Quote:
Originally Posted by JerryM
I am just considering the purchase of a Kevin Michael travel guitar have a deal lined up and almost ready to purchase, but would like to hear from some of you that have these guitars as this vs the Rainsong Shorty....
I know the McPherson wood guitars are great, so was kind of going on brand recognition, there is no place remotely near me that sells these to try.
Would really like to hear opinions, I need a small guitar and short scale so the Kevin seemed to fit the bill, I also like the fact it comes with two cases.....Jerry
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Hi Jerry,
The Kevin Michael is a fantastic little guitar, it's basically what the Cargo could have been had CA not went under, but it's priced at three times what the Cargo sold for when I used to carry CA so they are not flying off the shelves. The Rainsong Parlor on the other hand is flying off the shelves, and for good reason. It's a true go anywhere guitar with standard short, or long scale, the same great N2 neck with fully adjustable truss rod as found on all other models, and a fantastic tone. In a gig bag it's no less travel friendly than the Cargo or Kevin Michael, carried mine on without problems several times, and it's lighter than the KM. So if the size of the Kevin Michael will work for you, so will the Rainsong Parlor, and the RS Parlor can easily serve as your only guitar.
If you need something smaller, a category I like to call "sub-compact" guitars, than you can go with the Blackbird Rider, or the Emerald X5, but in this category, the Riders tone will smoke the competition. In fact, the Rider holds it's own against the Kevin Michael as well. And no, this is not subjective, it's fact.
And somewhere in between travel and sub-compact we have the Journey OF660 series at $1200, a guitar abut the same size as the Kevin Michael when assembled, but it will fit in to a supplied TSA compliant case broken down. Tonally the OF660 is very close to the Kevin Michael, so nice and warm, and it comes with their version of a K&K pickup at no additional charge, and it's, standard short scale.
Speaking of electronics, both the Kevin Michael and the Rainsong are available without electronics, and they don't require any mods like the Emerald if you want to install something like a K&K down the road.
Feel free to call me during business hours for a more thorough description of the guitars. Although I've dropped some of the brands over the years, at one time or another I owned, and sold every brand of CF guitars so I have plenty of hands on experience with all of them.