Raven Acoustic/Electric Guitar

I'm sorry I don't know much about this guitar I have. It is a red 6 string acoustic electric by Raven. I haven't the slightest idea how old it is but it was made in Japan. It has 21 frets and what looks to be chrome accessories. It has 2 pickups, each with a switch, and a volume and tone for both as well. My parents bought this guitar on trade for a picnic table (!) and gave it to me for my 16th birthday after they realized my interest. I've searched all over and can't find anything pertaining to these guitars.

I love playing it, although I have no amp so yes it does sound lousy unplugged. I have no problem with outside noise. I tap my guitar or wiggle my cord and my guitar doesn't make a sound.

The action on this guitar is great in the lower end. It could use a very slight drop in the high end but I wouldn't even bother. I'm no professional and even I can play it how it is. I got it with loose volume and tuning controls. One tone knob has a chip out of it where the "7 8" would appear.

This guitar performs great plugged in. I wouldn't use it for strictly strumming in a gig, but it'll excite you when you pick on it. I learned to play guitar on this, so naturally it's been banged around a bit and I don't have a case for it so it sits on a stand all the time. I play it everyday and it's durability hasn't changed in the 3 years and 8 months I've had it ;) I can trust this guitar not to let me down.

I've never dealt with the company at all. Warranty? What warranty? lol.

I've been playing for approximately 3 years now. If this guitar were stolen, I can't say I'd buy another but that's not because I dislike it. I own a Seagull SM6 Demo (with built in equalizer/pickup) and a Daion 12 String acoustic. I can't say there's anything in particular I love or hate about it. You can hear it great unplugged for practicing, but it needs to be plugged in if you're in a crowd or background noise.

2000 Korean model, 22 fret semi-acoustic bolt on neck hybrid. I is a knock off of a Chet Atkins model acoustic elecric. There is a volume knob and three band EQ for the Piezo pickup. It requires a 9 volt battery. It is a very pretty guitar, with a red flamed maple top and creme and black binding. The hardware is a cheesy goldish color, like light brass, with three no name tuners per side. The neck is pretty thin and playable. It shipped with a box and some packing material.

Unplugged, this guitar sounds horrible. Like a semi-hollow with a pillow stuffed inside. Plugged up it is slightly better. Through some high end equipment, it sounds almost like an acoustic guitar. Almost. The EQ slides are very touchy and seem to have only two settings each. Full blown or off. The volume pot is messed up, and cracks and pops unless the volume is all the way up, and then it is overdriving. Also the cheap Piezo pickup amplifies every little noise on or near the guitar.

It is beautiful, and playable. I can access the entire neck and pull off great lead licks on it. It was not setup well from the factory. The intonation was horrible, but after jacking around with the setup for a couple of hours, it came around. The cheap tuners and nut make it a nightmare to keep in tune. Especially if you play with any dynamics at all.

This "guitar" does not hold up well at all. The hardware and electronics are definitley bottom of the line. Out of the box it wasn't great, so now a year later I can see that it is not holding up well at all. Even though it does not get a lot of play time. This piece of garbage is not even my backup guitar. Maybe a backup paddle for a canoeing trip. The cheesy gold hardware is turning brassier everyday. But hey, the screws are in tight.

The customer support people ignored me until the warranty ran out. I called and sent e-mails about the volume pot and got one lame response. BUY LOCALLY IF POSSIBLE. INTERNET SELLERS DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU, BECASE THEY DO NOT HAVE TO DEAL WITH YOU IF THEY DO NOT WANT TO!!!!!!!

I do not give any credability to reviews of gear people have played in a store, or owned for two days. I have owned this thing for over a year. I have been playing for 16 years, and this is one of 6 guitars that I own. I bought it becasue I have always played electric guitar and thought it was a good transistion guitar towards acoustic. I was wrong! I have since bought a real acoustic.

If it were stolen, I wouldn't notice for weeks, but I certainly would not replace it with another Raven. I love it because it is red, I hate everything else about it. I bought it because it was cheap and red, and I got a cheap red guitar.

this is a koren made guitar ive never had a problem with that
sometimes they make better products. this is a green flame top with matching headstock. kind of a evh wolfgang shape with three classy holes has to be seen.awsome

sounds great plugged in and great volume to practice on un plugged.
ive hated most acoustics ive ever came across too bulky and plain. this reminds me of the krammer ferinton acoustic + 10 !!!
after years of looking i found my acoustic. hell you can play leads on this thing with ease.i like all kinds of music minus rap and country and this can do the rest.

what can i say if it had tits id marry it.

i dont forsee any problems at all if it got stolen id be very pissed off.

never had to

cant speak for you but for me its great ive been playing 18 years and spending $1000.00 on a guitar isnt always the answer

A 2000 Korean model. Beautiful flamed maple top with binding. 22 fret neck, Mybe maple, fretboard may be rosewood. A semi hollow with three small sound holes. A piezo pickup with three band EQ slide and volume pot. Neck feels like a tele, there are three gold(ish) tuners per side. Bolt on neck, and sort of a Les Paul body shape. A knockoff of a Chet Atkins model or a thin guild.

