Dan Armstrong - Man & Guitars

Raven was another badged name copy of the Dan Armstrong · Ampeg copy instruments. Ironically, they are somewhat surrounded in mystery as many report that they are actually Univox Lucy instruments re-branded to the Raven name for import into Canada.

At left and right, Raven guitars do have a lot of features seen on the Lucy model. I don't quite get the bridge saddle on this particular model however. Whereas rosewood is usually the material used for saddles, this looks like a piece of plastic or acrylic. However, it could be aluminum or other metal.

At left, the Raven name on the headstock is easily seen. I've always liked this font style, as it seems very appropriate for that brand name. Ironically, there is a second font style seen on some other Raven models. In addition different materials are used for the brand name as well, like mother-of-pearl etc. At right, the stock tuners are often replaced on these guitars. Here they are original.

At upper left and right, the guitar can be seen lying in its green colored plush lined case. Notice the Raven name seen on the instruments headstock and how it's a different material as well as a different font style than some others.

At left, the Raven as seen from the backside. Seen better in the enlarged view, notice how the strap button is mounted onto the heel of the Raven's laminated maple neck. The acrylic body seems to have markings for a strap peg in both the upper, and lower cut-away horns, which has since been relocated by a previous owner.

More interesting to me is the 3-piece laminated maple neck itself. Notice the darker strips of wood that lie between the central and outer laminates. Notice too, how they abruptly come to an end near the heel of the neck, and how the central laminate alone flares out to make up both the heel and tongue of the neck.

At right, and from the top view, notice the end of the tongue of the neck. Where it meets the scratchplate and underneath the rosewood fingerboard you will notice a routed channel in the maple which I originally thought was for adjusting the truss rod - like adjusting the truss rod on an older Fender neck, this kind of thing. But if you look at the various photos of headstocks on this page you will see that they all have a truss rod cover. So the routed channel is a bit of a mystery. Perhaps they didn't bother filling in the routed channel past the point where the truss rod nut lies.

Seen above left and right is where the waters muddy a bit. While the Raven certainly does have the same features as the Lucy model, the photos at the upper left and right show that some, and perhaps many, were fitted with humbucking (looking) pickups. While it's true that anyone could change out the Lucy's bar magnet type pickups for a set of humbuckers the height adjustment screws wouldn't line up. Furthermore, these same models are fitted with a tuno-matic style bridge, something that can't be hidden at all.

At left and right, Univox Lucy owners may experience a case of Déjà vu - when looking at a Raven model like the one above. Like the Lucy model, they come equipped with the same single-coil bar type magnet pickups and chrome plated tailpiece with rosewood bridge.

At left, a closer look at the stock Maxon pickups that shipped with these particular models. It's unknown why Raven had two different versions of these guitars. Perhaps they took a page out of Electra's play book and offered two different models. At right, a Raven guitar can be seen lying in its green case - the Raven name clearly visible on the headstock.

At left and right, the headstock, like the rest of this instrument is in mint condition. Notice the factory tuners as well as the Univox Lucy styled truss rod cover.

At left, the Raven name on this headstock is unlike that of the headstock above. Whereas the one above has the Raven name in yellow lettering this one has the name in mother of pearl. At the top of this page the Raven name is in yellow, but has a different lettering style. Back on this headstock, notice a replacement truss rod cover.

At right, and also seen more clearly in the enlarged view, the upgraded tuners are Gibson 'Deluxe' gold plated tuners. Why gold plated was selected when the rest of the instruments' hardware is all chrome seems to be a strange choice. Notice the nicely filled holes seen near the top of every tuner just off to one side or another (depending on which side the tuner is on).

At left, and in addition to the upgraded tuners, this instrument has also been upgraded with a set of TV Jones pickups, while at right, another view of the TV Jones pickups can be seen. Also a better view of the upper registers of the fingerboard and the large dot inlays are visible.

At left, It is unknown what type of TV Jones pickups these are, as many of their line looks identical. Notice the open holes around the pickups. The two larger holes were for the height adjustment screws of the original pickups. The third, and middle hole which is smaller in size is unknown, and one can only surmise that yet another pickup was fitted at some point.

At right, and seen better in enlarged view, breakage around the output jack can be seen as material is broken away. Notice the 'extra' and 'larger' flat washer underneath the nut of the output jack. Also notice a missing screw in the scratchplate as well as one that, while in the scratchplate, does not appear to seat very well. Perhaps it just wasn't sufficiently tightened down.

But the real story here, is the lack of a 3-way selector switch. As seen here, a black colored piece of plastic has been glued or otherwise attached to the underside of the scratchplate. Given the instrument has two pickups, one can only speculate that they are always in use together with the volume and tone controls, or that there is no tone control at all, and each pot is a volume pot, one for each pickup. If so, each pickup can, then, be turned up and down individually, or turned off altogether - for a given desired sound, or effect.

At left, this Raven model has had its pickups replaced with a pair of open coil humbuckers. The brand and type are unknown. I would, however, be a little nervous as the instrument is propped up by leaning the headstock against one of the rails of the wooden deck.

At right, a closer look at the body - very likely revealing the answer to the Raven model shown above with the TV Jones pickups. Seen better in the enlarged view, it explains the smaller screw holes mentioned above. Like the aforementioned model above, this scratchplate also reveals two empty holes which were for the height adjustment screws of the original pickups. The middle holes on this instrument are 'in-use' so-to-speak. These smaller holes are for the height adjustment screws of the more conventional style humbucking pickups.

Raven instruments were manufactured by the Matsumoku factory in Japan in the 1960^'s & 1970^'s.

As can be seen above, they were distributed only in Canada by Great West Imports which was headquarted in Vancouver but also held offices in Winnipeg, Toronto, San Francisco and Los Angeles.