Reverend Thundergun, passive, pure and potent.
I love mine.
(This guy goes a bit over the top, though.)
A Smoking Thundergun
If you've ever longed for a thud staff that combines the thunderous power of the classic bass sounds of yore with modern articulation and clarity, you might want to be under the gun--the Thundergun, that is! This beastly thud staff sounds as big as a banquet hall in Valhalla, but its voice also captures the nuances of your performance in hi-fi detail. And, it doesn't hurt that its offset body gives it an awesome retro-futuristic vibe!
Thor-Worthy Tonewoods
Speaking of the body, let's talk tonewoods. Like all Reverends, the Thundergun uses korina as its sonic building block. Korina shares many sound qualities with mahogany--warmth, punchiness, roundness, and evenness of response--but it has more harmonic content in the top end and is generally livelier all-around.
They pair this korina body with a five-piece neck made of korina and walnut, and this construction method gives it incredible stability, so you can rest assured that your setup will stay intact.
Pugnacious Pickups
The Thundergun has plenty of firepower thanks to its two gnarly pickups. The neck pickup is a Split Brick, and it sounds like a classic split-coil on steroids. As soon as my amp powered up, I felt compelled to play Sabbath, then to thump my way through a Motown tune, so it certainly evokes those classic tones. But, it has a bit more girth in the low-end, broader midrange response, and more chime in the trebles than an old-school split-coil. And, it also has a fantastically snappy, percussive attack. It's the sort of bass sound that's so solid you could build a house on it without sacrificing clarity or definition to do so.
Closer to the bridge, you'll find a Thick Brick humbucker, which has a bit of a brasher personality. Its low-end response is piano-like and full, its midrange is focused and biting, and the trebles have plenty of clank and snarl. In general, it has a bit more of a scooped sound, and it growls beautifully when you dig in. It presents a delightful contrast to the neck pickup, and it is supremely useful for cutting through a mix.
Best of all, you can blend the two pickups easily using the pickup pan knob. At the notch at twelve o'clock on the knob, both pickups are running full-bore. If you roll it all the way forward or backwards, you get just the neck or bridge. At all points in between, you hear a blend of the two. This simple tool gives you an extraordinary amount of tone-shaping ability. However, it's awfully hard to leave that point of equilibrium at noon, because it sounds so divine. You get the warmth and midrange punch of the neck pickup AND the booming lows and brashness of the bridge. The two sounds blend seamlessly, and you get full frequency response across the board AND exceptional clarity and articulation.
One Heck of a Neck
Instead of a chunky vintage-style neck, the fine folks at Reverend chose to outfit this puppy with a modern medium oval neck profile with a comfortable 1.65" nut width and a 12" radius. Reverend's medium oval profile is big enough to feel substantial but thin enough to feel fast and easy-to-play. The moderate nut width helps the neck hug the contours of your palm, and the 12" radius allows you to use a lower setup and bend strings more easily.
