REVIEW > REVEREND
but it was easy to pull back and tune the
guitar’s low end response with the amp to
my liking. And as I lowered it even further,
the lows gradually disappeared and revealed
the pickup’s striking highs and upper mid-
range—showing off the pickup’s impressive
range for jazz, funk, and country coverage.
The bridge pickup lived up to its potential as well—keeping the lows tight without
choking their sustain and allowing the high
end to breathe and expand with varied levels
of pick attack and bending. Switching to the
neck pickup and picking jazz chords with
an yielded similar results, but thankfully the
pickup reacted to the more percussive style
by giving more of a bite on the high B and
G strings. It’s pretty difficult to dial out all
the immediacy of the attack and the relative sharpness of the top end without losing
a little high-end clarity. And I chalked this
up to the ceramic magnets powering the
pickups, which tend to give a stronger, more
focused set of tones. But for picking arpeggiated progressions that demand a strong
snap in the highs with plenty of detail, like
Andy Summers and Adrian Belew, their performance was outstanding.
To test the Sensei RA’s modern rock
leanings, I warmed up a 2011 Mesa/
Boogie Multi-Watt Dual Rectifier. The
Mesa’s second channel roared in drop-D
cylindrical pole pieces to produce fatter
tones on the high strings, while keeping
the more guttural tones produced by the
lower strings tighter and more percussive.
They’re also pretty eye-catching. The RA
is loaded with their Chisel models—which
are powered by ceramic magnets and
wound to produce extra punch in the
upper midrange to cut through the mix
with more precision—and are entirely pas-
sive, with outputs of 7.5k and 13.0k in the
neck and bridge, respectively.
tuning—staying airtight and extremely
focused. This particular Recto has a fairly
taut low end, but I had rarely heard it
sound so mean and cutting before. The
guitar’s Bass Contour control was still at a
pretty low setting—only about 1/4 of the
way up—so bringing it up, the Mesa’s characteristic low frequency fullness started to
come into play. Moving past the control’s
halfway point started to smother the lows
and mids a bit. And quickly switching playing gears between fast, Exodus-style thrash
to grungier tones with fatter lows was only
a matter of keeping my pinky finger at the
ready for when I needed to perform a quick
adjustment of the knob.
The Student Becomes the Master
Everything about the Sensei RA radiates
affordable refinement, right down to the fit,
finish, feel, and tone. The pickups’ tones
covered a pretty wide variety of musical
styles, although with a sharper edge and
more front-and-center tonal qualities that
aren’t usually a part of warm, more vintage
humbucking tones.
While running clean with a ‘ 65 Fender
Twin Reverb reissue, the Sensei RA’s bridge
humbucker was powerful—loaded with rich
mids, taut highs, and a lot of low end. It’s
surprising to hear that much low end you
can get from the Twin’s open-back cabinet,
which is really designed for more high end-friendly tones. The guitar’s Bass Contour
control at max opens up the pickup’s low
frequencies to almost ridiculous levels,
The Verdict
Reverend’s Sensei series has developed over
time to cover everything from rockabilly,
classic rock, jazz and country, and the
Sensei RA now fits the needs of modern
rock and metal quite well. The Railhammer
Chisel pickups are a great pairing, but if
you’re turned off by the aggressive nature of
ceramic magnets, they might not be your
bag. Still, its great build quality and highly
intuitive Bass Contour control make it a
must-try for the modern player on a budget
who’s looking for something a little out of
the ordinary.
RATINGS
Pros: Bass Contour offers great variety of tones, including
tight lows with blooming high end. Great build quality.
Reverend, Sensei RA, Street: $899, reverendguitars.com
Cons: Aggressive Railhammer Chisel pickups can be difficult o rein in.
Tones
Value
premierguitar.com
PREMIER GUITAR APRIL 2012 DR2
