Reverend SlingShot Custom

This guitar is amazing...let me just start with that. It features spertzel locking tuners, kent armstrong P90 pickups, an ABM rollerbridge and my absolute favorite guitar gadget...A bigsby B5 tremolo system, and a beautiful maple fretboard...and a graphite nut.

Oh My God!!! the sound of this guitar is nirvonous. (the state of being nirvana) the 2 and 4 positions on the pickup selector has the quack of a stratocaster...but the tone is so much fuller. the bridge pickup is great for surf style playing and the neck and middle positions have really nice warm tone and are great for jazz and blues playing.

No complaints. Typically when the weather changes theres a few tweeks that have to be made, but thats natural with most guitars. i've personally made pickup height adjustments to my own preferences.

No complaints...its built really well...but i'm not going to test it by dropping it off the roof of my home...

never had to deal with them

i have many guitars. this is my absolute favorite guitar...It is an amazing instrument. Its great for everything from jazz, blues, surf and metal. the ultimate all purpose instrument.

I have had my Slingshot Custom w/P-90 PU's for about 4 years now, and out of the 6 guitars I own(Guild Bluesbird, 2-American Fender Strats, G&L Asat Special, Reverend Charger HB)this is my "go to" workhorse guitar. It is probably the most versatile out of the rest, except for maybe my 50th Anniversary Strat with the S-1 switching system. It is practically indestructible unless you ding up the neck. Mine is the aged yellow/white pickguard. It is light, but not too light, and the neck is the best out of any guitar I have ever played!! I bought mine with the graghite saddles, and switch that can combine the neck and bridge pickup.

The tone of this guitar is very versatile. You can get any type tone from Tom Petty to ZZ Top(with overdrive of course). Using the switch to combine all 3 PU's gives you a jangly rhythm tone. The neck position is my favorite for blues, but you can go from blues to Strat, to almost Tele type tones(warmer)by switching from front to back. I use Dr Z amps, and have a variety of overdrives, delay, and modulation pedals.

Guitar was very close to the way I like it. I adjusted the pickups down a little because the were a little on the hot side. Great sounding PU's!! I have developed a problem with the volume pot, but I think it just needs to be cleaned. The graphite saddles are the best, I think I have broke maybe 4 strings since I have owned it, no joke!! And I do a lot of bending!

This guitar is built like a rock! Hardware is great, I changed out the strap buttons for locking(personal preference). I would definately used it with out a backup at a gig, but would take my ASAT for variety.

Great people to deal with, the best!!

Awesome guitar, buy one if you can find one, especially with the cool teardrop case!!

I just bought a Reverend Slingshot Custom last week, after playing my friends Rocco. Details: 22 fret bolt-on maple with rosewood finger board and locking tuners. Three P-90 style pickups with 5-way switch (positions two and four are hum cancelling), volume, tone, and bass contour controls. The body is semi-hollow, basically a six inch wide piece of mahogany with phenolic laminate top and back. The bridge is non-tremelo with string through body.

My other main guitar is a Jazzmaster, and I'm amazed at how great the Reverend sounds. It's a little meatier than the jazzmaster but still has the mellowness of single coils. Reverend's bass contour knob is outstanding. It basically re-voices the pickups to take them from P-90s to strat. The "strat-effect" works amazingly well on clean tones while combining pickups. It also works on the bridge to get a great tele tone. Without rolling off the bass you get tones not unlike a double cutaway Les Paul Special but with a bit rounder sound (probably because of the semi hollow body).

I'm blown away at how quiet the pickups are. There is zero hum in pisitions two and four and not much in all other positions.

Currently I'm using it with a Peavey Classic 50 (tube amp) with 2 12's. I also use it through a Johnson J-station amp modeler. The range of sounds is pretty exceptional. It gets pretty close to an LP Special or a P-90 equipped Epiphone Casino as well as some Strat and Tele tones. However, it manages to be fuller and brighter than all of these and offers plenty of tones all of it's own. I play a mix of styles, but mostly indie rock and alt country type things. And this guitar fits well with all of these.

