Review Demo - Reverend Guitars Descent H90 Baritone

Considering how cool baritone guitar can sound—taut, gut-punching low end in the first few frets, and standard-tuning treble and midrange higher up the neck—it’s dumbfounding how few of these specialized 6-strings are on the market, especially at an affordable price. Thankfully, this is changing. One of the most recent outfits to offer production-line access to this neglected niche is Reverend, and their Descent H90 Baritone puts these down-tuned joys in reach of those who can’t afford custom instruments. Reverend guitars and basses always seem to emerge from their shipping containers ready to rock. The Descent was no different. We opened the box and pulled it from its optional case, perfectly in tune. Pretty impressive considering the jostling and banging that happens in transit. Reverend’s typically impeccable fretwork and setup were also plain to see. The Descent’s features are impressive too: a lightweight korina body, pin-lock tuners, a graphite nut, a two-post Wilkinson WVS50 IIK vibrato, and Railhammer Gnarly 90 bridge and Tel 90 neck pickups with alnico 5 magnets, a rail under the lower three strings, and traditional pole pieces under the treble strings. Tones are tweaked via a deceptively simple complement of master volume and tone knobs and Reverend’s trademark bass-contour control. While some gurus insist a true baritone should be at least 28" in scale to provide optimal string tension and intonation the 26 3/4"-scale Rev’ was intonated perfectly and felt...