Unplugged, it does not sound like an acoustic at all. More like an unplugged ES-335. It is loud enough to practice alone, but you can't play for anyone, or with any accompaniment. It does not sound very acoustic through any of my amps either, but straight through the board, it at least sounds acoustic. The EQ is very touchy, and anything above midrange is very bright, and anything below is just muddy. The pickup is so sensitive that any aggressive playing is picked up, just like hitting a microphone.

The action is great, it is like playing an electric, and the neck is nice and smooth. The finish is beatuiful. I cannot find any physical flaws. Matching headstock is even flamed. It feels well put together.

This guitar is not very reliable. As mentioned before, every noise you make is picked up by the piezo. The volume pot is scratchy and even pops while being played. This is my only acoustic, but not for long. This thing is headed for the case, or maybe my little brother.

Internet shoppers BEWARE!! I have left numerous e-mails and voice mails about the volume pot problem and have had no response. Imagine that. I assume they will ignore me until the warranty runs out.

If this guitar's electronics were as nice as the finish, I would have gotten a lot for my money, but as it stands now, I broke even. I should have saved a little extra money and bought a real acoustic.

New, Korean-made thin-body acoustic/electric with quilted-maple top. Built-in 3-band EQ and preamp. Strat-style thin, bolt-on neck. "Solid" (looks like laminated blocks) mahogoney body routed-out with laminated quitled-maple top (mine is shiny purple and really stands out on stage). Nice cream-colored, multiple binding around body. Enclosed gold-plated tuners (3 per side on the body-colored, quilted-maple-laminated headstock).

When compared the Peavey's Ecoustic or similar thin-body, acoustic/electrics I have played this one has more features, looks more expensive, has more accurate intonation across the full scale of the neck, has a MUCH better plugged-in acoustic sound and (so far) seems to be very solidly built.

Excellent backup guitar or even a main axe if your set includes a mix of acoustic and electric tunes. Not much of an acoustic sound when unplugged but sufficient for late-night practicing when the kids are asleep. Plugged in it it has alot of output, very low noise and can really produce some nice acoutic sounds (better than any Ovation I have ever played). Nothing wrong with Ovations I just think this guitar has a better overall acoutic tone and is not quite so "bright" like alot of Ovations.

I played a gig this past weekend and used the Raven through my Digitech RP7 and managed to get some really sweet acoutic sounds out of it. I realize the RP7 is not exactly an ideal acoutic effects processor but with the right combination of chorus, delay and reverb you can get some pretty versatile sounds out of this setup.

I would give it a 10 on sound but that would be an insult to my Taylor 710CE.

Very well made, especially for the price. In fact, well made at 3x the price.

The quilted maple top "bookmatching" is slightly mis-aligned (2-3mm)but it is not very noticeable. Also, this guitar was sold as a "2nd". Other than the "bookmatching" I can find NOTHING wrong with this guitar.

So far the reliability/durability seem excellent. Very solid body, neck and top. Tuning machines are tight and smooth. If necessary, I would use it at a gig without backup; the string-through-bridge design allows faster string changes than the peg-in-a-hole design.

I have not had occasion to deal with the company from a support point-of-view. They did promptly reply to emails inquiries that I had sent prior to purchasing the guitar.

I would buy another a Raven in a heartbeat. In the the not-too-distant-future I probably will buy a PRS-style guitar that they make.

I love my Taylor 710CE and my Fender American Standard hard-tail Stratocaster. This Raven does not replace either of them but it makes an extremely nice addition. Also, I would rather use the Raven on stage than the expensive Taylor especially if I just need it for one or two acoustic songs.

In conclusion, if you need/want (and can afford) a thin-body acoustic electric and you can get a Raven for under $250 then you would be stupid not to buy it.

This is a new Korean made thin line acoustic electric guitar with a blue gloss EVH "Wolfgang model" body shape, an electric-style 22 fret bolt on satin finished maple neck with rosewood fingerboard. The headstock is a tilt back style that has been finished in a blue quilting to match the body. The guitar body is one piece of mahogany that has been hollowed out and capped with a two piece top of quilted maple. There is a nice multipiece (white-black-white) piece of binding around the top. The soundholes are three small curved (enlongated teardrop shaped) slits in the upper bout, in the same place that Ovation places the multi-holes on their Adamas models. It has a "Kasha" style bridge plate (wider on the bass side for better transfer of the bass frequencies, narrowing on the treble side). It has an under saddle piezo transducer and a compensated (for the G, B, and E string) saddle. The preamp features a three band EQ, a rotary volume control, a low battery LED and a pop-up battery compartment and an end-pin jack. The tuners are gold plated sealed type with half moon grover style buttons. It came with a warranty card, booklet and neck adjustment wrench.

