you guys would HATE a scalloped neck. I think I'd like a scalloped neck, because I do like the feel of extra jumbo frets.

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Half dude, I'll pay the rest just before he ships it well lieka week jsu in case theres a mess up with HSBC.

Ozz

I have Xtra Jumbo´s on my Ran.
And I ordered Xtra Jumbos on my next Ran.
I love it.
It plays much like a scallopped fretboard. Never touching the wood down there . And in addition to this you get great tapping and soloing action.
Great and fast!!

On the most guitars from Ibanez, Jackson, ESP, Gibson or Rich are Jumbo or Xtra Jombos installed.
On Fender or Fender-like instruments you get mediums most the time.

It´s a very personal feeling and if I were you I would check out your exact specs and wishes (look at h4x5k8, He must mess around with these things now..).
Go out and play as much different instruments you can get to make your own perfect fitting guitar.

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hey boese, you think big-d could do something like this
http://edroman.com/avail/guitar/pag...l_pag111945.JPG

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I actually don´t know exactly.
Recently I read in this thread that Dariusz don´t want to built carved tops.

Generally it should be no problem. Theres plenty of MOP and a nice quilt top.. that raises the price (And it would need more time to get it built.).

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ah damn, i really love that shape

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But as I said I don´t know exactly... Ask Dariusz to get a correct answer

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I asked D if he could do a Les Paul and he said no, I put two and two together with the fact that all Ran guitars I've seen are Flat top so that's why I said he didn't do carved tops.

Hey I have a question on the finishes. Later on if I decide on getting a Ran, I want either a RR V shape or the Invader shape. I want both to be black with white bevels, but out of all the Ran Invaders that I've seen with bevels, they have like thick, wide bevels like this:
http://www.ranguitars.com/imi/modele/inVader2.jpg

But what I want are bevels like what Jackson guitars have. On their beveled guitars on the edges, it kinda like slopes down, and so they paint the bevels on that sloped part, if you know what I mean, like this:
http://edromanguitars.com/avail/gui...2U14927_950.jpg

Do you guys think Ran would be able to do the bevels like Jackson's. If they can't really do it like that, then I'm thinking of going to just like a binded body like this cuz I think this looks sweet.
http://ranguitars.floriandecher.de/dariusz/36.JPG

It´s no problem for Dariusz to do that exactly like you wish!
http://ranguitars.floriandecher.de/custInvader.html

look there. This is another Jacksonlike V with pinstripe bevels.

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Yea my guitar looks badass, but its not the greatest guitar i have ever played, i have gotten over the denial stage of thinking my Ran is the best guitar ive played, but the stock neck size he uses is too thin for me, and really metallic when used with extra jumbo frets, i regret getting an EMG because i relized that they are thin sounding, sterile pieces of shit, i have already taken the EMG's out of my explorer, and am soon going to replace my ran with an SD, Lawrence or Anderson pup. Today i took it in to a local lutherie who has been in the business for over 21 years and used to work for Tom Anderson, I talked to him because i needed my floyd rose re-setup and I needed the frets reissued and brought down a little. Hopefully this will fix my problem, but im not gonna waste 2k on a guitar and not like it, so im gonna spend another 130 getting it set up restrung and fret reissuing. He took a look at the current frets and relized that they were a little uneven, and when the higher strings were bent up on the higher frets it would vibrate against other frets and buzz. So maybe its just my Ran but i think there not all its hyped up to be, there good guitars for the money, but i would have rather bought a nice gibson for half the price and been happy with it.

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Thats only with Les Paul's..

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why just LP's? an arch top is an arch top

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A non-arch top LP is just stupid. Reminds me of the $99 shitty epiphone starter LP pieces of shit.

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and the faggot kirk hammet ones

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mine's gonna be an archtop.

Well I mena I'm not expecting KL stuff here, but it'll be better than most of the guitars at a few hundred more.

P.s. I can't wait.

Ozz

I guess most people who are not so happy with their Ran partially have themselves to blame, IE. the neck pu or the frets, it's a choice you make, however it could turn out unlucky.

same goes for body shapes and everything. I'm really glad I took a lot of time to come up with ideas and specs, I'm pretty sure it served me well. I tried out all pickups and allmost every guitar I could get my hands on before I decided on the final specs. I can't imagine it won't be kickass

if i ever get mine im gonna needs loads of suggestions from you guys since im not really sure about alot of this stuff

ive probably only played 15 guitars(not counting right handed ones) in my life, since im left handed and all

so i dont know much

its difficult beeing left handed. a friend of mine is too and he has a hard time finding and buying guitars. he's playing an SG with emg's now. and a lefthanded flying V with sd's.

