The UFO guitarist who rose to fame during the '80s shred boom reveals his unlikely Southern rock hero, his holy trinity of desert-island discs, and more.
A sublime pairing: a vintage black-panel Princeton Reverb and a Jazzmaster. The amp's debut model year was 1964, six years after this offset guitar debuted at the NAMM show.
Let's take a look under this iconic Fender amp's hood and learn about its tonal quirks, easy mods, and more.
Fender's Princeton Reverb is an iconic tube amp that has been in production for almost 60 years. Intended to be a student and practice amp, the Princeton became widely popular among both professional and amateur players. Its strength lies in its simplicity and light weight, and in this column, I'll share my insights on how to get great tone from this model.
<p>The Princeton was introduced in 1964, in the black-panel era of Fender, as a single-channel combo powered by two 6V6 tubes, producing 12 watts. It came loaded with either a 10" Jensen or Oxford speaker, inside a small 9 1/2"x16"x20" cabinet. The amp weighs only 27 1/2 pounds and can easily be carried in one arm with a guitar case in the other. The controls consist of volume, treble, bass, reverb, and tremolo speed and intensity. Its design changed slightly during the silver-panel era, in 1968, and then remained consistent until 1981, when Paul Rivera came along and introduced the Princeton Reverb II, a great but different amp that was produced until 1986.</p>
<p>Princetons sounded very consistent through the '60s and '70s. In 2008, Fender reissued a printed-circuit-board-based Princeton that also cosmetically and tone-wise stayed close to the original. It, too, became very popular, and in 2013, Fender added a '68 Custom Princeton Reverb with the vintage-correct, transition-era aluminum frame. It has a small twist in the circuit design that sounds wilder, with more break-up, which is not vintage-correct but <em>is</em> popular and relevant.</p>
<p>Since I started watching vintage Fender amp prices around 1998, Princeton Reverbs have cost more than Super Reverbs and Twin Reverbs. The most sought-after '64 to '67 models, with Jensen speakers, often cost $3,500. More affordable push/pull boost models from 1978/'79 go for $700 to $800. If you install a good speaker in a push/pull version, you will almost have a black-panel Princeton Reverb in terms of sound.<br></p>
<blockquote>Unlike most other Fender amps, the Princeton survived the silver-panel era without major changes.</blockquote><p>Now, let's look at the differences and similarities between the Princeton and other vintage dual-channel Fenders from the AB763 circuit family. They all share the same tone stack, preamp design, and use push/pull class-AB power amps with negative feedback. These similarities explain why Fender's black-panel and silver-panel amps sound very much alike. There are some differences, though. For example, the Princeton sounds smoother than the Deluxe Reverb's vibrato channel, because the Princeton does not have the 47 pF bright cap. That allows many players to easily find a sweet tone in the Princeton, which pairs well with various guitars and takes pedals splendidly, too.</p><p>Another of the Princeton Reverb's departures from Fender's other AB763 amps is bias-based tremolo, versus optical tremolo. Bias-based tremolo is capable of a deeper sweep, since it almost turns the power tubes off by changing their bias level while in use—but only if the bias is set correctly. A too-hot bias will weaken the tremolo. It's also fun to experiment with the tremolo's character by varying GZ34 or 5U4GB rectifier tubes, or changing out the 6V6 power tubes.</p>
<p>All class-AB amps have phase inverters whose purpose is to duplicate and invert the original signal into two separate signal chains that are fed into each of the two (or four) power tubes. In the Princeton, there's a budget-level phase inverter based on only one-half of a 12AX7 tube, compared to a full-current-strong 12AT7 in other AB763 amps. This results in more phase-inverter distortion—particularly noticeable as loose and farty bass notes. This also explains why the Princeton Reverb has only 12 watts of power compared to the Deluxe Reverb's 22-watt output, although both use 6V6 power tubes. So when the Princeton is cranked, it tends to sound a bit browner than the Deluxe Reverb, with more breakup in the lower frequencies and a mid-focused tone. But at lower, clean volumes it still delivers a more typical scooped AB763 sound.</p>
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<p>I like to keep Princetons stock for practice and home use, because I want early break-up. Those who use a Princeton onstage and need more clean headroom may consider installing a 12" speaker. This mod is really simple and there's no need to expand the speaker hole in the baffle. You only need to drill new screw holes and make sure the speaker frame does not collide with the output transformer or reverb tank. Most speakers, except those with the biggest ceramic magnets, like the EVM12L or Eminence Swamp Thang, will fit. Another easy mod is to insert a Deluxe Reverb output transformer. This will firm things up even more. Finally, installing a 25k mid pot (or switch) on the back is a must-have mod for all Fender amps lacking a mid-control pot. That'll fatten this literal lightweight up!</p>
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person playing guitar
Photo by Facundo Aranda on Unsplash
Theory isn't always the answer, and it doesn't help in the ways that you imagine it would.
