The Boss RC-600 Loop Station is the company’s most advanced floor-based looper pedal. It’s a product I have plenty of experience with, as well as its predecessor, the RC-300. Working in a guitar store, the RC-300 was probably the most requested demo product, as artists like Ed Sheeran and KT Tunstall dominated the airwaves with catchy loop-based tracks that made the technique look easy.

Looping has had a long journey from the avant-garde experimentation of Brian Eno and Robert Fripp’s analog tape reels, otherwise known as “Frippertronics”. DigiTech brought looping to the floor in the 1980s with its PDS series, while brands like Line 6 incorporated looping functionality into products like the DL4 in 2000. A year later, Boss released a product that would launch a range that eventually became the gold (or red) standard of looping pedals: the Boss Loop Station RC-20.

The RC-20 helped establish Boss as a dominant force in looping, and there have been many iterations since. Today, the Loop Station series offers everything from simple loop sketch pads like the RC-1 to the beatboxing-friendly RC-505MKII, right up to the flagship model that is the subject of my review today: the RC-600.

Launched in 2021, the RC-600 built on over two decades of looping innovation since the RC-20, becoming a go-to choice for guitarists seeking the most feature-packed floor unit available. There have been a few changes since the RC-600's predecessor, including the removal of the built-in expression pedal, an increase from three tracks to six, and a jump to around 13 hours of total recording time across all memories, to name but a few.

The flagship Loop Station now faces competition from an increasing number of pedal brands, including Sheeran’s Looper X, the Singular Sound Aeros Loop Studio and Headrush’s Flex Prime. Does the RC-600 remain the cream of the crop? That’s what we're going to find out.

Specs

• Price: $659 | £499 | €496
• Made: Malaysia
• Type: Floor-Based Looping Station
• Controls: 3x Record/Pay footswitch, 3x Stop footswitch, Track Select footswitch, Undo/Redo footswitch, All Start/Stop footswitch, Output Level knob, 4 LCD screen control knobs, 7x buttons (Menu, Loop, Rhythm, Tap Tempo, Enter, Exit, Page)
• Features: 6 stereo tracks, 200 rhythm types, 16 rhythm kits, 49 input effects, 53 track effects, 2 master effects, 99 memory channels, Graphic LCD display, 32-bit AD/DA conversion, 44.1 kHz sampling frequency
• Connectivity: 2x XLR inputs w/ DC 48V phantom power (10 mA max), 4x ¼” TS instrument inputs (2x stereo pairs), 2x ¼” TS main outputs (1x stereo pair), 4x ¼” TS sub outputs (2x stereo pairs), 1x ¼” TRS headphones output, 2x ¼” TRS expression/control inputs, MIDI in + out, DC power jack in, USB-B port
• Power: 9V DC center-negative, 1.2 A (with phantom power), 1.1 A (without phantom power), AC adapter included
• Dimensions: 435 mm x 163 mm x 66 mm
• Weight: 2.5kg/5lbs 8oz
• Contact: Boss

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

The change in size from the RC-300 to the RC-600 is quite astonishing; it’s around 4 inches narrower and 3 lbs lighter. The RC-600 has three rec/play switches and three stop switches, with a track select switch allowing you to switch between tracks 1 to 3 and 4 to 6. Gone are the trigger latches, replaced by smaller metallic footswitches. The switches, whether rec/play, stop, or track select, all press reassuringly on my demo model and have a soft click.

However, in an attempt to save space, the switch surfaces are small, and I find them a little fiddly to hit accurately. On a looper where timing is imperative, this could prove frustrating during a live performance. If I were to keep this in the long run, I’d invest in some footswitch toppers to expand the surface area and make accurate tapping easier.

The metal chassis of the RC-600 feels incredibly durable. It feels premium straight out of the box, and if you’re planning on using this for gigging, I wouldn’t worry about its ability to survive the rigors of the road. Gone, too, is the expression pedal of its predecessor. Now, if you want to use an expression or control pedal, you’ll need to connect an external one to the appropriate input.

On the left side of the RC-600, you’ll find a backlit graphic LCD screen. It’s easy to read on a dark stage, straightforward to use, and isn’t cluttered with unnecessary options. Underneath, there are four continuous rotary knobs that let you select different settings when pressed, change effect parameters, and toggle between options.

Each knob is pleasingly weighted and allows for controlled menu diving without getting frustrated. The device itself is naturally angled, with a raised section for the top controls.

Around the back, you’ll find the impressive connectivity options. The chassis-mounted 1/4-inch jacks are all incredibly sturdy. This feels like a small feature, but when you’re running multiple cables between expression pedals, instruments, and other devices, a secure connection is paramount.

The only downside to the connection options, for me, is the power. In terms of build, the RC-600 is certainly gig-worthy, but the AC adapter cable lets it down. I’d prefer a more robust IEC connection, which is much more widely available at venues.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★½

Switching the RC-600 on for the first time, I’m greeted by dazzling lights of many different colors. Didn’t Dolly Parton sing about that? Anyway, you’ll quickly realise that the light show is more than a pretty feature. In fact, as the user, you depend heavily on the colors, which indicate many different things.

For example, the track select button starts with a solid white light, indicating that tracks 1, 2 and 3 are selected. When track select is red, you’ve got access to tracks 4, 5 and 6. Holding the track select button switches the controls over to the effects, turning the indicator blue.

The effects are split between input effects, where you get 49 different types, from flangers and phasers to pitch bends and robot voices. Input FX affects your incoming signal, and when you record with an effect applied, that effect becomes part of the audio playback.

This is a minor gripe of mine, as I can’t simply remove the effect from the audio once it’s been recorded. Although the input effects are split into A, B and C for footswitch control, I can actually have four different effects available at once, with effect D requiring access through the screen or an external footswitch.

On the right-hand side are the track effect controls, also split into A, B and C, with option D selectable through the menu. These effects color the playback of your recorded tracks and include things like slicers, beat scatter, and vinyl flicks. If I’m honest, I don’t really get much use out of these. I struggle to find much use for them as a guitarist or singer-songwriter, but they’re there to experiment with if you’re feeling funky.

Although you’d imagine the LCD screen being the main visual cue, it’s actually the cycloptic, circular indicator to the right of it that I find most helpful. This can be found, albeit in a simpler form, on more affordable models like the RC-1. The circle moves to show the loop’s position, helping you keep track of where you are without constantly looking at the screen. When recording, a rotating red border makes it clear what’s happening. When the track is playing, this border turns green and moves around until the loop reaches its end.

There’s no denying that Boss has created a device that could easily be complicated, but it’s laid out intuitively with clever color coding. However, nailing the timing when stopping a loop so it flows perfectly can be tricky. Diving into the menu and activating quantization is a real eureka moment. This is a fantastic feature that helps snap your loop to the correct measure, and it’s something I recommend using.

Every time I use a Loop Station, I keep things fairly simple. After getting to grips with everything, I start layering a track with A, B, and C sections in the style of Prince’s “When You Were Mine.” I use the octave effect on the Boss RC-600 to create a bass part with my Gibson SG Standard, monitoring through Logic Pro with a Neural DSP plugin. On top of that, I play the song’s chord progression.

On track 2, I record the lead line, bringing it in and taking it out when needed. The B section, which I recorded on track 3, was the chorus, while part C, or the bridge, used tracks 4 and 5, applying similar techniques. Of course, this is just scratching the surface of what the RC-600 can do.

Building the arrangement this way also highlights the benefit of having six tracks available. I can dedicate separate tracks to the bass, lead, and additional parts without having to constantly reuse or overwrite existing loops. For a singer-songwriter building a fuller arrangement from scratch, that extra flexibility is a real advantage over a more basic looper.

While I keep things fairly simple here, you can delve much deeper into its effects and control options to build more elaborate arrangements. This is where the RC-600 can become as complicated as you want it to be, but it also means there’s plenty of room to grow as your looping skills develop.

Spending around an hour layering tracks, getting the timing right and making everything sound great, I got sidetracked peeling the potatoes for tea. I came back to my horror to find the RC-600 had powered down and my work was gone. Nightmare.

I have a look online and find that the RC-600's auto-off function is designed to shut the unit down after a period of inactivity. However, my review model seems to be powering down much sooner than I expect. I recommend checking the auto-off settings on your own unit and saving your work regularly, so you don't end up losing an hour's worth of looping to a potato-related distraction.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Being the flagship model, I expect top-notch audio quality, and that’s exactly what I get. Boss has upped the AD/DA conversion to 32-bit, alongside 32-bit floating-point processing, and the playback is crystal clear.

I am impressed by how clearly the RC-600 reproduces my layered parts, even as the arrangement becomes busier. I tested playback through my audio interface and Logic Pro, using a Neural DSP plugin, before switching over to my Peavey Classic 30 amplifier. This gave me a chance to hear the loops outside of my computer-monitoring setup and get a better feel for how the layered arrangement translated through a guitar amp.

The octave effect is useful for creating a bass part from my guitar, while the modulation options offer further ways to shape the sound before recording. I’m less drawn to some of the more experimental track effects, which feel better suited to more adventurous loop-based performances than the guitar arrangements I put together.

While these give you plenty to experiment with, I would have liked to see more recognizable recreations of Boss's standalone stompboxes. Given the brand's extensive pedal lineup, this feels like an opportunity missed, and something that could have taken the RC-600 to the next level.

I also barely notice any lag. My setup involved monitoring through Logic Pro via an audio interface, and I was skeptical about how well it would function as even the smallest amount of latency can throw things off musically. However, it performed admirably and was pleasingly responsive. I experience the same immediate response when switching over to my Peavey Classic 30, and have no complaints about the playback feel when interacting with the loops.

Verdict

The Boss RC-600 is a seriously capable piece of kit, and it's easy to see why it sits at the top of the Loop Station range. The audio quality is excellent, playback remains clear as you layer tracks, and the six-track setup gives you plenty of room to build arrangements. I also found the interface more intuitive than its cockpit-like appearance suggests, with the color-coded controls and visual loop indicators helping you stay on top of what's happening.

However, it's not without its frustrations. The footswitches are small and can be fiddly to hit accurately, which isn't ideal when timing is everything. The onboard effects are useful, but I would have liked to see more recognizable recreations of Boss's standalone pedals. The Auto Off experience on my review unit was another unwelcome surprise, so I'd recommend checking the settings and saving your work regularly.

For guitarists and singer-songwriters who want to build elaborate live arrangements, the RC-600 offers a huge amount of creative potential. Beginners may find its deeper features take time to master, and those who mainly want to sketch out simple ideas could be better served by a more straightforward looper. But if you're willing to explore what it can do, there's a lot to get excited about.

Guitar World verdict: The Boss RC-600 is a powerful looping station for guitarists who want to build elaborate arrangements, with six tracks, extensive connectivity, and a flexible recording workflow. The small footswitches take some getting used to, and not every effect inspired me, but its creative potential makes it a compelling choice for players who have outgrown simpler loopers.

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Walrus Audio is well versed in the creation of textural ambient soundscapes.

We’ve previously looked at its Slö Reverb, Lore Reverse Reverb and Fable Granular Generator pedals, and the latest in the genre, the Lüm Texture Engine, draws on elements of all three of these precursors.

The general idea here is to transform your signal to create atmospheric textures by ‘fracturing’ it into tiny grains wrapped in different washes of reverb.

Specs

• PRICE: $279 | £259 | €299
• ORIGIN: USA
• TYPE: Textural ambience pedal
• FEATURES: Buffered bypass, Trails or Instant Cut bypass modes, 3x onboard presets
• CONTROLS: Decay, Filter, Mix, X, Stretch, Mode/Ramp switch, Bypass footswitch, Moment footswitch
• CONNECTIONS: Standard Input, standard output
• POWER: 9V adaptor (not supplied) 100mA minimum
• DIMENSIONS: 66 (w) x 125 (d) x 60mm (h)
• CONTACT: Walrus Audio

Build quality, usability and sounds

The pedal centres around three different modes and has knobs to adjust Decay time, a low-pass Filter (effectively EQ), and Mix, which adds a proportion of the effected sound to your dry sound up to fully wet.

There’s also an X knob that has a different function for each mode, and a Stretch knob for time-stretching the effects from half- to double-speed with consequent pitch shifts.

Grain Cloud (Mode I) mode offers a granular texture built from dual taps reading from a feedback delay line. It’s an ambience fractured by glitches that are not unlike unsynchronised delay repeats or wayward tremolo pulses, with the X knob controlling the grain size – basically, the speed of the glitching.

Grain Verb (Mode II) is more of the same but delivers an increase in spacey ambience as it incorporates reverb built from dual taps reading from the delay memory of a reverb algorithm tank.

Forward/Reverse Verb (Mode III) is perhaps the most conventional of the three, with a forward reverb algorithm running into a reverse reverb algorithm whose decay is adjusted by the X knob, producing deep pulsing reverb.

Whether you’re carrying out measured juxtaposition of the knobs or tweaking them randomly looking for happy sonic accidents, the pedal is ripe for creative exploration, and there are three easily switchable presets to store and recall favourite sounds for onstage variation without resorting to knob twiddling.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

There’s no provision for an expression pedal here, but the Moment footswitch allows you to automate any one of the five knobs. You hold the footswitch to glide to a defined target with a choice of 10ms, 1,000ms and 5,000ms glide times.

It’s highly effective in injecting a sense of movement or as instant drama. Moment settings can be saved with each preset.

Guitar World verdict: Complementing your standard delay and reverb, and stacking nicely with dirt pedals, the Lüm offers a great way to build some textural ambience into a standard guitar chain, either as subtle ear candy or the main event.

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While it is certainly a rewarding experience, learning an instrument is hard. Thankfully, as far as the guitar goes, there are plenty of readily-available resources, including online guitar lessons through which anyone can teach themselves, as well as a huge selection of entry-level guitars to choose from. The new Litejam RGB24 aims to combine both of these things, offering an instrument that not only serves as your first electric guitar, but also your teacher.

It does this through color-coded LEDs set into the frets that show you exactly where to put your fingers. These lights are controlled via an app, which tells the guitar which LEDs to display. For example, tell the app you want a C chord, and the app will (over Bluetooth) make the guitar light up the relevant frets, color-coded to tell you which finger should go where. A pretty straightforward concept - at least on paper.

Before getting into review-writing, I spent a decade teaching guitar, and still do a little of it here and there. So, I’m left wondering if this is something that will help or hinder students. Time to find out.

Specs

• Launch price: $579 | £395 | €446
• Made: China
• Type: Six-string electric guitar
• Body: Basswood
• Neck: Maple, C-shape
• Fingerboard: Rosewood
• Scale length: 25.5"
• Nut/width: Bone, 41mm
• Frets: 24, medium jumbo
• Hardware: Litejam chrome premium die-cast tuners, chrome vibrato bridge
• String spacing at bridge: 11mm
• Electrics: HSH, ceramic pickups, bridge pickup coil split
• Weight: 7.4lbs/3.4kg
• Options: N/A
• Left-handed options: Yes, black and white
• Finishes: White (as reviewed), Black
• Cases: Litejam soft case
• Contact: Litejam

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★

Putting the lights aside for a second, the guitar itself consists of a basswood body, maple neck, and a rosewood fingerboard. Initial impressions are good, with no obvious defects out of the box.

The RGB24 sports 24 medium-jumbo frets that feel a little grainy under the strings, so could use a little polishing. Similarly, the action is high out of the box at a less than beginner-friendly 2mm on the low E and 1.75mm on the high E.