Yeah I think so too.
But thats a general problem when ordering a custom instrument.
You have to define every little spec you need or want. From exact bodyshape to fretboardradius and neckshape. You need to define everthing in detail.

Dariusz is able to built it exactly like you wish.

Quality:

I own(ed) one ESP Custom, two Gibson LP STD´s, one Gibson LP LP Special, one Ibanez Custom JS, one Ibanez 7620, one Claim custom...
I like(d) them all in their own way. These are all great instruments.
But I have to say that the building quality don´t comes close to a Ran (only the ESP and the Claim playing in the same class but they did cost three-four times more).
The Gibsons are totally overpriced and overrated. The tone is really sweet but the craftmenship and especially the fretwork are poor.
The Ibanez guitars are really good "working" instruments with good tone good craftmenship at fair prices. But they dont "shine".

I had to tune up my Ran when I got it. I had to do a little optimizing here and there with different tools. It was a little bit of work but now it got really great.
You have to do this tune up with every new instrument. I had to do it on my new Gibson´s, Ibanez´s and ESP as well. There were things like resetting the saddle like I want it or reconfiguring the complete setup and do fretwork by myself (the Gibsons were the baddest and needed the most attention)....

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Guys, can I ask a favour of you?

I'm trying to claim for damages against my guitar with UPS and the original shipper swears it didn't come with bubblewrap inside the case from RAN themselves. Is this bullshit? Can you please post if your RAN came with bubblewrap inside the case.

Many Thanks.

you saw the pictures of mine

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Yes, I almost comletley have myself to blame. Heres Why...

1. I love to spend money on things, esspecially if it takes me a while to save up it.
2.I used to like EMG's when i ordered it, Now i hate them.
3.I used to like Jumbo Frets when i ordered it, but on a wizard neck i never knew they would be so haggerd.
4. I thought neck pickups were only for clean, which i wasnt gonna do, so i didnt get one, im a dumbass.
5.Other than that my guitar is perfect.

The only thing i can blame on Ran is the fretwork and the floyd setup, when i got the guitar the floyd intonation wasnt setup, and when i brought it in to a lutherie he was checkin the fret issueing and noticed that there uneven and strings will catch on other upper frets if doing a bend, esspecially in the 16-17 fret area, so now i am having my floyd totattly set up, cause i tried dealin with that shit myself and i dont wanna anymore, i tought ill have a pro with good reputation do it, and hes reissueing the frets lowering them to make them smaller than extra jumbo and evening them out.

About the cheap gibson shit, and how there expensive and not as good, The best guitar ive played is a 57' style Gibson Goth Flying-V which are out of production, and used to run you $999.00 which isnt expensive at all.

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you hit the nail on the head.

I've played recent gibsons LP's and SG's, I do like them but they're not that special. their older models are of a much higher quality, though they're really expensive these days (don't get me wrong, I'de love a vintage SG.)

the fret job is something not to take lightly, I'll have my whole guitar checked when it gets here, thats for sure. I don't have a floyd on it, so that saves some setting up, also, during transportation and due to chances in humidity and climate, the guitar has to be setup again, I recently left my RG in a room with an open window at -5, it used to stay in tune perfectly and now it's been hell for two weeks. the neck isn't bend or anything like that, but the intonation is off now and I need to set it up again which takes some time. (its my own fault though, I should have put it in its case like I usually do..)

as for good Gibsons, over here LP's run for about 1500 used, thats where it starts. new ones are starting 2200, standards that is. but we have inflated prices for gibsons. like we have for mesa boogie and other US products. the dollar is low now, so thats a plus, we're getting them a bit cheaper these days because of the euro.

As for pickup choice and shit, it sucks for you, I mean, I can understand your taste in tone can change, so thats just shit, theres no other way to put it. I do like the 81/85 setup a lot for the stuff I play myself (tech. metalcore) for shred like stuff I prefer a dimario tonezone setup like I have on my '89 Ibanez RG..

if I don't like the EMG's in my Ran I'll probably replace them with livewire metal pickups or something. but I can't imagine that I won't like em.

Boesefloe, nice post, what stuff did you change on your ran? just basic setup things?

X jumbo frets are the distance between the strings and the fingerboard, aren´t they???

I´ve got an old ibanez whihch frets are now smaller than there were when it was new,(and i like it more than the others) .so, should i go for medium (or normal)frets sizes???

Thank you?

