Fernandes Ravelle - opinions?

MattBanshee

I've just seen, locally, a Fernandes Ravelle for sale (preowned) in fairly good condition, but didn't have time to try it in passing. It's very similar to the Ravelle X on their website (satin gunmetal, bolt on neck) but has block inlays and grover tuners. I've always been more of a Fender guy and the nearest thing I own to a rawk machine is a Jazzmaster with a 498T in the bridge position. Has anyone got/played one of these, or know what the going rate is likely to be? Thanks :-)

richh

I have one, and it is very good.  To my mind it is close to a Les Paul, assuming your one is like mine?

I have some other Les Paul guitars and it compares favourably IMO.  Strange body shape, which I personally really like, but that is probably a bit marmite!

Mine is not better or worse than many other Les Paul type twin humbucker guitars, but the key difference on mine is that the neck pickup is a Fernandes Sustainer.  This is a lot of fun!  The only downside is that you need to keep a supply of batteries on hand for the Sustainer power.  I got mine on the Fretboard as a trade, and will probably be offering mine here for sale or trade soon, as I've got too many similar guitars now.  I've not played any others, but as a guitar it is very good as long as the shape doesn't put you off.  But the difference is the Sustainer, though not all Ravelle's have this.

I'm not sure what the going rate is, but I'd expect to pay more for one with a Sustainer, but when you look at the hardware and installation costs for these, they should be a good buy if that is something you'd use?

Strangefan

I owned the deluxe version, I would happily have one again. The sustainer system is bang on. 

richh

Yes, if you look at the cost of buying a Sustainer plus having it fitted to an existing guitar, a used Ravelle with one built in starts to look very attractive!

MattBanshee

This'un doesn't have the Sustainer built in (if it did, I'd be on it like a seagull on chips!), just looks like cheapy generic humbuckers, but it must be a higher-end model than the standard Ravelle X as it has the block inlays and grover tuners. £119 is the asking price...

Bucket

I think what you're looking at is probably just an older version of the X, I've seen Fernandes stuff before with minor spec changes from the website listing too.

£119 is a pretty good price, I'd say.

richh

£119 is very cheap, but it would depend on what spec it is.  Mine has a Seymour Duncan JB at the bridge, with the Fernandes Sustainer at the neck and that plus decent other bits would hopefully make it worth a bit more?