On the bench today I have one of my own guitars, a Reverend Slingshot.
Reverend is a Warren, MI owned company that sells great guitars and backs it up with top notch, personal customer service. The Slingshot is from their now discontinued US made line. These are semi hollow guitars with a string through strat style bridge, a hi impact injection molded outer rim, and were available with several different laminate or metal tops.
This particular finish is known as Bugeye Black Chrome, a highly reflective dimpled surface that looks as amazing under stage lights as it does outside. My band just landed a gig at Grand Rapids Festival of the Arts, and i was looking for something to make a big visual impact. This guitar and the customized amp i'm bringing (later blog) should do the trick. When i got her out of the case she looked sharp, but needed some TLC. The strings were shot, the fretboard and frets were cruddy, the 4th and 5th strings were pinging in the nut, and the action was rubbery and uncomfortably high.
Since i was the last guy to play this guitar, i was kind of surprised at the condition. Because Reverend's US models have been accruing value, i bought one of their Korean made models (a Volcano) to use for gigs and rehearsal, and have left the slingshot on the shelf for over 2 years. Apparently, i played the crap out of it, detuned the strings, and put it in the case. I'm sure i had all the best intentions to prepare it for long term storage, but probably forgot to do so once i settled into the volcano.
This particular finish is known as Bugeye Black Chrome, a highly reflective dimpled surface that looks as amazing under stage lights as it does outside. My band just landed a gig at Grand Rapids Festival of the Arts, and i was looking for something to make a big visual impact. This guitar and the customized amp i'm bringing (later blog) should do the trick. When i got her out of the case she looked sharp, but needed some TLC. The strings were shot, the fretboard and frets were cruddy, the 4th and 5th strings were pinging in the nut, and the action was rubbery and uncomfortably high.
Since i was the last guy to play this guitar, i was kind of surprised at the condition. Because Reverend's US models have been accruing value, i bought one of their Korean made models (a Volcano) to use for gigs and rehearsal, and have left the slingshot on the shelf for over 2 years. Apparently, i played the crap out of it, detuned the strings, and put it in the case. I'm sure i had all the best intentions to prepare it for long term storage, but probably forgot to do so once i settled into the volcano.
Here's a close up of the grunginess of the frets and board:
Very dull and oxidized frets and the residue and oils fingers leave behind make the neck feel sticky and inhibit fast runs. This isn't the worst i've seen, but it still needs a good cleaning to make it play efficiently. During my saturday guitar sales/repair gig at Farrow's music, i saw a lot of this. One customer made his living as an auto mechanic, and would come home, grab his acoustic, and start banging away without washing his hands. He had a layer of oil, skin, and grease built up almost to the level of the fret tops! I had to scrape it away with a plastic putty knife before i could do anything else. yarg! Fortunately, this guitar doesn't need that kind of drastic solution.
I stopped here, about 1/2 way through the fret polishing process to snap a picture. Haven't touched the fingerboard yet, but look at those frets shine! 4 ought steel wool and a little elbow grease does the trick. Stewart MacDonald's fingerboard guards (see photo) really save a lot of time and potential wear on the wood. They certainly fall into the "why didn't i think of that" category. Now that the the frets are clean, i can evaluate the amount of wear and pitting. Everything looks pretty good, and most of the frets are wearing evenly, something that can be attributed to a good set up (albeit a little high) and an exemplary original fret install, crown, and dress at the factory. Okay. Time to make the rest of the neck look pretty as well.
Pausing here for another pic. while a modest amount of lemon oil softens the grime and treats the rosewood. I am especially fond of the well defined grain pattern on this guitar; a very nice organic contrast to the sharp angles and shiny surfaces of the body. Joe Naylor's background in industrial design is lucidly detailed in the shape and construction of this guitar.
Now of course, a little more elbow grease. The best tool i've ever used for this job is an old worn out toothbrush. I like the way the flared out bristles dig into the joint between the fret and the fingerboard. After a little confusion over which toothbrush was from daddy's toolkit and which one belonged in the mouth of my 2 and a half year old, i decided to hack the end off this one with my nut slotting saw.
Very dull and oxidized frets and the residue and oils fingers leave behind make the neck feel sticky and inhibit fast runs. This isn't the worst i've seen, but it still needs a good cleaning to make it play efficiently. During my saturday guitar sales/repair gig at Farrow's music, i saw a lot of this. One customer made his living as an auto mechanic, and would come home, grab his acoustic, and start banging away without washing his hands. He had a layer of oil, skin, and grease built up almost to the level of the fret tops! I had to scrape it away with a plastic putty knife before i could do anything else. yarg! Fortunately, this guitar doesn't need that kind of drastic solution.
