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Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!

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Crazy Joe
Posted 2008-12-03 8:19 PM (#436631)
Subject: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!


Joined:
December 2008
Posts: 11

Location: Enon, OH
Hey guys,
I need a tone pot for my white Breadwinner, the one I bought for $250 with 13th birthday money (plus my entire life savings) in 1993. The part number is 482004-C-97 and one section is definitely cutting out. I love my Ovations so much I now only own three guitars and Breadwinners are two of them. Please help a brother out...I'm new here and I'd greatly appreciate it. John Budny says he doesn't have any, by the way.

Crazy Joe
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stephent28
Posted 2008-12-03 8:24 PM (#436632 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!



Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 13303

Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066
Send an email to Woody or Mr. Ovation. They are probably your best bet.
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MWoody
Posted 2008-12-03 9:57 PM (#436633 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!



Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 13983

Location: Upper Left USA
Sorry for the blurry photos but I do have one - but it was removed from a CB for some reason.




You are welcome to it but I hope there is a good replacement part out there.

Welcome to the Parts Bin!
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2ifbyC
Posted 2008-12-03 10:04 PM (#436634 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!
Joined:
December 2006
Posts: 6268

Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast
Gawd, I LOVE this place!

It's as good as browsing through the ol' real deal Army/Navy Surplus Depot in Tampa as a kid ('bout 650 moons ago!).

BTW, welcome to the Ovation Relics (aka members) Knitting Circle!
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Crazy Joe
Posted 2008-12-04 11:57 PM (#436635 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!


Joined:
December 2008
Posts: 11

Location: Enon, OH
Hey Mr. Woody - any idea what the values are supposed to be? BOTH sections of mine are giving unstable measurement readings, and I've never had the correct schematic...in fact, I had to trace one out myself 'cause the one Nancy Heacox mailed me in eighth grade was for the wrong version! (I gotta quit these trips down memory lane.) BTW, what does CB stand for? Can't think of any solidbodies with those initials off the top of my head...

Crazy Joe
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numbfingers
Posted 2008-12-05 10:40 AM (#436636 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!


Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 1111

Location: NW Washington State
When was your Breadwinner made, and what revision of the board do you have? There are several lettered versions.

BruDev's schematic for the "D" version, he has other versions in the gallery (did he draw these? thanks to BruDev for providing them)


The "D" version from http://www.doremi.co.uk/breadwinner/


-Steve W.
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MWoody
Posted 2008-12-05 11:27 AM (#436637 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!



Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 13983

Location: Upper Left USA
"CB" is Circuit Board to Plumbers like me!
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numbfingers
Posted 2008-12-05 2:47 PM (#436638 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!


Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 1111

Location: NW Washington State
I thought it meant Crappy Breadwinner. Non-plumbers might use PCB for Printed Circuit Board.
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Crazy Joe
Posted 2008-12-06 11:47 AM (#436639 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!


Joined:
December 2008
Posts: 11

Location: Enon, OH
Mine sez 400008-D...it has three transistors and a 1:4 step-up transformer, truly weird. Here's a schematic I traced out, omitting the pickup and battery switching circuitry for clarity as far as circuit design. Basically an input JFET source follower (buffer), an interstage step-up transformer, and two common-source gain stages with some equalization and gain-boosting stuff in the source circuitry. Strangely enough, they elected to put the volume control on the output, rather than buffer it between the stages. Not how I would have designed it..but come on, the thing sounds so good even I won't mess with it. My guess is that it's the same tone pot value, since the surrounding circuitry is the same.

www.crazyjoe.org/eBay4/400008-D.tif
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numbfingers
Posted 2008-12-06 7:33 PM (#436640 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!


Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 1111

Location: NW Washington State
Joe-

Nice job on the schematic. Separating the sections from the pickup switch helps clear things up.

BruDev has an "E" version with the interstage transformer here: http://www.ovationfanclub.com/photos/BruDev_63183_e.jpg

The Breadwinner fanpage also has an "E": http://www.doremi.co.uk/breadwinner/diag3.jpg

These might be similar to yours, I don't understand the meaning (if any) of the letters.

I wonder if higher input impedance would be an improvement? Maybe move the notch filter in front of the second FET too. Reduce the depth of the notch a bit. Tone down that wacky out-of-phase sound. And design a whole new preamp while you're at it. :)

-Steve W.
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FlicKreno aka Solid Top
Posted 2008-12-06 10:52 PM (#436641 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!


Joined:
April 2006
Posts: 2491

Location: Copenhagen Denmark
FAULTY CAPACITORS !!

Exchange the caps. and it will work again , exchange them all !!
( ye`r in luck the values are given )

Such low values cost only dollars and cents...

Vic

..further explanation of why , will be given free of charge..
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numbfingers
Posted 2008-12-06 11:12 PM (#436642 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!


Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 1111

Location: NW Washington State
.
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FlicKreno aka Solid Top
Posted 2008-12-07 12:40 AM (#436643 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!


Joined:
April 2006
Posts: 2491

Location: Copenhagen Denmark
Originally posted by numbfingers:
.
Est tu Numby ...

Allright then , :

The schematic contains , pots. , coils , transformer , resistors , and...Capacitors !!

Pots. can crackle , but the gent mentions the system .. " cutting out " .., Coils do not wear , neither do transformers , resistors loose their .. " resistance " .. over time , but not likely in this case .. ( however exchanging those would not be a bad idea ) .. , transistors are electro-chemical switches , either they work or they do n`t , in which case , the appliance does not work , Caps. however...they Dry Out !!..and cause , .." intermittant " probs. , so , 10 to 1 , the fault is with those caps.

..or a loose connection.. cable break..( doubtful )

..not easy to try to fix by remote control..

