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Rivolta Mondata II - better tone than a Les Paul, with 24 frets!

This is a guitar where if I had the money for it, I'd buy this right now.

Rivolta is a brand from Eastwood Guitars. Ordinarily, when you think of Eastwood, you think of weird, wacky guitar designs that are more novelties than anything else.

However, Rivolta is not like that. The designs for this brand are much more civilized and just outright cool. And this one in particular, the Mondata II, is not only a pretty face but a crazy-good sounding guitar.

Hear it for yourself:

This is "that killer Les Paul tone" that Les Paul players chase after but can never seem to quite get - and the Mondata II has it right out of the box.

Also notice that yes, this has a 24-fret neck. The vast majority of the time, if a guitar has 24-frets, the neck side pickup has to be pushed back and that totally wrecks the tone of the guitar. But the Mondata II's tone is still there. That's quite a feat.

It's true the guitar is not cheap (it's not insanely priced either, still lower than the cost of a USA Strat), but it's able to deliver two things that are very valuable. Great sound the moment you start playing it, and 24-fret access that's usable and not a tone-wrecker.

It doesn't get much better than that.

Published 2019 Jan 21

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