The Litejam Premium die-cast tuners feel robust in use for an affordable guitar, and while tuning does slip after a few over-the-top bends, it is acceptable for the price. That is until the tremolo arm is used, at which point tuning quickly wanders.

The trem also makes a lot of spring noise. I would expect a little of this with any tremolo system, of course, but the system on the RGB24 is notably louder than any I’ve tried on comparable models.

At $579, the Litejam RGB24 isn’t as cheap as some beginner electric guitars (the $379 Yamaha Pacifica 112V, for example), but we have to consider the additional tech, which includes those LED lights, Bluetooth connectivity, the app, and a USB-C rechargeable battery with eight to ten hours of life per charge.

And that tech is free from compromise, as the LEDs are bright and vibrantly colorful, the connection to the app is stable, and the app itself has plenty of imagery that makes it feel premium.

Aesthetically, I have the White finish (no fancy color names here) with chrome hardware, which is problem-free, but also a little plain when the LED’s are turned off. The back of the headstock sports a QR code, which, in my opinion, cheapens the impression the guitar gives.

That QR code takes you to a web page entitled ‘Instruction’ which advertises the included warranty, fast shipping, and a 14-day refund, then other Litejam products, before finally listing the links to manuals as the second-to-last item on the page. In other words, it's primarily an advert permanently ingrained on the product.

Given that the customer has already spent their hard-earned cash, it feels a little disrespectful to include advertising of this sort on a bought product.

Playability

Playability/Usability rating: ★★★

Putting the tech aside for a second and judging the Litejam RGB as a guitar first, playability inevitably suffers from the aforementioned high action and grainy frets.

This means that playing chords and simple lead lines at the lower frets is easy enough, but bends don’t feel particularly smooth, and the high action gets in the way when playing higher up the neck.

However, this is rescued somewhat by the light strings the guitar arrives with, and could be helped with some setup work. At this point, I would be remiss not to acknowledge that the beginners the Lightjam RGB24 is aimed at will be highly unlikely to know how to do that setup.

The neck improves things as it is a comfortable C-shape. It’s not too chunky, nor is it too skinny, making it a great middle ground for those learning how to play. The Satin finish makes it easy to move around on, too.

The app, to be blunt, is impressive. It’s designed to allow the user to select what they want the LED’s on the guitar to display and does so through four sections: Chord, Scale, Play, and Learn.

It is all delightfully easy to use; for example, if I want to learn a chord, I go to the Chord section, where I am presented with a page featuring a fret diagram at the top and highly intuitive visual menus to select the Chord and Chord quality below the diagram.

When the desired chord is chosen, the LED’s immediately change to show the chord on the guitar, color-coded to indicate which finger should be used where. Easy.

Scales work similarly, with a number of options to display the scales in helpful ways across the fretboard. For example, a traditional ‘CAGED’ type shape with the whole scale shown within four frets, or what the app calls ‘Scale Flow’ with the scale spanning seven frets.

The highlight for me is the ‘Learn’ section, where Litejam has curated a selection of songs. Playing these songs will display the required frets in real time on the guitar’s LED’s, and the track can be slowed down and looped so as to help nail those tricky sections.

Similarly, the Chord Section contains a ‘Progression’ page where a chord progression can be selected and then played through, again with the LED’s changing in real time. In short, it’s all very clever.

However, there is a flaw here. The lights line up perfectly with the strings from a bird's-eye perspective, looking directly down on the fretboard from above. But in a playing position (i.e side on), the gap between the strings and LED’s changes this perspective slightly, meaning things don’t line up quite as well. This isn’t a deal breaker, rather something that just needs a little adjusting too.

A bigger issue is that once you are playing the guitar, your fingers are on top of the LEDs, which often renders a selection of them blocked from view. For example, a finger on the third fret of the A string will get in the way of the LED’s on the third fret of the D, G, B, and high E strings.

This isn’t a problem when you are learning chords one at a time, but it does make playing through scales and along with the aforementioned tracks awkward if you are relying on the LED’s.

When you are ready to turn them off completely, the lights can enter a Perform mode, where they will illuminate in various patterns. There is no escaping the fact that this looks cool.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★

Litejam lists the pickups as ‘HSH ceramic’. In other words, a humbucker in the bridge, a single coil in the middle, and what Litejam calls a mini-humbucker in the neck. It’s important to note that this is a single-coil-sized 'blade'-style humbucker rather than a version of a Gibson-style mini-humbucker.

Purveying through all the pickup positions available via the five-way selector is a low end that feels a bit hollow, and a brightness that is a little harsh with low gain and clean tones, but a lot of fun when a good helping of gain is applied.

I am using a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe IV with a Browne Amplification Ethane dual drive pedal for some grunt, and when I’ve got both sides of the pedal on, the pickups' relatively high output and brightness lead to saturation that retains a nice articulation, especially on the bridge pickup.

The bridge humbucker is split in position two, which, in combination with the single-coil middle pickup, makes for a Stratocaster-reminiscent quack. It’s a similar story in position four, with that soft, scooped tone made famous by Strat players the likes of John Mayer.

My favourite pickup is the neck humbucker, as it offsets that brightness a little, making those cleans and lightly driven sounds more palatable while working well for distorted, cello-like leads.

This particular model suffers from a clicking sound when gain is applied (often associated with digital circuitry getting in the way of the audio). This could be a fault within this specific example of the guitar, rather than the instrument in general.

Verdict

Considering the Litejam RGB24 as just a guitar first, it is obvious we are talking about a beginner electric guitar here. It needs a good setup, tuning stability is not perfect, and the pickups can be harsh while lacking low-end punch. But these are the sort of compromises you might expect on a cheaper guitar.

The app, however, is very impressive. The Bluetooth connection remained stable throughout the entirety of testing, and it displays a lot of information and options in a way that is very easy to understand.

The LED’s are equally as impressive, particularly in how they change in real time to reflect the Litejam official tracks in the app. The concept, however, is a little flawed given that your fingers will inevitably cover LED’s as you are playing, making it hard to keep up with those real-time changes. Instead, where it works well is in showing the learner where to place their fingers when learning individual chord shapes, scales, and arpeggios.

It is a novel alternative to the likes of chord charts and scale diagrams that may well inspire a few more players to pick the instrument up. However, with tablature and (relatively) easy-to-understand chord charts, I suspect that a lot of learners may be better off investing the money in a higher-quality instrument and making use of some readily available online resources.

As a teacher, I am a little wary of students leaning too heavily on the LED lights, too. I want my students to be doing a little thinking, as it is the process of figuring things out that leads to more efficient learning.

In my opinion, the lights are great to get learners started and to help them check that they are playing things correctly, as long as the aim is to eventually turn them off.

Furthermore, the hard part of learning guitar is in developing the co-ordination, muscle memory and finger strength to play those scales and chords, rather than just knowing where to put your fingers.

Guitar World verdict: The Litejam RGB 24 is an impressive piece of kit. It shows learners where to put their fingers in a novel way, which may just encourage a few more players to start learning. However, most may benefit more from a higher-quality guitar and readily available online resources.

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Every guitar company and its dog is making a baritone guitar at the moment, and now it’s the time for one of the biggest players in the guitar game to make their mark. The Epiphone Prophecy Les Paul Baritone is very much a baritone aimed at metal guitar players, with its all-black-everything aesthetic, Fishman Fluence active pickups, and hefty string gauge.

Despite feeling like a bit of a rarity for the Gibson/Epiphone stable, the company has form for extended-range guitars. The Epiphone Les Paul Standard Baritone released in the mid '00s is the obvious one, with a similar model being launched for Gibson around the same time. There’s also the Buckethead Signature Les Paul, which featured a baritone scale, and more recently the SG Baritone and Gibson Victory Baritone.

While this isn’t the first Epiphone baritone, it is the first one for the Prophecy line and its range of guitars aimed at players of heavy riffs. It’s got an ultra-modern, weight-relieved mahogany body with a maple top and figured veneer in an Obsidian Storm Satin finish. The classic LP shape is here with the single cut and multi-ply body binding, a belly carve, and a modern contoured neck heel.

The glued-in, set neck is composed of a thermally-aged, one-piece maple neck and is also finished in satin. It features the HyperGlide profile and a single-ply bound ebony fingerboard, with 24 stainless steel frets and a compound radius that moves from 10 to 14 inches as you get higher up the fretboard. It’s a 27-inch scale, so not as long as some baritones, but a clear step away from the typical Gibson 24.75-inch we’re used to.

Six Grover Rotomatic locking tuners sit upon the headstock, with a Graph Tech nut and a LockTone Modern bridge. The bass strings go through the body at a much sharper angle than the treble side to balance the string feel a baritone needs in the low end with a more slinky feel in the treble end.

Finally, the electronics feature two Fishman Fluence humbuckers developed exclusively for the Prophecy series. Each pickup delivers three voices, with a modern high-output tone, a PAF-type sound, and a single-coil tone. These are accessible via push-pull pots, which feature on both volume and tone controls. The volume controls handle the coil split, while the tone controls change the voices. A three-way toggle selector enables you to switch between bridge pickup, neck pickup, and both at the same time.

Specs

• Launch price: $1,499 | £1,249 | €1,449
• Made: China
• Type: Six-string baritone electric guitar
• Body: Mahogany with maple top and figured maple veneer, multi-ply binding, satin finish
• Neck: Thermally-aged one-piece maple, satin finish, glued-in set neck, HyperGlide profile
• Fingerboard: Ebony, single-ply bound, 10-inch to 14-inch compound radius, block inlays
• Scale length: 27 in / 685.8 mm
• Nut/width: Graph Tech nut, 42mm
• Frets: 24, stainless steel
• Hardware: Black nickel, Grover Rotomatic locking tuners
• String spacing at bridge: 49.3mm
• Electrics: Fishman Fluence pickups (neck and bridge), push/pull controls give three voices (modern high-output active humbucker, vintage-style humbucker, single-coil-style), 3-way toggle, two volume, two tone controls
• Weight: 4 kg, 8.8 lbs
• Options: N/A
• Left-handed options: N/A
• Finishes: Obsidian Storm Satin
• Case: Protector Ultralite gig bag included
• Contact: Epiphone

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

There’s no denying it, this Epiphone Prophecy Baritone is squarely aimed at heavy-playing guitarists. Pulling it out of the sturdy-feeling Protector Ultralite semi-rigid gig bag, the aesthetic is unmistakable. Satin black with a hint of the figured maple veneer peering through on the body, the hardware is black, the pickups are black, the fretboard is black, and so on…

Even the block inlays haven’t been spared, with a dark and stormy look that’s less reflective than those you’d see on a typical Epiphone Les Paul. They’re all very nicely applied, and running my hand up and down the neck, it feels very smooth, with no fret ends sticking out anywhere. The binding is a different color on the front-facing part than it is on the portion where the side dots reside. It’s a small detail, but it would be even nicer looking if these were the same.

It’s quite a heavy guitar, weighing in at a full 4kg (8.8lbs) on my scales despite the weight-relieved body construction. I dread to think what it would’ve been like sans the modern weight relief. The body binding has a little rough bit near the cutaway where it isn’t entirely smooth, but honestly this is a detail you’d only notice really close up and doesn’t spoil the overall image of the guitar.

The back of the guitar features a belly carve and a sculpted neck heel for better upper fret access. The panel for the 9V battery is part of the cover for the volume and tone controls, and the way it folds out is very slick compared to other active pickup-equipped guitars I’ve tried.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★☆

Sitting down to play it for the first time, I immediately notice the neck profile is different from most Epiphones I’ve played. It feels like a ‘D’ profile in my hand, with an almost flat part in the middle of the neck I can rest my thumb on. It's more like something you’d find on a high-performance shred guitar than typical LP fare, although it’s not quite as slim as a pure shredder guitar.

The satin finish on the back of the neck takes some breaking in. After one session with a few hours of playing, I can already feel it gunk-ing-up, with little bits of organic detritus from my hands sticking to the back of the neck. This will get better over time, but it’s distracting initially, and a bit of a chore having to wipe it down every time I play.

I also notice it’s quite unbalanced and neck-heavy in my lap. If I take my left hand off the neck, it wants to dive downwards straight away. It exhibits the same behavior on a guitar strap, with the headstock plummeting to the earth as soon as I stand up.

The factory string gauge of 12-60 is quite light for a baritone. This means it feels really slinky and easy to play, but when I go to tune it down to drop A, I can feel straight away that the strings are pretty much already getting too loose. If you’re the sort that likes to tune G# and beyond, you’re gonna need a bigger string. Luckily, that's a small, affordable adjustment.

As it is, though, it’s surprisingly easy to bend the strings versus my normal baritone, which has a 13-72 set of strings on it. I can even muster some Gilmour-style two-tone bends on it with a couple of supporting fingers, something I’ve not really been able to do on other baritones I’ve tested. It plays much more like a normal guitar than a baritone at the treble end of the neck.

At the other end, it’s more what I’m used to, with a big stretch from 1st to 5th fret. The action measures just past 1mm at the 12th fret of the low string with my finger on the 1st fret. This low action from the factory definitely assists in the overall slinky feel of the guitar. If you're a little skeptical about how well you’ll adjust from a regular scale electric guitar, the Prophecy Les Paul Baritone makes the change feel a lot more seamless than others I’ve tested.

As I play the guitar for longer, I start to experience issues with the tuning stability. At first, I figure this is just the guitar bedding-in, but after playing fairly regularly for a week, I still find that it goes out of tune rather frequently. It being a hardtail with locking tuners, I’d expect it to be much more stable. It could be a setup issue with the nut, or it wasn’t strung correctly at the factory. Either way, it’s something I’d want to address before recording or gigging with it.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

With it plugged into my audio interface and the Neural DSP plugin Nolly X loaded up, I’m straight into chugging territory with the voicing of the humbuckers. It’s that classic, high-output, modern active tone that’s compressed and aggressive, with bags of midrange gut punch and a controlled low end. Digging in with the pick and some hulking power chords in the neck position, it’s straight into that modern metal sound.

It’s not totally lifeless, though. These aren’t extremely surgical like an EMG can be, so there’s a bit of play here when I adjust my picking dynamics. You can get a great rock tone out of them if you want to get onto the more bluesy end of the heavy guitar spectrum. The sustain on the pickups is absolutely fantastic, too. I strike a low A, and it rings out for days, great for sludgy doom riffing.

Using the voice switch on the tone control, I’m not convinced about the claims of Patent Applied For-like tone. The sound changes, but it feels more like the same voice turned down rather than moving from an active humbucker to a vintage humbucker. It’s the same with the single-coil voice. I don’t feel like it gets more spanky and brighter; it’s more like a light shroud has been placed over the original tone that makes it quieter. In fairness, this is a common theme with split-humbuckers.

The push-pull pots work well if I want to tone it down a bit in the verse and then bring it back up for the chorus quickly, but it’s not such a drastic tone change that you couldn’t achieve using the volume control. This feels like a bit of a missed opportunity, because the overall sound of the pickups is really quite good, and having a couple more distinctive voices would make it even more versatile.

As they are, and despite the look of the guitar, it can cover a decent amount of ground. Switching to the newly released Tone King MkII X plugin, the clean tones are surprisingly organic-sounding, particularly on the neck pickup. Playing gently plucked triads further up the neck, it’s hard to believe I’m playing a baritone guitar with active pickups installed. That said, these tones are still in the realm of rock, and it's not able to deliver the more dynamic tones of a true low-output humbucker or single coil.

Verdict

The Epiphone Prophecy Les Paul Baritone is overall a really great guitar. The Fishman Fluence humbuckers deliver superb tones for all kinds of heavy music, and are versatile enough to handle rock, punk, and blues, too. It’s got an incredibly playable neck, and doesn’t feel like a massive jump from a regular scale electric guitar.