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Take a tool and take the exact specs of your used frets.
There plenty of different Fret-types out there with different forms heights and width.
So you can choose pretty similar ones for your instrument

I had to do the following:
When the guitar came it was basically adjusted.
The strings were too high at the bridge and at the saddle side for my taste.
The EMG 81 in bridge position needed to be replaced by a Seymour Duncan TB 6.

First off all I took of the strings. Then I hammered off the saddle filed it down a bit and glued it back there. Then I took a saddlefile and finetuned the holes where the strings are going through.
Then wait for the glue to completley harden.
Then I removed the crappy EMG 81 (I only took it because of the paint job). removed the electronics and replaced the PU with the Seymour. I reconfigured the electronics to work proberly in the mixed mode (passive Seymour/active EMG 89) soldered everything together. Done.
Took new strings on the instrument, fineadjusted the bridge height and did the last finetunings at the saddle.
Then I configured the tension of the truss rod to fit the new string gauge.

This is everything. Intonation and the rest were absolutley perfect.

The only thing I have to do now is to play.... and play... and play because the woods are sounding better from day to day.

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Yea, the pickups are really the least of my worries, im gonna have 2 EMG 81's and 1 EMG 60 just layin around im probably gonna go with a Tom Anderson pup in the ran, the only thing that will suck is it wont have that cool satin matte EMG look to it to match the paintjob. Hopefully this lutherie i brought it into works wonders on it.

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Wow, sorry to hear that jumbo frets don't do it for you H8. I can't live without them. It is all about what you like I guess but I get the best out of jumbo frets. I don't really get a matallic sound/feel out of jumbo frets but you might think different. I also use DR coated strings since I also use EMG and I don't have to ground the string electrically. That might make a difference but even when I didn't use DR strings never had a problem with jumbo frets. I also have a medium touch when playing too. I like to hold notes firm but not slam the strings cause it does makes a clanky sound that way. I try to stay very smooth while playing and jumbo frets have always felt so good to me.

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do you have a problem with intonation, ive heard DR's suck ass for intonation because of the way there built. Anyone ever play SIT strings, thats what the lutherie is gonna set my guitar up with instead of the DR's. He was tellin me when he worked for Tom Anderson as a lutherie he would set guitars up with DR and always have issuses with intonation and the saddle, and alot of the times it was impossible to set up intonation correctly with DR's, he said they used SIT strings back in the day, now they use Elixer.

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I haven't had any issues with intonation so far and I've been using DR for nearly 2 years now. I have them on both my Ran and explorer and 2 times a year I check/deep clean everything and adjust if needed. They seen like well made strings imo. I have never used them with a Floyd bridge so that might be why. Seems some strings just perform different on different bridges too. For trems I just want kahler bridges and if I can't get that I like TuneOmatic bridges. Both seem the most stable of bridges.

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hmm maybe its differant since you use the coated ones.

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Excellent, got an email from Dariusz, with all the changes my guitar is now 1280 euros. By the way, how much was shipping for you gusy in the US?

Perhaps the first Russian owner of a Ran?

a lot, like 180 euros, which is like 250-300 bucks

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Damn, only 30 euros for me! Thats around £20 - only £5 more than shipping for my RG! And that was in England.

prolly even cheaper for me

Oh come on Def, you won't even tell us how much you paid for shipping? You secretive bastard.

I have no clue. haven't heard from D yet how much shipping will be. prolly less then 30.

Ah right, he included the shipping price in my invoice. Maybe I got the "Eastern European" discount? Haha.

GO TO WWW.DENEB.PRV.PL

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it's all in polish man, we can't read it

nastrovja!

a small company called Gibson..

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so, you said he doesnt wanna do arch tops on a LP, gibson cant stop him from making an arch top on a LP

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Raven, this you?
http://www.rybnet.pl/~adrianc/deneb...dwie_banki.html

Is that your band? Vocals are not to my liking, but everything else is OK/Good. Keep it up!

Btw: Do you use Ran's?

They can ask him nicely to stop.. and he can be a nice guy who runs an honest business and agree.

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AAAHHHH!!!!

I must stop all comapnies from asking him to stop. Then again he might just give them the finger

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I'm pretty sure, that as he is a custom builder, and only making one guitar at a time, he can't get a cease and desist, also because the us copyights can't stop him??

There is no way he could infringe Gibsons profits.

Ozz

i think your right

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without going thru all 58 pages of this thread could somebody from the states tell me about how much shipping was? i saw somebody mention 300 bucks. is that accurate?

180 euros you do the math

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no let www.xe.com do the math

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Man, if I'm getting another Ran, it'll either be an Kramer XL-5 or Floyd Rose

http://www.vintagekramer.com/alum.htm

http://www.vintagekramer.com/floyd.htm

Beautiful.