The guitar came set up wonderfully (although for 9 gauge strings). I switched to 10s and had to make some slight adjustments to the bridge and neck. The fit and finish are just out of this world (especially in this price range). It blows away Gibsons and Fenders that cost up to $500 more. You'd pretty much have to go PRS or Fender or Gibson custom shop to get something this nice.

My only issue is that they failed to put the arm rest on the guitar before they shipped it. The holes were drilled but they somehow missed this step. I called and they shipped the armrest the same day. I'm willing to cut them some slack as I bought the guitar on the final day before prices increased by $200 and they switched from the USA Advanced series to their new USA Retro series.

I'd like to knock a few more points off for failing to install the armrest but everything else is so perfect on this guitar (and so much nicer than everything else I tried out) that I just can't do it.

I expect this guitar will last a lifetime. I predict that 20 years from now Reverends will fetch prices just like classic Fenders and Gibsons do now. The fact that they are all hand made in the US won't hurt things. My friend with the Rocco has been gigging with it for about two years and remains impressed. I always take wo guitars (one with humbuckers one with single coils) so I always have a backup.

Steve at Reverend is great. I ordered the guitar over the phone and he discussed all of the models with me and the changes that would be occurring with the launching of the new series, as well as the pros and cons of the USA series vs. the new Korean models as well. The guitar has a one year warranty, but I can't imagine I'll have to use it.

I've been playing since I was 10 years old (20 years). I've owned many guitars but currently I have a custom made jazzmaster style guitar (it has Jazzmaster pickups but they are about to be switches out for two duncan 59's with coil taps since the Reverend does the soapbar sound better), an early 80's Ibanez Roadstar (my first ever electric), A Taylor Acoustic, Peavey Bass, Morrell Lap Steel, Vintage Harmony acoustic, baritone uke, and various others. My only amp these days is a Peavey Classic 50, and the only effects I still use are a Mu-Tron Phasor II, Crybaby, Boss Compressor, and the J-Station.

I compared this guitars to some apples and some oranges because I wasn't 100% sure what I wanted. Here's the short list: Fender SRV Strat, Fender B-Bender Nashville Tele, Malden Mozak, Schecter Hellcat VI and Ultra III, and Gibson Faded Les Paul Special. I think that's it.

I have a two year old, custom built Slingshot.
I tend to love Reverend guitars, which would explain why I own so many of them (5 as of this writing).
My Slingshot has 3 P-90's, a kill switch (which Joe and Steve call the Kid Rock switch, as he was the first to request one), and the studio switch, which allows all three pickups to be used at once.
While not my main guitar for live use, I do defer to it when I break a string on my Avenger, and opt for it for a coule songs that require a tremolo arm (mine is fitted with a Bigsby).
Mine has a gloss black finish, as do all my Reverends.

My rig is:

Carr Rambler amp
Fulltone Full Drive 2
Fulltone Clyde Wah Wah
Fulltone SupaTrem
Line 6 DL4 Delay
Line 6 MM4 Modulation

This guitar is glorious through this rig.

The guitar was perfectly set up at the factory.
Itend to pick my Reverends up when they're built, and I've never once had to have any adjustments made. None.

Reverends are pretty darned durable, but I'd stronly suggest transporting them in a case rather than a gig bag. They are made of composite, and if something falls on them, they will break.
This happened to me recently (with my Rumblefish), and I had to have another body made for it.

Joe Naylor and Steve Yankee are two of the nicest guys I've ever dealt with. Uncomprimising professionalism, and ultra helpful.

I've been playing professionally for 25 years, and I use Reverends exclusively live. Sure, I have a few other guitars I use in the studio from time to time, but Reverend guitar suit the sound and image of my band so well, that I'd never use any other guitar at a show.
I mean, well...they sound great, are are possibly the coolest looking instruments on the planet.

