RIGHT: Equipped with a trio of P- 90 single-coils, this Reverend Slingshot sports metal
plates finished in a radical “bug-eye” pattern. All the metal surrounding the pickups
and controls reduces typical single-coil
hum by about half. ABOVE: Though its entire back is also covered with sheet metal,
the guitar is actually quite light.
2000 reverend BUG-eYe SLinGShoT BY WILL RAY
About a dozen years ago, I was walking around at the summer NAMM show
in Nashville when I spotted this guitar
at the Reverend booth. It just seemed
to jump out at me. At the time I was
also going through what I call my “P- 90
period,” where any P-90-equipped guitar
was on my radar screen. I talked to the
owner of Reverend, Joe Naylor, and he
explained that he had been experimenting
with some industrial metal finishes when
he created this series. I ended up buying
this one, as well as another metal-finished
guitar sporting a different design. Joe was
a Hellecasters fan and sold them to me
wholesale, and I had him ship them to me
after the show. The guitars were roughly
$600 each, not exactly Bottom Feeder
prices, but I have a hunch they will one
day be collectable guitars. So it’s an investment, right? (Yeah, right. Whatever you
say, Will.)
When they arrived I was excited about
the look of both guitars, especially this one
with its cool “bug-eye” pattern on the metal.
A lot of players will tell you that guitars
need to be all wood to sound good. Those
The guitar deserves to be in
the Museum of Modern Art,
but it also begs to be played.
people would be wrong. I have played many
all-metal guitars that sounded every bit as
good as their wooden counterparts. Just
pick up one of James Trussart’s metal-body
guitars and you’ll see what I mean.
What I especially found interesting
about this guitar was the shielding char-
acteristics of the metal top and back. As
you may already know, P-90s are single-
coil pickups and are subject to the same
annoying hum and noise associated with
other single-coils. But this guitar only has
about half of the usual noise, and I attri-
bute this to all the metal surrounding the
pickups and controls. The bug-eye metal
sheeting covers not only the front of the
guitar, but also its back. You’d think the
guitar would be heavy with all that metal,
but it’s not. It weighs just 6 pounds and
is very resonate and lively. I also like the
flat 15"-radius fretboard and the jumbo
frets—perfect for a lot of string bending
and low-action slide playing. The middle
pickup is reverse wound for further hum
canceling, but I find it to be mostly
unnecessary due to the guitar’s already
quiet nature. It has a very warm P- 90
sound, but also has some Telecaster bite
when you need it.
Bottom;Feeder;Tip;#667: Listen to
your intuition when it tells you something.
According to my wife Gayle, mine seems
to say “buy this guitar” a lot. At any rate,
I’ve learned to appreciate my intuition more
and more over the years. Of course, soon
I’ll need to lease a warehouse to store all
those “appreciations.”
wiLL rAY is a founding member of the
Hellecasters guitar-twang trio. He also does
guitar clinics promoting his namesake G&L
signature model 6-string, and produces
artists and bands at his studio in Asheville,
North Carolina. You can contact Will on
