New Life for Charred Reverend Guitar

Here is the story behind the restoration of a charred Reverend guitar, which was salvaged from a burned down house.

The tragic event happened last spring when Doran Connell lost nearly everything, including most of his guitar collection, when his house caught fire.

When he checked to look for things that can be salvaged, Doran found the remains of two charred Reverend guitars. He promptly took them out of the rubble and out of curiosity plugged them in. Surprisingly, even with their bad condition the guitars still worked, albeit with the pickup housings, knobs and other plastic parts melted and locked into place.

Reverend Guitars had Doran send the guitars back to their Livonia, MI office. They inspected both guitars and found that the 15th Anniversary Flatroc is beyond repair. However, the other guitar, a Reverend Charger was in a better shape, even having its strings intact! So it was nominated for restoration.

Zack Green, Head Guitar Tech at Reverend, was tasked to breathe new life into the burnt instrument. His first course of action was to inspect the guitar and its parts, he found that the body and metal hardware were still intact and redeemable, however the neck was warped and unplayable, while the plastic parts are all melted to the point of no return.

So Green and his team scraped and washed the body several times, but he did not repaint it. He decided to just put on five clear coats to protect the scorched details, including the chipped finish, as proof of what the guitar has gone through.

The surviving metal hardware were also cleaned and left with their imperfections. This includes the control plate, jack plate, neck plate and the tail piece – all of them went through the fire, survived and was still deemed fit for use.

To finish the guitar’s resurrection, Green replaced the pickups and the neck. The guitar was renamed “The Reverend Phoenix” and was given a special serial number with flames to commemorate the restoration. Connell was more than happy to get back the restored guitar, which also helped him as he copes with the tragedy.

This kind gesture is a welcome story especially for those going through hardships. If you are curious about the model and original condition of this fire-surviving guitar, you should check out the Reverend Charger.

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