Beginner
Intermediate
- Develop a larger chord vocabulary
- Learn how to voice lead through a IIm7–V7–I progression.
- Understand how to alter dominant chords.
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We're going to look at a simple jazz progression and talk about the struggle to make sense of some of these moves in the context of music theory. I want you to leave this lesson with new ways to think about chord progressions, and perhaps a different way to think about music theory.
<p>Every year, I record something for the holidays to send to family and friends. It's almost always a solo guitar piece, or something I do alone with a backing track. It's a nice tradition that forces me to flex my chord chops in a way that I don't always get a chance to use during the year.</p><p>This year, I was approached by a vocalist that I had not worked with before to do a duet and I happily said yes. She wanted to cover the classic "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," which was a song that I had done a chord-melody version of years ago. When I went to lay down the chord tracks, I had a bunch of realizations that I wanted to roll into a lesson.</p>
The “Starter” Progression
<p>For "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," the singer asked to do it in G major. Being a pretty jazzy tune, it's grounded in the most common jazz progression, the IIm7–V7–I. In the case of G major, that's Am–D–G and since it's jazz, we're going to extend it into all 7th chords: Am7–D7–Gmaj7. <strong>Ex. 1</strong> shows you where I started.</p>Connecting Chords Ex. 1
<iframe src="https://www.soundslice.com/slices/V3lDc/embed/?top_controls=1&show_title=0" width="100%" height="500" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><p>One of the challenges for me was that I had worked up an arrangement years ago where I was playing the chords and the melody all at the same time. Now that I had a vocalist, I had to let her take the melody, and pick chords that didn't interfere with that melody. I also really wanted the chords to be more interesting than just the same stock shapes above, especially considering how often that progression came up in the song.</p>Let’s Connect
<p>A simple way that you can make your chords sound a bit more interesting is to connect the chords together in the <em>smoothest</em> way possible. This is called voice leading, and while you can get quite advanced about this, you can also do some incredibly simple voice leading that make a big impact. To begin with, let's just focus on the highest note in the chords, which in the case of Ex. 1, is 100 percent on the 2nd string. The top voice started with an E in the Am7, went down to a D in the D7, and then stayed put as a D in the Gmaj7.</p><p>Let's try something different. Let's connect the Am7 and D7 chords by keeping the E the same between the two chords. If we think about it as notes, it might get a little confusing, but if we look at closer, it's actually really simple. Just take the D7 chord you know and love and change the highest note from D to E. Don't change any of the other notes in the chords. That's it. Don't think about it any deeper than that. Just play it and listen to it (<strong>Ex. 2</strong>).</p>Connecting Chords Ex. 2
<iframe src="https://www.soundslice.com/slices/f3lDc/embed/?top_controls=1&show_title=0" width="100%" height="500" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><p>Sounds good, doesn't it? It's because you're only changing one note, and you're keeping that note consistent between the two chords, which in turn makes them connect with better voice leading. You only changed one note! Now let's throw the Gmaj7 back into the mix to hear what all three sound like together (<strong>Ex. 3</strong>).</p><div class="a_promo p_in-content"><div class='pg_in-content_1'></div></div>
Connecting Chords Ex. 3
<iframe src="https://www.soundslice.com/slices/D3lDc/embed/?top_controls=1&show_title=0" width="100%" height="500" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Simple to See & Hard to Communicate
<p>The good news is that by changing your D7 chord to have an E as the highest note, you've made a more advanced V chord with interesting voice leading that sounds better. The downside is that you made the chord more complicated to name. This is one of the things that I was wrestling with as I was working out the arrangement. Many of these moves that I was doing in my progressions were actually really simple to explain if I didn't have analyze them with traditional music theory. I was just moving a finger here and there, picking notes that connected the chords, and grounding it all with things that sounded good.</p><p>I wondered what theory was good for, and why it mattered that Ex. 2 has a D9 chord? Music theory in this example is really a means for communication to the outside world. If it's just you at home, and there's nobody to talk to, you don't have to give the chord a name at all if you don't want to. You can do whatever it is that you want to do.</p><p>If you do have to talk about it, you'll need to pick some way of communicating what you played. One way is tab, and that's a really popular way to explain guitar music. You could also do traditional written notation. You can also give it a chord symbol, like D9. The point I am trying to illustrate here is that the thing that inspired us to make this more complex named chord wasn't the name; that was only an artifact of having to label it and communicate it. We just wanted to connect those two chords together and make them sound more interesting.</p>What Else Can We Do?
