Tom Anderson Raven Electric Guitars
The difference between alder or mahogany
The Raven draws its inspiration from the less popular Fender designs of the 1960’s, the distant third behind the Strat and the Tele. Tom Anderson still decided to work with this, so called, “offset” body style, and produced a world champion in playability and comfort.
Before we get into the details, let’s say a few things about Anderson guitars in general.
Each guitar they produce is, in essence, a unique build given the incredible number of customization options. There is little chance to find two that are exactly the same. The base Raven models we can order in Classic and Superbird trims and today we will compare two such guitars. The Raven Classic comes either in the traditional 25 1/2” or the shorter 24 3/4” scale length. The classic scale is what we find on Fender strats or teles while the shorter scale resembles more Gibson’s offers from the same era. For a Raven classic, we can choose from four different woods: alder, ash, basswood, or mahogany. The Raven Superbird, by contrast only comes in mahogany and the shorter 24 3/4” scale length. The neck of the Raven Classic is maple or rosewood while the fretboard can be any one of a large number of materials such as plain maple, slightly roasted caramel maple, the material with a heavy roast the manufacturer dubbed a chocolate maple, rosewood or exotic woods like ziricote or pau ferro. Next we have to select one of 21 neck profiles, one of two nut widths,one of five different stainless steel frets.
Once finished, all we need to do is choose the best fitting from a 150 different finishes and we can move on to the customization of the pickups and electronics. And as if these weren’t enough, we can also tweak the color of the pickup rings or pots as well.
Now let’s take a look at these specific Anderson Raven guitars we have in the Stageshop.
First up is the Raven Classic, traditional 25 1/2” scale, alder body, maple neck with a ziricote fretboard, PQ1 and PQ3 Andersen P90 pickups.
We all know the alder bodied Fender sound. For full and dynamic with a distinct upper-mid range when overdriven, alder is one of the best choices. The maple neck is another classic choice but the Ziricote fretboard makes this guitar truly unique. But before anyone tries to hype this wood for the fretboard, let me let you in on a little secret as to why we ordered this guitar with this seemingly unusual material. From January 2 of 2017, the new CITES regulations have gone into effect according to which any item containing rosewood (Dalbergia Latifolia) that is commercially traded, such as guitars, require an import-export authorization. The tonewood closest to rosewood both in its sonic and aesthetic characteristics is ziricote. And since it is not in the family of rosewoods it is not mandated by CITES to have all this extra paperwork. Guitars with ziricote fretboards come at a price premium with all manufacturers, still, it is cheaper (not to mention less of a hassle) than the bureaucracy with rosewood. Did I mention it looks beautiful as well?
To return to the specs of the Ravel Classic at hand, the next defining characteristic of the instrument is its electronics. Unlike regular P90s that are noisy, plagued with strong 60 cycle hum, the Anderson PQ pickups are a completely noiseless design. In between the pots, we see two switches that already suggests an extra sophistication with the pickups. Both switches have two positions and are tied individually to the neck and bridge pickups. On the lower setting, the circuit is passive working in regular P90 mode. In the upper position it actives a, so called, “Cut Off” passive circuit that lends the tone the character of a single coil strat or tele. The three way switch gives us the ability to select the neck, neck and bridge, and bridge pickups, so with the two additional switches we have 8 different sounds available at our fingertips that can easily serve a wide variety of musical styles. The fingerboard radius is 12 to 14 inches meaning at the first fret it is 12” and, at the last, it is 14” (i.e. flatter). Vintage Fender fretboards had a 7.5 inch radius. Because of this, when the string height was set relatively low, bends of the high e string often died off. This phenomenon is unheard of on an Anderson guitar even with a very low string height set.
On the headstock of the Ravel Classic (much like all Anderson guitars) there is a sign highlighting their “buzz feiten tuning system”. You can read more about this here [http://buzzfeiten.com/howitworks/howitworks.htm]. In essence, the nut was placed closer to the first fret and the bridge saddle set up was also modified as compared to traditionally built electric guitars. These modifications compensate the specific strings’ exact pitch in various positions of the fretboard. Surely, most of you have experienced that you tuned your guitar with open strings and, as soon as you played a bar chord at the lower frets, the tuning was far from perfect. This is what the Buzz Feiten remedies. A guitar with parallel frets will never be perfect, but if there is a chance to get closer to perfection, why not do it? Tom Anderson did.
