Reverend Roundhouse – Midnight Black

Reverend Roundhouse – Midnight Black – the singlecut, Reverend style

Let's get one thing straight: the Reverend Roundhouse is not trying to be another Les Paul.

Yes, it has the carved top, set neck, two humbuckers and 24 3/4" scale. But Reverend has taken the classic singlecut recipe, thrown out a few of the unnecessary calories and come up with something considerably more modern, comfortable and practical.

And in Midnight Black, the Roundhouse looks seriously mean.

No pickguard. No unnecessary decoration. Just a beautifully carved top, chrome hardware and two big humbuckers staring back at you.

Understated? Yes.

Boring? Absolutely not.

Korina does the heavy lifting

The Roundhouse starts with a Korina body, topped with a carved maple top and joined to a three-piece Korina set neck.

Korina is one of those woods that Reverend uses extremely well. It has plenty of resonance and attack, but without the weight penalty you normally associate with a big singlecut guitar.

And that matters.

The Roundhouse feels like a serious rock guitar without feeling like you've strapped a small piece of furniture around your neck.

It's well balanced, comfortable and designed to be played for hours rather than admired from across the room.

HA5 humbuckers: classic, but not sleepy

Reverend fits the Roundhouse with a pair of HA5 humbuckers.

These aren't over-wound, compressed modern metal pickups. They're designed to retain clarity while giving you more output and punch than a typical vintage-style humbucker.

The bridge HA5 is slightly hotter, giving you a warm but open sound with plenty of drive when you hit the amp.

The neck HA5 is slightly underwound, with a warmer, more relaxed character and plenty of clarity.

Together, they cover an enormous amount of territory.

Clean? Big and articulate.

Crunch? That's where this guitar really starts to make sense.

Gain? Plenty of muscle without turning into mush.

And because the pickups aren't ridiculously hot, your amp remains part of the equation — which is exactly how it should be.

The Reverend secret weapon: Bass Contour

And then there's the control that makes the Roundhouse rather more versatile than it first appears.

Bass Contour is a passive low-frequency roll-off. Turn it down and the guitar gets progressively tighter and leaner.

With the HA5 humbuckers, this is particularly useful.

You can go from a thick, full humbucker sound to something considerably more focused and articulate — almost single-coil-like at the extreme end.

It's not a gimmick and it doesn't require batteries, complicated switching or a master's degree in electronics.

One knob. Turn it. Hear the difference.

A neck that actually makes sense

The 24 3/4" scale and Medium Oval neck profile give the Roundhouse that familiar short-scale singlecut feel, while the 12" radius Pau Ferro fingerboard keeps things modern enough for comfortable bending and lower action.

The 22 medium-jumbo frets are nicely suited to everything from classic rock rhythm work to lead playing.

And the three-piece Korina neck is a particularly nice touch. It feels substantial without being huge, and the overall playing experience is very much in keeping with Reverend's philosophy: familiar enough to feel immediately comfortable, different enough to make you wonder why everyone doesn't do it this way.

Hardware you don't have to worry about

Reverend doesn't skimp on the boring stuff.

The Roundhouse gets a Tune-O-Matic bridge with stop tailpiece, Reverend Pin-Lock tuners and a Boneite nut.

The locking tuners make string changes quick and help keep everything stable.

There's also a Pure Tone output jack and a treble-bleed circuit on the volume control, so rolling the volume back doesn't suck all the life out of your sound.

These are small details, but they're exactly the details that become important once the honeymoon period is over.

And that Midnight Black finish…

Let's be honest.

The Roundhouse already has a great shape, but the Midnight Black version looks particularly good.

The black finish, carved top and absence of a pickguard give it a clean, almost brutal appearance. Add the chrome hardware and the whole thing has that wonderful Reverend combination of old-school rock'n'roll and modern industrial design.

It looks expensive without screaming "look how expensive I am."

We like that.

The Guitar Bar verdict

The Reverend Roundhouse is what happens when you take the traditional singlecut formula and ask a very simple question:

"What if we made it better to actually play?"

You get Korina instead of a heavy slab of mahogany. You get a comfortable Medium Oval neck. You get two excellent HA5 humbuckers. You get locking tuners. You get Bass Contour. And you get a guitar that is considerably lighter and more ergonomic than the traditional singlecut stereotype.

It's equally at home playing classic rock, blues, indie, alternative, hard rock and anything that benefits from a great humbucker sound.

And the Midnight Black finish?

Pure class.

The Roundhouse doesn't need a fancy logo or a vintage story stretching back to 1959.

It's simply a bloody good guitar.

SPECIFICATIONS

Model: Reverend Roundhouse
Finish: Midnight Black
Construction: Set Neck
Body: Korina with Carved Maple Top
Neck: Three-Piece Korina
Fingerboard: Pau Ferro
Fingerboard Radius: 12"
Scale Length: 24 3/4" / 628.65 mm
Neck Profile: Medium Oval
Frets: 22 Medium Jumbo
Fret Size: 0.110" W × 0.050" H
Nut: Boneite
Nut Width: 43 mm / 1 11/16"
Truss Rod: Dual Action, Headstock Access

Bridge Pickup: Reverend HA5 Humbucker
Neck Pickup: Reverend HA5 Humbucker
Pickup Configuration: HH

Controls: Volume, Tone, Bass Contour
Switching: 3-Way Toggle
Bridge: Tune-O-Matic with Stop Tail
Tuners: Reverend Pin-Lock
Hardware: Chrome
Strings: .010–.046

Case: Two-Tone Teardrop Case, available separately