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NBD!!

AngusHasMoxie

AngusHasMoxie

Mar 11, 2013
461
595
Easthampton, MA
Disclosures
Formerly endorsed by Carvin, Basson and Dimarzio
#1
Been doing a lot of research on basses with the intention of picking up a 'higher end' bass... I've never been a huge fan of the traditional Fender shapes, always felt they were a little sterile. Skulking through B stocks on MF and... BAM!
HwrKYWf.jpg

30zBoyt.jpg

It's a Reverend Mercalli 4, in Metallic Copper Fire, which in person looks like a Salmon flake pink.

Looks like a mint condition customer return, MF took off almost $200 saying it had some scratches on the pickguard and a paint defect on the back. The scratches were a 'Whatever, it's gonna happen anyway' thing for me, but try as I might, I can't see anything wrong with the paint job. So I'm super happy!

Sending it to my tech this week, definitely needs a setup, but I love the feel of the neck (I was really worried about that more than anything) and I really like the metal flake paint job. The body shape and contour is something I've never seen before, so I'm still getting used to it. Love it so far.
 
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#2
AngusHasMoxie said:
Been doing a lot of research on basses with the intention of picking up a 'higher end' bass... I've never been a huge fan of the traditional Fender shapes, always felt they were a little sterile. Skulking through B stocks on MF and... BAM!
HwrKYWf.jpg

30zBoyt.jpg

It's a Reverend Mercalli 4, in Metallic Copper Fire, which in person looks like a Salmon flake pink.

Looks like a mint condition customer return, MF took off almost $200 saying it had some scratches on the pickguard and a paint defect on the back. The scratches were a 'Whatever, it's gonna happen anyway' thing for me, but try as I might, I can't see anything wrong with the paint job. So I'm super happy!

Sending it to my tech this week, definitely needs a setup, but I love the feel of the neck (I was really worried about that more than anything) and I really like the metal flake paint job. The body shape and contour is something I've never seen before, so I'm still getting used to it. Love it so far.
Click to expand...
Nice. I likke the specs and esthecis of these.
 
#6
Sweet! I scored a discounted reverend thundergun off of ebay myself, which has the same/very similar pickups. (It definitely smashed on the back like someone dropped it, but that stuff doesn't bother me.)

These are nice. The sound is... clean and modern, the neck feels great, it stays in tune and feels solid. You can get a nice variety of tones with the blend knob and pickups.

I still like my P more, but that comes down to preference and not quality.
 
#11
Update: Uhhh...
nOd6Evb.jpg


So, much to my dismay upon further inspection and playing, I found out two things about my new Reverend:

A.) It was not new.
I could see gunk on the frets, and tiny little spots here and there that told me one thing very clearly: This bass had been played by someone, and quite a bit. It was for sure a customer return, not a 'B-stock' warehouse item.
B.) It was defective.
The first day, I plugged it in, and it sounded great. No question. The next day, went to play some more, and pffffttttt. The best way to describe the way it sounded was that it was an active bass with a near flat battery. No punch, no low, no definition. Utterly crap. I took a quick look at the electronics, but I wasn't about to fuss around with something in it's return window.

So I now had suspicion that it was a customer return, and a motive for a customer return. I took this to MF, and after some insisting on my part that they sold me a product by withholding information about it, they took it back, and sent me a brand new one, for +$20. So I got a brand new Reverend for about $160 off.

Played it with the band last night, and Wowzers. This thing sounds fantastic. I'm very lucky to be in a band where my other members really want to hear the bass, and this thing brings the thunder more than my other basses.

However, the thing that sold me on the defective one and why I wanted the same model was the neck. It is butter. Reverend did a fantastic job with the design and feel of the neck. It took a little getting used to the string spacing, but after about an hour I felt like I've been playing it all my life. It felt suspiciously as good as the neck on the Sadowsky I got the chance to play a few weeks ago.

Couldn't recommend it more. Not sure how I feel about MF's customer experience overall, but that is a story for another time.
 
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#13
I just got a Mercalli 4 about two weeks ago. Got it new from MF. No problems and a good setup right off the bat. I couldn't agree more with your assessment: great, punchy tone and VERY playable neck. Sounds great and looks great too.

I was a little concerned before ordering that it's made in S. Korea (although it's an American company), but the build quality easily matches my US made Fenders.
 
#16
Dale Griffith said:
I just got a Mercalli 4 about two weeks ago. Got it new from MF. No problems and a good setup right off the bat. I couldn't agree more with your assessment: great, punchy tone and VERY playable neck. Sounds great and looks great too.

I was a little concerned before ordering that it's made in S. Korea (although it's an American company), but the build quality easily matches my US made Fenders.
Click to expand...

Are you kidding? Their quality is right up there and has been for awhile.
 
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