This is a Slingshot Custom "Work Horse" model that I bought new about 18 months ago. Looks exactly like the "Editors Pick" model from the Guitar Player Workhorse series review, although I ordered it before the review came out. Red with rosewood fingerboard, 12.5" scale, medium jumbo frets, graphite nut, 3 white P90's, hardtail, simple volume and tone controls. I have added strap locks and a mini-toggle to enable the neck/bridge combination. Style-wise it has the unique Reverend "Shape" that is a copy of nothing but has a retro looks that would be right at home in a 50's diner.

I play mostly rock/R&B through either a Mesa Lone Star, Seymour Duncan Convertible 2000, and a Duncan 84-50. I use minimal effects: Only a Barber Burn Unit and a Morely Bad Horsie Contour Wah. When I got the guitar at first I really did not warm up to it, and almost sent it back. Being a dedicated single coil player (Fender, G&L)I at first did not know what to make of the P90's. My intial impression that pickups were dull, and lacked the sparkle and openness of most single coils (and in a way they do). I think you really have to play a guitar for a while to form a solid opinion. That being said, the guitar produces a fatter single coil tone that is especially satisfying when overdriven, creating a wide fat smooth tone that has more character than a humbucker whithout icy treble that other single coils hammer out. For a semi-dirty roots rock sound, this guitar has it nailed. When played clean, it lacks the spanky punchy sound of a typical strat, but the tones are even and balanced, especially in the bridge position which is much more useable than a strat. The body certainly helps with sustain, and in my opinion this guitar is much more sensitive to old strings than most. Find your favorite brand and keep 'em fresh as it really seems to contribute to the overall tonal qualities of the guitar. Also, don't be afraid to tweak the individual heights and pole adjustments of the pickups. They are delivered from the factory set exactly to their specs, but adjust them to suit your ears, amps, and musical styles. It can be the difference between good and great. My rating is a mix with 10-dirty, 7-clean

Best set up on a new guitar that I have ever experienced, period. Reverend asked me what type of action I like, string gauge, and delivered a perfect guitar that I have not had to touch since. The satin feel of the neck is great, but I agree with other reviewers that the neck feels a little small, almost dainty. It's a tad cramped for me down by the nut, but the up side is that if you like to wrap your thumb around and use it - no problem. Fret finish is nice and smooth, and overall for a Fender-style neck, it is about the nicest I have touched. While the materials used are not elegant in nature, workmanship is first class, with no bad seems or rough edges. Inside, the wiring and soldering is neat and orderly and much better than I've seen on higher priced guitars. The bridge is plain but functional, but a nice cast unit versus a piece of bent steel would upgrade the appearance greatly. But for the price, these guys have put out an excellent product, and clearly have an consistent manufacturing process and workmanship standards.

I have no issues with durability, I mean you can clean it with Windex! The neck and saddles have never needed any adjustment since I have owned it and I am conciously less cautious handling this guitar than my fancy wood ones with no ill effect. Often it just sits around the house...because it can. My only concern is that after 18 months, I see a little bit of fret wear down at the 2nd and 3rd frets. The phenolic top and back materials are very wear resistant and the pots and swithes are also of very high quality and nice feel. It's a keeper and does not need a backup.

Kudos to Reverend for making an incredibly well built American guitar for under $600 and a big raspberry for dropping the line! You can't get these anymore, and they have moved more upscale with their products. I'm not saying a Reverend is not worth $900, but the Workhorse line was such and incredible value, I would have paid $100 more for the same guitar. Also reverend would not sell me parts for the guitar. I inquired about getting a whole pickguard assembly (like in the avenger pick up arrangement) but they don't seem to sell parts.

