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tjon901 « Reverend Semi hollow with P90s »
Published on 10/12/11 at 08:11Reverend is a small guitar maker out of America making high quality guitars for very decent prices. They have a wide range of guitars falling into two catagories set neck and bolt on. This is one of their set neck models. This is their Manta Ray model with two P90 pickups as you can tell by the name. It has a semi-hollow design with a Korina body with a maple top and Korina set neck. The neck has 22 frets and a rosewood fretboard. The scale is the traditional Gibson scale. Up top on the headstock there are Reverend pinlock tuners. The bridge is a traditional tune-o-matic design. The pickups are a set of Reverend P90s. The controls are typical Reverend as well with a volume and tone with their famous bass contour knob. There is a 3 way toggle to switch between the pickups with.
UTILIZATION
Reverend guitars play very well. The body design on this guitar allows very good access to the upper frets. Because of the big semi-hollow design you will find yourself reaching around the guitar a bit but that happens on just about any guitar of this type. Because they only use a single F-hole there is even less feedback so you can treat this guitar like it was a solid body. Locking tuners are great and nowadays every guitar should come with them. The pickup selector is kind of in a strange place, similar to a PRS model. I would like it to be closer to the rest of the controls but it is not bad.
SOUNDS
P90s are some of my favorite pickups and that matched with the classy tone of a semi hollow works very well together. The P90s add a good amount of twang to the semi-hollow mellowness. P90s are twangy full bodied pickups. The bass contour knob opens up a whole new range of tones with the guitar. With the bass contour fully engaged you get the full blast of tone with the full P90 low end. If you dial it back it sounds more like a strat single coil. This adds lots of versatility to a P90 which you cant split. These features matched with the woody semi-hollow tone means you have tone from top to bottom.
OVERALL OPINION
I dont know where else you can find a semi-hollow guitar with P90s for less than a thousand dollars. That alone is pretty amazing. But this guitar also has the tone to back it up. With Reverend you get tons of guitar for the price. More and more smaller companies are showing the big guys what you can do with less resources. If you are looking for a well priced American made guitar with huge tone you should check out this Reverend.
UTILIZATION
Reverend guitars play very well. The body design on this guitar allows very good access to the upper frets. Because of the big semi-hollow design you will find yourself reaching around the guitar a bit but that happens on just about any guitar of this type. Because they only use a single F-hole there is even less feedback so you can treat this guitar like it was a solid body. Locking tuners are great and nowadays every guitar should come with them. The pickup selector is kind of in a strange place, similar to a PRS model. I would like it to be closer to the rest of the controls but it is not bad.
SOUNDS
P90s are some of my favorite pickups and that matched with the classy tone of a semi hollow works very well together. The P90s add a good amount of twang to the semi-hollow mellowness. P90s are twangy full bodied pickups. The bass contour knob opens up a whole new range of tones with the guitar. With the bass contour fully engaged you get the full blast of tone with the full P90 low end. If you dial it back it sounds more like a strat single coil. This adds lots of versatility to a P90 which you cant split. These features matched with the woody semi-hollow tone means you have tone from top to bottom.
OVERALL OPINION
I dont know where else you can find a semi-hollow guitar with P90s for less than a thousand dollars. That alone is pretty amazing. But this guitar also has the tone to back it up. With Reverend you get tons of guitar for the price. More and more smaller companies are showing the big guys what you can do with less resources. If you are looking for a well priced American made guitar with huge tone you should check out this Reverend.