It’s let down by a few things, the most major of which is the lack of tuning stability on my review model. Despite being a hardtail bridge with locking tuners, I had to retune the guitar fairly consistently over my time with it. It’s also really neck-heavy, so it wants to tip itself out of your lap when sitting. Finally, I wanted a bit more from the different voices of the Fishman humbuckers.

Guitar World verdict: The Epiphone Prophecy Les Paul Baritone is really close to being one of the best metal-oriented baritones on the market. If it wasn’t for a couple of issues with tuning stability and the lack of depth from the pickup voicing, it could truly stake a claim as being the best of the bunch. Superb playability and a great core tone for heavy music make it a good metal guitar that falls just shy of greatness.

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Hands-on videos

Epiphone

Andertons

Nestled chronologically between the lo-fi tweed originals and the higher-headroom black-panel series was a short period of lesser-known brown-covered Fender amps, spanning the period from ’59 to ’63.

By virtue of their upgraded components, circuit and speaker efficiency, these amps had unique sonic attributes distinct from any other period of the company’s history.

More bold headroom than the tweeds yet a less scooped midrange than the later black- and silver-panels, the brown amps had a mid character unique to themselves, along with the ability to achieve a thick overdrive.

Mr Fender was not entirely satisfied by this unholy saturation, however, and by the middle of ’63 the company had moved forward with his quest for maximum clean headroom in the guise of the black-panel amps, and the brown range was quickly phased out to become a rarely seen historical quirk.

Until the ’90s, that is, when Fender reissued its super-rare and desirable brown-panel 2x10 Vibroverb. Although famously used by the late Jeff Buckley live and on record, the amp is not quite a faithful reproduction and didn’t quite summon up the saturation potential of the originals.

Fender is now revisiting its brown-tinted past with this reproduction of the ’62 Deluxe with its 6G3 circuit designation in which two 6V6 tubes push out 20 watts through a single 12-inch custom-designed Celestion driver.

The bias is fixed in this amp – in contrast to other brown-panel models – achieving a tighter and faster response. Those same 6V6 tubes are utilised to produce the mesmeric valve-biased tremolo sound, which throbs with a depth all its own at the tap of the vintage brown footswitch.

The Deluxe, in its future black incarnation, has historically found favour among the US studio elite players of the golden era of record making, and as a result we’ve heard its sonic profile possibly on more records than any other. However, with this ’62 brown-panel variation we have a more aggressive beast for our perusal, said to be favoured by both Billy Gibbons and Keith Richards.

Specs

• PRICE: $1,699 | £1,699 | €1,899
• ORIGIN: USA
• TYPE: All-tube combo
• TUBES: 2x 6V6, 3x 12AX7, 1x GZ34
• OUTPUT: 20W
• DIMENSIONS: 533 (w) x 241.3 (d) x 432mm (h)
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 15.4/34
• CABINET: Solid pine
• LOUDSPEAKER: 12” custom-designed Celestion
• CHANNELS: 2, Normal and Bright
• CONTROLS: Normal Channel: Volume, Tone; Bright Channel: Volume, Tone; Vibrato: Speed, Intensity
• FOOTSWITCH: Tremolo footswitch included
• ADDITIONAL FEATURES: Hard‑wearing cover included
• CONTACT: Fender

Build quality, usability and sounds

Pulling the combo from its packaging with its thankfully comfortable brown-leather handle, its period-correct Nubtex covering and wheat grille cloth cut a distinctive dash. Its traditional pine cabinet keeps the weight down for an easily manageable lift. Scrutinising the faceplate we find a minimal control set for this four-input, two-channel circuit.

As per Fender protocol, input 1 (for either of its channels) is tuned for higher-gain sensitivity, in contrast to the slightly attenuated second input(s). The two channels aren’t footswitchable within the amp’s circuit, but they are in-phase, allowing for an ABY pedal to switch between the two or use both simultaneously.

We plugged our Strat into input 1 of the Normal channel and immediately rejoiced in the tight mids that rounded out the tone of our vintage-output single-coil pickups. In the neck position, the fabled woody depth was rendered wonderfully, without excessive power-sapping low-end. Its top‑end, meanwhile, though unmistakably Fender, has none of the brash treble that can put a little too much sting in the tail of brighter-sounding guitars.

As a result, the Deluxe achieves a distinctive condensed sound that brings to mind the classic US studio guitarist tone, exemplified on recordings from Steely Dan to The Jacksons, and much in between.

Engaging the vintage-looking conical-brown footswitch released the luscious throb of the tube-biased tremolo circuit. Out of the variety of tremolo circuits used in guitar amps, the valve-biased design has a very organic and pleasing ramp to its modulations.

It requires two well-matched power tubes to get the strongest effect and is working very well with the Deluxe’s 6v6s. The speed has the more usable part of its range between 5 and 10 but fulfilled all our speed requirements.

Lastly, it was time to push the gain on the Bright channel to find out how wild things can get. True to form, this amp has a hefty slab of mid-heavy gain to give fluidity to leads and lovely weight to riffs and chords. The particular frequency focus is perfectly chosen, neither sharp like a Marshall nor rotund like some Boogies.

Stepping on the familiar green overdrive, used by legends such as Stevie Ray Vaughan to boost Fender amps, shaved off a little more low-end and gave more point to notes coming from our Les Paul. It was noticeable that, even at higher gain levels, there was still a clarity and coherence to notes.

Celestion has supplied a custom 12-inch speaker for this amp, which looks perhaps to be a ceramic design, known to subdue the brightest frequencies, accentuate the mids and perform well during break-up. We found this amp really shines with classic pickups and perhaps the addition of a reverb and boost-pedal complement.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

Price-wise, this amp resides at the lower end of the American Vintage range, likely due to minimal control set and lack of reverb. However, it is still an outlay worthy of some consideration as for that price you get a classic all-tube Fender that can be serviced and repaired (should that be necessary) to give many years of wonderful service.

There’s not much to learn or work out, just choose your guitar and amp channel and you’re off! At 20 watts you should be able to get the tubes cooking in rehearsals and small to moderate-sized gigs.

The brown-panel sound offers a wonderful option for players looking to lose some highs and put the focus on the mids, for anything from rock to fusion, blues to country. Its wondrous valve-biased tremolo really shines here.

Guitar World verdict: Supplied with its tremolo footswitch and soft cover, it’s a tidy little gig-and-studio combo with the tone of a rarified era. It will likely appeal just as much to players who have their technique and instruments dialled in as to less experienced students of the instrument. In either case, glorious sepia-coloured sound awaits.

Hands-on videos

Fender

Sweetwater

• “The standard-bearer against which to judge all small combo amps”: Fender Blues Junior IV 30th Anniversary review
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Cort’s massive Indonesian factory makes a hell of a lot of electric and acoustic guitars year on year. Strandberg, Squier, Ibanez, and PRS SE guitars are all built there, and it's having a huge impact on market affordability. With the KX500 Pale Moon, Cort itself is showing off the kind of boutique-looking rock and metal machine it can make for a cent under $900 – with even more tempting street prices to be found in the UK and mainland Europe.

Naturally, the striking pale moon ebony top is the first feature to catch the eye. Beneath that is a mahogany body, which pairs with a five-piece roasted maple-and-walnut neck, topped with macassar ebony and 24 stainless-steel frets.

Its hardtail bridge and locking tuners are Cort-branded, but the South Korean firm has gone with the tried-and-tested, fabled Seymour Duncan Sentient and Nazgul humbucker partnership to ensure—it hopes—it looks as good as it sounds.

It sits at an interesting price point. It’s more expensive than, say, Harley Benton’s well-spec'd budget builds, but still remains under the $1K threshold with room to breathe, meaning it gets some solid specs without tipping the scales. Furthermore, it also makes it more likely to appeal to more serious – rather than solely beginner – players.

The KX500 Pale Moon is a build that looks to go toe-to-toe with Ibanez’s Iron Label series and Jackson’s X and Pro Series guitars. It’s a contemporary-minded axe, with those humbuckers giving a touch of, not vintage, but an established industry staple when it comes to its tones.

Elsewhere, a truss rod adjustment wheel shows Cort continuing to establish that setup as its new normal, and the KX500 gets a streamlined control system with one Volume and one Tone dial, plus a three-way switch.

So, it’s a guitar that seems to step out of the ‘keep things cheap’ bracket, without going too far, while also looking more premium than its price point might suggest. But can the KX500 Pale Moon eclipse its biggest rivals?

Specs

• Launch price: $899.99 / £699.99
• Made: Indonesia
• Type: Six-string electric guitar
• Body: Mahogany with pale moon ebony veneer top
• Neck: Five-piece roasted maple and walnut, D-shape
• Fingerboard / Radius: Macassar ebony / 15.75"
• Scale length: 25.5” (648mm)
• Nut/width: 1 11/16” (43mm)
• Frets: 24 jumbo, stainless steel
• Hardware: Cort hardtail and locking tuners, two-way adjustable truss rod wheel
• Electrics: Seymour Duncan Sentient & Nazgul humbuckers, 1x Volume, 1x Control, three-way switch
• Weight: 2.81kg / 6.19lbs
• Left-handed options: No
• Options: KX507MS seven-string multiscale ($999) and KX500 Baritone ($929.99)
• Finish: Natural Black Burst matte open pore
• Case: No
• Contact: Cort

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

I’ve been an advocate for the quality of guitars Cort’s Indonesian factory churns out for a while now. I feel it’s a real shifting needle in the industry, proving that guitars made outside the US and Japan aren’t as bad as the narrative makes them out to be. The Cort KX500 Pale Moon is almost the perfect example.

Starting with the finish, even if it's not really your thing, you have to admit that it’s a striking guitar. There are wood grains dotted about the body's matte open-pore finish, giving it a smoothness that makes the grains stand out in a really nice way. I’ve always liked when a guitar looks and feels like it’s made from wood, and this does it really well, especially at the rear, while the burst finish stops it from becoming too busy for the eye.

The neck has a nice hand feel, too, with its D-profile and two thin walnut stripes wholly reminiscent of Ibanez’s Wizard necks. It’s just got a little more curvature, which I like; it’s comfortable and shaped so I can really dig in if I want, or put my foot on the gas and shred.

There are no glaring blemishes; every contour is smooth, the neck joint is solid, with welcoming access to the higher frets, and the pick-shaped inlays are a nice touch as they underscore Cort’s ambition to be different without getting too weird.

The same goes for the small contour at the top of its headstock; it’s a nice touch, and for a mahogany-bodied guitar, it doesn’t weigh all that much at 2.81kg.

Admittedly, the bridge looks a little bog-standard in the impressive context of the woods, like it was a bit of an afterthought. A lack of a split coil is a little disappointing, too. Many guitars at lower price points now offer them, and with Cort positioning itself as an affordable brand, it feels like an opportunity missed in the bid to heighten its appeal.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

As I’ve said, the Ibanez-like radius, but with a little more curve, makes for great playability. I’ve never quite gelled with flat neck radius, but this D-shape neck carve with the 15.75" radius actually nails the balance between super-thin shredder and something a little more Charvel. Gliding across the strings is easy and very enjoyable.

At no point do I feel this is a guitar that needs taming. For a short period, I almost felt it was too easy to play and lacked personality. That’s because I don’t need to fight it or familiarize myself with it; it’s plug-and-play. I see now that is why I thought it lacked something.

That being said, the incredibly flat fingerboard – there’s no compound radius here – won’t be for everyone. From my experience, at least, it isn’t immediately noticeable because of how it plays, but it is a design feature that once again aligns it with Ibanez-style builds. It makes it a mean shredder.

Again, with the finer details, I feel the pickup switch and Volume/Tone knobs are placed in a good sweet spot. I'd say they’re out of the way of most people’s picking hand arcs, but not so far away that you need to hail a cab to get there. It’s just a shame the switch itself feels quite flimsy.

The KX500's leg carve is fairly cozy, and my right arm sits atop the body with ease, but, as I have unfortunately experienced with Corts before, the neck dive is real on this test example. That means that, having the guitar on my lap while I type – as I am doing now, or when searching for a tab online, etc. – I need to consciously hold it in place with my right arm.

Yet, to my surprise, that’s barely an issue when playing standing up. There’s a small drop from where I position it, but otherwise it holds in place.

While there are a few elements with the guitar that leave me a little disappointed – such as the pickup switch, bridge, and neck dive issues – I’m so happy that the playability has escaped any sense of financial compromise. Parts can be replaced; the guitar itself is so easy to play. For an off-the-shelf instrument, that’s the most important thing.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Given its assembly of dark woods, it’s no surprise to me that the guitar sounds like it was forged in shadows. That means that, while chords bloom well, with clear distinction between the notes, there is an inherent darkness to its sound.

It's most notable with lead tones, where brightness really has to be dialed in with the EQ. For comparison, plugging into my prog rock rig – the Neural DSP Archetype Tim Henson Pink amp with a Charvel Tele featuring Fishman Fluence pickups – it’s noticeably different. Don’t get me wrong, I really love the earthiness of the passive pickups, and they sound excellent, but I find that amps and settings need to be tailored for the guitar quite specifically. It’s not a deal breaker, though.

What I do find, though, is that when I really dig in and snap at a riff, it does have a decent twang to it, even in lieu of a split coil – especially if I move my hand closer to the bridge. This leaves me in a funny place. It both helps eradicate the need for a split-coil and highlights just how much Tele-like spank I could get out of it if it had one. Still, an aftermarket mod isn’t going to drain my savings.

Its clean tones, meanwhile, are spotless. Chords are a little grating with the bridge pickup, but it also gives leads a pleasing thinness that makes my licks sound vulnerable and full of bluesy emotion. That's a decent trade-off.

The middle position is where chords are at their best. The bottom end adds a little growl, with a subtle top-end bite that ensures they cut through the mix. In the neck position, the warmth of the sound marries really well with the guitar's darker nature, but passing notes on the E and A strings do seem to push the amp, even when it's a moderately dialed model of a '60s Fender black panel amp.

They're packing heat, which can at times get in the way of more subtle playing. Adjusting the pickup height would be a logical step here, but then, when playing heavy riffs is so much fun, I'm currently accepting the small sacrifice.

Seymour Duncan Sentient and Nazgul pickups are a modern classic pairing, and they make perfect sense on this guitar. Clearly aimed at rock and metal players, they’re well equipped to excel in high-gain situations, but aren’t so one-trick that I daren’t play them clean.

They’re plenty dynamic too, responding to the weight of my pick attack and position in a way that makes them feel very alive. As I say, their heat does necessitate extra-light picking at times, but in a heavier context, they knock it out of the park. I’m not sure there’s a set of pickups better suited to this guitar.

I’ve seen one YouTuber brand the Cort KX500 Pale Moon as an “Ibanez killer”. Sure, that makes a great, snappy headline, but it does feel a touch hyperbolic. For a few hundred dollars more, I’d perhaps still rather invest in an Iron Label guitar than this, but what I feel Cort will sweep up here are the players without that extra wad of notes. It’s a mighty fine alternative for how it sounds, looks, and plays. Perhaps ‘Ibanez maimer’ is a better phrase.

Verdict

Cort might not be the sexiest name on the heavy music guitar market, but the KX500 Pale Moon certainly gets the holy trinity of an electric guitar right. It's competitively priced, looks and sounds great, and plays remarkably well. Having big-brand, industry-leading pickups helps ensure its value goes beyond the surface-level aesthetic of that striking top, and it's well put together.

