LA-based rocker grandson (AKA Jordan Benjamin) told us about his love a Reverend baritone guitar...
Grandson: When I first started making music as grandson, we would write songs on standard electric guitars and I felt like every song felt too derivative of classic rock, too bluesy. I wanted to write riffs heavier, lower, sludgier, but when we would write in standard tunings the songs wouldn’t work in the register of my voice.
We were missing some teeth to it all. I had heard of baritone guitars before but they all have these giant necks and hollow bodies, it’s hard to picture those guitars in this context. I mean, you hear the words “baritone guitar” and picture a man in a fedora busking or something. The day my old cowriter Kevin plugged in his Reverend baritone it was like-THAT. YES.
They’re compact and powerful, they’re sleek and look cool and carry so much bite, and they have such distinct tone, even when being plugged directly in with a DI or something. I’ve worked with a lot of different guitar players over the years, whether on stage or in the studio, but the Reverend Descent is always there.
Grandson's album Inertia is out September 5. The "SELF-IMMOLATION" single is out now.
Photo by Philip Shum
