Hi Ben, I just picked up an original Watkins Rapier 22 from 1964 in Fiesta Red, its old, Finish is blemished to hell, it has 1 replaced Tuner, its bridge cant be intonated, but omg. what an honest little guitar! I did a little reading into the pickups of the 1960s one. apparently they only had 5 out of 6 magnets causing a volume imbalance and one of the magnets was reversed polarity. causing the top 3 high strings to be out of phase. Honestly a feature I wish was still present in the reissue. the Hi Lo vibrato is still just as good 60 years later. I've tried Squier strats where the Vibrato refuses to stay in tune. but this Vibrato ticks all my boxes and retains tuning perfectly. The weird electrical switch pickup selector is a super charming feature of the original Rapier and I wish was still retained. although it is very handy to have a bass cut. And the body is incredibly comfortable. better than strats and teles that I've played I have never had a guitar speak to me as much as this one does and I am interested to see how a modern day Rapier compares to a 60s one. I will be picking one up in the future Thanks for this video reviewing this guitar!
Danny Kirwan played an original one of these back in Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac (before moving on to a Les Paul). Wish they would have kept that exaggerated strat headstock the old ones have. Very groovy, man!
Great review and you've also convinced me to get one 😁 You don't happen to know what the stock string gauge is do you please? Would it just be 9-42 like a standard 25.5" scale? Cheers.
just tried one in a store and love it, but found discrepancy in output from middle contrasting with bridge and neck pickups on selector switch was very dramatic and not very useful. can you do a follow up using the selecotr switch, and how it affects the basscut switches. on the one i tried, they didn't seem to work on separate pickups independently, or the output was so drastically cut, so not sure if that was a bad unit or part if the electrics design. thanks for a lovely review. id say a very versatile guitar
@@bensmithguitar - thanks, i ordered the rapier 33, so you could do a review of that. i saw some elsewhere and there didn't seem to be such a dramatic volume discrepancy. i think the store where i tried one buys b-stock, fiddles with them and sells as new. he even quoted me £400 for a 22 when i could order new from a reputable dealer for £325, nuff said
@@bensmithguitar I ended up getting the Rapier 33 - very unusual pickup controls, but fantastic tonal range. sadly not a premium quality feel but for £300, what a useful instrument, if you're making guitar music with sonic variations
the new Rapier 33 had perfect pickup balance from the get go. i can only conclude that guitar outlet where i tried the 22 were modifying b-stock instruments and passing them off as new.
