Reverend Manta Ray HB

I purchased my Reverend, Manta Ray HB-FM with a Flame Maple Tobacco Burst finish from Johns Music in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, a good guy. This is a well designed guitar with great chrome hardware, TOM bridge, stop tail piece and Wilkinson EZ lock tuners. The Korina routed out body with beautiful flame maple top and set neck, 10-46 strings, 2 Reverend humbucker pickups, rosewood fingerboard and a very comfortable neck make this a very fine sounding and playing guitar. I believe the routed out semi hollow body design is far superior to the glued plywood design. And one of the features that I really like is the total access to the control cavity via the control cavity plate which is a nice touch for a semi hollow body guitar. The Korina wood the body is made from is in the mahogany family and is one of the preferred woods for hollow and semi hollow body guitars. The neck on the Manta Ray is just so comfortable that I can play for an extended amount of time without my hands becoming so fatigued. The body width of 14 5/8 inches is about 2 inches less than my Guild Starfire IV, which makes the Manta Ray much more comfortable to play when sitting down in a studio application. I would encourage you to visit the Reverend web site at www.reverendguitars.com for a more complete review of the features and specifications.

To me this guitar sounds great in all three switch selector positions. I use the neck pickup for jazz and blues and the bridge pickup for country. The bass contour seems to be a little more pronounced on the Manta Ray than on the Warhawk II 390 but both offer sound enhancements. To me this is a sweet sounding guitar. However, I would encourage you to visit the Reverend web site at www.reverendguitars.com and view the YOU TUBE video sound sample for the Manta Ray HB which is more meaningful than a verbal description. The pickups are very quite when played on my duel Fender Blues Deluxe amplifier setup. I play a little jazz, blues, country and little rockabilly and this guitar covers all those genres very well for me.

Two Words; Top Notch. The flawless Flame Maple Tobacco Burst top along with the chrome hardware and a black pick guard makes for a very sharp and classy looking guitar. You could compare this guitar to one that cost a lot more. However, I only paid $699 which included a well padded TKL hard shell case; what a deal. The intonation, neck setup and action were right on the money. The graphite nut was cut and seated perfectly. Fret work was excellent with no sharp edges on either side of the rosewood fret board. And when I opened the control cavity the first thing I noticed was a very neat wiring job done by an experienced technician that took pride in their work. All things being considered I believe this guitar is worthy of a 10 in this evaluation category.

Seems like a very solid guitar. I have been playing the Manta Ray for several weeks now with no issues and really don???t expect any.

I have not had a need for customer support but I hear that Reverend provides great support for their products.

I've been playing for about 18 years as a hobbyist and own 8 other guitars including a Reverend Warhawk II 390, Fender Stratocaster Plus, Guild Blues Bird AAA top, Guild Starfire IV, Heritage H157, Peavey Reactor AX, Peavey Cropper Classic and a Schecter PT Custom. Reverend gives you a nice guitar for your money that???s a pleasure to play. I would recommend this guitar to anyone and is certainly worthy of serious consideration if you are in the market for a 335 style guitar with great workmanship, playability and sound qualities.

As others have stated, this is your basic ES-335 semi-hollow inspired guitar with a few twists. The design is pleasing; it retains its traditional status as a semi-hollow with a few modern touches such as the uniquely shaped f-hole and the cutaway horns. It has an H/H config with Reverend designed humbuckers (bridge slightly more hot than the neck), 22 frets, 24 3/4" scale set-neck, 12" radius rosewood fingerboard, Wilkinson EZ-lock tuners, flame maple top, mahogany neck and body. These guitars are made in Korea, but you wouldn't know it from the build quality, only from the price. If you are looking for frills such as fret binding, you won't find them. This is truly a player's guitar, albeit with an absolutely gorgeous flame maple finish. There are your basic volume and tone knob here, but there is also a bass contour knob that rolls off the low end. I don't find much use for it on the bridge pickup; it just makes the sound too thin for my taste. However, with the neck pickup, you can approach a single-coil neck pickup sound with no hum. Very nice feature. I'm not a huge fan of the EZ-lock tuners; they don't work as well as locking tuners and you need a good set of plyers to be able to change strings. It's the only thing I can really knock this guitar for.

This is where this $600 guitar really shines. In comparison with an ES-335, it's a brighter sound on the top end but still has the warmth, very unique and pleasing. The resonance of the semi-hollow design is there, as is the sustain of a set-neck. The tone is full and round, but it is edgy enough to rock with. This is one versatile guitar; jazz, blues, classic rock, hard rock, and even country are all there. I play mostly classic rock and hard rock, and this guitar is ballsy enough to handle the harder catalog of songs I like to play. The neck and bridge pickups are voiced wonderfully and work well together. As stated before, the neck is slightly less hot than the bridge pickup, and this contributes to a creamy, warm, bassy tone when in use. The bridge pickup is certainly hot enough to create that warm distortion useful for all kinds of rock (think early Rush with a little more edge). Ted Nugent crunch is certainly accessible. Overall, Reverend has really created a monster here with a truly unique tone.