There are small details that remind me this guitar has been designed with some constraints in place to keep its price point comfortably below $1K, and therefore put it in a solid place in the market. The rather perfunctory bridge lets the standards slip, although it performs to a decent enough standard, and the pickup selector feels cheap. Sitting down, the neck dive is an issue, but when standing up, I'm thankful it isn't.

And I'm a big fan of that neck; it's slim with a nice curvature, and, coupled with a very flat fingerboard, it makes shredding effortless. Ambition and execution are almost in perfect harmony.

Guitar World verdict: Cort has gone out on a limb to create a beautiful-looking, fierce-sounding rock and metal guitar that is familiarly spec'd, but different enough to stand out. Despite the occasional reminder that the guitar was built on a budget, in the all-important tone and playability departments, no corners have been cut, and it actually performs beyond expectations. When it comes to value for money, it's those operating in the shadow of the biggest names that are pushing the needle, and it's we, as players, that get to reap the rewards.

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Hands-on videos

Cort

John Nathan Cordy

Guitar Max

The Gretsch 6134 Penguin is among the rarest and most elusive of all vintage guitars, with collectors paying six figures to pick up one of the few (rumoured to be less than 50) originals that left the Brooklyn factory between 1955 and 1962.

On its 1955 release (no doubt in response to Gibson’s brand-new Les Paul model of 1952) the Penguin was effectively a fancier Duo Jet with top-of-the-line White Falcon appointments, a striking white finish, gold hardware, fancy inlays and DeArmond Dynasonic single-coil pickups, along with a smart gold ‘Cadillac’ ‘G’ tailpiece. A new one in 1959 would cost roughly $490.

To put that in context, a Gibson Les Paul Standard, now known as a ’Burst, would have only set you back roughly $265. In today’s vintage market, purchasing either would raise that figure to the hundreds of thousands…

The first major revision to the Penguin’s spec came in 1958 with thumbnail fingerboard inlays. Crucially, there was also the addition of the new Chet Atkins approved ‘Patent Applied For’ Filter’Tron Pickups (designed by engineer Ray Butts) to remove the hum associated with the single-coil Dynasonic pickups.

Debate still rages in quiet corners of the internet as to whether Ray Butts or Gibson’s Seth Lover (or indeed others) invented and first patented the guitar humbucking pickup.

The pickups Gretsch has chosen to fit to this Limited Edition Penguin are the TV Jones Ray Butts Ful-Fidelity units – accurate recreations of his original 1950s design that are not wax-potted, promising more high-end sparkle and a tighter bass response than regular TV Jones Classics.

Although listed as part of Gretsch’s solidbody line, the Penguin actually features a chambered mahogany body with an arched maple laminated top, and – if you haven’t noticed it already – a particularly eye-catching top finish that Gretsch refers to as ‘Light Blue Pearl’. It’s not vintage-accurate for a 1950s White Penguin, but it totally nails the finish found on some vintage Gretsch drum kits of the 1960s.

While the body outline nods to a slightly bigger Les Paul, a Gretsch Penguin’s 337mm (13.25-inch) wide and 51mm (two-inch) deep body – also used for the Duo Jet models – is easily differentiated on a dark stage by the huge, magnificent headstock borrowed from the White Falcon with its ever-so-subtle Gretsch logo and regal Grover Imperial tuners.

The set U-shaped mahogany neck features a beautiful dark 305mm (12-inch) radius ebony fingerboard featuring 22 medium jumbo frets, ‘Luminlay’ glow-in-the-dark side dots, and surprisingly restrained Neo-Classical thumbnail inlays.

Adding more bling for the buck, silver sparkle with w/b/w purfling features just about everywhere and joins a hefty chrome-plated arm guard (typically idiosyncratic Gretsch and a feature borrowed from banjos), chrome ‘Jeweled G-Arrow’ (in Gretsch parlance) control knobs for the individual volume controls for each pickup, and the treble bleed cap-loaded master volume control.

The dual switches are a standard three-way pickup selector accompanied by a three-way tone switch that uses different value capacitors to give preset tone control sounds.

The strings rest on a vintage-looking partially pinned Space Control bridge, which has significant movement back and forth for intonation control but can move under aggressive string bends and string changes.

The modern string-through Bigsby B3CP vibrato tailpiece is a marvel of engineering for anyone who has ever struggled with changing strings on a traditional Bigsby unit. Special mention also to the screw-on strap locks that have been a welcome addition to Gretsch guitars since the 1950s.

Specs

• PRICE: $3,799 | £3,699 | €3,999
• ORIGIN: Japan
• TYPE: Single-cutaway, chambered body electric
• BODY: Mahogany body with arched maple top and vintage chambering
• NECK: Gloss-finished U profile mahogany set-neck
• SCALE LENGTH: 625mm (24.6”)
• NUT/WIDTH: Bone/42.86mm (1.6875”)
• FINGERBOARD: Ebony with mother-of-pearl Neo Classical Thumbnail inlays
• FRETS: 22, medium jumbo
• HARDWARE: Bigsby B3CP String-Thru vibrato, Grover Imperial Tuners, Space Control bridge, Jeweled G-Arrow Control Knobs, chrome banjo-style arm rest and hardware
• STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52.4mm
• ELECTRICS: Twin TV Jones Ray Butts Ful-Fidelity Filter’Tron pickups, 3-way pickup selector switch, individual pickup volumes, master volume, classic Gretsch tone switch
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 4.0/8.8
• RANGE OPTIONS: G6134TG-58 Limited Edition 1958 Custom Penguin with Bigsby in Nightbird Emerald finish (£3,739)
• LEFT-HANDERS: No
• FINISH: Light Blue Pearl (as reviewed)
• CONTACT: Gretsch

Build quality, usability and sounds

Taking the Penguin from its plush hard case, at 4kg (8.8lb) we are immediately stuck by both its heft and sheer presence. Unmistakably Gretsch in its opulence, the striking Light Blue Pearl finish and all that chrome and silver sparkle is a colour scheme that reminds you that you’re playing something special.

The Penguin’s chambered mahogany body contributes a wonderful sense of smooth, airy warmth and depth to our first few unplugged strums. Single notes and chords have a rounded attack and a smooth and surprisingly long sustain, not something we’d usually associate with smaller-bodied Gretsch models especially, but it bodes well for plugged-in adventures.

While the Penguin’s single-cut body shape might suggest a typically Les Paul midrange heft, plugging the Penguin into our Princeton Reverb puts us more in mind of a good ES-335. There’s less midrange and immediacy to the attack; instead the Penguin has a smoother, more open and sparkly voice.

Perhaps it’s all that air in the chambered mahogany body with the laminate maple top, or the combination of floating bridge and the most musical of vibrato units adding sonic sparkle.

If you haven’t spent much time playing Filter’Trons then we urge you to do so, particularly these TV Jones Ray Butts units. Warm yet gritty, these pickups have plenty of sparkle and bite with a tight low‑end, sitting somewhere between a classic Fender single coil and a Gibson humbucker – a versatile yet instantly familiar sound.

Carefully balancing the individual pickup volume controls with the master volume with its treble bleed capacitor allows a huge range of tones, from clean snappy Beatle-y chime to gritty snarl perfect for Neil Young Americana and country runs when plugged into a Tweed amp.

The surprisingly useful tone switch is bypassed in the middle setting, rolls off some treble in the down position, and is most useful in the upper position by virtue of engaging a different value tone capacitor. It gives a superb almost cocked-wah midrange boost for additional textures and is great for punching lead lines out of a mix.

Up the amp or pedal gain, and you’re greeted by harmonically rich tones with superb note definition and a beautiful compression that gels notes perfectly even under serious volume and gain. As AC/DC found, along with many alt-rock artists in the late ’90s, it’s just about the perfect rock rhythm tone.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

Modern Gretsches are built to more exacting standards than so many of the vintage originals, and this Limited Edition Penguin is no exception – it is a visually striking and beautifully voiced bird.

Guitar World verdict: The addition of the TV Jones Ray Butts pickups is a masterstroke, offering a wide range of authentic Filter’Tron tones and – once you become accustomed to the idiosyncratic controls – hours of inspiration. The colour scheme may not be for everyone, but who wants ‘standard’ anyway? It’s a Gretsch Penguin, after all!

Hands-on videos

Gretsch

Empire Music

三木楽器 / MIKIGAKKI 公式チャンネル

• “A big part of the appeal is the build quality, which truly stands out at this price point”: Gretsch Electromatic Premier Jet review

Wireless guitar systems were once the prohibitively expensive reserve of bands successful enough to afford a crew. They were stadium-rock fare, used to free up the performances of guitarists prone to wandering and to remove the potential for on-stage technical difficulties caused by yanked, tripped-over, or otherwise broken guitar cables, problems a tech couldn’t feasibly solve from sidestage.

Since the 1990s, wireless guitar systems have grown and become more accessible, but how many of them were truly trustworthy on tour? It takes a lot to trust something you can’t see; for my part, and as someone not often on large festival stages, I’ve traditionally favored the pure simplicity of plugging cable into thingy. But that was before I tried the Shure GLXD16+. I am now a wireless convert, and it is with sole thanks to the unignorable utility of this unassailable system.

The Shure GLXD16+ is a complete pro-grade wireless system for guitars, comprising a transmitter pack and a receiver pedal. It’s a dual-band system, capable of running in 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz; as well as some clever automatic interference-avoiding tech, the system is capable of transmitting up to 60m – far longer than most festival main-stage runways, let alone the width of any stage you’re likely to play.

The pedal portion of the Shure GLXD16+ system contains the brains of the system. From the pedal, you can manage connectivity between transmitter and receiver; it also has a built-in guitar tuner that switches between Needle and Strobe modes and fine-tunes between 432 and 447Hz. The pedal footswitch engages the tuner and mutes the output, but can also be used to switch between the wireless signal and an analog signal coming through the pedal’s ¼” jack input. The pedal is, at once, a receiver, tuner, killswitch, and ABY box.

Under the hood, a plethora of routing, transmission, and tuning options for practically every scenario – controlled by the four buttons that sit on each side of the receiver’s dot matrix display. These functions are especially useful when you have multiple GLXD16+ systems on stage, or two transmitters to switch between (which you can also do, by the way).

Speaking of which, the transmitter bodypack has a battery life of around 12 hours, with more on tap if you use just the 2.4GHz band; in a pinch, 15 minutes of charge will grant around 90 minutes of playtime, so you’re not likely to be caught short before it’s go-time at a show.

Both transmitter and receiver unit seem built to withstand your average thermobaric blast, with sturdy metal enclosures. The transmitter also has a pre-attached metal clip, which gets a solid purchase on your guitar strap, belt, or other such on-person item. This is rugged stuff, decidedly gig-proof in pretty much every way.

Specs

• Launch price: $637 | £559 | €579
• Type: Wireless system
• Range: Up to 100 ft (30 m) indoor/typical; up to 200 ft (60 m) line-of-sight outdoors
• Controls: Receiver: Footswitch (Tuner/Bypass toggling), Link button, Mode button, Channel button, Group button | Transmitter: Power switch
• Features: Dual-Band operation (2.4 GHz & 5.8 GHz), automatic frequency management and channel backup, built-in chromatic tuner with needle/strobe modes and customizable pitch/detune settings, multi-transmitter pairing support
• Connectivity: Receiver: 1/4" Instrument Input, 1/4" Instrument Output, USB-C (for firmware updates), 9V–15V DC Power Input | Transmitter: TA4M 4-pin mini connector input, USB-C (for charging)
• Bypass: True Bypass
• Power: Receiver: 9V–15V DC power supply (400 mA min, center-negative or center-positive | Transmitter: Included SB904 rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery (up to 12 hours runtime; fast-charges via USB-C)
• Dimensions: Receiver: 5.4" x 3.7" x 1.89" / 138 x 95 x 48 mm | Transmitter: 4.5" x 2.6" x 1.1" / 115 x 67 x 29 mm
• Weight: Receiver: 1.23 lbs (560 g) | Transmitter: 0.33 lbs (150 g)
• Options: Available regional frequency configurations (Z2, Z3, Z4, Z5 tuning bandwidths); spare SB904 Lithium-Ion batteries, SBC10 USB-C wall chargers, right-angle guitar cables (WA305 included is straight TS to TA4F)
• Contact: shure.com

Performance

Being a relative newcomer to wireless guitar rigs myself, I was expecting a half-day of ginning up on electronics, high-frequency radio principles, and the user manual of the GLXD16+ – but I couldn’t resist setting it straight up on my pedalboard first. And then I turned it on. And then it just worked.

The GLXD16+ system automatically pairs when turned on, finding the most viable channel from the jump, then continually moving between channels to keep the connection and signal strong. The default setting picks the best channel across both 2.4 and 5.8GHz, keeping interference to a minimum. To my ear, latency was functionally non-existent, and my guitar sounded indistinguishable from when I plugged in with a standard jack lead.

Before I got everything set up, I had a bit of housekeeping to do. The transmitter bodypack’s battery is packaged separately and needs to be installed – a process as simple and familiar as putting a battery in a digital camera – then fully charged before use. I left it charging overnight to be safe, since I intended to gig with it the next day, but I’m fairly sure the first charge took less than a few hours.

The GLXD6+ receiver, of course, is pedal-powered. It’s got a standard barrel jack port, is happy running on anything between 9V and 15V, and is even happy receiving either center-positive or center-negative polarity. The only limiting factor (quite literally) is the unit’s current appetite.

Shure recommends using its own provided power supply, or an isolated pedal power port with a minimum 400mA current rating. No problem if you’re rocking one of the best pedalboard power supplies on the market, but a bit of a problem for me, whose only available slot was a 120mA port; bundling the provided wall wart in with my pedalboard was no problem, though, and, if anything, guaranteed cleaner power for gigging.

Speaking of which, my road testing took the GLXD16+ system to a basement venue in Leeds as part of a two-piece noisyband on a four-band bill. Soundchecks and changeovers were tight, so I didn’t have much room for fenagling. Luckily, and again, with both units powered up, they connected immediately.

I expected some nudging around to find and set a clean connection, but the GLXD16+ system, of course, handles that cleanly, undetectably, and automatically, even while you’re playing. Between soundcheck and the show itself, the GLXD16+ system was the least problematic part of my rig.

Admittedly, on this occasion, that might not be saying much. For this particular band, my guitar amp of choice is a 1960s PA head with more dead spiders than transistors in it, and my pedalboard is a hodgepodge of boutique pitch- and time-based effects, ‘80s distortion pedals and home-made Harmonic Percolator clones held together with cable ties. It’s safe to say the GLXD16+ system was somewhat out of place, both on my board and on that bill. But it was also functionally and fault-wise invisible, and so, so practical. Having one less cable to trip over on stage is a hugely underrated experience.

The common assumption about wireless rigs is that they exist purely to solve the problems created by short guitar cables on long or large stages, and maybe to simplify setup for festival shows too: the haunt of bands that have Tour Bus Money™.

But you don’t need huge stages or stacked gig calendars to justify a wireless rig; knowing you won't accidentally rip a jack lead out of your guitar or pedalboard at any show is worth the price of entry alone. And knowing you don’t have to risk dropouts or poor signal is worth the price of the Shure GLXD16+.

For my part, being hemmed in by my pedalboards, and prone to frequently turning to the drummer for count-ins, emotional support, and ‘the nod’, I’ll often accidentally wrap my guitar cable around one or both feet, increasing the risk of yankage when I get a little animated. With the GLXD16+ system, I was at my least clumsy and my most bouncy. Win-win.