Because this is a thin line acoustic electric, the acoustic sound is somewhat limited when played unplugged. The top is somewhat thick by acoustic standards which makes for a solid well built feel but somewhat quiet sounding acoustic tone. Of course it isn't really meant to compete with the full bodied acoustic's. It has sufficient volume to be played acoustically (unplugged) but does lacks the full bodied sound of a deeper guitar. To be fair though, this isn't what it's designed to do. It's obviously been specifically designed to allow the gigging guitarist to switch to a genuinely acoustic sounding guitar that plays as easily as an electric and can be played at high stage volumes that would cause a bigger acoustic to feedback. This it does with flying colors! The sound is much more "woodsy" and natural than the current batch of moulded plastic backed guitars which accentuate the highs for a sound leaning more to the bright side. The Raven seems to have a more balanced sound and thanks to it's three band eq, which can be boosted or cut by 12 db for each frequency, you can pretty much duplicate any of the currently fashionable acoustic electric sounds from bassy and thick through all middle to bright and shimmering. The preamp has a good amount of gain (sufficient enough for me to overdrive the inputs of various studio processors!) and is surprisingly quiet. The volume control works smoothly and the eq faders have center detents so you'll know when your eq is in the "flat" position (no eq boosted or cut). They work smoothly and have a very nice solid feel. I think this guitar would be a good choice for anyone wanting to add a very believable acoustic sound to their stage show or recordings. It's especially good for those who are used to the low action and easy playing of their electric necks. It's small body style and great looks make it a cool stage guitar too.

The guitar came with a good set up. The action was nice and low without any buzzing and the intonation was right on, which is really unusual for an acoustic and says a lot about the care that went into the manufacture and certainly shows the foresight of the inclusion of the compensated saddle. The woods and finish were again amazing for the cost! The quilted maple top is properly bookmatched and finished in a nice medium blue stain which also covers the nicely grained mahogany back. The gloss finish was buffed to a glass like luster. Even the binding (a place where other imports have had their problems) is smooth and seemless. The maple neck is finished in a satin finish and is very organic feeling and will appeal to those players who favor the almost bare wood feel of the EVH guitars and some Ibanez electrics. The rosewood fingerboard, like the large Kasha style bridge plate, is substantial and of good quality rosewood. The small pearl fret markers are offset toward the bass side of the fingerboard (they lie between the E and A string) and are shifted toward the top of the space between the frets. This makes the whole guitar look very elegant and visually is much more intersting than the standard middle positioned dots. The side dots are rather small and like the fingerboard dots are also offset toward the top of the space between the frets rather than smack dab in the middle. This can be somewhat confusing at first, especially to those who rely on them when placing their fingers. Because they're not directly in the center of the space between the frets, some people might find themselves placing their fingers directly on the fret rather than behind it. This isn't a great problem though and once you become familiar with the positions you'll have no problem. The frets are medium wide -medium high ones that have been crowned, fitted and finished extremely well. The action and playability lies somewhere between the acoustic and electric guitar (probably why it's called that!) and the bolt on neck is fitted snugly in it's pocket and has a very nicely cut adjustment pocket carved into the top of the body at the end of the neck. The guitar came with good quality medium gauge acoustic electric strings and I have changed them to light gauge with no problems. The preamp is fitted nicely and the end pin jack is attached with three screws through a wide flange. This makes changing the piezo pickup or fixing a broken wire a breeze, since all this can be done with only a screwdriver to remove the jack. The care that goes into these guitars can even be seen in the smallest details such as the smoothness of the wood on the sides of the tear shaped sound slits and the painting of the inside of the body cavity under them. All in all, Raven continues to make guitars that hold their own against others costing twice or even three times the money. The level of care that goes into every aspect of these guitar is really impressive as are the well thought out features and hardware.

Because it's a thin line about the same thickness as your electric you may be tempted to treat it as you would a solid body, but remember that it's a hollow body and you'll be alright. The finish looks like it would take anything you could throw at it. I own a Fernandes Reyna A/E and the Raven feels much more solid. I see no problem with using it as a gigging guitar. The strap buttons are large and quite frankly the best I've seen. It's almost impossible to accidently pull your strap off these! A great design!

This is the forth Raven I've bought and I've had zero problems. I have however bothered the hell out of the dealer I bought them from (Ravenwestguitar co.) with questions about new models etc., and they've been great. I have no problem believing they'll be there if I ever need servicing.

I've been playing for over 20 years and owned tons of guitars. I'd recommend (and have..REPEATEDLY!)Raven guitars to anyone who is looking for a great quality guitar at a steal of a price! If you're a musician looking for maximum bang for your buck, these guitars just can't be beat!