<p>Throughout the song, I came back to that simple progression what felt like 100 times. To keep it fresh, I tried to change things up a little. Here are a few ways that I took that progression and generated more ideas. One time through the progression, I wanted the top note to not move at all, so, I kept the E the same in all three chords (<strong>Ex. 4</strong>).</p>Connecting Chords Ex. 4
<iframe src="https://www.soundslice.com/slices/M3lDc/embed/?top_controls=1&show_title=0" width="100%" height="500" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><p>I love how the top note grounds the progression together as the rest of the notes move around. Pinning the E to all three chords resulted in the progression turning into Am7–D9–Gmaj13. A really simple concept resulted in more advanced chords. Don't let that stop you or scare you. Play the chords. Listen to them. If you like them, use them. The theory is only there when you need to convey them as chord symbols. It's absolutely possible that someone will listen to you play them, ask what they were and you'll simply say, "I took these basic chords and refigured them to have E as the top note for each." Not knowing that it's a Gmaj13–or why–shouldn't stop you from playing them, or exploring this concept of messing around with basic chords to extend them. Truth be told, there's a zillion different ways to play Am7–D9–Gmaj13, so, just labeling your progression as such won't fully explain what you did. Chord diagrams are actually a much better way to do that. Theory is so often not the answer.</p><p>Let's try the same progression and this time, let's pin the D and connect it to every chord—we will end up with <strong>Ex. 5</strong>:</p>Connecting Chords Ex. 5
<iframe src="https://www.soundslice.com/slices/k3lDc/embed/?top_controls=1&show_title=0" width="100%" height="500" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><p>I really like this progression because the first chord just sounds beautiful as an Am11—it's one of my favorite chords and I use it all the time. But it's still a IIm–V7–I.</p><p>Let's try a different idea. Instead of pinning a single note in the chords, let's try to descend from E down to D. To do so, we will end up with a really neat chord, the D7b9, which by itself isn't exactly beautiful, but in the context of this progression works so well. It works because you get E–Eb–D as the top voice of the chords, stepping down by half-steps. Check it out as Am7–D7b9–Gmaj7 (<strong>Ex. 6</strong>).</p><div class="a_promo p_in-content"><div class='pg_in-content_2'></div></div>
Connecting Chords Ex. 6
<iframe src="https://www.soundslice.com/slices/43lDc/embed/?top_controls=1&show_title=0" width="100%" height="500" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><p>That one was about descending the top voice. Let's try one last idea where we ascend it and see what happens (<strong>Ex. 7</strong>).</p>Connecting Chords Ex. 7
<iframe src="https://www.soundslice.com/slices/y3lDc/embed/?top_controls=1&show_title=0" width="100%" height="500" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><p>We start with the Am7 with the E on top and head into our next new chord, the D7#9, adding an E# (or F) to the top of the chord. We finish it off with a physically hard chord, still a Gmaj7, but in a more spread voicing. You end up with a beautiful ascending voice of E–E#–F#.</p><p>If that felt evil and unplayable, you can get the same effect with <strong>Ex. 8</strong>, which doesn't have exactly the same voice leading but does retain the top note and is still a very nice way to go.</p>Connecting Chords Ex. 8
<iframe src="https://www.soundslice.com/slices/w3lDc/embed/?top_controls=1&show_title=0" width="100%" height="500" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><p>To close with, let's look at a much more advanced example—well, actually, it's only advanced when we have to name it. The concept is really simple. Instead of moving the note on the second string around to connect our chords together, this time I'm going to smoothly connect the bass note. Check out <strong>Ex. 9</strong>.</p>Connecting Chords Ex. 9
<iframe src="https://www.soundslice.com/slices/Y3lDc/embed/?top_controls=1&show_title=0" width="100%" height="500" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><p>Our progression changed from a standard Am7–D7–Gmaj7 to an Am11–Ab7b5–Gmaj7! This is a really cool technique called a tritone substitution where Ab7 can substitute for D7 since it's a tritone (b5) away. But don't overthink it, the top three strings of the Ab7b5 are the same as the top three strings of the D7 it replaces. We simply connect the bass notes down in half-steps to create a smooth bass line. Since the top notes are the same ones that we already know and love, our ears fully accept it. You could even reasonably call this a D7/Ab and you wouldn't be wrong. You can use this approach (and these chord shapes) for any IIm7–V7–I where your IIm7 chord starts with a 6th-string root like each of our previous examples. And there is more we can do—try making some new chord progressions and applying the principles learned here and see what you come up with.</p>Summing It Up
<p>You can do so much with that simple progression just by being creative. Changing one note in the chord can have a big impact on the sound, and if you try to apply some principles such as keeping a single note consistent between the chords, or trying to ascend or descend the top note, you can end up with really wonderful chords that all fit the progression but give you a ton of new sonic options.</p><div class="a_promo p_in-content"><div class='pg_in-content_2'></div></div>
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"I Against I" features Fever 333 vocalist Jason Aalon Butler in a new live quarantine video that captures the raw energy of the band.
