Product: Rarebird Osprey Artist
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted
06/16/2003
at
08:52pm
by
Larry Felker
Features
:
10
Made in the early 90s in Denver,CO. It has 22 frets and is made of paduk with a solid quilted maple top and various maple strips. It has a volume and two tone controls with a 5-way pickup selector and a coil tap with a S/S/H Rio Grande Muy Grande set up. The Osprey is a double cutaway similar to a PRS. It has a Kahler whammy bar with Sperzel locking tuners, a strat scale, rosewood fretboard (w/no inlays) and jumbo frets. All hardwear is gold. It can be seen at www.rarebirdguitars.com
Sound
:
10
I play mostly blues and bluesrock. I also play at church and that falls into that category part of the time. It handles the variety, sometimes better than I do! I use it with Marshalls, a Sovtek, Crate, Tech 21 and a Pandora. It sounds great no matter what. I love the way it resonates in my hands, I can almost play it without an amp. It sounds kind of stratish but more solid (if that make any sense). It is very solid but feels alive at the same time.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
10
The action is the best I've ever played, it is set up and adjusted perfectly with no buzzing anywhere. The guitar is handbuilt but there aren't really any flaws. The finish is beautiful. To be honest, when I first got it there was a minor flaw around the volume knob. Bruce tried to overspray it to fix it a couple of years latter but the coats didn't bond properly and a couple years latter the laquer started to crack. Bruce stripped it and refinished it and have not any problems since.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
This guitar is totally solid. I'm sure my son will hand it down to his son. It has never let me down. I've never taken a backup when I've taken this guitar on a gig.
Customer Support
:
10
Other than the finish problem I had the only other thing was that I had Bruce put in EMG pickups. I liked them at the time but after playing my SG awhile decided I preferred passive pickups. Bruce let me trade in the EMGs for the Rio Grandes. He has always been fair with me and taken care of the few problems I've had. It helps that I live in Denver.
Overall Rating
:
10
I've been playing since the late 60s. I also have a 67 Gibson SG that I have hotrodded and a late model Gibson LP DC Standard. If I had it to do over again I would change a couple of things, but Bruce built this guitar exactly the way I asked him to. If it was lost or stolen I would have Bruce build another one almost exactly like it. Having played for so long it was a real treat to have a guitar custom built. Being local I was able to watch every step of the process (I even have video of some of it) and hope someday to be able to do it again.
