The Steel Guitar Forum

http://www.ravenwestguitar.com/elguit.html

The owner of this company and I have become close friends. I like the guitars and he likes how I play. I'm not an official employee, but I'm acting as a cosultant for the guy. He gave me one (A les paul double cutaway) for free, and sells me any others I may want at his manufacturer's cost. Right now I have 7 of them.

He has them made in Korea, imports them and sells them himself on E-bay, eliminating all the middle men and thereby keeping the price down.

These are the nicest Asian guitars I've seen to date. They play and sound as good as any Fender or Gibson. I'll bring a couple to the Mesa show so any of you who are there can check them out.



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"Never underestimate the value of eccentrics and Lunatics" -Lional Luthor (Smallville)

Looks nice Mike
Have you played any of the basses?
I'm looking for a 5 string for my son.
The RB500 caught my eye....
Jay

Jay, 2 of my friends bought them on my recommendation and both are very happy with them.

I already had 2 basses, an Ibanez 6 string, and a Carvin 5 string fretless when I got involved with this company, so I didn't want or need another.

But I'll get one from the guy and bring it to Mesa to show people.

One of my pet peeves is tha fact that American made instruments have gotten so expensive. The world needs good quality affordable guitars. That's why I'm so jazzed about these.

Hey Mike, thanks for the tip-those are truly some great looking guitars for the money, and I'll have to check them out.

The real question though is this: Have you gotten to hang out with "The Ravenwest Girls?"

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Mark

<SMALL>Have you gotten to hang out with "The Ravenwest Girls?"</SMALL>

No Comment

Hey MIKE! How come you didn't say anything about the RavenWest GIRLS pages? WOW! Now, that's the way to sell gutiars! Somebody finally took a course in marketing!

There are certain lines from certain factories in Korea that are really nice - it sure looks like the Sanatoga guitars are the same as Ravens. The DeArmond guitars were really good Korean-made Guild variants, owned by Guild, then reincarnated for a while as higher-end Squiers when Fender took over. The better ESPs and Schecters are well made also. If you're as un-romantic as me and believe they're just boards, bits of metal, plastic and wires rather than secret magic talismans, you can find a lot of nice guitars cheap these days.

There's actually collectors who have tracked the output of the best factories in Japan - the whole Hoshino/Ibanez/Greco stuff, the Matsumoku/Aria/Westbury/Vantage stuff and so on. Somebody might eventually do the same for the Korean output, if:
A) we don't drown in a glut of good guitars;
B) the last kid in the world doesn't fink out to Playstation 7;
C) the electricity doesn't run out and yield solidbodies useful only to club mastodons for lunch.<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by David Mason on 20 January 2006 at 12:30 PM.]</p></FONT>

Nice prices!

Drew

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<font size=1>Drew Howard - website - Fessenden guitars, 70's Fender Twin, etc.</font>

Dave, I believe (perhaps mistakenly) that the Sanatoga guitars are made in China, not Korea. I've been told they are nor made at the same factory as the RWGs.

The hollow body models certainly do appear to gave been made from the same blueprints though.

I bought one of these RavenWest guitars, the thin body nylon stringed electic one, and it has been great. In fact it sold out a few days later but hopefully there will be more soon. See pics at click here and go to "RavenWest Nylon string guitar for some pics that show more detail than the factory web site.

Greg

Hey Greg, I also have a Rigel A+ deluxe mandolin, and a Washburn acoustic guitar.

I guess great minds really do think alike

Unusually nice guitars at equally nice prices, they seem very carefully made with quality hardware. I feel really tempted to buy one.

No sign of the tasteless combinations that are so common among some far east manufacturers who seem to know a lot about production and very little about what makes a good looking guitar.

But their webdesigner should find another job. That site is as messy as it gets! I thought that kind of "keep 'em guessing" design died off with the '90's, but obviously not. They could sell a lot more guitars if the site was clear, concise and easy to navigate (= welcoming customers) instead of trying to look "cool" (which it fails to do).

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´75 Emmons p/p D10 8+4, '96 Emmons Legrande II D10 8+5, ca '72 AWH Custom D10 8+3, Peavey Nashville 1000

The K2 - 590T BGB QUILT is a fine-looking guitar, and it seems to be well-built. I'm thinking about ordering one of these. Nice classic style to it. I can't get over the price.....so cheap. I'd really like to try one. Thanks for the link, Mike.

Here's a picture of the K2 590

http://us.st11.yimg.com/store1.yimg.com/I/ravguitar_1884_906008

These are nice guitars. Mike let me noodle around on one of his at the Mesa show and it felt really good. Al Vescovo played one on Mike's set at the show and it sounded really good. I'll probably be adding one or more to my collection in the future.

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Darvin Willhoite
Riva Ridge Recording

GOSH, won't it be nice when somebody starts making pedal steel guitars offshore, and we can pick up a nice D-10 with 9 and 7 for a couple hundred dollars?

Mike, how do you think these guitars compare to a Brian Moore guitar that's made in Korea
HR

Harvey, Not having played the Brian Moore, I can't answer your question.

I know that some Brian Moore guitars are equipped with Peizo pickups in the bridge, that function not only as an acoustic pickup, but also as a MIDI pickup as well, and the guitars have scrolling controls. I don't know how much this costs, but I assume the guitars are more expensive.

