TalismanRich said:
Bingo! When something has been around for your entire life, you often don't realize that there was a time when that might not have existed. Go back and watch Woodstock and see how they had to mic all the acoustic guitars. That's 1969, which for many of us were high school days.
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That's actually the year I graduated and went to playing full time ..... the gear we had was primitive by todays standards ..... or 'vintage' I suppose! :P
 
Peter Tosh of The Wailers used a Breadwinner during the band's 1973 "Burnin'" Tour

Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA used a white version of the Breadwinner on their 1977 tour through Europe and Australia.

Marc Bolan of glam rock group T.Rex can be seen playing a tuxedo black Breadwinner on the group's appearance on Top Of The Pops for their "The Groover" single in 1973.

In the early 80's, Robert Smith of The Cure used a black version whilst filling in as guitarist for Siouxsie and the Banshees, he can be seen playing it in the Nocturne live footage.

Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine uses a Breadwinner in the song "Ashes in the Fall".

Dave Gregory of XTC also occasionally played a Breadwinner.
 
My Black Seed which I call the crop circle guitar. I went to this guys place to check out a guitar he had for sale on CL. I didn't buy that one but I said you're the guy who
has that guitar up on CL. I had looked at it quite a few times. It played well, and sounded good and I could tell the guy was close to broke so I bought this one instead. If he wasn't down and out I wouldn't have bought it, but what the hell, I had the extra money and he was a fellow musician.
 

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Here’s the Ovation I bought back in 95 inspired by Bob Marley Redemption song and my band mate had a full back ovation.
This is the slim back version, it’s a bit more trebly but still stunning.
Enjoy
Rich
 

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I also own a Tanglewood Rickenbacker copy.
It sounds like no other guitar I own.
 
An unusual guitar that looked like the 'future' back in the 80's. A Roland GR-707.

roland-g-707_0_grande.jpg
 
One of the most unique guitars I've ever seen is Junior Brown's "guit-steel".
 
spantini said:
I had seen the Tonight Show back in 1973 with Glen Campbell where he came out center stage by himself with an unusual looking guitar. Not an acoustic, this was an Ovation Breadwinner in white, which at the time I had no idea of what it was or interest in that instrument, nor was there any internet to quickly help identify the model. Well, I just rewatched this as a rerun and I noticed the Ovation headstock and I looked it up and found this :

reverb.com

1970's Ovation BREADWINNER White with very early features | Reverb

Olivia's Vintage would like to present this early version of a 1970's Ovation Breadwinner in its original White textured finish. It has a great playing neck with great frets. It's all original and 100% complete along with its original hardshell case featuring rare purple lining. This Breadwinner ...
€1,633.38
reverb.com reverb.com

In all the intervening years from then to now I have never seen anyone else using one of these.

WATCH ON YOUTUBE
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This was my first electric... A Kawai from 1979, I still have it. I wanted a Les Paul copy like my mates but my dad sourced this from a local shop for £120 .... about the same price as a LP copy and told me ... son this is way better, even though nobody heard of them. Its a lovely guitar...
Thanks Pop 🥰👍
 

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Ovation...although I have never been a pro player, among the five guitars I have ever owned, that was the only one I literally wanted to throw out. It was the regular deep-bowl acoustic with pickup, and once I got past how nice it was to have "an electric", I started hating using it. As mentioned, all it wanted to do was slide down and 'go to sleep' in my lap, and standing with it was a slippery endeavor as well. I put it out in our trash room and the cleaning lady happened by and asked if she could have it for her son...by all means. I hope he at least had some fun with it.
 
Cosmic said:
Ovation...although I have never been a pro player, among the five guitars I have ever owned, that was the only one I literally wanted to throw out. It was the regular deep-bowl acoustic with pickup, and once I got past how nice it was to have "an electric", I started hating using it. As mentioned, all it wanted to do was slide down and 'go to sleep' in my lap, and standing with it was a slippery endeavor as well. I put it out in our trash room and the cleaning lady happened by and asked if she could have it for her son...by all means. I hope he at least had some fun with it.
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Yes I remember those, they had an oval back, they were quite expensive but were very highly rated. The back was some sort of composite carbon fibre material to give the sound more depth they said. I never played one... was it really that bad?
 
Well, it was uncomfortable. The roundness and the space-age materials seemed like cool things until you actually tried it.
The main thing was that it wouldn't "sit" like a regular guitar; it just rotated and wanted to lie on its back when you were in a chair on on a stool with it and you spent as much attention trying to keep it in position as you did playing.

On stage, with a strap, they may have been fine; some of them looked very nice in terms of decor, and a number of folks obviously took to them, but for the sit-down player, they would definitely fight you.

C.
 
Indeed, the advancements in technology have significantly changed the game. Back in the day, achieving a good and loud acoustic sound was quite a challenge, as you mentioned. The Ovations were revolutionary in addressing this issue. It's easy to take such advancements for granted when they've been around for so long. Thanks for sharing this perspective and the reminder to appreciate how far we've come. If you're ever interested in brushing up on guitar basics or diving deeper into guitar knowledge, https://guitarsrepublic.com/guitar-basics/ offers some helpful resources.
 
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I'd guess those fanned frets work ok for lead playing - wonder how those first 5 or 6 frets do playing rhythm. I mean, as far as finger placement and tone.
 
notCardio said:
I remember trying a few out back in the day and I thought they were unplayable just from the ergonomics of that shape. But that's what I also thought about their bowl back acoustics. Just wasn't my cup of tea.
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I had one of their "high end" bowl backed acoustics, it started falling apart. I sold it to a guy who I warned not to buy it and he bought it anyway. Never did like any of their guitars. I remember they gave some to the Byrds for PR purposes. Didn't take them long to kick them to the curb. I wound up installing one of those K pickups in the Guild 12 string I bought, sounds pretty good?
 
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