The Current's Guitar Collection: Browan Lollar of St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Reverend Guitar - Gil Parris signature model
by Luke Taylor
June 11, 2014
St. Paul and the Broken Bones visited The Current's studio following their show at the Varsity Theater. At the end of the band's rollicking in-studio set, guitarist Browan Lollar took some time to talk about his guitar.
What kind of guitar is this?
This is a Reverend Gil Parris signature model. Reverend is a Detroit-based company; it's not a huge company, and that's what I love about it so much. I can just email the guy directly and he always gets back to me. They've always been very good to me about everything. I endorse these guitars.
It sort of looks like a Telecaster.
It's not unlike a Tele, but it's way more versatile. I can make it sound like a Tele, I can make it sound like a Strat because it's got this pickup in the middle, and it's got a bass contour knob down here at the very end, so on any of these pickups, you can roll the bass on or you can roll it off. So you can make it really like thin-line Tele, or you can make it like the real thick, Les Paul sound.
It looks new; have you had it long?
I've had it for about three months — maybe two months, actually. But the one I had before this was the original Gil Parris signature model, which was shaped a little differently. It was a little bit more Gibson Les Paul shaped. But I ran that one into the ground; I loved it so much — I mean, the frets are just worn out. I've had it for five years, 200 dates a year on the road, just playing it every night and I loved it.
Again, the Reverend company came out and just handed me off this guitar and a Tricky Gomez, which is like a hollow-body sparkle top. They're awesome guitars.
How did you discover Reverend?
Actually, Ken, who's the artist rep there, came out to one of my shows. I used to be in a band called Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. Ken came out to one of our shows and wanted to set us up with some Reverends and he brought some things, and I started playing it and I immediately loved it.
What was it about it that made you instantly fall in love with it?
It must just be the way it feels. They're not heavy guitars — or at least this model's not. They're well made. I think instantly I loved it because it sounded like I could get so many different sounds out of it if I really, like, I could get a different tone selection going on, and it was almost like I was playing a different guitar. Within the songs, you can get all these different tones. And especially in this band, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, where I'm the only guitar player, that's really important: I need to be able to make it interesting for people — or make it sound interesting.
With so many sounds at your disposal, do you ever find yourself spoiled for choice when you're coming up with arrangements and so forth?
Yeah, but the cool thing is I don't use many pedals. I've got a delay pedal and I've got a little reverb pedal, and those are both overdrive pedals.
I try to limit my options because I feel like the fewer options you have, the better you get at what you do have. So I used to go just straight into the amp, but I can't just crank my amp, so I need to have a couple of pedals. I mean, if we ever get on bigger stages and stuff, I can just do away with those pedals and just have a real straight guitar-amp thing.
I feel like having a lot of options on the guitar is kind of liberating because you're not dancing around with pedals and paying attention to your feet the whole time; you're more paying attention to the song and to the audience and having that contact with the audience.
Resources
St. Paul and the Broken Bones - official site
