Raven guitars president dies suddenly.

Mike Perlowin RIP · Post by **Mike Perlowin RIP** » 2 Jan 2004 6:37 am

Raven guitars is a company that imports guitars from Korea and sells them directly to the consumer over the internet, bypassing the usual distributer/retailer chain and passing the savings on their customers. I have their model RM 680 full body jazz box and love it. It's not quite as nice as a Gibson, but it is a thoroughly professional quality instrument, completle suitable for either gigging or recording, and it cost about a tenth of what the equivilent Gibson or Heritage would.

Unfortunately about a month ago, Ray Heffron, owner and president of the company, died suddenly and unexpectedly. I don't know any of the details and cannot provode any further information.

It is unclear at this point whether or not there will be any more of these guitars made or imported, but Ravenwest, the sales agent, still has a number of guitars in stock.

Unfortunately the hollow body guitars like mine are all gone, but they still have a number of solid body guitars available.

Anybody who looking for a decent guitar at a very good price, this is the time to act.

http://store.yahoo.com/ravguitar/

Steve Stallings · Post by **Steve Stallings** » 2 Jan 2004 9:56 am

They still list the RM series as for sale. These look like they are probably made by Samick...who makes something like 80% of the worlds guitars under different names. I've got a gorgeous Samick Charlie Christian "Solo Flight" that rivals jazz boxes costing thousands more. I have about a grand in it and it is worth every penny.

------------------
God Bless,
Steve Stallings

www.pedalsteeler.com

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 2 Jan 2004 1:45 pm

I suppose it's time to Cash In..

Remind me never to start bleeding around this joint...

EJL[This message was edited by Eric West on 02 January 2004 at 05:22 PM.]

erik · Post by **erik** » 2 Jan 2004 4:48 pm

Mr Perlowin, i guess you could always blame the weed when making a post like this. Anyways, there are a lot of people getting in on the private brand import angle. Rondo music has been selling the Agile guitars to rave reviews. I have held and played an Agile LP copy and aside from it being very heavy it was a beautiful guitar. Check out rondomusic.com BTW, they just changed the horn on the LP version so it no longer qualifies as a spot-on knock-off.

Rick McDuffie · Post by **Rick McDuffie** » 3 Jan 2004 7:23 am

Virtually anything that says "Made In Korea" was built by Samick, including the Ibanez George Benson JS (jazz standard) guitar. I played an "Austin" 335 knockoff built by Samick, and I now have a BEAUTIFUL Samick/Greg Bennett L5-type jazz guitar. I also bought a vintage Gibson Howard Roberts the other day, and the Greg Bennett is just as good a guitar as the vintage Gibson. It really is top-quality stuff.

Tarheel Music, the shop my wife and I own here in NC, is a dealer for the Samick/Greg Bennett guitars. Killer stuff.

Rick

Mike Perlowin RIP · Post by **Mike Perlowin RIP** » 3 Jan 2004 11:34 am

I have no way of knowing whether Ravens were made by Samick or not (and no reason to doubt it either) but they are darn good guitars, and one of the best bargains out there. I paid only $280 from my jazz box. OK, that was a few years ago, and I got a deal because it was a NAMM Show special, but I turned 2 friends on these guitars, and thay only paid $350 each.

If these exact same guitars carried a famous brand name they would be in the $2,000 plus bracket.

I fail to see how these deals can be beat, and now that the company is going under, prices have dropped even lower.

I also fail to understand how anybody could be offended that I came across a good thing and wanted to share it with my fellow forumites.

John Floyd · Post by **John Floyd** » 3 Jan 2004 1:35 pm

Admit it Mike
You are just interested in the RAven Beauties on the website. <a href='http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb008' target='_blank'><img src='http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/15_1_54.gif' border=0></a>

There sure is some nice Eye Candy on The Website, Didn't see much of the Guitars Tho.....[This message was edited by John Floyd on 03 January 2004 at 01:36 PM.]

Mike Perlowin RIP · Post by **Mike Perlowin RIP** » 3 Jan 2004 8:34 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Admit it Mike
You are just interested in the RAven Beauties on the website<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Moi? Interested in beautiful women? Where would you get such an idea?

Seriously, I really like my Raven jazz guitar a lot. I have 22 guitars, but this gets played a lot more than many of the others.

Obviously I'm very happy to have acquired the guitar as such a great ptice, but aside from that, it's simply a very nice instrument, and I'd be happy with it even it had cost 5 times as much.

I must admit though I'd be happier of one of the babes came with it.