I've been playing 35 years and also play G&L's, a Reverend Rumblefish Bass (great too!) and an acoustic Taylor 514. I'm not a pro, but I've been playing out for years and have tried many guitars. I tried the Reverend based on favorable press, being American made, and the sheer funkiness of the concept. I had to recalibrate my thinking playing P90's after 30 years of Strat/Tele, but now I don't think I would part with it. At the price I paid it's a HUGE value and represents a level of quality and playability not touched by buy guitars cost hundreds more. Plus it's original: I would rather spend the money on this than a copy of something. The only issue -- for some -- with the Reverend is lack of snob appeal. It's just not made out of the materials we have been taught to lust after. For me that's part of the attraction, but others may not be secure enough to pay less for something better. For bang for the dollar, not much else comes close short of a Mexican Strat. If the Workhorse series were still around, I would advise any young guitarist to separate from the herd and get a Workhorse.

Same construction as evey other Slingshot Custom. Nothing custom or added. It has the three Reverend P90 pickups, bolt on neck, rosewood fretboard, sperzel locking tuners witht he new Bass Contour control - custom designed passive bass reduction control allows you to re-voice the pickups. Roll back just a lttle to tighten up the low end. Or roll back further for a cleaner, percussive twang. Sky blue color. No tremelo...not a problem for me.

I must constrain myself over how I discuss the sound of this guitar. I have quite a few guitars, and after a while, they start becoming redundant. This guitar is all alone in my stable. It is unique and has such dominance in its strong points as to overshadow anything else I have that might previously have filled the niche this now fills.

The tone is exactly as I have read: attack, spank, chimy, harmonics, clear, full os sustain particularly on the bridge pickup. It is a good all around, but it does not try to be. It is its own guitar. I love playing it as it inspires me in ways my other guitars don't - in a different way. The unamplified sound is enough to lean back on the bed and play for quite a while with great satisfaction.

It just sounds great. It is not a cookie cutter Fender or Gibson wannabe. I love this guitar for what it is. The three P90's are remarkably different. No wishy washy overlap in tone. What a great tone bargain this guitar is.

Set up was rigth on, pickups adjusted well, no runs, drips, or errors. It is suchs sweet looking guitar for all that it is and isn't. No pretence here. It looks like a Reverend - beautiful!

Given the construction materials I assume good durability. Time will tell. Feels solid and well constructed.

Spoke with Joe, the company pres on the phone. Very accommodating and helpful. Small company, so I hope that translates to personal service. Again, time will tell.

Sorry for the usual ultra positive review, here. I know we all get tired of seeing reviews that say this or that guitar is the best thing since sliced bread. I have no other choice on this one. It is that good. It does what it does better than any other guitar I have ever owned or played. I am not saying it is the best I have ever owned or played, but that it does what it does better than any other?.and believe me, that is a good thing. It is not an LP or a Strat. It is a Reverend. If I had to make a comparison, I would say it has the bottom end on the LP side and the spank and attack a Strat wishes it had with a unique chime thrown in. I have no choice but to rate this guitar an overall 10.

This addendum to my reviews below is to correct a mistake. In a review written of my first Slingshot Custom, I too quickly said "you can get vintage from it, but there are easier ways to go." That was for an axe I'd owned a week, set up by a jazzman and bought used. I set up my second with the pickups and poles much closer to the strings, and guess what? Its sound is a lot more vintage -- highly sensitive for fingerpicking, easily overdriven, burning and round. Moral: If you want a cooler, tighter modern sound, lower the pickups and poles; you like it hot, as for boogie blues or classic rock, raise 'em. Please note it sounds so good either way that I'm keeping both setups.

I've said what I have to say on this point below, and I'm not taking it back. Great guitars, great value. Anybody wants to ask me more, use my e-mail.

Think this one was made in 2001. Eastpointe neck, slightly rounder than on my other other Slingshot Custom (see review below). Three passive soapbar P-90s, Reverend phenolic laminate body -- semi-hollow, weight a mere 6 lb -- chrome hardware: Tele-type fixed bridge (no trem, unlike my Premium series), one volume and one tone knobs. Black finish on slightly pebbly surface, silver pickguard, black pickup covers; a sober yet luxurious look. I'm taking off a point because this axe doesn't have a switch to hook all three pickups or neck and bridge together, and the non-locking tuners, though good, aren't as good as the Sperzel locking tuners on my Premium. For the rest, it's an embodiment of innovative design and craftsmanship.

