Reverend Kingsnake
by Michael Ross
Guitar One Magazine

Back in July 2001, we reviewed the Reverend Hellhound amp, and found it to be reasonably priced, great sounding, and versatile. Company founder Joe Naylor has since discontinued that model and replaced it with the Kingsnake. Being a user and admitted lover of the Hellhound since it came out, I had to find out whether the
Kingsnake would measure up.

NEW SKIN
In appearance, the Kingsnake differs from its predecessor in a number of ways -- for one, the fun, fake tooled-leather covering has been replaced with standard black vinyl. (At least there's the same classy brown checkerboard grille cloth.) In addition, although the Hellhound, a 60W tube, was unusually light for it's size, the Kingsnake is even lighter, thanks to a batten-less speaker mount and an efficient neodymium speaker magnet (about half the weight of a similar speaker). And not only is the amp lighter, Naylor and Co. also managed to make it louder.

What was formerly a two-position Schizo switch now offers three voicings: the American-sounding "US" and Britishàstyle "UK," both from the original amp, as well as the cool new "LO-FI", which, with some extra midrange and a softer treble response, really nails the sound of a small tweed. Also, the wattage is now switchable between 60 and 20, rather than of 60 and 40. To my ears, this is a much more noticeable, and usable,
difference -- great idea guys!

FEARSOME FANGS
If you were to play the old and new Reverend amps side by side, you'd notice that both offer remarkably high sonic quality. Still, there would be some subtle yet distinctive differences in sound and feel. I found that the Hellhound had a slightly wider sound of the two, whereas the Kingsnake had a tighter focus, with more bite. The neodymium speakers, because of their fast attack/response time, may take some getting used to, but once your ears and fingers adjust, you'll dig their "present" sound. On a recent gig, the Kingsnake cut through bass, acoustic guitar, and drums on the 20W setting, with plenty of headroom to spare. Yet it also sounded sweet, even pointed directly at my ears.

To test the Schizo, I recorded the blues riff below three times, changing only the switch's setting each time. With the US setting, I got a clean, B.B. King-like tone. LO-FI yielded a gristlier sound that called to mind T-Bone
Walker. Finally, switching to UK brought instant Eric Clapton tone.

PERFECT PET
One thing that has remained the same with the Reverend is the perfection of the preamp gain. The master volume on the Kingsnake allows you to play at any volume without sacrificing tone or response -- a rare thing among amps. That said, this version is even more versatile than the Hellhound, and the more I play it, the more terrific it sounds. Throw in it's reasonable price, and you have a definite "1 Award" winner.