Rivolta Forma Sferata, Quadrata & Zenyata review – the coolest import guitars money can buy?
$1,699, rivoltaguitars.com
If you’ve played a guitar designed by Dennis Fano, chances are you’ll remember it. The first one I ever played was a Fano ML6 – something of a deep cut in catalogue, but one that instantly educated me of his rare gift for taking elements of Golden Era classics and fusing them together to create something new. In the many years since, I’ve been lucky to play a bunch of guitars made by Dennis’ current company, Novo, and each one has again been as memorable as it has been kinda depressing. For these are unquestionably some of the very best electric guitars on earth, but they have price tags that make them firmly ‘maybe someday’ purchases for many players, myself included.
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As a result, I’ve always been very intrigued by Rivolta – the sub-brand that Fano started in partnership with Mike Robinson of Eastwood Guitars back in 2017. The premise was simple – take what Eastwood did well (making quirky but high-quality instruments in Asia) and pair it with what Fano did well (designing truly unique and inspirational guitars) and try and bring some of that Novo magic to the masses.
The simple trick would have been to replicate some of Novo’s biggest hitters, but instead they took a more interesting tack – revisiting some of Dennis’ more obscure pre-Novo projects to reimagine these guitars through the lens of the catalogue guitars that Eastwood has spent several decades reviving.
The latest trio feel altogether a little different, however – all right angles and pointy bits, the new Forma series (Latin for ‘shape’) busts out of the more traditional instruments that have usually been the foundation of Fano’s designs and instead posed the question of what he would have done had he been designing guitars at the tail-end of the 50s when wild shapes like the Flying V and Explorer were being pushed on a guitar public wholly unprepared for such space-age charms.
The Forma series consists of three tongue-twisting guitars out of the gate, the Sferata, Quadrata & Zenyata – let’s dive in.
L-R: The Rivolta Forma series Quadrata, Sferata and Zenyata. Image: Adam Gasson
What’s the difference between the Rivolta Sferata, Quadrata & Zenyata?
Asides from the obvious, not a whole lot actually. While the Sferata, Quadrata & Zenyata look radically different, at their core they’re actually pretty much identical. All three have bodies and necks made of ultra-lightweight Simarouba, Indian rosewood fingerboards and the same 25” scale length, 12” fingerboard radius and 23 (and a half!) medium jumbo frets. All three also sport the same Rivolta-designed P-90 and Humbucker pickup arrangement, with the same leftfield angle to the former in the neck position, they all have Wilkinson vintage-style tuners and tune-o-matic bridge, and the same three-way toggle. They even have the same three finish options – Ciliegia Red (with nickel hardware), Toro Black or the extremely ‘late 50s Gibson Skunk Works’ vibed Miele Amber we see here.
All three guitars ship with a sturdy hard case that’s perfectly fitted to their respective weird and wonderful shapes – a poke in the eye for the bigger brands who don’t seem to realise the extra importance of having a hard case to protect your unconventionally shaped instrument (looking at you, Fender Tom DeLonge Starcaster!).
The Sferata. Image: Adam Gasson
And then of course there are the shapes. The Sferata is probably the most crowd-pleasing of the bunch – it kinda looks like the first draft of a Non-reverse Firebird (complimentary), and like many Rivolta designs it has its roots in an old Dennis Fano creation. In this case, it’s the linguistically challenging Fano Psonicsphear – a limited-run curio from the early 2010s that in its original incarnation had a lucite body sandwiched between two plates of aluminium. It makes much more sense in good ol’ fashioned wood if you ask me.
The Zenyata is the guitar that does the most impressive trick, taking that ultimate Gibson Golden Era-polariser, the Moderne, and injecting a heavy dollop of Flying V and Explorer in there to make something that, dare I say it, looks like a much more balanced and attractive instrument than Ted McCarty managed in 1957.
Finally, we have the Quadrata – a guitar that I simply cannot spell right the first time around, apparently. This is perhaps the most imposing guitar of the bunch, smashing together bits of the Explorer, Airline Res-o-Glass and Gretsch Jupiter Thunderbird together to create something that’s one part Golden Era and one part Tron.
The Quadrata. Image: Adam Gasson
Are the Rivolta Sferata, Quadrata & Zenyata easy to play?
Given their unique and radically different body shapes, it’s perhaps not surprising that the primary difference between these guitars relates to their specific playing experiences, but before I get into that let’s talk about the one thing they have in common – the neck.
As I alluded to up top, you’ll probably remember if you’ve played a Dennis Fano guitar, and chances are the main thing that will stick with you is the neck. Novo necks, in particular, are things of rare beauty that manage to be chunky but effortlessly comfortable and playable.
The most impressive thing about this trio of Rivoltas is how the ‘Chunky C’ neck profile does a great job of emulating this outside of the confines of Novo’s Nashville HQ.
There’s a fair bit more shoulder than you see on a lot of guitars made in Asia, but the quality of the carve is so impressive because this doesn’t get in the way. It feels quite substantial in the hand, but it’s not in reality – it’s still only 23mm deep at the first fret. This means that it’s slinky and comfortable when you need it to be, aided by the Gibson-style 12” radius – while also giving yourself something to grip on to. It’s probably the best neck I’ve played on an Asian-made instrument, and one of the most comfortable I’ve played recently full stop.
