NGD: Rafferty Key West

[BatUtilityBelt]

Picked up this Rafferty Key West this week. TL;DR: Some issues, but definitely a keeper.

Issue 1: The volume and tone are wired wrong, but I'll have to dig in to see how. The volume is either at 0 or 10. When the volume is full, the tone does nothing. But with the volume at 1, the tone actually does act like the low pass filter it should be. I think this means they used the wrong lugs on both pots. This is extremely common on small runs of lefty guitars, so not surprising. I'll fix that soon enough.

Issue 2: The trem arm is a screw-on type, but the threads in the collet don't match, it just clumsily drops through and flops around after bottoming out, but can operate the vibrato, just with no delicate control at all. For the short term, I've wrapped the arm threads in teflon tape to snug it up. It now works well but I'll have to repeat the process or find a better fix in time. The righty bent trem arm is not a big deal, I know I can bend it the other way.

Issue 3: The action was too high and the bridge was as low as it can go. So I took the neck off twice shimming it to where I can adjust to my liking with bridge height. Then it needed a half turn of the truss rod. After that, the action is quite good. I consider any new guitar needs a setup, and this guitar was no exception.

The rest of the guitar is very good. The neck is on the thicker side, and only has a thin satin finish, both of which I like. The edges are rolled and there's no fret sprout at all. The pickups are pretty strong and sound decent together. The tuners work well, and the nut is fine too. Fit and finish are very good, no flaws catch my eye. The pickguard is single ply white, and I'll probably make it a different one once I decide what mods the guitar might get.

So it had issues, but dimed out it plays and sounds great. It's a unique looking mod platform that I'll have fun improving. It's my 2nd Rafferty and despite this one needing a few fixups, I'm not disappointed. It's already fun to play now. Rafferty is in early startup mode, and I don't think they have much traction yet. So far that seems to mean very good deals on guitars that punch well above their price point while the company tries to find its footing. I have no idea where they're made, but the owner is a good communicator, and that's promising.

[Tonray's Ghost]

That's a unique looking burst pattern reminds me of faded blue jeans

[toomanycats]

That's a unique looking burst pattern reminds me of faded blue jeans

I too was thinking what a spectacular figured top that guitar has. It's almost a shame that the pickguard is concealing such a beautiful piece of wood.

HNGD @BatUtilityBelt!

[BatUtilityBelt]

I too was thinking what a spectacular figured top that guitar has. It's almost a shame that the pickguard is concealing such a beautiful piece of wood.
HNGD @BatUtilityBelt!

Thanks, and I was thinking the same on that top. It looks so much better in person than the listing pictures.

Following up... The company owner saw my review above (because I didn't want to repeat myself). I didn't ask for anything and called it a keeper despite the issues, and he offered me a pretty healthy partial refund for the issues. Being generous like that, and still loving how the neck feels, I told him we could apply that discount to the other lefty he still had. At that discount, I really like the idea of 2 of these as mod platforms. He agreed, so I have some fall planning to do. Again, the owner (Michael Rafferty) is a really good guy to deal with so far, so I'm happy to share this experience. I wish the big companies were hitting the price points and creativity that startups do.

[BatUtilityBelt]

Follow up:

Like I said, I liked the guitar so much for its value and as a good bones mod platform, I bought a 2nd one of the same with a discount Rafferty offered me. The 2nd arrived today. This one also has issues, but is equally a keeper.

Showing my crazy, here are both together. I think the top on the 1st one (left) is a little better, but both are great.

The trem arm screws in as designed on this one, which is an improvement, but its bend is comically off. This won't be hard for me to correct using a vice.

There was an interesting shop note on the outside of the package (outer shipping box) that made me wonder. Once I set up the guitar, I think I figured out why. The 14th fret was unusually high, so high that the 13th fret notes were solidly playing the 14th fret, not buzzing out. It was easy to pound the 14th fret into submission and all is good up and down the neck now. Plays great.

Like the 1st guitar, the 2nd's volume only gives 0 or 10, no graduation at all. Unlike the 1st guitar, the 2nd's tone control works no matter what the volume is set at, so I think only one pot was miswired on this one. Pretty sure I'll be rewiring both guitars anyway, so no big deal.

Bottom line, knowing how to address little issues on guitars, I'm highly stoked about these two and will have fun modding them. The hard part will be deciding what I want to change.