December 7, 2017 (Reverend Guitar)

Picked up the new Reverend guitar last night. I'm really glad I decided to go with the Double Agent OG 20th Anniversary model. It's a solid instrument. Tone and sustain for days!
 

Reverend Double Agent OG 20th Anniversary
She's a Beaut!

I haven't tried it through my Carvin and fx pedal yet, but I've gone DI into my DAW using a few amp plugins and also played with it in Rocksmith 2014. Killer sound, and the CP90 and Hyper-Vintage Railhammer have a lot of character. Lots of versatility with this setup.

Setup and intonation were great right out of the box. That's a bit of a Reverend trademark since they do their own QC and setup at the Toledo, OH shop, rather than relying on the Korean manufacturer to handle all the QC. So yeah, frets feel good, no sharp bits, tension was pretty good, and the action is pretty low. I do sometimes like a slightly higher action, but it's nice to have a low action and little to no fret buzz (unless I mis-fret something while playing). The hardware is tight and solid, and the binding around the maple flame top looks crisp and clean. Lots of attention to detail. The guitar body size is a good fit for me, and I feel like it fits my arms well. The neck shape and size feel good to me, too. It's a "medium oval" maybe a bit of a C shape neck, not sure, but it feels good to me. In contrast, my Ibanez Arondite ADD120 (the destroyer-ish body) has a chunk D shaped neck, and it feels like a bit of a trunk. The Reverend neck is a bit thinner, but not as much as some strats, and nowhere near as thin as an Ibanez wizard neck. Fits my hand just fine (I have medium-ish hands) and fells pretty good to play.

I can see why many users seem to say you'd have to go around $2 to $3K to get the same consistency in quality from the big names (Fender, Gibson, Schecter, etc.) I can vouch for that, too. I've tried some PRS and Schecters in the shops at a similar price point, and sometimes the hardware or the switches were kind of loose and fiddley, sometimes solid, but it depended on the model. There was some lack of consistency across price points.

I wanted to get something with a good bit of versatility, and also be a quality instrument that I can grow into as I gradually make my way beyond being a novice player over the coming years. I think Reverend really nailed what I was looking for. Anyway, the Reverend is definitely a keeper, and I'll be using this guitar for many, many years to come. Extremely happy with my purchase.

And like I said, Oh Em Gee, tone and sustain for days!