REVEREND
Musical Instruments head honcho Joe Naylor began
playing guitar in 1982, graduated from the Roberto-Venn
School of Luthiery, started and ran an amp -building
company, and in 1996 fired up the highly touted
Reverend company in his home state of Michigan.
Readers of VG are familiar with the man and
his products.
Naylor's
latest creation is a collaboration with Rick
Vito, the renowned guitarist who has worked
with Fleetwood Mack, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne,
Todd Rundgren, Bob Seger, and others. The new
Reverend Rick Vito Special and Signature model
guitars are variations on Reverend's Advanced
series Slingshot guitar, but with a few funky
twists. Both employ the Slingshot's semi-hollow
design with polymer rims and 6" mahogany
center block with steel sustaining rod. Both
guitars have an anodized aluminum top and back,
veneered to phenolic laminate.
The
guitars each have a satin-finished bolt-on maple
neckwith a 25'/" scale and dual-action
truss rod. Their fingerboards are rosewood with
12" radius, 22 medium jumbo oval frets,
and a graphite nut.
The
Vito uses two slightly overwound Reverend P-90
single-coil pickups, which become humbucking
when both are engaged. The bridge pickup is
wound slightly hotter, creating a near-perfect
balance in volume and tone.
Controls
include a master volume, master tone, a separate
bass control, and three-way pickup selector.
The bass control allows for rolling off low-end
response.
The
Vito's simple design and clean lines share all
the elegance we've grown accustomed to with
Reverend, while the custom sandblasted graphics
(designed by Vito himself) add a high degree
of funk. Both are visually appealing, and being
semi-hollow, they weigh in at a svelte 6.75
pounds.
The
headstock on the Special has a satin finish,
while the Signature features a black finish
that matches its body. Both guitars utilize
Sperzel locking tuners and feature a string
through-body hardtail bridge available with
an optional Bigsby vibrato with a roller bridge.
The
guitar's look is complemented by its nearly
flawless workmanship; fret work is impeccable,
and the neck is extremely comfortable, with
a smooth, low, and fast action. The necks on
our two testers felt identical, which would
lead us to believe Reverend is consistent from
guitar to guitar.
To
test the tones of the Slingshots, we plugged
them into an all-tube Peavey JSX with a Peavey
4x12" cabinet. Starting with the JSX's
clean channel, we were met with a fat, warm
tone with tons of low-end, noticeably nice sparkle
and a very responsive overall sound and feel.
Rolling the bass to about half gave us a sweet,
almost Telecaster like tone.
The
guitar's Volume control is very responsive;
even when rolled back, the tone doesn't lose
sparkle. And due to their calibrated winding,
the pickups sound balanced regardless of the
position of selector switch. Run together, they
proffer a fantastic blues tone and lend themselves
nicelyto overdrive with more-than-ample low-end
that never gets mushy and high-end response
that never wanes.
We
tested the Vitos against a humbucker-equipped
solidbody and were pleasantly surprised to hear
the Vitos actually deliver fuller, fatter sound.
Overall, the Special is a slightly more midrange-focused
than the hardtail version. Both guitars sustain
nicely, the hardtail holding a slight edge over
the Bigsby.
Looking
to add a little snoose and snort to our tone,
we switched the triple-rectified Peavey to heavy
overdrive. Given its semi-hollow design, one
could expect to have to wrestle the Reverend
in an extreme-volume situation. But feedback
was never a factor. And even when delivering
heavily distorted tones, arpeggiated notes remained
distinct and clear, with the same full fat tone
and no loss of sparkle. And as in the clean
channel, when we backed off the volume, the
guitar behaved as if we were messing only with
the amp - we experienced no loss of high-end
detail or tone.
Rolling
the bass control all the way off was like switching
guitars to a vintage three-pickup Fender. This
is an extremely usable control, and the single-coils
are very quiet.
Turning
our attention to the Special's Bigsby vibrato,
we ramped up our riffage in an attempt to knock
the guitar out of tune via classic "whammy
abuse." It didn't work. The Bigsby, of
course, doesn't do dive bombs, but such units
have a reputation for tuning instability. But
this one was tough.
Both
Reverend Vitos are incredibly playable guitars
with excellent tone and great sustain. The bass
control is supremely functional, and gives the
guitars a true personality twist. Whether used
clean or with massive overdrive, the Vitos are
ultraversatile, offer incredible craftsmanship,
and Stylish looks. - Bob Tekippe