Or a Gorky Park shape, balalaika shred!
http://www.vintagekramer.com/company48.htm

Man, Russian V's are cool.

Big D said they got my money and they will start work next week, w000t.

I also asked him about my next project

Ozz

That's great Ozz, Hope you can handle the wait. I ordered my first one in november and will get it in April, it seems so close now!

I'm already thinking of a 3rd ran! Some kind of baritone 7 string I think with a floyd.

God damn, they are so cheap to us in the UK I just wanted to order more and more and more.

god damn lucky bastards

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Sorry dude, but I'm a lefty and I need a break and this is it!

I was amazed when I found warmoth but the local music luither is a bit of a dick so that is why I've been hesitant it buying a guitar from them.

If my first Ran plays as good as I hope, and I think it will as I have covered every angle. The neck specs being the most important as I am very particular with my necks then I am a Ran man for live and will order and order and order!!!!!!!!

I mean seriously that If it lives up to my expectation and providing their prices dont go up or the euro dosent crash against the pound I want a huge Ran collection!!!!

I'm allready planning my next custom maybe it will have a flip flop metallic finish if big D can do that???

Ozz

wow....

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Whats wrong H8, I think the next Ran RRCTM. will tide me over for months, all I need now is a nice amp.

Ozz

nothing... just ran after ran after ran

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They shouldnt be soo affordable then should the lol, Ithin one of my next Ran's will be a DPM camo RG style.

And a white maple boarded soloist.

Ozz

eh for you here in the us there bout 2000 give or take at least thats what mine was priced at

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I'm in the UK my custom is costing me less than a LTD 1000 series would.

Ozz

bastars!
i was just thinking that instead of a trans blue that i was thinkin of i should get a white one with black bevles?

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same here man.

I tried the viper, mh and the ec1000 and I must say I wasn't even that impressed... the viper was the best of the bunch but then you're still playing a lame ltd. haha.

Daaamn, check out this design:
http://www.kevinchilcott-luthier.co...ate/magenta.htm

Looks sweet.

that kinda reminds me of the guys guitar from maiden,
what is his anyway?

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I'm not sure GD.

I came across this SG Supreme, and the finish is fucking sweet
http://www.guitarhangar.com/default...bsonsggreen.htm

If I can manage to change the top to a flame maple one, I'm getting that finish.

holy shit dude! thats fucking amazing

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and the supreme's are fuuuuucking expensive.

thats a cool finish though. I wonder how mine will turn out. it's a seethrough flamed top as well. I hope to get my Ran this month, gonna email D this week if I don't hear from him before wednesday

that same site has the coolest mesa cab on earth on it for a really good price. I played one of those, it's half open back with black shadows, its the fucking business. shame they're terribly expensive over here. not in america, it seems...

Bad knock-off of a charvel star.

D said he Will fit a Lo PRo EDGE onto my next custom, well If iI get the RG jpm based custom, otherwise itll eb aTOM on an Invader.

Ozz

hi do you mind if i ask.
how much did you pay for your custom guitar.

depends what you get done to it, for what i want, it would be about 2000 usd, some have payed less maybe some even more

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coool

thats pretty cheap when you think no one will have the same specifications
as you i'm gonna get the invader shape

yea it is pretty cheap, considering other companys like jackson and bc rich will charge you around 4000 for the same custom guitar

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s**t really thats a rip off .

Sweet, I got my guitar back from the luthier today, he did a fine job on the frets it plays much better. Im ordering my JB pretty soon also, and a whole new electronics setup also, pots, wires, etc. Gettin rid of that damn EMG.

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cool, maybe on of the frets raised during shipping, I know how cold it gets on airplanes, in the Cargo hole.

Here is my next custom Ran I am planning.

http://server3.uploadit.org/files/ozzuk1-KVCustom1.JPG

Ozz

nice! is that black binding around the body too?

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what's with the weird controls???

yea i was thinking the same thing

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decapitated plays ran

http://www.decapitated.net/
-------------------------------------------
my band dont uses because there too expensiv we play Jackson guitar and other polish guiats meg.
www.deneb.prv.pl

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thats been mentioned 10,000 times

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Seems more and more bands are using Ran guitars now days

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Nice guitars.

Since when is two volumes and a tone weired?

I'm having the same setup on my RR, allthough most jacksons have a switch instead of a toggle.

Ozz

just the placement of the knobs of the pics is wierd, i would prefer a strat style 3-way switch and two volume and 1 tone if i had 2 pickups, so i agree with you.