In all honesty, I have to mention that the guitars I brought to Mesa were my personal instruments, and I had some work done to them. They both had the frets polished, the action and intonation set up, and Earvana intonated nuts installed. Furthermore, the purple one that Al played has Gibson pickups. The green one has the optional Seymour Duncans that the company offers.

I had a chance to check out a K2 590. It really sounds good with the P 90s, but the one I tried was not set up properly. Like the others, it needed the frets polished and the action and intonation set. I think once that's once that's done, it will be a killer axe, as mine are now that they've been tweaked.<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Mike Perlowin on 01 March 2006 at 10:03 PM.]</p></FONT>

I do some work on all my guitars, RavenWest included. The truss rod I adjust by fingering at the 1st and 14 th fret and measuring the clearance at the 6th fret. I opt for at most .010" there. For the nut I finger the string between the 2nd and 3rd fret and check for just a few thousands clearance at the 1st fret. String height the 12th fret I go for .045" to .050" despite the oft quoted .070" to .090" figure. No guitar I have ever bought off the shelf come close to these! The nylon string guitar I bought has some fret uneveness and would play a lot better if the frets were evened out. It's still a great guitar and I would buy another one in a heartbeat.

Greg

<SMALL>The nylon string guitar I bought has some fret uneveness and would play a lot better if the frets were evened out. It's still a great guitar and I would buy another one in a heartbeat.</SMALL>

Exactly. These guitars are really great once they've been set up and properly adjusted, but they do need that little bit if tweaking.

Plan on doing this if you buy one.

Mike,
I don't think having a new nut installed, dressing/levelling the frets, and installing new pickups, in ADDITION to setting the truss rod and intonation, quite come under the heading of "tweaking," do you? Am I correct in assuming that NONE of the guitars that you are advertising here is factory stock? That NONE of the guitars that you either got free, or at greatly reduced cost, was acceptable to you as you got them?

Stephan I'm not sure how you define the word tweaking.

The RWG guitars do not NEED to have the nuts replaced, but with the exception of a vintage Gretsch, I've put Earvana intonated nuts on every guitar I own. They really do make a difference, and guitars, regardless of brand, that are equipped with them are noticably more in tune than those without them.

I've had the frets dressed, and the action and intoation set on every guitar I've owned.

I've replaced the pickups on many, but not all of my guitars. This is also true of the RWGs.

The only guitar I've not customized in one way or another is the Gretsch.

So you are correct in stating that none of the guitars I got from RWG was "acceptable to (me) as (I) got them" but neither were any of my guitars by Fender, Music Man, Ibanez, Washburn, etc.

The bottom line is these are really good guitars that cost a fraction of what they would if they were sold through the normal retail chain, and once they are properly set up, they are as good as guitars that sell for thousands of dollars.

They are really practical guitars for working musicians who need a professional quality instrument, but don't want to take a valuable one to a club where it could get stolen or damaged.

Mine is the PRS looking semi-hollow one and is 100% stock. It even arrived perfectly intonated. It looks,plays,feels and sounds as good as any of the dozen or so Gibson electrics I've owned. These are really nice instruments right out of the box. -MJ-

Mike,
First of all, DO YOU THINK YOU COULD POSSIBLY SPELL MY NAME CORRECTLY???
More importantly, I would not buy ANY guitar brand new, that needed fret work of any kind. Intonation gets checked anyway--but I do that, with my particular gauge strings.
Again, I will NOT buy a brand new guitar, and immediately start changing pickups, attempting to improve the tone. As has been discussed many times, even a solid body guitar MUST have inherent tone---if not, NO pickup is gonna put it there.
I do not believe so-called "intonated" nuts improve intonation. I didn't buy that argument with Stelling banjos, and I don't buy it with the "Earvana" nuts, either. If a string is fretted, the nut is nothing more than a string retainer---You know, like the zero fret on Gretsches---The ONE guitar you chose not to customize???
Don't get me wrong, these guitars are pretty. So are the girls the company is using in an attempt to lure more customers.
(By the way, most of THEM look like they've had some "custom" work done, too)
But I don't see anything in these guitars that outshines Mexican Fenders, or Korean Epiphones---EXCEPT a neck that you deem unplayable without customization.
Or let's put it another way---Would YOU be so high on these guitars if you weren't hawking them?
And I STILL don't believe in taking a cheap ax to a gig. If I can't trust my gear at a gig, I won't play it. I owe my instruments, and the people who are hiring me, that much.
StephEn Gambrell

Stephen, I apologize for misspelling your name. As for the rest of your post, all I can say is that if you've not played the guitars in question, you can't pass judgment on them. Everybody who HAS tried them likes them.

Check out the reviews they’re receiving on harmony central.(Note, Ravenwest is an extention of the original Raven company that went out of business when the original owner died. The reviews apper under both names.)

http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data4/#man

I must tell you that you are wrong about the Earvana intonated nuts. You can see on any tuner how every note on a guitar equipped with one is more in tune, and I personally can hear the difference they make. Since you've apparently had no personal experience with one, you've not heard how much more in-tune they make the guitars. I strongly suggest that you find a guitar that has one and check it out. I believe that once you do, you'll change your mind about them.
<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Mike Perlowin on 01 March 2006 at 10:58 PM.]</p></FONT>