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Personally, I doubt the Sensei was inspired by the Super Flighter at all, which was never a well established model in its relatively brief life (why copy a short-lived model? Surely that's business suicide). Yes, both guitars have asymmetrical double cut aways - but it really ends there. AFAIK, the Sensei followed the Manta Ray, and certainly seems related to it, as on off-set solid body version.
The SF had a very different shape - more rounded like the SG body, whereas the Sensei has an offset body design with more open cut aways, deep contour, and a bound body.
The Revstar appears to have more in common with the Sensei than the SF (to which it just has that passing resemblance, thanks to the asymmetrical double cut). It has even more open cutaways, a bound body, 'retro' styling details, and most notably, the dry switch - in effect a bass cut rather than a coil split, and of course, every Reverend has a bass contour control. That doesn't mean it was a copy.
Again, choosing a good name for a product is NOT marketing BS! Who would prefer their Telecaster was called an FSG5001R? FWIW, I'm not a big fan of Reverend's names, and I honestly can't think of a guitar manufacturer that has surpassed Fender in creating cool and original names for their models - and Fender managed it twice in a row, right from the start.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/1975_Model_2459.JPG
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As for the Fender ad - I seem to remember that, so I'm pretty certain it dates from the 70s - either way, it's not quite the same as saying the Mustang was inspired by 1930s space ship imagery and so on (which is what that drawing resembles to me - those are hardly Apollo rockets!).
When it comes to Reverends, it's worth noting that the guitars that are closest to copies are mostly signature models - I'm thinking of the Pete Anderson models in particular, and the Ron Asheton Volcano (though I'm not enough of a Reverend expert to know if that existed as a prior non-signature model). If anything, Reverend have been moving away from 'copy' shapes over the years. Now, obviously, unless you get outlandish - every new guitar design is going to resemble something that's gone before (and often, even if you do get outlandish!). But just compare and contrast the Reverend range with, say Chapman, and it's clear the Reverend has a style that's more obviously independent and 'in-house' than most of the non-major brands.
FWIW, to the best of my knowledge Reverend have NEVER 'got precious' about ANY other guitar being similar to one of their designs. If I'm wrong, please correct me, otherwise, please don't suggest they have.
As for it being an issue - well, no, not to me! Did I say it was?
I love Yamahas and have done since I bought my first in 1980. I love Reverends, and have done since I bought my first in 2017.
But I think the Revstar was a response to a corporation seeing an emerging market, and pushing a product into it, rather skilfully in terms of design, but rather unskilfully in terms of marketing. By contrast, I think the Sensei (and much of Reverends range) has been an attempt to forge ahead in creating original designs, and building a market for them. Whether that's reflected in shapes, styling details, railhammer pickups or bass contour controls, as a guitar player, I'm glad to see that.
And it's that point of originality that I'm most thankful for - without it, I'm not even sure Yamaha would've been looking to create the Revstar.
Of course Reverend are in the business of making money - they're clearly not a charity - but they are a small company, this isn't just 'perception', you can debate as much as you like about the differences this makes, but there are certain facts out there: Pretty much every Reverend leaves the USA with the initials of the same guy on it's headstock - it's no surprise their QC surpasses Gibson (again, in my experience). Joe Naylor designs all the range - no one even knows who actually designed the Gibson SG. If you post on the Reverend forum you may well get a response from Ken, their CEO, who is also a guitarist playing in several bands...
For 300 quid its a bargain and buying blind for that much is pretty low risk in my view. I don't expect the pick ups to be all that but fortunately for me I live a few roads away from Ash @ Oil City so I can always walk round there and get something better.
Looking forward to Monday now!
2. What kind of music do they look like they make?
3. Too much choice.
4. That bolt on trapezoid tailpiece looks, well it looks a bit like having a whammy bar but no whammy? Does it lend anything to the timbre?
Just picked up a lightly used Revstar RS720B and it's a great guitar, plays and sounds as good as it looks (which is very good)
Bought an old Superflighter500 start of last year. Pickups weren't original, so I changed them for some irongear blues engines which suit it really well.
Absolutely love that guitar to bits. They are massively underpriced to my mind for the quality of them. I gig that more than my Tokai LC85 (les paul) and gibson standard les paul as its lighter and plays/sounds just as good.