Saw Watt playing the Wattplower mark II prototype

[slinkp]

Really good show at the Mercury Lounge in NYC -  aside from an unusually large crowd of extremely tall dudes... I am 6' tall (that's 183 cm to most of the world) and never had so much trouble seeing the stage in my life... Oh, and a couple of really obnoxious people loudly fake-laughing and talking their heads off during the few really quiet numbers; they managed to anger not only the entire crowd but the performers too.

Anyway, the band was great and the bass sound was quite good. Powerful and had more clarity in the lows than last few times I saw Watt, which would have been when he was playing one of his much-modified EB-0 or EB-3 basses, and I don't remember what amp rig at the time. For a long time, I found his live tone merely loud and murky and much prefered his tone on recordings.
Of course with so many variables, I can't be sure what to attribute the improvement to - could be the bass, could be the new DNA / Barefaced rig, could be the PA and engineer at the Mercury Lounge, which seem to be pretty good - the whole band sounded great. Could be all three!

Anyway, at some point I briefly got a good look at the bass and was surprised it did not look like a stock Reverend Wattplower which he's been mostly playing on recent tours.  This one was a yellow Wattplower but had a very odd pickup arrangement, with what looked like a P pickup with two halves for the lower strings - very strange.
Then I saw this, from a few days previous on Watt's twitter feed - this is surely the same bass:


Looks like it has a neck pickup too? Wonder what that is.

My first thought was: Of course, the guy who endlessly hacked up and modified his old Gibsons can't stop doing the same with his own signature model

Then I saw this on his homepage - maybe an earlier stage of the same bass? It's missing the pickguard and has different controls:


And this description:

2018 reverend guitars "wattplower" bass
mark II prototype
design is a total joe naylor/mike watt collaboration
short scale neck, twentyone frets
passive volume/tone controls
joe naylor designed "p-blade" pickup
hipshot 'a style' bridge w/solid brass spacer
strings are loaded through the body
hipshot 'ultralite' tuners
this protoype includes mark I pickup mode
(low strings coil closer to the neck on)
+ mark II mode (low strings coil closer
to the bridge on) selected via
push/pull switch combo tone control
(the high strings coil is always on)

Interesting, wonder if they will ever put this model up for sale and likely replace the existing Wattplower.
I guess either enough of these have sold that Reverend thinks it's worth their time, or maybe they just enjoy constant tinkering along with Watt!

[Dave W]

If Reverend has gone this far, they'll probably offer it at some point, assuming Watt doesn't modify it further.

[Alanko]

It will be interesting to see if Watt accepts a Reverend do-over built to his specs, or whether he just likes modding basses for the perks and for the funky rat rod looks.

The P pickup thing sorta makes sense. He can switch between the EA pairs to give a more focused or more warm tone. I do wonder how much different it really makes in the grand scheme.

Watt uses 34'' basses in the studio. He uses a Moon Larry Graham bass for a lot of stuff. Even the fIREHOSE stuff sounds like the bridge pickup on a 34'' bass, recorded cleanly. The shortscale basses are kinder on his hands, live.

[OldManC]

These are for sale. At least according to the Reverend website.

https://www.reverendguitars.com/basses/mike-watt-wattplower

[Dave W]

These are for sale. At least according to the Reverend website.

https://www.reverendguitars.com/basses/mike-watt-wattplower

That's the same one that's been offered, not the prototype in slinkp's post.

[OldManC]

Ah... That's what I get for replying to one post while doing two other things at the same time.

[slinkp]

They're for sale now. The original version is still up too, but here's the new one:
https://www.reverendguitars.com/basses/mike-watt-wattplower-mark-ii

[Dave W]

I like it, but $1679 list for a Korean-made bass? Not for me.

[Alanko]

I like it, but $1679 list for a Korean-made bass? Not for me.

If it is a good bass then why does it matter where it is made? Why should a Korean bass be automatically cheaper?

[Dave W]

If it is a good bass then why does it matter where it is made? Why should a Korean bass be automatically cheaper?

Because labor costs are much cheaper.

[amptech]

Agree about Korea having lower labour cost, but I wish instruments and amps were priced by labour quality..

I lose count now on how many made in US 'botique' amps I have had to re solder. Last week I got this three year old '57 Fender custom Deluxe handwired amp in for repair. Customer pays  about USD 2400 for an amp that' s been popping since new - no wonder with soldering like that! Solder looked smeared on, bad trimming made wires short and two socket ears had no solder at all! Inspection sticker was printed, not written. What's the world coming to..

[Alanko]

Because labor costs are much cheaper.

Without knowing all the variables, this could be a $3000 US-built bass. What percentage do you typically save, pound for pound, on an instrument made in Korea versus one made in the US? Are we just looking at a juicy profit margin for Reverend guitars?

[Dave W]

Without knowing all the variables, this could be a $3000 US-built bass. What percentage do you typically save, pound for pound, on an instrument made in Korea versus one made in the US? Are we just looking at a juicy profit margin for Reverend guitars?

I really don't know. US average wages are twice that of South Korea and factory operating costs are higher. You can buy a comparable new US Fender or G&L for the Reverend's price -- or even less.