My repertoire runs from WC Handy to The Police, with a lot of Motown, Stax, Lowell George and Delta stuff, solo and mainly in open tunings with a slide. This is my second Slingshot Custom, bought sight unseen (not even a picture) off e-Bay. My only question was if it would sound as fabulous as my first -- like a great vintage strat, but with a rounder, fatter edge when you want it, and an overall tone that can best be described as "ringing". After playing a first show with it through a Microcube, the answer is yes. People walk across the room to listen to this axe, and stay. The sound with a slide is especially sweet, never too biting. Bass runs have a deep chunkiness. Hitting the strings hard gets fat overdrive from the pups. There is a little hiss at high-gain single-pickup settings, but I don't play high-gain much, and both double-pickup settings are noiseless and excellent -- the first quacks, the second rips. I can practically switch to any setting and know that it will work for a given tune, depending on my mood. Totally reliable sound.

As I said, I bought this used, and it was an education in how important setup can be. It arrived in mint condition, as promised, but setup was so screwed up that I sincerely thought it was a counterfeit -- bridge saddles slumped over, strings wrapped a dozen times around posts, pickups lowered too far down to work right. After two afternoons spent on intonation and adjustment, it plays like a dream. I'm using 10-46s instead of Reverend's usual 9-42s, and the neck relief is perfect for low action slide. Unlike some other axes, a Reverend CAN be set up right, because the components are all tops.

My business model is no backups and light gear. The main reason for a backup is to get a different sound, or you break a string. Well, the Slingshot Custom has loads of sounds, and playing barehanded as I do keeps string breaks down. Changing strings on this axe is simple anyway. So yes, I would and do depend totally on this instrument.

Joe Naylor is a prince. I've called him and his people for help, and everyone who picks up the phone in his shop has a working brain and a deep concern for customers. And hey, I bought both my Reverends used, so it's not like they're making more money off me, hmmm? I have no idea if my axes are under warranty, and frankly, I don't see anything that could break on them if I don't throw them under a moving truck.

I've been playing over 40 years, mainly semi-pro with occasional club and touring gigs, and nowadays I do frequent party shows and art gallery openings. Besides my Reverends I own several very sweet pieces, all maintained in ready-to-gig condition. I travel a lot, and whenever I travel I go to shops and play guitars I haven't tried before. There are many wonderful guitars out there now, and I've owned a few -- my benchmark is a 1992 Les Paul Standard -- but I have never played an axe that gives me the same thrill as my Reverends. They've become essential to my best performances, and that's why I bought another one. If I ever need still another one, I'll buy it in a shot. I do not think there is another guitar on the market that offers greater playing value and pleasure, period.

workhorse version, since discontinued, I got one of the last 10 - 20 that Reverend produced. Has regular heads, not the Sperzel locking tuners, I opted for the graphite saddle upgrade, and paid $90 US for very cool two tone Reverend hardshell case, otherwise standard slingshot custom, setup for 9-42 guage strings, no whammy bar, string-through body, chambered semi-hollowbody, has 6" mahogany block, aged maple neck, awesome acoustic tone played unplugged.

