Can this pickup be saved? Should it be? (Ovation Breadwinner/Deacon)

[glebert]

This is an original pickup from a 1973-ish Ovation Breadwinner that I got as a project. The pickup has a lead broken off right were it goes into the case. The state of the preamp is also unknown. No one seems to rave about the sound of these guitars, so not even sure I want to try to save any of the electronics. About the only thing the pickups have going for them at this point is that they 1.) look kind of cool 2.) are "original" and 3.) the pickguard holes are too big for any other type of pickup.

I took the chrome cover off the pickup to see if there was any way to get down at the wires but it seems packed full of..something. I might be able to get a drop of solder onto the remnant of the lead and then glue down the extension to the case for strain relief. Don't know if I can cut away any of the plastic case to expose more of the wire.

Also, everyone says these pickups are supposed to be low impedance, but I measure them both at about 7.7k ohms. I know DCR isn't the true measure of impedance, but are these really low impedance pickups? EDIT: maybe that was the later minihumbuckers that were low impedance, or maybe just bad info.

[Helmholtz]

PU impedance is always larger than DCR and increases with frequency.
So no low impedance here.

[glebert]

PU impedance is always larger than DCR and increases with frequency.
So no low impedance here.

That's what I thought. I think the misinformaiton might be that some of the Ovation pickups were low *output*, and therefore needed a preamp, but it wasn't an impedance thing.

If I get really bored I may put the non-broken pickup back in wired straight to the output jack and just see what it sounds like.

[salvarsan]

This alleged "toroidal" 50 year old pickup should be viewed as an antique with modest collectible value but not one suitable for reinstallation.

When it was only me playing, the Ovation Breadwinner/Deacon pickup+preamp always sounded generally lacking in detail.

Another problem was that the Breadwinner's large mahogany body attenuated string vibration above the 12th fret -- they weren't as loud as below and lacked sustain.

A longer 2022 discussion of the pickups on this forum is at https://music-electronics-forum.com/...winner-guitars

The Ovation tribute site has Breadwinner/Deacon schematics at http://www.ovationtribute.com/Schematics.html

-drh

[glebert]

I was able to get an extension wire soldered to the nub, and am getting the expected DCR. Did a little probing on the preamp and the FETs don't seem shorted and the pots seem to give reasonable resistances, so next I'll try firing it up out of the guitar and seeing if it makes any sound and if the volume and tone functions work. Figure the most I can lose is a couple 9V batteries.

Does anyone know if these pickups were bonded to the metal mounting plates other than the ground wire? There doesn't seem to be anything from keeping the pickups from flopping toward the strings.

Goal on the original electronics is to just have them in reserve and keep with the guitar, but right now leaning toward making a new pickguard and putting in a single Seymour Duncan Phat Cat for general rocking and rolling.

Salvarsan, I'll put you down as a "no" then on folks who would want to try this out when it is done...