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Mine is setup almost just like how you want your next one. 2 vol 1 tone 3 way tog, but I have the vol knobs reversed so that the first one is the bridge and the second one is the neck with tone being the last knob.

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The rhoads model ran looks sweet






http://ranguitars.floriandecher.de/...vBlWhBevD-1.jpg

thank you

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I've been shopping around for a baritone six-string guitar ... I've noticed that most baritones made are'nt intended to be great, playing guitars for serious musicians ... and then I thought about Ran.

What do you guys think?

Well i understand that latley a lot of people are ordering numerous Rans without even playing them before they order there next. Well I wanna be the first one to speak out the problems ive had with my Ran. Its not that i hate Ran or think there a bad deal or bad guitar, its just i think that all feedback about the guitars for future buyers or people who are thinkin about gettin one should be said.

First let me say that there are pretty nice guitars, the paintjob is nice and the routing is nice, ive just had some problems with the Woods, and the frets.

First when i got the guitar the frets were a litte to big for my taste (but i chose jumbo so thats my fault) but the frets wernt issued correctly, the strings would buzz out on other frets when bending them because the radius of the frets wasnt filed proportional to the neck.

Second when i got my guitar back from the luthier he was tellin me that when you push down on the first fret and the 12th fret and check the action above the frets inbetween the first and 12th; he was saying when he did that on both 6th and 1st strings the action wasdifferant for each one, which is a way to notice that the neck is slightly warped to the side, like twisted i guess, like a twizzler but not as bad lol, very slighty. He was saying its just how the wood wants to live, it naturally bends that way, it still has a chance to get worse or stay the same but ill never know until time pass's.

Other than those i havnt had a problem with Ran, there nice guitars for the money, just dont get super excited about them being perfect, cause the setup of the Ran wasnt exceptional, it was just medeoker (sp)

Good news i ordered my TB4 JB Trembucker Today

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yep. setups are definetly a personal taste, so you have to take care of them yourself, like I do on every single one of my guitars.

if you can't set it up yourself, specify the details to your local guitar shop or something, it's better to do it yourself though, if you can do it, I allways like my own setups best anyways!

I just got an email back from D. my guitar is due in 5 more weeks... so thats um, taking some time, since october... but it's probably well worth it!

h4x5k8, Thanks for your comments about you Ran. I am looking forward to my Ran(s) but things like that do make me worry a little bit. I have chosen the specs perfectly so I know the neck specs and fret size and everything is going to be fine but I'm a bit anxious about the craftmanship.

One thing I will have to say is that maybe Ran's arn't intended for the US market. Meaning that with the Euro against the Dollar maybe the price you are paying is not related to the quality of the guitar.

I'm the opposite here in England beacuse my 2 Rans are £700 each with hardcase and shipping and I'm pretty faithful that they will be on a par with any Left Handed Guitar I can get over here for £700. Hell, you can't really get a guitar lefty for £700, it's either the lowest of the lowest or highest of the highest. I'm paying the price of a midrange guitar and that's what i'm expecting, if it's any better then bonus!

However, Americans are paying around $200 after shipping and customs and everything and I think that American customers really need to think are they worth it?

Any new built guitar can have problems even if the craftmanship is flawless. That is just the nature of any wood made instrument. I have heard of guitars getting wraped necks within a year after be made. The wood fully settling after being built into a guitar can make the frets pop up a little too, making them uneven. Setup is pure personal taste. I set all mine up myself and readjust them twice a year, if needed, when deep cleaning. I have checked mine after what you wrote and I have no uneven frets. The neck still seems a strait as I can see.

I don't know why you had problems except for maybe that you live above 5,000 feet in the mountains. The whole neck thing worries me the most. Keep a close eye on that cause if it is starting to wrap the frets will become uneven again soon. Big D could not have know that it could maybe wrap as that is the risk with any new made guitar. That is why he gives a warranty for things like that if it gets real bad.

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i never knew that a warrenty was involved, well thats pretty reassuring

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You ned to consider climate, you ordered your at a time it would be really cold in poland, and woods don't like being 30,000 feet at minus temperatures, Mine will be shipped in june so I guess it will be warm here and warm in poland.

The fret size pickup etc are a personal preferance, so thats your choice, pickups can always be changed, as can frets, however this might be expensive.

It could be taht the wood at a certain part of the fretboard has shifted so the fret has lifted, I have a slight buzz on my 17th fret on my LTD, this has only happened after a few months, it isnt noticable when plugged in.

Also your truss rod may need some slight adjustment, My LTD did, and it's 10x better now.

Ozz

You know something I just noticed about my Ran? It kicks ass, I love it, and I designed it. I almost cried while playing it just now

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