Note to Iffy :

No need to kick my cute little round behind , Numby has taken care of that allready.. :)

Vic
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2ifbyC
Posted 2008-12-07 7:21 AM (#436644 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!
Joined:
December 2006
Posts: 6268

Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast
Originally posted by HumblePie aka Solid Top:
Note to Iffy :

No need to kick my cute little round behind , Numby has taken care of that allready.. :)
Vic, no good deed goes unpunished. Besides, I hate standing in lines!
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numbfingers
Posted 2008-12-07 11:22 AM (#436645 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!


Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 1111

Location: NW Washington State
Gee, all I did was bite my tongue and edit my post down to a "."

Looking at Joe's initial post and the schematic he drew, I realized that he probably doesn't need a lot of advice, just the tone pot that Woody has.

-Steve W.
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Crazy Joe
Posted 2008-12-07 11:59 PM (#436646 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!


Joined:
December 2008
Posts: 11

Location: Enon, OH
Hey Steve -
Since you've opened up the can of worms on mods... ;)
The main thing I did to my guitar was flip the phase of one of the pickups. Well, in the dual-pickup switch position, there's an enormous gain boost to compensate for the out-of-phase drop...so you have to pull that 100k resistor that shunts the second transistor's source terminal. When my tone pot started losing a section and no amount of spray cleaning could save it, I did do an experimental modification and jumpered from the transformer right to the volume control; bypassing two stages, the tone pot, and the notch filter. VERY clean and transparent, the pickups still buffered from cable capacitance, and with them in-phase it was hi-fi almost like Chet or Les (and I did once champion the Les Paul Recording!). I've had it like that for about a year now, but I miss some of the edge or punch or something it had originally. I did another, much scarier mod that I'll tell you about if you want to hear it...

By the way, and I certainly don't mean to be a know-it-all, but there are no chemical electrolytic capacitors anywhere near the tone control and besides, I've found that with the low voltages and temperatures in the guitars (EXCEPT WHEN I'M SHREDDING RED-HOT LIXXX, THAT IS :D ), even 40-year-old caps test and work just fine.
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numbfingers
Posted 2008-12-08 10:22 AM (#436647 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!


Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 1111

Location: NW Washington State
Joe-

I agree on the caps, they're probably OK. I have thought about replacing the electrolytic that's in the signal path just before the volume control with a film cap, if one would fit. Seems like something a hi-fi guy would do.

I adjust the pot for the out-of-phase position so that one pickup predominates. The null setting that the manual suggests isn't my favorite.

When I got my Deacon in the 70s, one of the first things I did was to shield the interstage transformer. It was picking up some hum. Luckily I didn't modify the board any further, I probably would have trashed it. Since the original boards are rare and fragile, I think it's best to roll your own if you want something different. As you say, nothing else sounds the same. I'm not always sure that it's a good sound, but it's the original sound.

-Steve W.
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MWoody
Posted 2008-12-08 10:50 AM (#436648 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!



Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 13983

Location: Upper Left USA
God bless the electrical Engineers! We are lost without you and we we will never understand you. But without us, you would all perish.

Just keep doing what you do and the rest of us will feed you, tell you how to dress and benefit from your efforts.

Keep in mind that the parts used were commonly stocked Military Aircraft technology from the 70's so don't feel bad if some of it can only be found in museums and swap Meets.
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numbfingers
Posted 2008-12-08 10:54 AM (#436649 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!


Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 1111

Location: NW Washington State
Maybe Joe and Vic are EEs. I'm not, I'm just an amateur geek.

Joe, if you do get that pot from Woody, you should test it carefully. I think he uses a propane torch to remove parts from the PC board. :)

-Steve W.
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MWoody
Posted 2008-12-08 11:16 AM (#436650 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!



Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 13983

Location: Upper Left USA
I now have more articulate toolage in my arsensal thank you very much! I keep the tiny pencil tip solder-er next to the 45 watt gun...

... the Brazing Torch is in the garage for back up though!
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Crazy Joe
Posted 2008-12-08 2:01 PM (#436651 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!


Joined:
December 2008
Posts: 11

Location: Enon, OH
Woody - you are most certainly correct, sir...if left to my own devices, I would be found in a field, emaciated and wearing mis-matched polyester. And not the kind that can be used for capacitor dielectrics. And not a magnetic or electric field.
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MWoody
Posted 2008-12-08 3:31 PM (#436652 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!



Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 13983

Location: Upper Left USA
On Gilligan's Island the best Tool in the Toolbox was the Professor - he could keep your OP Pro running with a couple of Lemons and some wire!

You guys just amaze me, I was blinded by science!
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Crazy Joe
Posted 2009-01-01 11:24 AM (#436653 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!


Joined:
December 2008
Posts: 11

Location: Enon, OH
Hey Woody -- got the tone pot, THANK YOU!!! I'll be installing this baby today or tomorrow and I'll certainly keep you informed. I can't wait to get the ol' boy back and running.

Joe
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Crazy Joe
Posted 2009-01-05 1:03 PM (#436654 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!


Joined:
December 2008
Posts: 11

Location: Enon, OH
Woody - I got bad news (for me, anyway)...your tone pot had the same problem as mine; for whatever reason, the front section's carbon track just disintegrated. I wonder if that was a recurring problem. Anyway, thanks a million for sending it to me. Anyone else out there have any thoughts?

Joe
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Mr. Ovation
Posted 2009-01-05 3:06 PM (#436655 - in reply to #436631)
Subject: Re: Breadwinner tone pot - please help a brother out!


Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7210

Location: The Great Pacific Northwest
Joe,
Send me an email to mileskb at aol.com I may have one in good shape. Email is the best way to insure I go look.
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