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Blutone reviews the Rascal Guitars offset: A surprisingly affordable boutique made guitar.

 

Ever wanted to get a guitar built to your own specifications but haven't due to the cost?  


Well luthier Neil Ravey is changing that expectation producing surprisingly affordable guitars for his customers.

In this video, I am reviewing the Rascal Guitars offset which has a pair  of filter tron pickups and a brass saddled, string through Wilkinson Bridge.  This guitar feels like it is strung with a set of nines.
With a single volume and tone pot, this guitar oozes sustain and is great for my style of playing.



With the lower cost (circa £500) there is a couple of elements that I would want to change which would be having a more refined and comfortable neck (currently a 25.5 inch scale, radius unknown) and I would pay more to have a more refined finish on the body.


Rascal Offset headstock logo.



A single tone and a single volume pot, just how I like my guitars!

Filtertron pickups and a string through Wilkinson bridge with brass saddles.

A magnificent hand made guitar with an unbelievably affordable price tag!

That said this piece was one of Neil's first guitars and I have it on loan from my brother so I haven't gone through the design process with Neil.

I first played this guitar a year ago when my brother bought it and I was blown away by the level of sustain that this guitar provided.  Indeed for about two hours I couldn't put it down and I found it to be a fascinating build with a sweet range of tones.
A year on, and whilst the truss rod does need adjusting (which can be done with the useful truss rod wheel at the pick up end of the neck),  you will see how nice it sounds in this video as well as how well it works with over drive.

Neil doesn't know that I am reviewing this guitar and so if I was to rate this guitar on a scaled of 1 to 10 where 10 is awesome, I would be putting this guitar somewhere between 7 and 8 at this price point.  I have a Fender 1972 Reissue Thinline and this little Rascal plays and sounds as good as my Fender.

Would I recommend Rascal Guitars?  Absolutely!  But I would do so to anyone who is looking to have their own guitar built on a budget of around £500 to £800 who wants to get into that fascinating process of working with a luthier to come up with something truly unique to their requirements. 


Note that there is absolutely no sponsorship associated with this article and I am writing about Rascal Guitars because I really like what Neil is offering to his customers.


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