During such bounce-ful performing, I found that, for the most part, the transmitter stayed where I put it, on my guitar strap, about six inches from the jack output. After a very energetic half-hour of jobbing around the stage like a loon, it hung on quite well. I was doing a lot, and it would take a lot more to make this transmitter fly.

I found the tuner highly reliable during both soundcheck and set, too. My only bugbear was somewhat edge-case, relating to the shape of the receiver pedal’s chassis. My board usually has the tuner on the top row, so I can more easily access momentary effects on the bottom; the slanted front and angled footswitch made it difficult to access the tuner/mute switch from behind the bottom pedal. The dozens of you that’ll want to do the same will need some form of riser.

Across all of my testing, I never had to menu-dive for anything. This system is truly plug-and-play, which is a marvel when pro-grade utility equipment like this is so often pointlessly impenetrable. And I think this is exactly what you want from something like the GLXD16+. It just works. Remarkably well. Invisibly so.

Verdict

Truth be told, nothing much like the Shure GLXD16+ system exists on the market. Plenty of other wireless guitar rig options exist, most of which are significantly cheaper, but none offer this level of resilience, convenience, and quality in one pedalboard-friendly format. This is the only wireless guitar system I’ve seen that I would trust on a tour.

Naturally, such quality comes at a price, and it’s not a price many casual guitarists will feel comfortable paying. But if you spend any amount of time on more than one stage, this wireless system should catch your notice. It’s foolproof to use, seamless, and excellent-sounding. Coming from a long-time wireless-rig skeptic, the Shure GLXD16+ is a hard thing not to recommend.

Guitar World verdict: The Shure GLXD16+ is a complete wireless guitar system that integrates seamlessly with your pedalboard. It’s robust in every sense of the word; the hardware is reassuringly durable, and the strength and quality of wireless connectivity is unassailable. As a former wireless-guitar-rig curmudgeon, I am converted.

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Shure

Pete Thorn

With a lineage dating back to the ‘70s and hundreds of pedals released, Boss knows a thing or two about guitar effects. The company's catalogue of products covers everything a guitar player will need, whether that is a classy overdrive, an over-the-top modulation, or a space-creating reverb. Naturally, with all that in the locker, Boss has a number of multi-effects pedals in its lineup too, but none quite like its newest multi-effects release - the Boss EX-4 Effects Expander.

The EX-4 takes 120 Boss effects compiled from the likes of the GX series of multi-effects, some classic stompboxes, and discontinued legends like the SG-1 Slow-Gear, and crams it all into a two-footswitch pedalboard-friendly chassis capable of running any four effects at once.

Adding to this is a number of features that could make the Boss Effects EX-4 Effects Expander the perfect pedalboard companion.

Specs

• Launch price: $329 | £289 | €349
• Type: Multi-effects unit
• Controls: 2 x encoders for menu browsing, 3 encoders for parameter editing, Menu, Gear Suite, 4 fx buttons, 2 footswitches
• Features: 4 effects at a time, Boss Multi-effects, Gear Suite effects presets, 128 factory and 128 user presets
• Connectivity: Stereo in and out, effects loop (when in mono), MIDI in and out, EXP/CTRL input, USB-C
• Power: 9v, 300mA, center negative
• Dimensions: 117x138x63mm/4.6"x5.4"x2.4"
• Weight: 1.7lbs/800g
• Contact: Boss

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★★

Boss is known for making pedals that will probably outlive most of its users. The EX-4 is no different, thanks to a metal chassis that feels like it would withstand all but the most unreasonable punishment, and a collection of buttons and controls that give an equally hardy impression.

The centerpiece is the display, which keeps things compact at 2.4”. It is not a touchscreen, nor is it high resolution, but a touchscreen would be difficult to use at this size; the simple images and text are clear, and the screen is more than bright enough for difficult lighting conditions.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★½

Speaking of size, at 117x138x63mm, the EX-4 is impressively small for the amount of I/O featured, and will easily slot onto most pedalboards. At 300mA, the current draw is reasonable for a digital pedal, and something that most pedalboard power supplies will support too.

That I/O consists of stereo 1/4” inputs and outputs, MIDI In and Out, an Expression pedal input, and USB-C connectivity. Cleverly, if you are not using the stereo input and output, the right side can operate as an effects loop.

As the name suggests, the signal chain consists of four effects. This may sound limiting, initially but there are a wealth of options here.

Firstly, the chain can be set to five different preset signal paths, allowing for different configurations of serial and parallel paths in both mono and stereo setups. The effects can then be freely moved around within the blocks of each path, making everything feel pretty versatile.

The effects parameters line up with the three encoders along the bottom of the screen so that I can simply turn the encoder to adjust the aligned parameter. Pressing the outside encoders will scroll the page left and right to further parameters if needed. Easy.

Changing effect types and moving them around means using the two larger encoders at the top of the unit’s front panel. These encoders are also used to browse the menus.

Some of those menus can be a little text-heavy, but those are mostly reserved for things like global settings, footswitch assignment and behaviour, etc. Meaning that, although they are not that much fun to navigate, you probably won't need to be diving into them during a gig, which goes some way towards redeeming them.

At said gig, there are only two footswitches to play with, but this can be expanded (pun intended) via the EXP/CTRL input for another two switches, or via MIDI with a MIDI footswitch. Without this, two of the four effects are assigned to the footswitches, with the other two effects remaining on, unless turned off by one of the four small FX buttons that correspond to each effect block.

Personally, I see this pedal as being utilized by players to cover the odd effects used only once or twice throughout a gig. For example, that one song you need a rotary effect for. In this context, having only two footswitches isn’t that much of a drawback, as you are highly unlikely to need to switch more than two of these effects within a song.

There are 256 presets altogether (128 factory, 128 user). The footswitches can be in Manual mode, which means turning individual effects on or off within a preset, or Preset mode, which means, well, navigating up and down presets.

Which mode you are in is clearly shown by bright LED’s around the footswitches. These LEDs are also color-coded to indicate the effect type assigned to them when in manual mode. Again, all very straightforward and a lot easier to figure out than it may first sound.

Lastly, the Gear Suite button takes the user to a selection of expertly crafted presets for each effect. A great way to get beginners started on effects they may be unfamiliar with, or for experienced users who want a shortcut to good sounds.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

And that shortcut may be a significant time saver, as there is a lot to play around with, ranging from the staples to the wild. All are usable; some are brilliant, some are not as great.

Starting with a highlight from the sensible column, the Compressor is wonderfully transparent and capable of subtle evening of your dynamics or super-squashy funk strumming. It makes playing those Nile Rodgers riffs on my Stratocaster nothing short of addictive.

Similarly, the Slow Gear is a ton of fun. The original Compact Pedal is sadly discontinued and somewhat legendary among collectors, so it is great to see a version of it in the EX-4. The idea is that it fades in your signal in a violin-like way, with its simple parameters of just Sensitivity, Rise Time, and Level allowing for a surprising amount of control over this function.

I am also surprised by just how good the Acoustic Simulator is. The low end sounds a bit artificial, as there is just too much of it, but it is a relatively convincing acoustic tone that is devoid of the plinky-ness associated with affordable acoustics and cheap piezo’s. In fact, I would choose this simulated tone over a low-end acoustic piezo pickup any day of the week.

The Sitar sim, however, does not live up to this bar. Rather than emulating the iconic Paint It Black lead riff, it just makes my guitar sound anemically thin.

Moving on to more typical electric guitar effects, the modulations are brilliant. The Chorus is a good example, adding lovely wobble that still retains enough brightness and transients to be heard in a mix.

Of all the modulations here, however, the Rotary is my favorite. Its strength is in its versatility, as its controls include Speed Select, Slow Rate, Fast Rate, Level, Rise Time, Fall Time, Mic Distance, Balance, Drive and Direct. With these, I am able to create many iterations of a rotary sound, making for an effect that is a lot of fun to dive into.

There is plenty of space here too, with a wide selection of Reverbs and Delays. The Reverbs are a little mixed, as, to me, most of them sound a bit separated from my dry signal. However, the Spring Reverb does not suffer from this and adds a convincing spring sound that wraps the guitar in some comforting space.

The Drives are where I feel the Effects Expander EX-4 is weakest. My biggest pet peeve is that they don’t clean up particularly well on the volume control, resulting in tones that aren’t the most dynamic.

Some specific models are a bit of a miss too - for example, the T-Screamer feels too thin at lower gain levels, and the ‘60s Fuzz is just thin in general.

The Delays, in contrast, are hard to fault. The options here are varied, delivering everything from subtle slapback to The Edge-like soundscapes. The Space Echo, for example, gives out warm repeats that stay out of the way of your mix, perfect for fattening solos. The Giga Delay is the opposite, recreating the input in a much more pristine way that is well suited to rhythmic delay parts.

But that does not mean there aren’t some great sounds to be had. For example, crank the gain on the T-Scream, and it's a thick, mid-forward, chewy drive that is spot on for lead sounds. On the heavier side, the A-Dist provides some equally thick high-gain sounds, whilst retaining high-end definition.

Lastly, it is worth noting the weird ones. The Guitar Synth does what it says on the tin, whilst leaning on the more bity side of the synth world, and the Humanizer adds vowel sounds to your signal, akin to a cross between an envelope filter and Korg's infamous Miku pedal.

The point is, everything is covered.

Verdict

What this all adds up to is a capable little device that offers a huge amount of versatility.

When this sort of versatility is crammed into a unit so small, it can often mean that things get a little difficult to use. While there are some text-heavy menus, the EX-4 is straightforward where it matters most and manages to avoid annoying hidden functions altogether.

Whether you need a few one-off outlandish effects, or some more sensible options that don’t quite justify separate pedal purchases, the EX-4 has you covered with a range of great sounds, as well as a few that could be better.

Guitar World verdict: The Boss EX-4 Effects Expander does what its name implies - expands the sonic possibilities of your pedalboard. Some well-thought-out features, a large collection of great sounds, and a rugged build make for a carefully considered multi-effects unit that could slot into anyone’s pedalboard.

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Boss

Pete Thorn

Thomann

As electric guitar players, we all remember our first guitar. As a young metalhead obsessed with Iron Maiden and Pantera, I started my shredding journey at age seven with a full-sized Ibanez GRG170DX. Back then, miniature metal-inspired beginner electric guitars were on the cusp of release but not quite there yet. Enter the Jackson Minion series.

Released in 2015, the Minion series features the menacingly pointy Randy Rhoads V-style JS1X and my review model, the Superstrat-style Dinky Minion JS1X. Both models are based on Jackson’s incredibly popular full-size guitars but shrunk down to a more manageable size, making them perfect for young metalheads who need a comfortable-sized instrument, or for adults looking for a travel companion or a couch fidget to work on their shredding chops.

The Minion series isn't new, and it wasn't the first chug-friendly guitar for kids. Ibanez released the first Mikro in 2006, and it remains one of Jackson’s closest competitors. Squier also offers the versatile Mini range, so the market isn’t short on shrunken-down electrics. So, over a decade after the Minion series debuted, does it still stand shoulder to shoulder with the rest? Let’s find out.

Specs

• Price: $219.99/£169/€199
• Made: Indonesia
• Type: ⅔ Scale six-string electric guitar
• Body: Poplar
• Neck: Satin-finish maple, graphite-reinforced
• Fingerboard material/radius: Amaranth, 12"
• Scale length: 22.5” / 571.5mm
• Nut/width: Black Plastic, 39mm / 1.53”
• Frets: 24, jumbo frets
• Hardware: String-through hardtail bridge, sealed die-cast tuners
• String spacing at bridge: 53mm
• Electrics: 2x Jackson High-Output humbuckers, 3-way selector switch, 1x master volume, 1x master tone
• Weight: 5 lb 8.2 oz / 2.5kg
• Left-handed options: No
• Finishes: Gloss Black, Neon Green, Safety Orange (as reviewed), Metallic Blue Burst, Metallic Red, Pavo Purple
• Case: No
• Contact: Jackson

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

The superstrat-style Dinky Minion JS1X comes in a variety of colors: Gloss Black, Neon Green, Metallic Blue Burst, Metallic Red, Pavo Purple, and Safety Orange… Now, breathe.

I was sent the Safety Orange model to review, and as soon as I took it out of the box, I genuinely exclaimed, “Wow.”

This guitar certainly makes a statement, even with its diminutive stature. I foresee it making a young metalhead feel like the coolest person in the world.

The Jackson hallmarks are apparent straight off the bat. This thing is incredibly angular yet undeniably sleek. The pointed, tilted headstock, sharkfin inlays, and script logo adorn the headstock and humbuckers.

There’s something irresistibly charming about a metal guitar designed for loudness and toughness being so small. It’s like a young child discovering boxing gloves; it suggests danger, but it’s really cute as a button.

Like its larger Dinky siblings, the Minion features a bolt-on maple neck with 24 frets and a 22.5" scale length. A generously angled neck heel contour stays out of the way when you’re ripping out a solo. Jumbo frets sit on the flat 12" radius amaranth fingerboard. To bolster neck stability, Jackson has reinforced the Minion’s neck with graphite rods, protecting it from warping or easy damage from clumsy little ones.

Having sold many Minions while working in a guitar store, I noticed that the neck isn't always seated perfectly in the neck pocket. My review model has a slight gap along the lower edge of the pocket, although it's less pronounced than on some other examples I've encountered. At this price point, it's not an unusual cosmetic imperfection, but it's worth checking the fit if you're buying one in person.

In terms of hardware, the machine heads turn smoothly with decent pitch-change increments. The master volume and tone controls also feel sturdy and have a reassuring weight to their twists. However, the three-way pickup selector feels a little flimsy and doesn’t quite click into place with much reassurance; I have concerns about its long-term durability.

That said, the cosmetic finish is fantastic overall. I found no noticeable blemishes, marks, or discoloration.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★☆

Personally, when I think of Jackson guitars, I think fast-playing necks, low action, and great upper-fret access. And this Minion JS1X offers exactly that. Pair the 12" radius with the smooth satin neck, and you get a guitar that offers barely any hurdles when it comes to shredding.

My review model had incredibly low action, around 1.1mm at the low E. Whether you’re a child looking for a comfortable model or want a Minion as a travel guitar, this instrument is sure to suit those purposes perfectly.

24 frets are a real treat on a miniature guitar, and the contoured neck heel and double-cutaway design let you access them with ease. On my review model, the frets were nicely polished and seated, meaning no scratchy bends or snagging on rough fret edges. Things do get a bit cramped after the 12th fret, which can be unforgiving if you have larger fingers like me. So that’s worth mentioning if you’re an adult wanting a couch guitar.

Jackson opted for 9-gauge strings. For a young learner, this is a comfortable first step while you build strength. Heck, on the short scale length, they allow some crazy bends and, at first, are incredibly fun. Plus, it makes playing the intro to Run To The Hills an absolute doddle. However, if you’ve been playing for a few years, I’d recommend changing them to something heavier. It's surprisingly easy to push the strings sharp if you attack them too hard.

Aggressive fretting can have the same effect, so a lighter touch pays off here. Players used to heavier strings on a full-size guitar may need a little time to adjust, particularly when bending or playing rhythm parts with a heavy picking hand.

With a small body and a 22.5" scale length, sitting down with the Minion JS1X can feel a little cramped for me. It’s a much more comfortable experience as a fully grown man standing up with this guitar and resting it on my hip. Although I did find it well balanced when I found a comfortable sitting position, resting it a little further towards my knee instead of holding it tightly against my body.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

For testing, I wanted to give the Minion JS1X as authentic an experience as possible, so I took it to the practice room and put it through its paces before rehearsal with my band. My setup is a Marshall 1987X head into a 1960A cab, with an EarthQuaker Devices Plumes providing dirty tones.