Lamb of God has premiered a scorching cover of the Bad Brains classic "I Against I" featuring Fever 333 vocalist Jason Aalon Butler in a new live quarantine video that captures the raw energy and spirit of this cult classic.
Lamb of God - I Against I (Live Quarantine Video) ft. FEVER 333
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e4181577191a1bdd81419685536e9b58"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NLg6R8NfJMk?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>Lamb of God vocalist Randy Blythe states, "The idea to cover "I Against I" goes back at least 20 years to a camping trip the band was on. Mark & I were sitting in the back of our buddy's Jeep ripping through the mountains, Bad Brains was cranking on the stereo, & I was singing along to that particular song. Mark looked over at me & said "We should cover that tune." So we thought about it for a couple of decades and finally got around to doing it for the Burn The Priest Legion: XX record (hey, sometimes we move a little slow...)</p><p>As we all know, this pandemic has sucked for live music, but the quarantine jams bands have been doing have been pretty fun, especially when you bring in guests. I saw Fever 333 for the first time at the Sonic Temple fest— I had never listened to them, but I was blown away by their live show. I remember thinking "Man, these dudes are WILD- their energy reminds me of the punk shows I saw in the 80's" and I've been friends with those dudes from that day. I even texted Darryl from Bad Brains that afternoon to tell him to check them out. It was only natural to ask Jason to join us & bring that energy to this song by the almighty Bad Brains, my favorite band of all time."</p><p>Fever 333 vocalist Jason Aalon Butler says, "It is truly an honor to be a part of this one as I have the utmost respect for Randy and the boys since becoming homies after having my mind blown when I looked over at the side of the stage at Sonic Temple Fest and saw him watching us play. It's been a pleasure getting to know him and an honor to rock L.O.G. celebrating one of the most important punk rock/musical acts of all time Bad Brains. From legends to legends to the student. All love."</p><p><strong>For more information: <br><a href="https://www.lamb-of-god.com/" target="_blank">Lamb of God</a></strong></p>
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Photo 1 — Though it could present a challenge when palm muting, the bridge-integrated optical pickup on this Tom Lieber Spellbinder bass is almost fully shielded from ambient light.
Photo by Milo Stewart Jr.
Traveling beyond the world of pickup magnets to an optical galaxy for musicians.
I wrote a column touching on optical pickups a few years back ["Piezo and Optical Bass Pickups," October 2012], but every once in a while a new or upgraded concept enters the stage that warrants digging deeper. So, to refresh, what sets optical pickups apart from standard magnetic pickups?