Goodies: graphite nut, smooth rosewood fingerboard. It seems like a kiddie guitar in that the frets seem closer together than a typical fender strat, though when I inquired about this was told that the scale length is standard strat scale, so must be optical illusion on my part. Nontheless this guitar is effortless to play. The tension is perfect, in that chords remain in tune regardless how I fret, yet the slinky feel is super, this guitar's strings are meant to be bent - never had a guitar that could do from 1/4 to whole note bends with subtle degree of variation, stay in tune, the guitar has a most unusual acoustic guitar voicing. When I first got the guitar there was some noticeable buzzing, guitar has since settled in. The guitar stays in tune, can do Drop D with 6th string easily. The guitar's intonation is bang on up and down the neck on all strings. Though it is very hard for an even-tempered scale guitar without the Buzz Feiten system to do a first position E, G, D chords that do not sound sour somewhere, this guitar passes this test with flying colors. How is this accomplished? Dunno, maybe the nut height is accurately set, maybe Reverend has adopted some of the Buzz Feiten concepts in nut placement, dunno , what I do know is that the guitar sounds good in all positions, unexpected. The body shape is unusual, took some time to get used to it, have had to adjust my right hand technique for playing near the bridge, as the metal rim is kinda rough at the end, my arm rubs against it - not so good - but only when picking/strumming near the bridge. Otherwise very comfortable, a joy to play standing up cause of the light weight. Very balanced distributed weight between neck and body, flat radius, kinda hard to use thumb to fret notes as the neck angle is not supportive of this, though I have gotten used to it, and it no longer bothers me. My only complaint is that I must use a light right hand touch, otherwise there will be buzzing. You might say I should raise the action, but luthier I took it to told me the setup was perfect, it is just the nature of this guitar. I deduct one point for this, otherwise this guitar is just about perfect.

Guitar has unusual voiced volume and tone controls - top end is preserved when turning down volume, tone controls also do not lose top end, very effective tone controls, light years ahead of the pots on the fender junker strats.

This guitar suits me unlike any other guitar that I have played. The sound samples of this guitar on the Reverend website do not do justice to what this guitar is capable of. The sound samples offer a kinda thin rockabilly sound, but this guitar is capable of much more than that. I get a deep, rich, focused acoustic-voiced sound, great using neck pickup for jazz , Knofler type of cluck in the 2 inbetween pickup positions, fender strat type of voicing, I love the passive voiced P-90 pickups. I have heard P-90's on a gibson guitar, but these pickups are much different sounding than that. In fact it is the most unusual sounding guitar I have ever heard in my life! It is impossible to get a harsh sound on this guitar, the sounds are sweet and sweeter, the top end is just gorgeous, the bottom end is full and rich. All 5 pickup positions are great sounding. The guitar has incredible sustain, sounds great clean and with a pedal pushing it into distortion realm. This guitar is not for everyone, my friend who is hard rock player did not like the sound, cause it is not punchy and powerful. But I love it, it is me all the way. The guitar is most unusual in another way, you can use fingerpicking style with great results, something that is almost impossible to do with most electric guitars. The sound of this guitar - at least to me - deserves a rating of 20, even though I am only allowed to give it a 10 - it is that pleasant to my ear. I love this guitar like no other, I will buy another one with a whammy bar, once I save the cash. By the way I had some guitarist friends over, played the Reverend sound samples, then played the guitar through several of my amps - Roland Jazz Chorus 120, Traynor tube 40 watt, and also my new modified 1971 Fender Twin - has 1965 Fender Vibroverb 15" JBL speaker, 1/2 power switch, EH power tubes, mesa boogie pre-amp tubes, J&J reverb tube - my friends said "Doesn't sound like the same guitar - are you sure this is the same guitar on the Reverend sound samples?" ha!!!The sound with the Reverend is the best sound I have ever heard in my life, the salesmen at the guitar store agreed with me (I sold the Traynor to get this fender twin as it made the traynor - a decent amp in its own right - sound like junk in comparison). The Reverend volume and tone controls - which are beautifully voiced - allow me to tailor the volume/tone to the room I am playing in without any loss of tone - Kudos to the chef!

love the tension, just perfect, never goes out of tune - how can this be? - graphite nut and saddles work great. Smooth on 1st and 6th string edges - no burrs, excellent setup, no discernible flaws, action is great, slinky like crazy.

no problems, have played live with it, audience drooling over sound, some members of audience told me they had never heard an electric guitar sound so good - better than Knofler's sound I was told - and hey I am not that good a guitarist - I credit the Reverend guitar for this.