Running this rig, I expected plenty of sizzle from the Jackson high-output humbuckers. While there was a decent amount of bite and that typical full-bodied ‘bucker sound, they weren’t as high output as I anticipated. Compared to my SG Standard, I wouldn’t say they were any hotter, if at all. I think the High-Output name set my expectations a bit high.

However, I was pleasantly surprised by the pickups’ clarity. Each note was well separated, and even with the Plumes engaged and the gain cranked, the sound stayed defined instead of turning into an amorphous mess.

I found the bridge pickup the most fun to play, and it handled everything from classic rock to pop-punk tones very well. For example, I kept jamming Title Fight’s Stab, and it handled the high-octane angst well.

This clarity also translated well to clean tones. Guitars at this price point and with this pickup configuration can often sound a bit flubby when playing clean, but when I switched off the Plumes, rolled back the volume, and introduced the Walrus Audio Slo, I got some pleasing tones. I quickly realized this guitar is more versatile than it first appears.

Although the volume taper was pretty extreme, the volume fell off a cliff after around 8, so nuanced volume control isn’t a strong point. Unusually, the tone control didn’t taper as sharply, offering a more controlled, predictable response.

Verdict

With the Minion JS1X, Jackson has set out to make a mean-looking, shred-friendly miniature guitar for young metalheads and adults looking for a travel companion or couch fidget. It offers an affordable way to get that classic Jackson look in a more compact package, and overall, it gets the fundamentals right.

With a bunch of fun finishes, typical Jackson accouterments like sharkfin inlays and a pointy, angled headstock, plus player-friendly contours around the neck heel, there is plenty to like for the money. Sure, the volume pot taper is a little extreme, you’ll most likely want a heavier set of strings if you’re an adult, and things can get a bit cramped after the 12th fret, but for a two-thirds-size guitar at this price point, there’s more to like than dislike.

Tonally, the clarity is fantastic. Even with plenty of gain, the Minion stays articulate and holds its own. The pickups aren’t quite as hot as the name suggests, but they have decent bite and handle everything from classic rock and pop-punk to metal with aplomb.

If you want a compact guitar with genuine shred appeal, not just a smaller instrument to learn on, the JS1X makes a compelling case for itself. The Ibanez Mikro range remains its closest rival, but Jackson has delivered a miniature metal guitar that deserves a place alongside it.

Guitar World verdict: The Jackson Dinky Minion JS1X packs classic metal looks, impressive clarity, and shred-friendly playability into an affordable miniature guitar. Its abrupt volume taper, light strings, and cramped upper frets are compromises, particularly for adults, but it remains a fun-sized option for young metalheads and traveling players.

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Guitar World

PMTV

PopMusicPlay

It might be Squier whose name is on the headstock of Troy Van Leeuwen’s Telecaster XII but there is some legit Fender Custom Shop DNA in this super-cool 12-string addition to the Paranormal Series.

You might have seen Van Leeuwen playing one of these Tele XIIs with Queens of the Stone Age. In June, he road-tested this Squier version on Jimmy Kimmel Live when he jammed onstage with Andrew Watt and Michael Stipe.

If you’ve caught one of QOTSA’s stadium dates over the summer, you will have seen the guitar that inspired it – and if you have seen it, then you surely would have remembered it, because who could forget seeing a 12-string Telecaster in Copper Age paint job with a four-ply tortoiseshell pickguard?

And that headstock is something else.

Van Leeuwen’s Custom Shop Telecaster XII was designed by Fender Master Builder Paul Waller, and has been in rotation for quite some time. It featured on the last four QOTSA records – including on a cover of Iggy Pop’s Sunday from their forthcoming studio album, Perfecth – and is the kind of electric guitar that Van Leeuwen reaches for when he needs something extra. His bandmate Dean Fertita has been known to borrow it, too.

“It does the twang sound I’ve always loved,” Van Leeuwen told Guitar World. “But adding 12 strings creates this extra lushness within that direct Tele-ness. It’s a cool but simple idea.

“I’ll break the 12-string out whenever I can because when you have three guitarists in one band, you have to find your spot. That guitar has a point that can always be heard in the mix.”

No kidding. It’s not like the first mass-produced electric guitar was ever lacking presence and trebly cut, but with an extra six strings – tuned an octave up on Low E to G, in unison on B and High E – this is something else entirely, quite possibly something Paranormal.

That word carries a little weight. No word of a lie, and by complete coincidence, the TV auto-played The X-Files pilot while I was tuning this Telecaster XII up. That’s a little spooky, right? T’is the season. Anyway, time to plug in. This guitar is one big vibe; it looks incredible, and I want to believe it sounds just as good. We all want to. It sure is a fox…

Specs

• Launch price: $599 | £509 | €599
• Made: China
• Type: 12-string electric guitar
• Body: Nyatoh
• Neck: Maple / C profile, bolt-on
• Fingerboard: Indian laurel
• Scale length: 25.5” / 648mm
• Nut/width: Micarta / 42.86mm
• Frets: 21, narrow tall
• Hardware: Vintage-style tuners with metal buttons, Telecaster 12-String Top-Load/String-Through bridge
• String spacing at bridge: 10mm
• Electrics: 2x Fender-designed Telecaster Alnico single-coil pickups, volume, tone, 3-way switching
• Weight: 8.2lb/3.74kg
• Options: Squier Paranormal Series includes the Troublemaker Telecaster Deluxe with Bigsby ($509), Baritone Jazzmaster HH ($479), Electric XI ($509), Jazzmaster XII ($429), Precision Bass Thinline SJ ($479), Stratocaster Deluxe ($479), Esquire Deluxe ($379). See Fender for web exclusives.
• Left-handed options: No
• Finishes: Copper Age
• Case: No
• Contact: Fender

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★★

In a world were caramelized maple is all the rage, it is reassuringly old-school to find a one-piece neck of almost bone-white maple on this test example, pristine but for a few tiny black knots. It’s fashioned into a fashionable C, affixed to the body via the usual four-bolt joint, to which a neck plate engraved with TVL’s signature is attached.

There’s no heel carve. There is no belly carve on the body. It very much feels like this could have been a blank that came off the Fender assembly line in the early ‘50s. Underneath that exquisite Copper Age finish you’ll find a slab of nyatoh.

Van Leeuwen was looking for affordability – this is, after all, Squier’s métier – so don’t expect this to be a 1:1 match of his Custom Shop model. We’ve got an Indian laurel fingerboard here. And yet, as rosewood stand-ins go, this is a pleasingly dark piece of wood. We’ve seen drier, less inspiring pieces of rosewood.

The 21 narrow-tall frets, again, speak to the vintage Telecaster vibe. There are the knurled metal knobs, the three-way slider switch, all controls mounted on a chrome plate as per the house style. This all looks and feels like some lost early ‘50s Fender rather than an explicitly 21st-century design.

Fender, or Squier, has never offered a Telecaster VII as a regular production line model before. Bruce Springsteen and Robin Zander of Cheap Trick have played custom Tele XIIs over the years, and there was a Fender Custom Shop run of them in the ‘90s. Now we have this, and it doesn’t even say Fender on the headstock.

What is worthy of note is the tidy little hybrid 12-string bridge. It’s fully adjustable, chrome to match the vintage-style tuners and buttons, and the fact it has the “hybrid” in its designation speaks to how you string it up. Six strings go through the ferrules on the back of the body, the other six strings are top-loaded, and there’s a heavy-duty string tree on the headstock to run them up to the tuners. The bridge and bridge single-coil sit in the metal plate in the time-honored Telecaster fashion.

Okay, a tuning update: Episode Three of The X-Files is now playing and the guitar is officially in tune [Guitar World would like to thank Boss pedals and the designer of the TU-3 for making this happen]. Seriously, though, this is par for the course with 12 strings, and out of the cardboard box, the Tele XII had a very tidy setup. With just a little relief in the neck, there was no need to tweak the truss rod, and on a 12-string, on which you’d have to slacken off four strings and tune up again, that’s a relief in the conventional sense of the word. Frets are neatly installed, too.

What else is there to note? Well, you get one finish option and that’s it. But given that we always associate Van Leeuwen with Oxblood, is it too far-fetched to imagine a second edition of this finished in Oxblood? Don’t rule it out when Fender currently stocks Van Leeuwen’s Jazzmaster in Copper Age and Oxblood finishes.

This is possibly inadmissible as evidence for review, but Van Leeuwen told me that when they delivered his Squier Tele XII, the courier accidentally ran it over in the driveway and it didn’t break. Make of that what you will, but Van Leeuwen is a straight arrow, and that story checks out. Whether six strings or 12, there is something about the Telecaster that makes it hard to kill.

Anyway, on with the show...

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★☆

The guitar is surely hard enough to play with six strings, let alone 12. There is a certain amount of masochism involved with playing a 12-string, particularly for those who harbor designs of playing fast single-note runs (or rather dual-note runs given that it is strung up in courses, or pairs).

Yes, the structural integrity of your finger calluses will be tested. Bending the strings is a Herculean labor. But as with everything on the guitar, the more you practice the easier it gets, and a 12-string rewards you in kind. These generic caveats apply to all 12-string guitars; it is the nature of the beast, and yet this remains an approachable instrument – an ideal first 12-string.

Squier has wisely given this a beginner-friendly C profile neck. You would surely not find a neck this svelte on a ‘50s Fender. The neck is satin smooth, too. This has a slightly wider nut than my ‘50s Style Baja Player Telecaster, which was one of the details Van Leeuwen discussed with Fender when designing the original Tele XII. The extra room is welcome.

Playing open chords on the Tele XII feels fine, and dare I say it, normal. The most Paranormal thing about all this is just how normal it feels after a while. The familiar 9.5” fingerboard radius feels of a piece with contemporary Squier/Fender’s most mainstream builds.

At a hair over 8lbs, the weight is bang average considering the extra hardware, and all that extra metal on the headstock doesn’t throw it off balance.

Players intending to bend the strings might wish to drop it down a whole step to D, when it comes a lot more pliable, but the move to 12 strings from a regular six is probably most alien to fingerstyle players. The fretting hand issues are a simple matter of dexterity, but the picking hand takes more getting used to, and might even necessitate the need for some fingerpicks – especially if you keep your nails shorter.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★★

There is something about our perception of the 12-string format that tends to flatten all guitars into one, as though their identity is subsumed by this extra run of strings.

We tend to look at them all as doing the same job – chime, jangle and all that jazz. It is as though you could pick up any 12-string off the wall and it can realize all your aspirations of sounding like Roger McGuinn, Tom Petty, Johnny Marr, and Peter Buck – that it’s the guitar you need to make Stairway to Heaven sound a bit more authentically 'Headley Grange'.

Well, of course this is all kinds of preposterous and yet it nonetheless begs the question; is a 12-string Telecaster still recognizable as a Fender Telecaster?

Yes and no. Yes, you will certainly find some of that signature Tele twang on the bridge pickup, and its more elastic twang at the neck. But no, with 12-strings, there’s something almost eerie about how this twang is rendered. There is something immediately psychedelic about the Tele XII, in how your playing brings out these micro-dissonances as the string bends unevenly under your finger.

This is the Telecaster doubled, an act of Telemaxxing, and the natural chorusing from this second set of complementary strings allows it to occupy more space in the mix. It’s not that the range of frequencies is greater; we’re still operating within the same Low-E-to-high-E framework.

There are simply more frequencies going on at any given time. Through a small tube combo and a little compression from the JHS Pulp N’ Peel, I could swear that open chords sound louder. Single notes sound fuller doubled. There is a harpsichord quality to single notes. Apply some fuzz and you might feel like someone has sneaked a Roger Mayer device on your pedalboard without you noticing.

Oftentimes, budget brands can be tempted to go for ceramic pickups. They typically run hot, are great fun for beginner players dialing in rock sounds, but they can be overly shrill. These Fender-designed Alnico single-coil pickups are a more grown-up proposition. There’s no lack of treble but there’s warmth there, too, and they clean up nicely.

For a circa 600-dollar electric guitar, the pots have a lovely action and taper. Rolling back the tone control makes that bridge pickup a superlative rhythm tone, especially when playing high-volume cleans. Kudos to Squier and Fender for this bridge design – and for the guitar-making bona fides on show here. Once brought up to pitch, the Tele XII held its tuning, even after digging in on those chords.

This being a Paranormal Series model, and the signature guitar of one of rock’s great tone seekers, there is an invitation to get creative. Once you’ve had your fun running through some 12-string standards (yes, Stairway to Heaven is a lot more convincing on this), you might well find that the 12-string is still a relatively unexplored instrument – and it’s one that takes pedals well.

Okay, so some chorus/vibrato from the trusty Boss CE-2 gave me vertigo but others might want to open up that can of swirl. With spring reverb and tape echo emulation, you can get a very different take on formative rock ’n’ roll electric guitar sounds, and what you lose in percussive definition you gain in resonance, as though the guitar comes with its own accompaniment.

And there’s something undeniably feral about high-gain sounds with a single-coil 12-string. With both pickups engaged, that’s a serious rock tone, but at the bridge pickup, its skronky duality plays really well for punk sounds. It’s like Van Leeuwen says, this does something that other guitars just can’t do, and every player could use an instrument like that. And if you want chime, play it clean on the neck pickup, but remember, that stuff’s for the Byrds.

Verdict

The Telecaster XII isn’t the only 12-string in the current Squier Paranormal lineup. There is a Jazzmaster, and it too has the hybrid top-loader/string-through-body bridge plus the option of Lake Placid Blue or Olympic White finishes. These offset guitars are also a little cheaper, and so if you are for a 12-string electric under $500, you have options.

But this is most certainly the only 12-string Tele in town. It’s the only Tele you’ll find in Copper Age. And it might also be the skeleton key you’ve been looking for to unlock the tones heard on Queens of the Stone Age jams like I Appear Missing and My God Is the Sun. Better still, it might be just what you need to create some tone mysteries of your own.

As with the best Squier designs, this is also a credible candidate for modding. You could swap out the bridge single-coil for a stacked humbucker. It would also be intriguing to take the octave-up strings off the bottom three strings and play this as a nine-string, using the double strings as a means of adding texture to your leads. Radical? Absolutely. But this is the Paranormal series. Forget business as usual, this was made to get weird.

Guitar World verdict: What’s really weird is that a 12-string Tele is considered weird at all. Double the twang at half the price, Troy Van Leeuwen’s Telecaster XII is an unusually exceptional budget electric that dares adventurous players to rewrite the 12-string rulebook. Don’t just let it chime. This could be a powerful tool for sonic reinvention.

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Of all the effects manufacturers to achieve stardom over the last decade or two, EarthQuaker Devices must be one of the most avowedly left-field.

Sure, there's traditional overdrive and modulation to be had from the Akron, Ohio shop, but remember – EarthQuaker is the company that gave us that barking-mad oscillating pitch generator, the Rainbow Machine. Or the utterly preposterous Data Corrupter, a three-voice, harmonizing analog fuzz/guitar synth.

It's to be applauded that these complex circuits, with all their hand-built insanity and inarguably niche appeal, are made widely available so that more people can experiment with the outer fringes of viable guitar and bass tone.

So when EarthQuaker announced an addition to the fashionable compact bass preamp/overdrive pedal landscape, it's fair to say none of us were ever expecting a straightforward Sansamp or Darkglass me-too. But then, EarthQuaker often does unexpected things - maybe it could be just that. Is this a classic comedy double bluff? (You never know.)