<p>Our classic combination of magnet and coil comes with a trait you can call either character or a limitation: a pickup-specific roll-off frequency that cuts off the upper range, mainly depending on the electric, magnetic, and geometric specs of the coil. Many of my non-musician friends are surprised that traditional magnetic pickups are commonly rated as low as 5 kHz, and ask why they should pay attention to the upper frequency limits when getting new hi-fi gear. Replying with "we have crash cymbals, too," is sometimes enough of an answer, but if they saw a real magnetic pickup's frequency-response curve, their hi-fi world would simply collapse. And—especially unfortunate for us bassists—these classic, magnetic designs also have limits in their lower frequency response.</p><p>Piezo pickups breaks these barriers on both ends of the spectrum. <em>However</em>, piezos often come with a rather harsh and dominating upper end that's not always pleasing to everyone's ears—especially when used with steel strings.</p>
<blockquote>It may come as a surprise to some, but optical pickups actually first appeared in 1969 at the summer NAMM show in Chicago.</blockquote><p>This is where optical pickups chime in. It may come as a surprise to some, but optical pickups actually first appeared in 1969 at the summer NAMM show in Chicago. A patent was granted to inventor Ron Hoag in 1973, but with Hoag's eventual retirement and his patents running out, the only optical pickups on the market in recent years have been made by LightWave Systems, for exclusive use in their own line of basses. However, this was different in their early years, when Lieber Guitars collaborated with Stanley Clarke and equipped a Spellbinder bass in 2001 with LightWave's bridge and <em>massive</em> circuit board <strong>(</strong><strong>Photos 1 and 2)</strong>.</p><p>One of the basic advantages of optical pickups is that their frequency range is theoretically unlimited—far out on both ends of our audible spectrum. Our hi-fi friends would be overwhelmed by the frequency response curve. And while every magnetic pickup sucks vibrational energy out of our strings—whether we switch them on or not—there is no interference between the pickup and string in any form with optical pickups (theoretical radiation or light pressure aside, of course).</p><p>In the same way we have different types of magnetic pickups with different electric and magnetic arrangements, there are also specifics that set optical pickups apart from each other. They all require some basics, like a light source and a light sensor, and can operate with visible or invisible and wide or extremely limited frequency ranges of light, but there are some basic constructional differences.<span></span><br></p>
<img
class="rm-lazyloadable-image rm-shortcode" lazy-loadable="true"
data-runner-src="https://www.premierguitar.com/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNjAzMjA4MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NTA5MjQxOX0.w_lWyQmajLp1OFdlfLw1aFgoGzhEgfbaUwgY8RSZR58/image.jpg?width=980"
id="08689"
width="6096"
height="4204"
data-rm-shortcode-id="2e39c5ec805f735a6a0d924f6938822f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Early LightWave pickup system bass guitar" />
Early LightWave pickup systems came with a huge circuit board that didn't leave much wood on the backside.
Photo by Milo Stewart Jr.
<p>Until recently, all available optical pickups were built for "transmission" mode, which is an arrangement where the source and sensor are on opposing sides of the string. What the sensor "sees" is the varying amount of shade from the vibrating string. Sounds simple, but the problem here is the positioning and calibration of the elements. As the string vibrates, there shouldn't be a complete coverage of light on the sensor. The result would be comparable to common clipping and you can't simply blow up the sensor's area to allow for more amplitude since your signal-to-noise ratio goes down significantly. The amplitude limits are why these pickups are often positioned close to—or even built into—the bridge and fully covered to shield them from ambient light. Worth noting is that even though the pickup elements are actually rather small, the large-ish covers required for shielding can get in the way when palm muting.</p><p>Light can sense all kinds of magnetic or non-magnetic string materials, so it's easy to switch between roundwound, flats, or even nylons, but this still often requires different setups. In transmission mode, you'll need to recalibrate whenever you're switching string gauges or readjust the bridge to optimize source and sensor usage. That said, the LightWave system's internal circuitry nowadays can support this setup process with LEDs that shine when the bridge sensors are correctly adjusted.</p>A second optical-pickup construction and design arrangement is called "reflection" mode, which we'll discuss next month. Reflection mode <em>does</em> make some of the aforementioned transmission-mode drawbacks easier to deal with, but the arrangement also comes with a load of new drawbacks of its own.
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Rev recasts its classic offset with a rocking pickup complement that can play it cool or bring the attitude.
Very good build quality. Versatile sonic capabilities from a clever pickup and control complement.
Slightly rough fret ends in a few spots.
$1,099
Reverend Six Gun HPP
reverendguitars.com
4
4.5
4.5
4.5
The silhouette of the new Six Gun HPP is, at this point, a familiar shape—and arguably a classic. It's the foundation for many different Reverend models and clearly a versatile platform for evolution and experimentation. The updated pickup configuration and other new features of Reverend's offset workhorse make the $1,099 Korea-built Six Gun an impressive performer for the price.
