Our bottom end gets a makeover

Paul's new baby

Go ahead and take a good, long look at the photo. I know that it’s at least caught your peripheral vision. You don’t need to read the rest of the entry first, it’s OK. I’ll wait.

Damn, isn’t that beautiful? That’s my new Reverend Mercalli 5 bass in violin flame maple, which I’ve had the fun of playing at a handful of shows now. I’d been making noise for several months about buying a new bass that looked “a little more Nickel Slots” than the Ernie Ball Bongo I’ve been playing since about our second show back in the summer of 2008. And because she loves me so much, or perhaps just because she wanted to shut me up, my lovely wife gave me a new bass for Christmas this past December. All I had to do was decide what bass I wanted and she’d buy it for me.

It took me a month to find the chance to do some shopping. After visiting a couple of stores and looking around on the web, I was leaning toward a different Ernie Ball bass, a Classic Stingray whose style I like a lot. But Steve has been telling me for as long as I’ve known him that I should try a Reverend. He owns a couple of Reverend guitars that he plays in The Nickel Slots, and he loves them. I found some photos online and immediately liked the style of their basses. But Reverend is a smaller brand and doesn’t have a dealer in the Sacramento area where I could try out one of their basses, so I wasn’t ready to buy one. Thankfully there’s a Reverend dealer (The Jam Brothers) in Walnut Creek, which I drive through occasionally, and I was able to stop in and try out a Reverend. The way it felt in my hands and rested against my body was just right, and it played like a dream!

The 5-string model I wanted wasn’t available then, so I had to wait a few weeks. Those were some loooooooong weeks. And when it arrived and I opened the case, I couldn’t believe how gorgeous this instrument was! Ken Haas’ team at Reverend turned out a well-made bass with an incredible maple grain and finish. Such fun to play! If you haven’t seen The Nickel Slots perform since the beginning of March, get out to a show so you can see my awesome bass. But if you touch it, I’ll kill you.

Paul