Preaching to the Choir

The Reverend Roundhouse RT

Vintage Guitar Magazine

by Sean O'Bryan Smith

The Year was 1961. West Side Story won the Oscar for Best Picture, Ray Charles' "Hit The Road Jack" was on the charts, and future guitar designer and luthier Joe Naylor was born. He started playing guitar in 1980, which set him on the path for his date with destiny. For the last 12 years, he and his company, Reverend Musical Instruments, have been offering vintage-vibed instruments for for budget-conscious players.

That tradition is continued with the Reverend Roundhouse RT. Boasting a bound korina body, the RT specs out with a 12"-radius set neck with a bound rosewood fingerboard and a pearloid-block inlays with 22 medium-jumbo frets. The neck profile is a medium shape, which gives a slightly fatter feel. The 24-3/4" scale is comfortable and the graphite 1-11/16" nut width contributes to the guitar's traditional overall feel. Reverend's proprietary Revtron mini-humbuckers are controlled through a master Volume, master Tone, and a Bass Contour. Pickup selection is handled by a standard three-way switch.

The Roundhouse RT's neck is reinforced by a dual-action truss rod accessible from the Reverend's tilted headstock, which is finished in gloss black and adorned with Reverend chrome Pin-Lock locking tuners, which lend a more modern and functional touch. Chrome hardware continues on the body with a tune-o-matic-style bridge and stop tailpiece. The hardware nicely accents the RT's retro vibe, with its silver sparkle painted top and solid black sides, back, and neck. The final cosmetic touch is the black/white/black three-ply pick guard.

Close inspection revealed no finish flaws in the expertly-applied silver sparkle paint, and the attention to detail is impressive - there were no issues with the binding or the inlay work. The Reverend ships with .010-.046-gauge strings with a nice, playable setup and overall, this guitar looks and feels like one that should cost much more.

Plugged into the Vox-inspired channel of a Randall RM50 and running the bridge pickup with its Tone and Bass Contour knobs wide open, the Roundhouse RT delivers a fair amount of warm treble presence with ample crunch for a Tom Petty-esque vibe. If the pickups don't drive quite hard enough for your liking, a small nudge of amplifier gain fixes it. If you're after Zepplin-style grind, you'll need an overdrive pedal.

Running the Roundhouse RT through a variety of amps revealed its true colors. If the RT's pickups were less than punchy through the Randall, plugging it into a Fender Bassman means all is forgiven! The RT is a warm-sounding guitar, and its sounds are perfect for a lot of different tones. The Revtron mini-humbuckers are very full and round, and with the Bass Contour dialed all the way up, the bridge pickup yields a nice, biting top-end that works great for country flatpicking. Rolling off the master Tone gives an almost hollowbody-type, and with the Tone rolled open and with an overdrive pedal, the Roundhouse can dial in a fury of distorted heft that could fill even the largest venue.

The RT's secret weapon is its Bass Contour knob, which allows for a staggering array of tonal possibilities and easily corrects the inherently thin sound of the pickups. It's particularly useful for fattening up the bridge pickup for clean sounds and adding low-end crunch.

The RT is versatile enough to cover most gigs and records extremely well. Its build quality rivals instruments three times its cost, and Joe Naylor's design is well-conceived. The korina body and Revtron pickups team up to make this a good primary axe for traveling musicians or session players. If you love the cool factor of a vintage-style instrument, the Reverend Roundhouse RT deserves a serious look.