Today I'm investigating the Scrolls Bass Odyssey, EarthQuaker's take on a bass preamp pedal, co-designed with Japanese alt-rock bass hero Kentaro Nakao. Let's see what's what.

Specs

• Launch price: $349 | £399 | €399
• Type: Bass preamp and overdrive/fuzz pedal
• Controls: Level, Bass, Middle, Treble, Vari (boost/cut), Vari-Freq, push-buttons for Deep, Process, Bright, Drive Level, Blend, Drive, Bandwidth, Tone, footswitches for EQ and Drive
• Connectivity: ¼” instrument input, ¼” amp output, ¼” parallel output, XLR direct out (with Ground/Lift), ¼” effects loop Send, ¼’ effects loop Return
• Bypass: Relay-based true bypass
• Power: 9v DC, 70mA
• Dimensions: 121 x 114 x 57 mm
• Weight: 340g
• Contact: EarthQuaker Devices

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

EarthQuaker never disappoints on the quality front, and the Scrolls is a typically sturdy build. Its muted black-and-orange aesthetic is topped off by EQD's signature swirling script for the pedal's name, but the dense black-and-white forest of controls are all very clearly labelled.

The buttons and footswitches click satisfyingly and all the knobs turn with a nicely-damped weight - with centre detents on many of the pots for ease of dialing in.

Despite the surfeit of controls, the enclosure design is such that you shouldn’t have to worry too much about accidentally knocking anything with your feet - yet it’s not excessive in size. In fact, it’s a very reasonable alternative to other bass preamp pedals in terms of footprint.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★½

That footprint has a hell of a lot packed into it though – more than many rivals. The two footswitches control an EQ section and a Drive channel; these can be used separately or together.

These sections have individual controls too – to start with, the EQ side offers a Level control, the standard Bass-Middle-Treble setup, plus a two-knob ‘Vari-Freq’ circuit – essentially, allowing you to sweep the EQ range and cut or boost any frequency desired.

Then, push-buttons for ‘Deep’ and ‘Bright’ boost 80Hz and 5kHz respectively, while ‘Process’ drastically scoops out low mids for a more guttural, aggressive bark – although you’ll need a lot more Level to counteract the resultant drop in perceived volume.

The Drive section, meanwhile, gives you a further five knobs to play with. Of course, Level, Drive and Tone are all present and correct, as is a clean blend – vital on a bass overdrive. The fifth control is ‘Bandwidth’, determining the frequency range in which the clipping is most active; from a softer, warmer low-focused overdrive to a tighter, brighter, treble-focused grit. Or “from Motown to metal”, as EarthQuaker puts it.

Whew – it’s a lot of controls, for sure. But it’s intuitive to use; it’s to EarthQuaker’s credit that it isn’t really necessary to resort to the manual in order to dial-in a great tone. I’m a big fan of this ‘what-you-see-is-what-you-get’ style of user interface on pedals and amps.

It can send you down a rabbit-hole of tweaking – but then, Nakao wanted this pedal to function effectively as an all-in-one portable rig solution, and it's certainly not short of features to that end.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

I plugged the Scrolls directly into my Laney 2x12 powered cab, to sample the ‘analog speaker simulation’ on the DI output – EarthQuaker elected to add some filtering here, to combat the harsh top-end that can blight direct XLR outputs. I began with a passive Jazz Bass, and was instantly taken with the way the EQ made the flat speaker signal full-bodied and characterful.

The Drive section is full of great tones too - especially when combined with the EQ. I found a swathe of chunky, powerful blended overdrive sounds, but with the Gain turned up and less clean signal in the mix, it’ll go far beyond a traditional grit and tip decisively into fuzz territory. This definitely isn't your grandad's bass preamp.

I tend to keep the Bright setting engaged, for the amount of high-frequency definition that I like. Deep, by contrast, needed to be used with care for my setup. It’s a monstrous bass boost; low-end isn’t lacking from the pedal to start with.

It comes into its own when I switch to my StingRay, and am able to augment its aggressive upper-mid with a gut-punch of deep low end.

These two buttons by themselves can work wonders for quick EQ adjustment when switching between different types of bass.

Verdict

The Scrolls can be seriously good fun as a highly tweakable, high-gain overdrive or fuzz, with far more nuanced control of EQ and gain structure than a typical example of those breeds.

But if you want to treat it as a Sansamp alternative, or even a clean preamp with a powerful EQ, it’s no less impressive. It's similarly punchy money to a similarly-featured Darkglass, but a completely different vibe – it's an EarthQuaker, after all.

Nakao's input gives the Scrolls serious credence – on the one hand, he's a bass hero with a unique playing style that calls for an equally characterful-sounding rig. But he's also a session-man; he needs something accomplished, versatile and rugged, which lets him plug straight in and crack on. Objective achieved, I'd say.

Guitar World verdict: The Scrolls really is a fantastic contender in the crowded bass preamp market. It’s got everything that you need in a compact box, with all the useful tones you’d expect from this kind of pedal – plus a healthy slug of EarthQuaker’s characteristic fuzz madness.

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• “It’s like a Christopher Nolan movie in a pedal. Don’t think – feel”: EarthQuaker Devices Towers review

You might already have seen our review of the brand new PRS Tekton T – part of the launch of “a whole new family of guitars”, to quote its maker.

The Tekton range is a serious new proposition, the most overtly modern, possibly even metal guitar range of that we’ve seen from PRS yet, aimed at the contemporary guitarist and built to integrate perfectly with contemporary gear including digital amp modelers.

Being designed for high-performance modern rock and metal guitar at the outset, the specter of extended range must have loomed large over the development process.

A seven-string Tekton will surely have been planned from the start, given how prominent sevens are in those styles. And we've seen seven-strings from PRS before, of course – most notably with the name of Periphery's Mark Holcomb attached – but it’s fair to say that we've not seen anything quite like this from the brand yet.

For a start, as well as being the first USA-built production seven-string, this is PRS's first seven at any price point with a bolt-on neck, bringing it further into the space occupied by various shred-esque models from seven-string pioneer Ibanez.

Then there's the shape – the basis of the new Tekton silhouette is actually the vintage-inspired PRS Vela, but with lots of tweaks. The end result is the thinnest body and neck design that the company has ever put into series production.

Specs

• Launch price: $2,999 | £2,999
• Made: USA
• Type: Seven-string electric guitar
• Body: Mahogany with figured mango top
• Neck: Maple, satin nitrocellulose finish, Modern D profile
• Fingerboard material/radius: Ebony, 16” radius
• Scale length: 26.5”/673mm
• Nut/width: PRS composite, 48.4mm
• Frets: 24, jumbo, stainless steel
• Hardware: PRS Phase III locking tuners, PRS 7-string Hardtail bridge
• String spacing at bridge: 64mm
• Electrics: PRS Stylus bridge and neck humbuckers, 3-way pickup selector, Volume and push-pull Tone control (for coil split)
• Weight: 6.6lb/3kg
• Options: Fixed-bridge Tekton six-string, Tekton T six-string with PRS two-point vibrato, Tekton Floyd six-string with Floyd Rose vibrato
• Left-handed options: N/A
• Finishes: Black Tourmaline (as reviewed), Slate Blue, Imperial Topaz, Violet Tourmaline, Bloodstone Red, Fuchsia Aura
• Case: PRS Premium gig bag (included)
• Contact: PRS Guitars

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★★

And doesn’t that shape look great? Just as with the Tekton T, the aesthetic – and build quality – really impresses. The carved mango top is just as beautifully flamed, and the elegant slimmed-down shape is purposeful without looking over-cooked.

I hinted at scale length above - in today’s world of down-tuning, the industry-standard 25.5” scale adopted for the six-string Tekton models wasn’t really going to cut it for the seventh string. In common with several modern-day rivals (and, indeed, its cheaper stablemate, the SE Mark Holcomb SVN), the scale length here is 26.5”.

This is useful for seven-string as it allows that low B to stay clearer and tighter, especially if you plan on dropping it down to A – or beyond. For a seven-string guitar intended for technical rhythm and lead guitar alike, this scale length is probably the ideal compromise.

The Tekton’s new Stylus pickups make their way over to seven-string, promising the same detail and transparency as the six-strings. The SVN also boasts a substantial-feeling string-through hardtail bridge and, again, a set of PRS ‘Phase III’ lightweight locking tuners.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

The contoured back and subtly offset shape allows the SVN to sit very comfortably against the player’s body. There’s the same gripe as with the T – a slightly uncomfortable hard edge to the mango top where it meets the forearm but, other than that, there’s little to complain about ergonomically. And even despite the extra wood involved in making it a longer-scale seven-string, the SVN is similarly lightweight to the Tekton T.

The Tekton SVN’s neck handles its extra string and extra inch of scale length with aplomb. The maple is left unpainted and, as seven-string necks go, it’s up there with the most comfortable we’ve tried.

The shoulders feel just slightly less pronounced; the resultant perception is of a shallower profile, despite the quoted depth measurements being identical.

It’s a wonderfully accommodating seven-string, which otherwise feels very similar to its sibling – the neck feels barely any bigger, and you’ll fly up and down the fretboard with all the same abandon.

As expected, the extra length makes the high strings marginally less forgiving for bends and vibrato, but for many seven-string players, that’s a trade-off worth making.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★★

The Stylus humbuckers impressed first time round with their clarity and punch – important attributes for seven-strings. For low tunings especially, you need less gain than you think, so a cooler-output humbucker (with coil-splitting available) is often the best way. And so it proves to be – the pickups are brilliant here too.

True to the Tekton series’s modern ethos, I focused primarily on my Line 6 HX Stomp, running through compressed cleans and crunchy overdrive, to contemporary extreme metal tones based on Mesa/Boogie, Soldano and Peavey amp models. This proved to be a lot of fun, prompting an instant flurry of riff-writing. There’s something to be said for that.

The full humbucker is, again, very clear and defined, with plenty of top end detail and great string separation, thanks in part to the medium output. It keeps clean sounds clean, and keeps even heavy distortion sounding tight and full. And the split-coil sounds are especially good, with low notes taking on a formidable, wiry snarl.

Whether split or full, though, the 7-string Stylus humbuckers combine with the longer scale to create a tight, percussive and balanced sound – fabulous for technical drop-tuned metal riffs, of course, but far from a one-trick pony. You could easily slot this guitar into a diverse range of settings and not feel limited.

Verdict

I said of the Tekton T that it was easily the best PRS yet, ergonomically, and the same rings true of its seven-string sibling - even with the longer scale and the wider neck, which could easily have made it feel unwieldy and difficult, it’s a fantastically playable guitar.

Then there’s the tone – the Stylus humbuckers repeat their trick, providing a supremely balanced and versatile suite of sounds that needn’t pigeonhole the SVN as a metal guitar at all, if your tastes lie elsewhere.

At its price, it’s likely to appeal mainly to serious seven-stringers who know exactly what they want, but even those less familiar with sevens may find a lot to like here.

Guitar World verdict: For its first USA production seven-string, PRS needed to come out swinging in order to justify an inevitably serious price point; the brand has certainly achieved that with the SVN. This is a truly fantastic instrument; real care has gone into making the Tekton work seamlessly with an extra string.

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One could argue that PRS didn't need to come up with “a guitar aimed at “the most discerning, technical players” (they're not just 'metal guitars'), contemporary musical styles and cutting-edge gear setups, as this has been the company's bread and butter for decades.

Even the very first production PRS, the Custom 24, remains immensely desirable among modern guitarists – decades since it was designed.

So a more explicitly contemporary addition to the range could easily look like overkill; it needs to stand apart usefully from the Custom, rather than just packing in a bunch of gimmicks nobody asked for - or it mightn’t be worth the risk at all.

The company has decided to meet the challenge head-on, though, and here's the result – the Tekton range. There are four models, and this is the Tekton T – a six-string with the classic PRS vibrato.

Specs

• Launch price: $$2,899 | £2,899
• Made: USA
• Type: Six-string electric guitar 
• Body: Mahogany with figured mango top
• Neck: Maple, satin nitrocellulose finish, Modern D profile
• Fingerboard material/radius: Ebony, 16” radius
• Scale length: 25.5”/648mm 
• Nut/width: PRS composite, 42.8mm
• Frets: 24, jumbo, stainless steel
• Hardware: PRS Phase III locking tuners, PRS two-point vibrato
• Electrics: PRS Stylus bridge and neck humbuckers, 3-way pickup selector, Volume and push-pull Tone control (for coil split)
• Options: Fixed-bridge Tekton six-string, Tekton Floyd six-string, Tekton SVN seven-string
• Left-handed options: N/A 
• Finishes: Bloodstone Red (as reviewed), Slate Blue, Imperial Topaz, Black Tourmaline, Violet Tourmaline, Fuchsia Aura
• Case: PRS Premium gig bag (included)
• Contact: PRS Guitars

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

The Tekton shape is a slimmed-down, sharpened combination of the tried-and-tested Custom 24 and the offset Vela. It’s a really successful design; it still looks very much like a PRS, but modernised appropriately. Purposeful and elegant, it wouldn’t look out of place on a modern metal stage – but it needn't frighten away those with more classic tastes either.

The back and sides of the mahogany body are painted a glossy metallic grey - a slightly odd-looking choice against the deep red top and satin black neck, but this varies by color choice.

Either way, there’s abundant contouring and a slim, sculpted bolt-on neck joint - worlds away from the oversized heel of a Custom 24, more reminiscent of something like Ibanez’s All-Access Neck Joint. These are claimed to be the slimmest bodies and necks that PRS has ever put into production; the Tekton T is, indeed, wonderfully lightweight.

The ‘Shallow Violin’ carved top is mango wood, which PRS is liking currently; after the trees’ long and productive fruit-bearing lives are behind them, the mature wood is harvested as timber and it’s sustainable and high-quality – often beautifully figured too, as here.

The six-string Tektons move away from the trademark 25” PRS scale length – it’s a Fender-familiar 25.5” instead. All models have 24-fret ebony fingerboards, and they all feature stainless steel fretwire too - de rigueur for many a modern guitar, and you can bet that there'd have been complaints otherwise.

Hardware-wise, the solidity one expects from PRS is here in abundance. The Tekton T utilizes the company’s venerable two-point vibrato, and a set of its latest Phase III locking tuners; there's nothing to worry about whatsoever with any of that.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

The contoured back and subtly offset shape allows the Tekton T to balance well and sit very comfortably. If there’s anything wrong with the ergonomics, it would be that the carved top creates a hard edge to the body where it meets the picking arm; it’s not as comfortable as a more traditional Strat-style elbow contour.

However, the Tekton T’s neck profile is a shredder's delight. The maple is reinforced with hormigo, a dense hardwood, for extra stability, and PRS describes this neck design as ‘thin but substantial’, which does get the point across – fans of Jackson and Charvel should feel at home.

The D-shaped carve feels nicely supportive, whether your hand is positioned for wide bends and vibrato or for fast scale runs. As you’d hope for this price, the finishing and fretwork are perfect too.

The PRS two-point floating vibrato is a tried-and-tested piece of hardware, and brings its usual functionality here. It’s great for expressive phrasing but, if silly noises are your bag, it can gargle and shriek with the best of ‘em too.

If, like me, you’ve ever struggled to gel with the ergonomics of more traditional PRS models, you’ll likely find the Tekton range to be a dramatic improvement.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★★

The Tekton range debuts a new pickup for PRS, too. Each model employs two Alnico 5-powered, modern-voiced Stylus humbuckers. It was decreed during development that these pickups should sound just as good with a digital-amp modeling setup as with a valve amp. That means a balanced frequency response, and a little less output - in theory, giving clarity and punch without sacrificing too much character.