I stopped here, about 1/2 way through the fret polishing process to snap a picture. Haven't touched the fingerboard yet, but look at those frets shine! 4 ought steel wool and a little elbow grease does the trick. Stewart MacDonald's fingerboard guards (see photo) really save a lot of time and potential wear on the wood. They certainly fall into the "why didn't i think of that" category. Now that the the frets are clean, i can evaluate the amount of wear and pitting. Everything looks pretty good, and most of the frets are wearing evenly, something that can be attributed to a good set up (albeit a little high) and an exemplary original fret install, crown, and dress at the factory. Okay. Time to make the rest of the neck look pretty as well.Pausing here for another pic. while a modest amount of lemon oil softens the grime and treats the rosewood. I am especially fond of the well defined grain pattern on this guitar; a very nice organic contrast to the sharp angles and shiny surfaces of the body. Joe Naylor's background in industrial design is lucidly detailed in the shape and construction of this guitar.
Now of course, a little more elbow grease. The best tool i've ever used for this job is an old worn out toothbrush. I like the way the flared out bristles dig into the joint between the fret and the fingerboard. After a little confusion over which toothbrush was from daddy's toolkit and which one belonged in the mouth of my 2 and a half year old, i decided to hack the end off this one with my nut slotting saw.
Nice clean playable board.
This is a great, simple way to breathe life into a guitar you're getting tired of or struggling with. I'm surprised that more shops don't do this to their inventory on a regular basis or as a courtesy when someone walks out the door with a new-but-played instrument. Now for the techie stuff:
The action needed to be brought down. I'm guessing that i was still under the "get under the string" mindset when i set the slingshot up last. After my set up and repair course at The Chicago School of Guitar Making , i've really refined my expectations of relief and set up. Finding the perfect medium between the least forgivable amount of relief and string height always brings the most out of any guitar or bass.
But first, a nice shot of the top that i feel communicates the idea of bugeye BLACK chrome. i was trying to capture some of the weirdly prismatic droplets of guitar polish as they dried on the top. Not a complete success, but it does illustrate another facet of the extremely groovy future alien design vibe.
Once the polish was gone, i set about widening and flaring the back side of the nut slots, restringing, and dropping the saddle radius down to a less rubbery height. None of that photographs particularly well. (lol) I did find that there was a significant amount of backbow already preloaded into the truss rod which was causing a slight fretting out of the 3rd string at the 9th and 10th fret. after rechecking the saddle radius, decided to try easing a little relief back into the neck. Just one minor problem:
That first string tree was in the way of all of my truss rod adjustment tools. Luckily, i still had the original bill of sale and Reverend "Standard Guitar" kit, and found the hex wrench that was included with the sale. i think i backed it off about half a turn, reset the intonation, and had it. the string through and strat bridge make for an exceptionally solid and precise set up.
The action needed to be brought down. I'm guessing that i was still under the "get under the string" mindset when i set the slingshot up last. After my set up and repair course at The Chicago School of Guitar Making , i've really refined my expectations of relief and set up. Finding the perfect medium between the least forgivable amount of relief and string height always brings the most out of any guitar or bass.
But first, a nice shot of the top that i feel communicates the idea of bugeye BLACK chrome. i was trying to capture some of the weirdly prismatic droplets of guitar polish as they dried on the top. Not a complete success, but it does illustrate another facet of the extremely groovy future alien design vibe.
Once the polish was gone, i set about widening and flaring the back side of the nut slots, restringing, and dropping the saddle radius down to a less rubbery height. None of that photographs particularly well. (lol) I did find that there was a significant amount of backbow already preloaded into the truss rod which was causing a slight fretting out of the 3rd string at the 9th and 10th fret. after rechecking the saddle radius, decided to try easing a little relief back into the neck. Just one minor problem:
That first string tree was in the way of all of my truss rod adjustment tools. Luckily, i still had the original bill of sale and Reverend "Standard Guitar" kit, and found the hex wrench that was included with the sale. i think i backed it off about half a turn, reset the intonation, and had it. the string through and strat bridge make for an exceptionally solid and precise set up.I've forgotten now where i put my spec. sheet and notes, but i was able to significantly lower the action on this guitar just by dropping the saddle height and adding just a pinch of relief. Once i had it all strung up and intonated, i remembered why i love these axes so much. Solid, stable, and amazingly sweet. The Naylor designed P90's are unlike anything you'll find in a Gibson. Not as snotty or rawkin', but still full of single coil sparkle and song. Here's an improvised solo track i did a couple of years ago featuring just the slingshot and my funky old japanese tube amp:
That's the way she sounds, now check out how it looks on stage.
got a little video as well:
got a little video as well:
At least you can see that while the guitar player may not have always performed perfectly, the Slingshot did! I always enjoy working on these older Reverends and hope to do (and document) more in the future. Thanks for checking out the blog. Next time: see what i did to my pedal rigs to get 'em in shape for the high profile gig.
