On the other hand, the Breadwinner had a textured finish created by coating the mahogany body with the company's "LyraChord" material - the same material used to create the bowls of their acoustic and acoustic-electric hollow body guitars and the helicopter blades from the Kaman Company - plastic dot fretboard marker inlays, and no binding.

Like the Breadwinner, early models utilized Ovation's "toroidal" dual pole, single wound pickups with the original FET preamp.

Touted by Ovation as the quietest pickups manufactured at the time, they may have been a step up to a more mainstream design, rather than a true electronics breakthrough.

Many owners preferred the sound of the original pickups as providing a warmer tone when compared to the tonal characteristics of the humbuckers.

In the movie for the 1979 Electric Light Orchestra album Discovery, Jeff Lynne is seen playing the Ovation Deacon.