Rice Custom Guitars Osprey#127

[reverendripper]

Hi all,

I signed up for the "tour" that Rice Guitars was sending an example of their Osprey model on. You basically get to try it out in your home for a week or so and all you have to do is Fedex it to the next guy on the list. Not a bad deal I thought.

This one I believe is an alder body (please correct me if I'm wrong). It's got a maple neck/rosewood fret board, firebird pickups and a three way switch/volume/tone.

The finish on this one is just a natural finish with some clearcoat going on. Nothing too fancy...but it doesn't need to be. It was topped off with a plain/simple black pickgaurd and chrome hardware. The workmanship seemed very nice to me. No smudges or nicks, scrathes etc.

The neck was pretty comfortable allbeit a bit on the baseball bat side of things. It actually reminded me of the neck on my SG Classic.

The body was your typical slab type single cutaway. Not too heavy, fairly compact and gave great access to the upper fret area.

The headstock is a 3+3 arrangement. I'm not sure what type of tuners they used but they were nice and tight with a vintage look to them. They did the trick and kept the guitar spot on when I was bashing on it.

The firebird pickups were what you'd expect. Humbucking of course. The neck pickup was what I'd call, "almost beefy" as opposed to a regular humbucker. The two combined gave a nice balanced sound that worked well for chords and rythm work. The bridge pup alone yielded some interesting sounds. Nice aggresive tones. However; you might find yourself riding the tone knob on that one. It could get a bit ice picky at times....but...if you like Buddy Guy like I do...that's a cool thing!

The only thing that felt off to me...and this is just personal preference I guess was the head stock. I'm used to my Les Pauls and such having a tilted back headstock. This one is pretty straight. For some reason it bugged me! I had the same problem with Reverend Set neck designs because of the missing "tilt".

All in all....it's a very cool axe that will give you nice sounds for soloing, rhthym and slide work. Nice job to the guys at Rice Custom Guitars and thanks for letting me try it out!

Here's a link to a youtube clip I did of the Osprey through my Reverend Hellhound and a Jetter gainstage blue overdrive. Sorry the sound isn't better...it's just my digital camera in a room with me and the amp! I'm not incredibly high tech with my recording gear!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr1rQWuHRPU

[Chris Rice]

Thanks for the video and review!

The body is ash, two pieces joined with hot hide glue.
Gotoh vintage style tuners.

The Lollar Firebird pickups are bright and sparkly.
We can use any pickup combination you can dream.
We've done Ospreys with humbuckers, minihumbuckers, tele pickups, P-90s, etc.

26% of the guitars we've built with that headstock shape have used a tilt back headtock, so that too is optional.
Our 6 per side headstock will have it's Osprey debut on #152.

Here are the guitar's specs and info on the tour for anyone interested:
http://ricecustomguitars.com/mid.html?rcg127

Thanks!
Chris Rice

[reverendripper]

Thanks for the Corrections Chris. Very Nice guitar you guys are making. I especially like the shape of the headstock...as I mentioned I like a little tilt to it...but I think the design is very unique and cool!

A P-90 in the neck and a hot railz in the bridge(with coil tap) would be a great combo for this one!

[Chris Rice]

The headstock is based off of a mandolin my wife and I designed:



And here's how it looks with a tilt:

[Brian Porter]

Nice work Chris. I like the Hipshot bridge as well. It's the standard bridge on the guitars I make. I've been pretty happy with it overall. How do you like it?

[Chris Rice]

Thanks!
Good play feel, good sound, good lucks, solid construction.
It's the standard bridge on our Ospreys.

[mojocaster.com]

Great video! And a great guitar to boot

[Chris Rice]

I agree, I enjoyed the video. I always love hearing our guitars played well!
Would it be OK if I linked to it on the RCG website?

[reverendripper]

Originally Posted by Chris Rice

I agree, I enjoyed the video. I always love hearing our guitars played well!
Would it be OK if I linked to it on the RCG website?

Thanks Chris(and mojo)....no problem with the linking thing. I ended up with one of my videos on the Egnator website too...playing a Reverend Slingshot through my Egnator Tourmaster!

I'll be sending the Osprey on to the next guy tomorrow morning.

I'm sure he'll enjoy it!

[Rich Rice]

Thank you for participating, and for the nice video. Your comments are appreciated!

Rich Rice

[Rich Rice]

Heading down to Mississippi this week! Anybody down that way who wants to try it out, send me an e-mail. After MS, it's coming home for a checkup- then to the Texas tour.