The Ovation Deacon was launched towards the end of 1972 / early 1973 at a price of $449 - a few months after the launch of the Ovation Breadwinner. Both had the same body shape - designed to resemble an axe, and to be comfortable to use seated, for studio use. Both had 2 octave 24 fret mahogany necks. Initially it was only available in antique sunburst, and was fitted with large single coil pickups. An upgraded version was displayed at the autumn 1974 NAMM show - and from then it featured double-coil 12-pole pickups, "20dB quieter than Humbuckings". In 1976 a twelve string version was released.
The Deacon was very much a deluxe version of the Breadwinner - with a gloss finish, bound neck and intricate diamond, as opposed to simple dot inlays.
| Model | Deacon 1252 | Deacon 1253 (12-string) |
| Available | 1973-82 | 1976-80 |
| Pickups | single coil until 1975, 12-pole double coil thereafter | 12-pole double coil |
| Scale | 24 3/4" |
| Body | Mahogany body, length 39 1/2", width 14 1/2", depth 1 5/8" |
| Neck | Bolt-on two-piece Honduras bound mahogany neck, with ebony, diamond-shaped dot inlaid fingerboard |
| Width at nut | 1 11/16" |
| Electrics and controls | FET preamp, 1 volume and tone control, mid-range switch, pickup selector switch |
| Hardware | 12:1 machineheads, brass bridge. Chrome plated throughout. |
| Finishes | 1252-1 Sunburst, 1252-2 Red, 1252-4 Natural, Black and White |
 Ovation Deacon - Ovation solid bodies. Part of the Strawbs' sound. |
 Ovation Deacon - Bloody comfortable |
 Ovation Deacon - don't dilly dally... "dude" da deacons dynamite |
| Mid seventies ad featuring Dave Lambert of the Strawbs and his Ovation Deacon |
Mid seventies Ovation advert featuring Steve Marriot (Small Faces / Humble Pie) and his Ovation Deacon |
Mid seventies advert for the Deacon. The model shown is an early version with the large single coil pickups... |
The pickups and active circuitry of the Deacon are designed to give a very wide tonal range. The series II pickups are described as follows
| These pickups are not just another copy of the Humbucking pickups, but instead were designed by Ovation engineers to give you the quietest full-range pickups to date. These sensitive pickups have bright, sustaining treble and full, clean, rich bass that will deliver some real raunchy sounds |
The controls consist of a volume and tone potentiometer, pickup selector switch and band rejection filter to cut midrange. This is how the circuitry is descibed in the 1975 solid-bodies catalogue
| This is where we have it all together - we've built in FET preamplifier that has simplified controls and delivers the fullest, widest range of sound - and all right where it belongs - at your fingertips. The circuitry also has a band rejection filter and is volume compensated on all controls. All controls are isolated in th circuitry so that changes in vilume or amplifier impedance have no effect on the tone control. |
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