Reverend Gil Parris Signature GPS Midnight Black, Roasted Maple

The Reverend Gil Parris Signature GPS – here presented in Midnight Black with Roasted Maple fretboard and neck – is the latest fruit in the collaboration between Reverend Guitars and multi-genre genius, Gil Parris. More obviously Strat-style than the previous Gil Parris Signature model, this guitar is nevertheless packed with Reverend innovation. It also now comes loaded with a set of Fishman Fluence Single-Width pickups. Controlled via a push/pull switch, these pups shape-shift between authentic vintage sweetness and clarity, while simultaneously allowing full-fat “Hot Texas” punch.

The Reverend Gil Parris GPS 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.

Reverend Gil Parris Signature GPS in Midnight Black with Korina Body and Roasted Maple Fretboard

The Reverend Gil Parris Signature GPS might have a familiar silhouette, but at its core lies the Korina body tone wood used on every Reverend, immediately setting it apart. Korina is light-weight – perfect for long nights on the stage – while also offering exceptional resonance and consistency. This makes it the foundation of Reverend’s stage-ready reputation.

To the Korina body is bolted a Roasted Maple neck, topped with a Roasted Maple fretboard. Reverend pioneered the use of Roasted Maple outside of the high-end, boutique market, offering the benefits of this process at a never-before-seen price point. By roasting the neck wood, impurities and moisture are removed, resulting in much greater stability and resonance. It also gives the maple a darker, caramel hue, resulting in a richer overall look.

Fishman Fluence Pickups

The Reverend Gil Parris Signature GPS is fitted with the Fishman Fluence Single-Width set. Original and totally re-imagined, these active pickups are free from the hum, noise and frustrating inductance issues that plague even the most coveted wire-wound pickups – revealing pure, uncorrupted and musical tone. Rechargeable via an inbuilt USB charge port – no fumbling with batteries – Fluence Single Width pickups have two distinct and useful sounds on-board:

• Voice 1 (Vintage Single Coil): Vintage tone, clear and present, seamlessly fused with a sweet warmth.
• Voice 2 (Hot Texas Single Coil): Muscular, beefy, “overwound” tone without losing the highs or the “strattiness” we all love.

Road-ready Hardware

Reverend has developed a reputation for building outstandingly hardy gigging instruments. Their retail artist models are, in fact, exactly the same guitars as used by the artists themselves. Reverend prides themselves in the fact that a Reverend Artist can lose their instrument, walk into a Reverend dealer, buy the same guitar off the shelf, and complete the tour. 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 Gil Parris Signature guitar going out of tune. String changes are rapid and it make this a real workhorse of a professional instrument.

The Wilkinson WVS50K Tremolo fitted to the Reverend Gil Parris GPS includes saddles that lock to the baseplate, making it as stable as a hardtail bridge. Other features include adjustable arm swing tension, and a push-in/no freeplay arm. Combined with the boneite nut and pin-lock tuners, it stays in tune even under aggressive whammy action.

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 artist models such as this Gil Parris Signature GPS.