Fit and finish are incredible for a guitar of this price. No visible flaws. Action was set up fairly well, although as Joe Walsh would say, you should "learn to fix your own [stuff]". It was remarkably easy to intonate and adjust and it holds tuning very well, so have at it.

It's a semi-hollow, so I don't imagine you could step on it and feel very comfortable about its integrity. However, this is a solidly built guitar. Everything feels well built and sturdy, and the finish is top notch.

Joe Naylor is quite the owner. Before I bought this guitar I visited the Reverend message boards and saw that he regularly answers his customers' questions and issues. It took a long time for the guitar to arrive via direct order, but the company is switching to a dealer model and discontinuing internet ordering. I predict these guitars will still be hard to come by given their popularity and sound for the price.

Just incredible... for a $600 guitar, this one plays like many Gibsons and Fenders that cost over twice as much. While Squiers and Epiphones have given Korean factories somewhat of a bad reputation, this guitar certainly demonstrates that good deals can still be had for guitars that play like the ones our heroes use. If I had the money, I'd buy a number of their other set-neck models as well. This is the perfect guitar for the intermediate guitar player looking for an upgrade in equipment without having to anger the spouse and mortgage the house.

Basically a 335 type semi-hollow, with a distinctive shape, extremely versatile sound (more below) and very smart touches like a back plate you can unscrew to repair or change wiring. (I've rewired guitars, I can't do a 335 type). The Reverend bass contour is a huge plus, as are locking tuners.
From www.revverendguitars.com:
BODY
semi-hollow with 6 mm solid maple flat top on mahogany, and 'shooting star' f-hole. Black back and sides with cream binding. 18" x 14-5/8" x 1-3/4".
PICKUPS
two Reverend humbuckers, output/tone calibrated for each position.
NECK
glued-on, one-piece mahogany, tilt-back headstock.
TRUSS ROD
dual-action, access at headstock.
SCALE
24-3/4".
FINGERBOARD
rosewood, 12" radius.
FRETS
22 medium jumbo.
NECK PROFILE
medium oval.
NUT
1-11/16" (42.86 mm) width, graphite.
TUNERS
Wilkinson EZ-Lock tuners.
BRIDGE
TOM w/ stop tail.
TREMOLO (OPTIONAL) Les Trem tremolo with precision roller bridge.
CONTROLS
custom volume & tone, Bass Contour, 3-way.
WEIGHT
approx. 7.75 pounds.
STRINGS
10-46 unless otherwise requested.

I'm filing this to fill a hole. There are no reviews of Reverend's new setneck series here. I recently visited the plant in Warren and played several models, finally concentrating on the Manta Ray HB for about 1.5 hours in two sessions using a Kingsnake... I've been checking out semihollows for about six months. Tried the Epis, no Gibsons (too expensive!), Samick Royale, Yamahas (the new 500 and their brilliant 390 model), Ibanez, Turser (see my JT134 review) etc.-- all the midprice models I could find. The Manta Ray HB is a far superior instrument to all but the Yamaha 390, and it's superior to that one in versatility and control.

It looks better in person than on pictures (I played the flame maple prototype). The response is excellent all across the fretboard. Reverends are famous for playability, and this one won't ruin the rep. The sound is classic Reverend -- round punchy bass, chimy top end, mids that bite. For what I do -- solo fingerstyle rock, boogey, blues and soul with slide -- it's just great, a warm sound you can crank. Rolling off the bass contour makes the sound drier and woodier. Not a classic 335 sound in my hands; it doesn't sound as dark to me as the Epis I played. It also feels more comfortable than the big Epis, Ibanezes and Yamahas, a tad smaller and lighter (note: Joe Naylor says production models will be about a half pound heavier than the prototype; my guess is most players will like the extra weight, the prototype was surprisingly light). Perfect balance.

I played Willie McTell and Elmore on it and both sounded right; Motown and Hooker too. I'm not a good lead player but the lines I played above the octave, near the neck and in the middle (on a Setzer tune caled "Bobby's Back") came through very sweet and lyrical. I did not try any high gain material, not my style.

Bottom Line: So far as my experience shows, it's a new standard in under-$1000 semihollows. Will I buy it? Have no doubt. For a solo player it's like Reverend's JS 390 in that it's versatile enough to be an all night axe, with semihollow HB depth and warmth. BTW, it was NOT on my short list for this trip. It got there on its own.

A luthier could spot some flaws, I didn't. Frets, finish, setup are not an issue with any Reverend I've owned (I have three). These guitars are easy to adjust, the components all work.

When I go to a solo gig, I bring one guitar, a Jetstream 390. I'd do the same with this.

No experience with this instrument; Reverend has always given me great service. Their forum at the website is a big recent plus; I've picked up tips on wiring there that helped me fix or mod three guitars.

What I didn't cover above: I've owned Fender (basses and Mustang), Gibson (92 LP Standard), have a Charvel bass, several good guitars, small and large amps. Played 42 years and couunting, have recorded and still do, played live and still do. I'm a Reverend fan, not on the payroll. Guitars this good at a reasonable price have helped me take a big step forward in my playing. These guys just keep setting value standards. Thanks, Reverend.