Horse P-Power
<p>If you haven't yet decoded the Six Gun's handle, the HPP stands for humbucker/P-90/P-90. The pickups are designed by Reverend. An alnico 5 HA5 humbucker (wound with 43 AWG wire) registers DC resistance readings of 12.65k ohms, while each of the alnico 5 9A5 P-90s register 7.48k ohms. They're all routed through a master volume control with a treble-bleed network, a tone control, and Reverend's useful passive bass contour, which rolls off low end. A 5-way selector switch opens up the possibility of combined bridge/middle and middle/neck pickup combos.</p>Reverend Six Gun HPP Review
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https://soundcloud.com/premierguitar/sets/reverend-six-gun-hpp-review" width="100%" height="300" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7b9da3ba98bb80daf479cf6ebd4aab00"></iframe><p class="caption"><em>Recorded with Reverend Six Gun, into a Friedman Mini Dirty Shirley head, recorded via a Mesa CabClone IR+ (2x12 cab IR with Celestion Blue and G12H speakers).<br></em><strong>Clip #1 — Cleanish:</strong> From bridge to neck in all five positions with the Bass Contour control fully clockwise. Then from neck to bridge with the control fully counter-clockwise, then briefly back fully up on the bridge pickup to finish. All on the Friedman's low-gain setting.<br><strong>Clip #2 — Crunch:</strong> Bridge then neck, on the Friedman's medium-gain setting.<br><strong>Clip #3 — Driven:</strong> Bridge pickup, all controls on full; then neck pickup at Bass Contour minimum, then maximum. All on the Friedman's high-gain setting.</p><p>The body is crafted from solid korina, carved with rib and forearm contours, and our test model was dressed in Reverend's super-cool black-to-green avocado burst finish with white top binding. (Midnight black, coffee burst, and chronic blue finishes are also available). The guitar weighs around 8.2 pounds, which some might consider heavy, but it doesn't feel like a boat anchor, by any means.<br></p>
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<p>Reverend has been hip to roasted maple for a while, and it is used here for the bolt-on neck, which is shaped into a relatively slim, rounded-C profile and capped with a roasted maple fretboard that's been sliced from the neck blank and re-affixed after installation of the dual-action truss rod. The process eliminates a skunk stripe on the back of the neck, giving the Six Gun a nice handcrafted look. The 25 ½" scale makes the neck feel spacious. And the 22 medium-jumbo frets, which are nicely dressed at the crowns, make it feel smooth and suited to string bending. A few frets felt a little rough at the fretboard edges, but altogether, the neck feels and plays great.</p><blockquote>Crafty use of the bass contour control can transform the character of each pickup. </blockquote><p>Our review Six Gun HPP arrived well setup and more-or-less in tune right out of the included, two-tone, teardrop hardshell case. It also <em>stayed</em> in tune after a long opening round of playing, including moderate vibrato use. The vibrato, by the way, is a Wilkinson WVS50 IIK two-point vibrato that delivers smooth, even action and great return-to-pitch stability. Tuners are Reverend's locking Pin-Lock design, and the nut's made from synthetic bone. There's also a retainer bar to help maintain tension on the high-E, B, and G strings.</p>
Shoot Out at the Pickup Corral
<p>In addition to being exceedingly playable, the Six Gun HPP offers a wide, adaptable sonic palette. I played the Six Gun through a Marshall-style Friedman Small Box and a tweed Deluxe-style 1x12 combo, and the HPP was a great match for both. The bridge humbucker is a rock machine at heart, with lots of grunt and sizzle that adds beef and presence to overdriven lead excursions. But it cleans up gracefully, too, with volume attenuation, and has a touch of mid-forward, cocked-wah tonality that brims with attitude in clean and dirty applications. The P-90s are also capable rockers—especially when driving an amp turned up to loud and dirty levels. They add a little more grit and bite to the brew, too, which broadens the guitar's character considerably.</p>All five pickup positions sound great with the bass contour knob fully up, but crafty use of the control can transform the character of each pickup. Wind it back a bit and the humbucker takes on a brighter, slightly thinner, more P-90-ish character that's still thicker than a coil-split humbucker. The same setting gives the P-90s characteristics of a fat-Strat pickup, and in this mode they can generate funky Knopfler-esque tones from the 2nd and 4th positions, lithe rhythm tones, and nice jangle and twang sounds.The Verdict
<p>Well designed, well made, and well setup right out of the case, the Six Gun HPP impresses not only for overall quality but for sonic versatility as well. It's an easy and fast-feeling instrument, and well worth investigating for its crossover appeal and chameleonlike tone capabilities.</p><div class="a_promo p_in-content"><div class='pg_in-content_2'></div></div>
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