Reverend Shade Balderose Signature

Code Orange! Code Orange!

Wildwoodians, it's a Code Orange here at the shop! Klaxons are blaring, lights are flashing, and staff members are screaming in terror, which can mean only one thing: a Reverend Shade Balderose Signature model has arrived. Shade has been shredding stages and melting faces since high school as a member of hardcore band Code Orange (formerly known as Code Orange Kids). Code Orange is a staple of album-of-the-year lists due in no small part to Shade's gnarly riffage, atmospheric shoegazing, and electronica-tinged production, and his signature Reverend is as brutal as the music that he makes. Let's ignore the alarms and journey deeper into the heart of darkness as we respond to this Code Orange situation.

Railhammer of Thor

Like most Reverends, the Shade Balderose signature has a resonant korina body, which sounds like mahogany but with a little more liveliness and high-end. A set neck further boosts the guitar's natural resonance and sustain so you can inflict maximum pain. Speaking of which, the two Railhammer pickups in this guitar are fantastic for many tasks including but not limited to seeking and/or destroying.

Railhammers have rail magnets under the unwound strings and poles under the wound strings, which makes the highs meaty and the lows nice and tight. The Chisel in the bridge position is properly named, as it's a focused tool of destruction. The mids snarl, the highs sizzle, and the lows are muscular and taut. By contrast, the Hyper Vintage in the neck position has a more classic tone with fat warms lows, singing highs, and vocal mids. They sound beautiful clean, and they really shine in any aggressive, heavy, or hard context.

Interestingly, the reverse headstock synergizes in a lovely way with the pickups. With a reverse headstock, the low strings (especially the low E) have more tension because of the greater length, which gives the low strings a snappy, piano-like attack and makes them sound super tight. Accordingly, it decreases tension on the high strings, which makes them sound fatter and feel easier to bend. Basically, the reverse headstock strengthens the Railhammers in ways that they are already strong, making the Shade Balderose Signature a supremely articulate, precise destroyer of worlds.

Built to Be Bulletproof

Joe Naylor, the founder of Reverend, got his start as a guitar repairman, and after a decade and a half of repair work and gigging, he was well aware of everything that could possibly go wrong with an electric guitar. Armed with this knowledge, he sought to make Reverend’s guitars impervious to Murphy’s Law. Two decades later, the fine folks at Reverend carefully spec out every component from the input jack to the tuners with an eye towards making the guitar as bulletproof as possible. As a result, they are among the most consistent, durable, and reliable instruments on the market today.

The Shade Balderose is no different. It comes with a metric ton of appointments that enhance the player's experience and make it supremely reliable. The medium oval neck profile is home to 22 0.110" wide x 0.050" high frets and a fingerboard with a 12" radius, a configuration well-suited to most techniques and playing styles (and, it's especially good for bending strings). Also, it has pin-lock tuners and a Boneite nut to ensure excellent tuning stability, and it comes equipped with boutique-quality pots and caps and a Pure Tone jack for consistent sound. Finally, an angled six-bolt neck plate increases stability and resonance while allowing easy access to the upper frets.

Shades of Glory

Now that the dust has settled, the blood has been cleaned up, and the tears have dried, we can safely lift Wildwood's Code Orange status (although we're not going to stop playing Code Orange, 'cause they rip). Let it be known that the Shade Balderose Signature is a dangerous instrument of destruction capable of settign cities afire with rock and roll, and that may lead to spontaneous moshing and headbanging. We have no doubt that its raw, aggressive tone and sleek, menacing styyling will inspire you to kick out the jams at max volume!