The Ravel Classic is equipped with a two-point tremolo system that allows for tremolo bends both up and down. The precision cut of the saddles are, as such, that certainly no string will get caught on it allowing the guitar to stay in tune even under relatively heavy tremolo use. The other remedy for potential tuning issues is the locking tuners. With locking tuners we need not put multiple winds on the tuner’s string tree which is also a common cause of tuning stability issues.
In sum, this Anderson Raven Classic guitar is truly wonderful. It is a versatile instrument, perfect for studio musicians or for those who need a multitude of sounds readily available in their musical productions.
The Anderson Raven Superbird, a Mahogany Cannon.
Today, even among electric guitars, we can talk about classics whose sounds we are intimately familiar with from our favorites, the legendary guitarists of the 60’s and 70’s. One such classic is the Les Paul Junior or SE. The most defining sonic characteristic of these guitars come from the mahogany neck and body. But the density of the mahogany used in these guitar necks and bodies also has a big impact. (Maybe we will write about this in detail in a future post.)
Thanks to the Raven Superbird tömör mahagóni testének köszönhetően a hangszer mély-közép tartományai rendkívül karakteresek, erősek és meghatározzák hangzásának jellegét. Általában a mahagóni fából készült gitárok többsége nehéz, legalábbis jóval nehezebbek mint például egy égertestű Strat vagy Tele. A Raven Superbird súlya megközelítőleg azonos egy átlagos súlyú éger Strat vagy Tele gitáréval. EZ annak köszönhető, hogy olyan faanyagot válogattak a gitárhoz aminek nem túl nagy a fajsúlya és így a test és a nyak is könnyebben rezonál, továbbá nem kapunk gerincsérvet egy 3 órás koncert lejátszása után.
A Raven Superbird gitárnál nem választhatunk más faanyagot a testnek és nyaknak mint a mahagónit, a fogólap viszont választható paliszander (rózsafa) vagy Ziricote (erről már említést tettünk miért ezzel rendeltük ezt a gitárt is). Ennek a gitárnak paliszander a fogólapja és rendelkezik CITES tanusítvánnyal. A húrhossz is csak a rövid 24 3/4 collos lehet a Raven Superbird esetében, ezzel is utalva a Gibson menzurás gitárok sajátosságaira. Az összes többi opció ennél a modellnél is egyedileg konfigurálható mint a Raven Classic gitárnál.
Ezen a Raven Superbird’s solid mahogany body, the instrument’s lower-mid sound characteristics are quite pronounced. Most mahogany guitars are heavy, or more heavy than an alder body Fender. This Raven Superbird’s weight is identical to an average Strat or Tele. This is thanks to the carefully selected low density material that arguably helps the guitar’s resonance and also helps its owner avoid trips to the chiropractor after a 3 hour show.
With the Raven Superbird, we cannot choose the wood of the body or the neck. They are both mahogany. But fretboard we can choose from rosewood or ziricote (and we already discussed why we ordered the other guitar with this fretboard). This guitar has a rosewood fretboard and comes with a CITES certificate. The scale length can only be 24 3/4” in the case of the Ravel Superbird referencing Gibson characteristics. But all other options are fully customizable like with the Raven Classic guitars.
On this Raven Superbird, we also can find the two switches, much like on the Raven Classic. But this guitar’s bridge pickup is the HC2 humbucker and the associated switch, in this case, splits the coils. The neck pickup on this guitar is a humbucker size P90. This guitar’s PH1 pickup only has a different casing, otherwise it is identical to the Raven Classic’s PQ1. The switch on the side of the neck, once again, activates the cut off passive circuit. The three way switch, once again, selects between the neck, neck and bridge, and the bridge pickups. This guitar, we ordered with a two point tremolo system and locking tuners. The Raven Superbird’s singing can be characterized as a well rounded sound. The notes form slowly compared to the fast attack of the long scale Classic. This guitar is not a funk machine, rather a classic rock axe. Distorted it has incredible sustain that cuts through the mix very well. This cannon can even carry its weight in a drop-D tuning.
It is worth mentioning the neck joints. At the body, it is a 3 dimensional (3D) connection, developed by Anderson, where the neck connects to the body from three sides (and the bottom, of course). Because of this, only two screws are needed to bolt the neck on to the body. The reason the Anderson 3D is such an innovative solution, because it lends the neck joint unparalleled stability. Simply speaking, the neck, in the pocket, cannot shift in any direction. Another advantage of this design is that the body transfers vibration to the neck on a larger surface leading to improved resonance characteristics, like sustain and attack, of the guitar
We sincerely hope we have elevated the interest of many towards Anderson guitars. Come and try them in our store.
Ernő Galambos (CEO) and Levente Littvay (Communications)