Reverend Rick Vito Soul Agent Midnight Black

The Rick Vito Soul Agent - here presented in Midnight Black with Ebony fretboard and Roasted Maple neck - is the latest fruit in the Reverend / Rick Vito artist collaboration. Borne out of Rick's love of old-school Reverends, the Soul Agent combines modern Reverend improvements with the lively tone of the originals. This is not simply a Double Agent with Bigsby - read on!

Reverend Rick Vito Soul Agent in Midnight Black

The Rick Vito Soul Agent has the familiar footprint of Reverend's Double Agent W, coming with the same Korina body and HA5 Humbucker / 9A5 P90 pickup combination. From here, Rick has gone off piste with the spec. The Korina Body is heavily chambered and topped with Solid Spruce, resulting in huge resonance, pleasing overtones and harmonic vibrance. The Ebony fretboard (12" radius - classic Reverend) contributes some satisfying snap to the sound too. Visually, the black-painted headstock adds a touch of class to the package, complementing the checkerboard binding.

HA5 Humbucker / 9A5 P90 Pickups with unique controls

The twin Joe Naylor-designed pickups are as per the Double Agent - an HA5 bridge humbucker and 9A5 neck P90. These are controlled via an interface unique to the Soul Agent, however. Reverend's Bass Contour is jettisoned in favour of a standard volume / tone / 3-way selector layout - with a twist: Pull the volume knob for "Twang" mode. Here, a tighter, more percussive sound is engaged. The tone knob also offers push / pull functionality, allowing the pickups to be wired in or out of phase. Add in the Bigsby B-50 Vibrato - complete with Reverend's game-changing soft touch spring - and the Soul Agent becomes a formidable, lively, tonal chameleon.

Road-ready Hardware

Reverend has developed a reputation for building outstandingly hardy gigging instruments. A big part of this capability is the quality of components fitted to every Reverend.

Reverend's Boneite nut reduces friction whilst still transferring the tone of the strings through the guitar. It's more durable than graphite whilst having a more traditional tone and appearance. High quality locking machine heads mean you don't need to worry about the Rick Vito Soul Agent going out of tune. String changes are rapid and it make this a real workhorse of a professional instrument.

Reverend Triple-Tree, Pure-Tone Jack Socket, and +-10% Pots / Caps

Other Reverend innovations include the Triple-Tree string tree, which has an extended bar to hold down three strings at a time with just one tree, eliminating G string buzz in the nut slot. A six-bolt neck plate increases the mounting pressure of the neck by fifty percent. This makes a stronger neck connection, which improves sustain, tuning stability, and neck alignment.

Similarly, Reverend’s proprietary jack plate features four mounting screws, instead of two. The extra screws prevent the plate from tearing out of the body. Made of steel for durability, the laser etched logo adds an extra touch of class! This is combined with a Pure Tone jack socket for ultimate dependability. A standard jack has single contacts, but the Pure Tone jack has dual contacts for improved grip, audio signal and reliability. This is the most reliable guitar jack available.

Finally, all Reverend guitars have a treble bleed circuit, preserving the treble when you roll back the volume control. When you roll back a standard volume control, the tone loses treble and becomes dull sounding. Now you can turn down and still sound great! Reverend also use Alpha control pots with a +-10% rating. While a typical pot is +-20%, Reverend’s pots are built to tighter specifications, making them more consistent. Reverend’s caps caps are also rated +-10%, while a typical cap is +-20%. Made of polyester, they’re also longer lasting, and less affected by temperature than cheaper ceramic caps.

These upgrades are typically used in expensive boutique guitars, but are standard issue in all Reverends, including this Rick Vito Soul Agent in Midnight Black.

The Reverend Rick Vito Soul Agent is now available from Merchant City Music, online and in our Glasgow store. We are among the world’s largest Reverend dealers, offering an unrivalled range - in stock and ready to ship at all times. Every guitar we sell is fully set up and carefully packaged, ensuring you receive the best possible example. We offer worldwide shipping, servicing the needs of Reverend players at every corner of the globe.