New for 2023, the Reverend Kingbolt RA now comes in this stunning Transparent Wine Red Flame Maple finish with Dark Roasted Maple neck and Rosewood fretboard. The clean, pickguard-free look emphasises the flamed maple top, while the finish and hardware quality is just as impressive as ever. The Joe Naylor-designed Railhammer Hyper Vintage pickups are truly cutting edge, and, mounted to the Korina solid body, result in what could well be the ultimate bolt-on rock guitar.
The 2023 Reverend Kingbolt RA in Transparent Wine Red Flame Maple is now available at Merchant City Music. Pop in to our Glasgow shop for a closer look and choose from one of the biggest displays of Reverend guitars on the planet. If you buy from us online we ship fast across the UK, Europe and Worldwide. Every guitar is thoroughly inspected and setup to perfection before dispatch.
Reverend Kingbolt RA Transparent Wine Red Flame Maple with Dark Roasted Maple neck
Reverend have really taken things up a notch with the latest version of the Kingbolt RA. It stands proud at the top of the bolt-on line with an extra dark Roasted Maple neck. The neck is not tinted or coloured in any way. Roasted Maple is normally used on custom shop and high-end boutique built guitars. Reverend have brought this material to a price bracket never seen before. This is the smoothest, silkiest neck you will ever feel. The Roasted Maple that Reverend have used has been kiln dried to remove most of the moisture. This results in a neck resistant to temperature and humidity. The advantages also include stability and increased resonance. It is also lighter in weight, the guitar feels alive in your hand without even plugging it in.
Fitted to the 12” Rosewood fingerboard are 22 exquisitely-finished medium jumbo frets. They are highly polished and perfectly level meaning you can get the action nice and low without any issues. The Kingbolt's sleek double cutaway offset body is made from Korina and finished in a Dark Violin Brown stain on the back which sits beautifully with the Dark Roasted Maple of the neck.
All the latest hardware upgrades
Reverend employ a policy of incremental improvement on all their guitars, which means that the range is constantly getting better, year-on year. The Kingbolt benefits immensely from this policy - and the starting point was strong to begin with! Neck plates and jack plates are laser etched with the Reverend logo. An innovative triple string tree covers the E, B and now G string for perfect tension behind the nut. The nut is made from a Reverend’s Boneite material, which has the tonal transfer properties of bone with all the slipperiness of graphite.
Metal control knobs are slightly lower profile and feature a dot to reference where the pot is set to. They've even upgraded the electronics with new Polyester capacitors, Alpha control pots and a treble bleed circuit - invisible changes which serve to perceptibly improve this guitar’s reliability and performance. Also invisible to the naked eye is the Pure Tone jack; unlike standard jacks, it has dual contacts for improved grip, audio signal and reliability. It is quite simply the most dependable guitar jack available.
The excellent Wilkinson WVS50 IIK Tremolo features another new Joe Naylor invention, the Vari-Claw. The Vari-Claw allows you to easily switch between 3 springs in the middle hooks of the claw for a firm feel, or 2 springs on the outside recessed hooks of the claw for a soft feel, with little or no adjustment to the claw itself. You can really go wild with the trem and tuning is kept incredibly stable. This is thanks in part to the locking tuners and slippery Boneite nut.
Railhammer Hyper Vintage humbuckers
The Kingbolt RA is loaded with Railhammer Hyper Vintage humbuckers. The bridge pickup is warm, open, lightly compressed, with chimey highs. Has a softer mid attack, and overall more open tone than the Chisel. Perfect for blues, classic rock, old school metal and punk, that "early EVH" sound, or for any player looking for a vintage vibe but wants the Railhammer advantage. And like all Railhammers, the extra clarity on the wound strings means they also work great with low tuned guitars. The neck version is perfectly balanced with the bridge and doesn't turn to mush when you dig in hard, even with chords! The three controls are volume, tone and Reverend's bass contour control. This passive bass roll-off is great for tightening up the low end, or re-voicing the pickups. It can make a humbucker sound like a single-coil and anything in-between.
The Reverend Kingbolt RA Transparent Wine Red Flame Maple with Dark Roasted Maple neck is a killer guitar. Quite simply nothing comes close to it at this price point. Try one and see for yourself.