great. I emailed Reverend several times, trying to determine which model to buy - Rocco or slingshot custom. I was asked questions about my style of playing, what kind of sound I was looking for, was told to try the Slingshot custom, am glad I went along, cause taking a chance on a guitar I had never heard (sound samples were not up on site when I bought the guitar), nor played, is risky business. But I was persuaded by the reviews in guitar player - Editor's pick - and the reviews here on harmony-central. THANKS ALOT guys! Reverend has a total refund policy up to 14 days - other than return shipping cost, so I took the plunge. I always get a reply to the email within 24 hours, usually the same day

been playing 30 years, have owned several fender junker strats, last one I junked had ash body, texas special pickups, also had fender strat with stock pickups. Both these guitars had only 1 out of 5 pickup positions that gave me any satisfaction, no comparison to this reverend slingshot custom, like comparing macdonald's burger to gourmet steak restaurant (am vegetarian last 3 years but you know what I mean). I love the feel of the neck, the sound is just awesome, I love this guitar, have even slept with it one night in a fit of neurotic glee. I also dumped my gibson nighthawk cause after I got the Reverend I never picked up the Gibson again with any satisfaction. Kinda makes a joke out of Fender. Would I buy it again? absolutely, in fact I will buy a 2nd one with the bigsby whammy bar, as soon as I save the cash. Makes almost every other guitar I have played sound like trash - with the exception of the most unusual and very similar sounding trisonic pickup equipeed Burns Cobra - check out that baby - for $425 CAD you will want to pawn your mother for it - but the Reverend is my #1 fave for now and forever

PS this guitar is great for women, cause the easy playability is exceptionally suited to a female, who has typically smaller hands than a man.

This review is for the Workhorse Series Slingshot Custom, Reverend's lower priced version; the only features missing from the Standard Version are locking tuners and 3 ply pickguard. I opted for a maple fingerboard. Has the same 3 P90 pickups. Hardtail bridge, phenolic resin body, mahogony center block, all the same as more expensive model. The Workhorse cost $150 less. Ordered mine in black. I really like the funky body shape, it has a cool vibe.

I have poured over the reviews for these guitars, almost all of which are highly favorable, and guess what, no surprises! This thing sounds amazing; it has the loudest "unplugged" sound of any electric guitar I have ever picked up, and when plugged in, look out! The neck, middle, and in between settings are all very Strat-like, but where it really differs is in the bridge position. This is an amazing bridge pickup sound. No icepick sounds here; it is bright, but very full and rich, and the tone control works great in all positions. Ans the combination of the solid mahogony and the hollow "wings" make for a rich, punchy sound that is hard to describe. This guitar will definately fulfill my needs for the classic rock, blues, and country stuff I play.

I ordered mine without a hardshell case, but it arrived beautifully packed, and was only slightly out of tune when unpacked. Action was low as requested, and intonation was good except for the low E string, which was playing sharp when fretted, but I've got that under control now. Everything was in good working order, except that there is a little static in the 5 way switch.

These guitars are so light and the materials so non-traditional that maybe they could be a little fragile to someone who beats hell out of their gear, but I foresee no problems, I am real easy on my guitars. Maybe some of the parts aren't as good quality as some other makes, I don't know, but for $559 I am really impressed; I would be confident to take it out without a backup, but I also have PRS McCarty that I take to every show. I get my money's worth out of the heavy-duty double gig bag I bought a few years ago!

I have dealt with Reverend before; I also have one of their amps, and had a problem with a non-functioning reverb when it shipped, and these guys are super responsive!

I'm an old guy, soon to be 55, been playing since the mid 60's. I,ve owned a lot of gear, currently have a PRS McCarty, a 50th Anniversary Strat, and a Warmoth parts Strat, and a Reverend Hellhound and Fender Blues Jr. om the amp side. I am sold on this Reverend stuff. They may cut a few corners here and there, but for a good reason; this stuff is SO AFFORDABLE. I have owned Boogie, Penn, and top line Fender amps, and custom shop Fender guitars, but this Reverend gear is incredibly good for the price.