RKS Guitars, Anyone know of em??

[MetalMedal II]

RKS Guitars: I never heard of em, or ever saw one until today of all places at the supermarket checkout...It's on the cover of Business Week for the Best Product Design issue:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...0527design.htm

Their site:
http://www.rksguitars.com/

They definitely look different!!!

[StukaJU87]

Re: RKS Guitars, Anyone know of em??

I saw one on DGCL's site a while ago. Here is a pic of it.

[VulfgangPfuck]

Re: RKS Guitars, Anyone know of em??

Fucking EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!

What turds! [img]/images/graemlins/sick.gif[/img]

[GodOfRhythm]

Re: RKS Guitars, Anyone know of em??

They're not my cup (pun intended, keep reading, you'll understand) of tea. But those horns remind me of those 50's bra's you see in commercials a lot. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[YetAnotherOne]

Re: RKS Guitars, Anyone know of em??

Maybe I'm a cynic (OK, I *am* a cynic) but after reading Dave and Ravi's bios on the web site I came away with the following impression: Ravi is a well-to-do, extremely well-connected, shameless self-promoter who knows nothing about musical instruments but has built a career of being well-connected. He found an interesting way to shave a bunch of the cost off of producing electric guitars but needed a pro to lend a sheen of legitimacy to the venture so he unearthed Dave to, "...take the designs and actually make them sound, work, and feel the way a guitar should feel and sound to a ... musician. [His] contributions to the project have taken the guitars from being in the league of being a guitar that you would go out and buy for your kid to a guitar that you will go out and play in concert." *Any* builder who starts off with designs that are admittedly no better than something you'd buy for your kids and who needs to enlist a washed-up pro to tell them how to make the instruments actually usable sets off my [img]/images/graemlins/bs.gif[/img] detector in a *big* way.

Spinning up a little enterprise like this, locking your competitors out by locking down your IP, marketing the resulting product (be it good, hideously bad, or something in between) as a very exclusive item that naturally fetches a very hefty sum, gathering a lot of free publicity by being well-connected enough to have one's product pimped in the press, then flipping the whole thing for a nice gain and walking away is a very good game. I've seen this MO many times and the bios *always* read just like Ravi's bio on the RKS site. There are a *lot* of folks out there playing this sort of game and invariably what they're all really trying to sell is the businesses themselves moreso than the products they offer. Personally I'd place these firmly in the "hype" column and avoid them like the plague until proven otherwise by some good old fashioned hands-on experience.

[hippietim]

Re: RKS Guitars, Anyone know of em??

All I want to know is when I can get one at Target.

[YetAnotherOne]

Re: RKS Guitars, Anyone know of em??

My guess would be right after Ravi flips the company and clears a couple mil. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[hippietim]

Re: RKS Guitars, Anyone know of em??

Those guitars match my patio furniture - I must have one.

[noodlesatf]

Re: RKS Guitars, Anyone know of em??

I don't think you could pay someone enough money to play something that ugly.

Well, unless the guy is Dave Mason.

[thurston]

Re: RKS Guitars, Anyone know of em??

I kind of like the looks of the Boomerang, but the MSRP seems outrageous, and the options get a bit crazy too. $500 to add a trem? I understand there is more work needed, but they don't even list the style of the bridge (OFR, Vintage etc). I also don't like the descriptions of the Pickups. I can see that on sub $500 guitars, but this is a lot of money and they don't even list the DC Resistance.

[Hotrod]

Re: RKS Guitars, Anyone know of em??

Here's an option:
[ QUOTE ]
Dave Mason hand-autographed (under clear coat) - inscription available at no add'l. charge - $1,000

[/ QUOTE ] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[skorb]

Re: RKS Guitars, Anyone know of em??

yeah those are super ugly and look very impractical with those big openings along the middle and the dumb wings that make up the body.

looks to be a completely unnecessary product.

[Flatpicker]

Re: RKS Guitars, Anyone know of em??

I actually like the designs. I think it's about time that something different came around. Guitar design has been stuck in the 50's since well.. the 90's now.

Maybe these guys are all hype, but if they inspire someone else to be a little more innovative. Then they did some good.

It's like the industry needs a shakeup. The last one was 30 years ago when the superstrats happened.

[hippietim]

Re: RKS Guitars, Anyone know of em??

Well, I can now confirm Brad's cynical theory. I played a few of these at NAMM. The Dave dude was very cool to AlexL and me. The Ravi dude was networking of course so we didn't really talk with him.


First off, the fit and finish was piss poor. Lot's of little details like poor edges, bad finishes, etc. To all the folks that complain about what comes out of Jackson, you'd be so beside yourself you'd explode.

The ergonomics were bad. The pickup selector would be ok but the placement of volume/tone controls renders them useless for any adjustment while playing.

I plugged in 3 different ones. Two dual humbucker models (one wooden "shell" and one aluminum plastic shell) and a dual single coil model.

They sounded bad. Just plain bad. No sustain. No dynamics. I think they have some sort of fundamental design flaw that is crippling the tone - it *should* be possible to build something like this that doesn't sound like ass.

The neck did not feel as good as a (insert any reasonable import guitar here). 'Nuff said.

The setups were a joke. You'd think after spending many thousands of dollars on a NAMM booth they'd have plunked down a few bucks for a guy to dress the frets, adjust the neck, and setup the bridge.

And let's face it kids, these are ugly guitars. I hope Dave Mason is getting a lot of money.

Bottom line for me is that I've played better $89 Squiers at GC fresh out of the box.

AlexL fooled with the bass so he should comment on that.

[GodOfRhythm]

Re: RKS Guitars, Anyone know of em??

There ya have it! Best possible proof/testimony. Thanks for the review Tim.