NGD! This time for sure! A Reverend for Rev Rawk

[marnold]

Whelp, I've always wanted a gold top with P90s. It's not a Les Paul, but that's fine. It's a new Reverend Warhawk 390 in Venetian Gold. It's got their three P90s, TOM, set neck, locking tuners, "bonite" nut, jumbo frets (Dunlop 6110), five-way switch. The three controls are volume, tone, and bass contour. The last one is Reverend's bass roll-off. It brings the P90s into Fender single coil territory. I just played it a bit. The pups are darker than regular single coils. With gain they sound thoroughly disobedient, like P90s should. It is also remarkable quiet. It is completely and nicely shielded. The controls all work well. The pots are full-sized alpha pots. The jack seems much better than the Monarkh.

The only drawback is that I tend not to like painted necks, but so far it isn't bothering me. It is a little sticky because it's been in a cold UPS van for a couple of days.

The cool thing is that Reverend takes every one out of the box and sets them up before sending them on. The guy who checked it wrote his initials on the back and gave it a serial number. It's set up just about perfectly. We'll see if anything shifts after being in a warm house for a couple of days. It was even in tune out of the box!

So far my initial impressions are great. The fit and finish are light years beyond the Jackson (the Monarkh, not my DK2M). Hopefully clips will follow. Here are some initial pictures. Pardon my laser printer in the background.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tNAFRET4CFTEiQAN7

The two white spots on the lower back are not in the finish. They are glare from something.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/pyJvGRcG2ct97wzp8

[marnold]

And yes, I know that the Reverend is more expensive than the Jackson, but the quality is night and day different. Not even close. I also forgot to mention that the neck and body are korina. The fretboard is pau ferro. I like the streaks in this board. I'm guessing that the inlays are basic MOTS, but they look very nice nonetheless.

[Rx Tone]

Congrats. Did you just walk in and buy it or was it one you had been wanting?

[Robert]

Wow, that is super cool. I want one!

[marnold]

Congrats. Did you just walk in and buy it or was it one you had been wanting?

Actually I ordered it off the Interwebs. I wanted a gold top with P90s. Now I have one. I love this guitar. I have been looking at Reverends for years. Yes I am a Reverend, but that had little to do with it. When I lived in Wisconsin I managed to visit a store that was a Reverend dealer. I mainly tried the Volcano which is their flying V style. The Warhawk itself was not on my radar. I had been looking at a Ron Ashton Jetstream 390 (https://reverendguitars.com/guitars/ron-asheton-jetstream-390/). Something tells me that I shouldn't like that orange finish, but I do. The Warhawk is similar but it is a set neck instead of a bolt on.

I wanted big frets, locking tuners, a relatively flat fretboard, gold top, P90s. This one has it all for me.I'm not exaggerating when I say that this one is light years ahead of the Jackson. And I say that as a Jackson fan! A guitar store out of Texas had it. I saw their listing on Reverb which was $100 below retail. I contacted them and bought directly. Despite traveling the height of the country it arrived in excellent condition.

My only nitpicks are that there are a couple of minor finish flaws, one on the back of the neck and one on the back of the body. A little bit of something is caught under the clear coat. It affects precisely nothing. The shielding keeps it whisper quiet unless I'm using a bunch of gain. Then it sounds disobedient as P90s should. Now I'm confused. If there's a fire I need two extra arms to save my guitars!

[marnold]

OK. I legit love this guitar. Sounds great. Looks great. Plays great. Busy week this week, but hopefully some clips next week.

[marnold]

Trogly did a review of a Reverend Jetstream which has the same pickups in it. He does a good job of showing the effects of the bass contour control, but not really saying what it is. It is just another tone knob that rolls off bass frequencies instead of treble frequencies. I can see why he calls it a boost, though (even though passive controls can't boost anything). The apparent volume drop is noticeable when you roll it off.

9aTela4oK08?t=855
I tried to get it to start at the playing demo. It starts a little before actually.

Some on the Reverend forums have suggested that the pickups sound warmer on the Warhawk than this Jetstream. The Warhawk is a set neck and has a three-piece korina neck with a pao ferro fretboard. Comparing this video to what I hear from my amp, that seems to be true. That being said, I'm not playing through his amph. I'm also hearing him through my TV speakers.