The Sferata’s neck. Image: Adam Gasson
The Wilkinson tuners provide good tuning stability across the board, and while the Quadrata’s intonation needed a slight tweak on the G-string out of the box, that’s not exactly unexpected given that this guitar has made a roughly 10,000-mile round trip from Korea to Nashville and over to the UK.
Ergonomically, despite their unconventional shapes, all three guitars are really well thought out and balanced on a strap. Everything is where you’d want it to be and played standing there’s no neck dive to speak of. The Sferata and Zenyata are also a breeze to play seated (though the Sferata is a little tricky to balance not on a guitar stand) but the extra bulk behind the bridge on the Quadrata, combined with its sharp curve, does make it a little trickier to play sitting down.
Speaking of bulk, that lightweight Simborouba certainly is that – despite their unconventional slab bodies, none of the trio could be classed as anything even approaching heavy. The lightest at a hair under 7lbs is the Sferata, while the Zenyata is about the same at just a hair over 7lbs. Most impressive of all however might be the Quadrata – despite all that extra wood behind the bridge, it just scrapes 8lbs. They don’t look like small guitars, but they feel like them.
The Zenyata. Image: Adam Gasson
What do the Rivolta Sferata, Quadrata & Zenyata sound like?
A good first step when trying out any guitar is a quick unplugged strum. More often than not a lively guitar in this situation will point the way to good things when we get loud. In this instance it’s top marks across the board, there’s a bright resonance to all three guitars that you don’t often find at this price point.
It’s another very good sign when you plug a guitar, strum a big open G and find yourself muttering a four-letter expletive under your breath. Running the Sferata through a cooking Princeton gives that bridge humbucker an instant chance to shine – it’s wonderfully bright and punchy, but with excellent clarity and note separation. Stepping on some more gain and a gnarly fuzz pedal serves to enhance the experience further – this is a pickup that can handle chugging chords and blistering fuzzed-out runs without ever getting muddy.
It’s quite a bright sound, and certainly lives up to the ‘treble’ legend on the three-way selector switch, but if you want to take off some of that top-end, rolling off the tone does the impressive trick of adding more bass and general darkness without things getting overly mushed up.
Close-up of the Quadrata’s body. Image: Adam Gasson
The real star of the show, however, is the angled P-90 in the neck position. The P-90 can be a wonderful pickup, but in the neck position it can sometimes sound a little wooly – there’s none of that here. It’s thick and warm like a good P-90 should be (and raucous when you want it to be) but it has a balance and string-separation that elevates chords considerably.
As I’m playing, it makes me wonder if the unconventional angled nature of the pickup here is also playing a part? After all, Leo Fender seemed to think it would create a more balanced tonality with Strat and Tele bridge pickups 70 years ago, who says it can’t do the same in the neck?
Perhaps because of how balanced and clear both pickups are, the in-between sound is also a really useful here. While some middle position sounds serve to accentuate the worst bits of both pickups, here it takes the punch and bite of the humbucker and fattens it with the warmth and midrange of the P-90 to create an incredible rhythm sound, especially with a bit of gain thrown on.
Now for the big question… do they sound different? After all, they have the same woods, the same pickups, the same electronics… it’s a great opportunity to find out if marginal weight differences or differing body styles actually impact the tone of a guitar in any noticeable ways. And look, I’m sure there are discerning tone hounds who haven’t had their hearing pummelled by decades of loud gigs and loud amps that would tell you there’s some sort of marginal difference… but if there is I can’t hear it. Pick your favourite shape and enjoy.
The Zenyata’s headstock. Image: Adam Gasson
Should you buy a Rivolta Forma series guitar?
Undoubtedly, these guitars push the boundaries of what a lot of us would expect to pay for a non-US-made instrument. The Forma guitars are the priciest guitars in the Rivolta catalogue, and look, there’s no escaping the reality that 1,700 bucks will get you in on the ground floor of USA Fender, Gibson and PRS.
But if that’s what you’re comparing these guitars to, frankly, what the hell is wrong with you? These guitars cost what they cost precisely because they’re NOT another cookie-cutter Fender, PRS or Epiphone. These are unique instruments that are intentionally and unapologetically outside of the norm, and designed by one of the world’s most brilliant luthiers. A lot of people won’t be interested in that, and there are plenty of guitars out there catering to them. But for those of us who yearn for something a little bit outside of the norm, but with budgets that can’t stretch to a Novo or similar top-end boutique guitar, this captures a fair chunk of the vibe for a lot less money – it might be the guitar you’ve been waiting for.
Close-up of the Sferata’s body. Image: Adam Gasson
Rivolta Forma Series alternatives
There really aren’t many guitars at this price point that have the individuality of these instruments, and that’s perhaps the point. Epiphone’s 1963 Firebird V ($1,799/£1,699) is a beautiful thing that will certainly have you standing out from the crown, and it would be remiss not to mention Eastman’s similarly US-designed and Asia-made Juliet ($1,589/£1,319). Alternatively, if you want an a bona fide boutique guitar that stands out from the crowd, two UK luthiers – Ancoats Guitars and Trent. Both make interesting guitars at amazingly affordable prices, and are well worth checking out.
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