I fired up a contemporary digital rig (my small pedalboard designed to run direct, built around a Line 6 HX Stomp), and cycled through some varied settings - majoring on more modern sounds, as that's the idea.

Right away, these pickups are exceedingly well-judged – crisp, clear delivery that lets your carefully-dialed tones shine through. The output doesn’t overpower a clean signal, and helps to keep higher gain tight and defined, with great string separation.

It’s exactly what you’d want from a modern, two-humbucker guitar – sounding highly accomplished for anything from function-band sets to tracking modern metal riffs.

The split-coil sounds are excellent too – with more than enough punch and a useful change in character that opens up even more versatility – from tight, defined single-coil rock tones to glassy cleans.

Verdict

Price-wise, the Tekton range will sit near the other USA-built, bolt-on PRS range, the CE series – and it’s an ideal alternative, for those seeking a more overtly modern guitar.

The new Stylus pickups fit their brief admirably, with superbly balanced, defined tones, while the ergonomics are the best of any PRS model yet, by far. It's versatile, too – a guitar that truly will work for a multitude of styles.

This guitar truly does bring PRS's design philosophy right up to date, and it'll surely become a serious player in the high-end rock guitar market.

Guitar World verdict: Far from a mere phoned-in ‘modern’ rework of an existing model, the Tekton is all-new and feels it; it’s been put together with real care and attention to what today's guitarists need. If you've been waiting for a progressive, contemporary reimagining of the PRS blueprint, here it is.

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Riffs, Beards & Gear

• “There’s more ‘Fender’ to Fiore and more ‘Gibson’ to the SE DGT… Inspiring guitars from inspiring players”: PRS Fiore HH and SE DGT Standard review

There is no denying the success of IK Multimedia’s Tonex platform. The affordable Tonex Pedal and even more affordable Tonex One brought professional-grade guitar tone to pedalboards at an accessible price point. Although both can run limited effects, the focus of these units is clearly on IK Multimedia’s stellar capture tech - the Tonex Tone Models. This left us wondering: will there ever be a fully featured Tonex floorboard? The answer is yes, and it’s here in the form of the IK Multimedia Tonex Board.

And it is not like this is coming out of nowhere either. IK has long been doing guitar effects via its AmpliTube plugins as well as the limited versions we see in the Tonex Pedal and Tonex One hardware. So a full suite of multi-effects built around its Tonex platform feels like a natural step for the company.

But the Tonex Board also comes with a rather big change in direction when it comes to price - $999. This puts it beyond the affordable credentials of the company's previous Tonex hardware and into the realm of much stiffer competition.

Meaning, there is not a lot of wiggle room for the Tonex Board if it’s going to live up to the bar set by the likes of Neural DSP and Kemper.

Before we get started, it is worth clarifying the difference between capturing an amplifier and modeling one.

When creating a capture, the guitar amp is set to the desired tone and then mic’d via the capture device/interface. The device plays a bunch of otherworldly sounds through the amp, and then processes the results to create a snapshot of the amp at its current settings.

A model, on the other hand digitally recreates each component of the amplifier, mapping the entire amp's behavior in digital form, controls and all. In other words, the former commits the user to one sound, whereas the latter allows the tone to be tweaked as would be the case on the real thing.

The benefits of capturing are that almost anyone can do it with a few simple tools, meaning you can take the sound of a specific amp that you love on the road, without the backache of lugging a tube amp around. And you can gain access to hundreds of coveted amps that you would never otherwise get the chance to play via libraries like the aforementioned Tone.net.

It’s also worth mentioning that although you are committed to the captured amp sound, captures can be tweaked after the fact, via some generic EQ and gain applied to the model. Also, IK Multimedia calls its Tonex captures ‘Tone Models’ (confusing, I know).

And lastly, drive pedals can be captured too. Okay, with that out of the way, let's see if the Tonex Board can live up to the rest of the Tonex line.

Specs

• Launch price: $999 | £949 | €999
• Type: Amp/stomp capture and multi-effects
• Controls: 4 footswitches, Volume, Home, Live, Edit, Save, Browse, 6 mini encoders
• Features: Tonex Tone Models, AmpliTube and Tonex effects, dual signal path
• Connectivity: 2 ¼” inputs, 2 balanced ¼” outputs, 2 XLR outputs, 2 mono/1 stereo effects loop, ⅛” headphone output, 2 ¼” external control jacks, MIDI in and out, USB-C connectivity
• Power: 9v, 1.5A, center negative, DC adpater provided
• Dimensions: 235x184x72 mm/9.25"x7.24"x 2.83"
• Weight: 1.6kg/3.52 lbs
• Contact: IK Multimedia

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

Styled like the other offerings in the Tonex line, the Tonex Board features a robust metal chassis with a matte black finish, tube-like side lighting, metal protective rails (which double nicely as handles too) and aesthetically pleasing geometric lines.

I say gig-worthy, but it isn’t perfect. For example, on a board that could potentially run standalone, I would rather see an IEC cable than the external DC adapter. IEC cables are sturdier and more widely available should one break, and the supplied adapter sports some thin wiring that I would be wary of being too reckless with.

It should be noted that, while slightly bigger than ideal for this, it is small enough to feasibly run on a pedalboard. So, if you own a pedalboard power supply that can handle the Tonex Board’s 1.5A power draw (there aren’t many, but the MXR Iso-Brick Pro is one example), this will be a non-issue.

As you might expect, the front panel contains everything you need to control the unit, featuring four buttons and six rotary controls that are plastic but feel sturdy.

However, the center piece is that five-inch, high-definition touchscreen. It is vibrantly bright, meaning it won't get drowned out by stage lights, and it is impressively detailed to boot.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★☆☆

Having owned and used the Tonex Pedal at a number of gigs, and positively reviewed a few Tonex One iterations, I think highly of the line in general, but have previously criticized the products for being difficult when it comes to tweaking anything past surface-level changes.

Safe to say, things have improved on the Tonex Board, mainly thanks to that high-definition touchscreen.

The interface has three UI modes - Home, Live, and Edit - quickly accessible via three buttons located by the corners of the touchscreen. Home displays the Preset number in large font, Edit takes you into the signal chain to tweak to your heart's content, and Live will clearly display what each footswitch is assigned to.

Footswitches can be set to the usual three modes we expect from tech of this ilk - Stomp for turning individual effects blocks on and off, Presets for switching through presets, and Scenes for gapless switching between different sound configurations within the same preset.

Edit mode is where you'll be spending the majority of your time tweaking, so I start there and begin setting up my own preset. The good news is that the Tonex Board follows the same conventions that have become the norm when it comes to signal chain and parameter editing - input on the left, output on the right, and a connected chain of up to 12 effects blocks in between.

Effects blocks can be dragged around the signal chain, and touching the block will display its parameters in line with the five physical encoders along the bottom, scrolling right to access further parameters if there are more than five.

When a tone model or effect is added to one of the blocks, it is represented by an impressively high-resolution image that makes it easy to keep track of what is going on, even in complicated setups. So far, so intuitive.

With 76 AmpliTube and Tonex effects models to scroll through, capacity for 1,440 presets, and a huge list of preloaded Tone Models, there is a pretty extensive selection of things to browse. Thankfully, this is all split up into categories (Drive, Delay, Modulation, Amps, and so on) and is searchable via a time-saving search bar.

In doing this, I can’t help but notice a bit of lag on the touchscreen, particularly when scrolling. It’s not slow enough to be problematic, but it is a little annoying.

Having set up a preset featuring a Fender Deluxe Reverb Tone Model, and a collection of effects, the next job is to assign Scenes and Stomps to the footswitches. This is a little clunky, as it involves pressing and holding parameters and going through a menu to designate the effects footswitch assignment.

This is not indicated in any way on the screen, so it requires either reading the manual or some experimentation. Other hidden functions include accessing the tuner by holding footswitches B and C, as well as holding the CTRL footswitch to change its function to designated footswitch modes (Scene, Preset, and Stomp).

In the heat of a live gig, you don’t want to have to rely on memory for these things. Better to have it clearly displayed on the unit.

I am also noticing some limitations in processing power. The Tonex Board consists of two paths, each with six blocks that can be linked together for a total of twelve blocks in one chain.

IK Multimedia says the Tonex Board can run up to four Tone Models per chain, but this includes the cab. Furthermore, you cannot run two cabs or two amp models on a single path. In other words, it is one amp tone model and one cab tone model per path.

It’s worth noting, however, that it can run up to four Tone Model Stomps per path (eight in total).

I notice more limitations when it comes to the effects too. For example, on the second path in my preset, I have the Chorus-1, TX Noise Gate, Analog Delay, and TX Room active. When I go to fill the last two slots, a large number of the other effects are greyed out.

For clarity, the first path on that preset consists of the D'Comp, Chorus-1, a Tone Model Stomp, Uni-V, Ambass'dor, and a Tone Model Amp.

So, signal paths on the Tonex Board take a little bit of thought to get the most out of. However, once you have done this, there are a few handy features that go a long way towards redemption.

Firstly, the ability to designate individual parameters as ‘Quick Parameters’. This assigns said parameter to one of the rotary encoders for quick access in Live and Home mode. A godsend for things like Delay Mix and Drive when playing live.

Another handy live tool is the mode configurator that allows the user to choose which Footswitch modes the pedal browses through on the CTRL switch, and in which order.

This sounds like a small thing, but in practice, it is surprisingly useful. For example, I am unlikely to be changing presets during a song, so I find it more useful to remove Presets from the cycle and have the CTRL switch quickly change between Stomp and Scene mode. This helps add flexibility to scenes in a live context by allowing me to more quickly switch stompboxes on and off within each scene.

The I/O is fairly extensive too, featuring two ¼” inputs, two balanced ¼” outputs, two XLR outputs, two mono/one stereo effects loop, a ⅛” headphone output, two ¼” external control jacks, MIDI and USB-C connectivity. Bluetooth would have been a nice addition, however.

This allows some pretty flexible routing, even with just the two output blocks (one pre path), thanks to the options available here. For example, the outputs can be set to stereo, dual mono, all, just left, just right, and so on. Also, the effects loops can be utilized as extra ins and outs.

Outside of what is on the board, we have the Tonex software to contend with. I say contend, because it can be a frustrating experience.

For example, to update the Tonex Board firmware, I first need to make an IK user account on the website. Then I need to download the IK Product Manager and register the Tonex Board. From the IK Product Manager. From here I can download what IK Multimedia sometimes refers to as the Tonex Suite in the manual, but is actually called Tonex Max in the Product Manager.

Tonex Max is a suite of apps, one of which is the Tonex Board Editor. Once that is installed, I can then use the Tonex Board Editor to update the firmware.

Contrast this with updating the Line 6 Helix. Make a Line 6 account and download the Line 6 Updater. Done.

Despite the name, the Tonex Board Editor is not yet capable of editing presets. While this is slightly odd, it is not that big a deal given the touchscreen on the hardware. What it does do, however, is allow the user to easily manage their presets and browse Tone.Net in one app.

Tone.Net is where IK Multimedia hosts over 60,000 user-generated Tone Models. The Tonex Board Editor seamlessly accesses these in the centre of the screen, and adding them to your Tonex Board is as simple as dragging them into the hardware's preset/Tone Model list on the right-hand side of the app.

The drag-and-drop interface also makes managing your own impulse responses, presets, and already downloaded Tone Models a breeze - a huge improvement upon previous iterations of the Tonex ecosystem.

The only little bug is that the sorting drop-down does not seem to work properly when browsing presets on Tone.Net, but it does work perfectly everywhere else.

In terms of adding your own Tone Models to the library, the Tonex Board cannot capture Tone Models on its own. This is a bit of a miss, considering gear like the Neural DSP Nano Cortex and the Mooer GS1000 can do it on the hardware alone, and are both around half the price of the Tonex Board.

To create a Tone Model, you will be using the included Tone Modeler software on a computer. If you happen to have an interface with a dedicated re-amp output - something like the PreSonus Quantum HD2 -, then you are all set. Otherwise, you will need to get your hands on a re-amp box.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

As I’ve already alluded to, the quality of a Tone Model depends entirely on how well it was made, with variables like mic placement, mic quality, and the room the amp is in all having an effect.

For example, a lot of the Dual Rectifier Tone Models are too muddy to be useful, but these variables are the same for any capture tech.

In tweaking these models, the generic three-band EQ is useful in that it is fairly powerful, but just be careful not to ruin the character of the Tone model. I am cutting a bit of mids and boosting a little treble on the aforementioned Deluxe Reverb, which adds a little sparkle and helpfully brings out some high-end definition when using my Les Paul.

Testing out the drive Tone Models, the included Ibnz TS9 Hot and JHx MD OD Neutral Tone Models both do a brilliant job of mimicking the mid-forward compressed drive of a pushed Tube Screamer and the transparent offerings of the JHS Morning Glory.

Leaving the land of captures and onto the included digitally modeled effects, IK Multimedia is making use of the effects from its AmpliTube plugins here, and the results are stellar.

The drives are among the best I’ve played on digital floorboards, with a particular favorite being the Ambass’dor - a recreation of the Marshall Guv’nor. It feels accurate with plenty of gain and definition, plus it cleans up nicely on the volume control, whilst reacting well to my picking dynamics. What more can you ask for?

Another highlight is the Fuzz Age, covering Fuzz Face duties. A big, fat fuzz that feels pretty accurate to the original, with the only flaw being that it does not quite open up the high end with the volume dialed in as the real thing does.

Equally as impressive are the reverbs. All the basic food groups are covered, with effects like the TX Room reverb adding some subtle space, right through to the Shimmer for the more ethereal moments. Both feel as if they are part of your sound rather than on top of it, resulting in a natural feeling expansion of the core tone.

And of course, we cannot talk about space without covering delay. I’m enjoying the Analog Delay to widen those lead lines up. It’s gradually darkening repeats stay out of the way of the mix, as does the Echoman Delay in its mimicking of an EHX Memory Man. Perfect for the dotted eighth thing.

One quick note here, though: that Analog Delay seems to clip when placed after the cab in the chain. A little odd, but easily solvable by placing it between the amp and cab, and it's an issue that seems specific to just that effect.

For a bit of movement, there are plenty of modulations to choose from, all of the same high quality. My favorite is the Uni-V doing a convincing Uni-Vibe effect, something which I have found is rare on multi-effects units.

The only effect I feel deserves some criticism is the Pitch Shifter. Put plainly, it quickly darkens the tone to a point where it is not particularly useful.

As is always the case with this tech, Tone Models vary in quality depending on how they were captured, but as we already know from the Tonex Pedal and Tonex One, the Tonex Tone Models can absolutely stand toe to toe with offerings from the likes of Neural DSP and Kemper.

Browsing through the pre-loaded Tone Models, I am immediately drawn to the Luxury Clean Amp Model, which is captured from a Fender Deluxe Reverb. The tone is as you would expect from this type of amp - a full bass end and sparkly highs, great for strumming through some chords, showing off your funk chops, and adding a bunch of pedals in front of it.

A big upgrade above the Tonex Pedal is the ability for the Board to run dual paths - meaning we can have two amps on the go at once. Take the UK Crunch factory preset, for example. A combination of a Marshall 1959 Super Lead MKII and an Orange Rockerverb MKI, both driven to a tight, bright, mid-forward classic rock gain.

I spend a ton of time here playing through a few Led Zeppelin riffs and classic rock chords. What becomes apparent is how well the Tone Models react to my picking dynamic. Things get gainier as I dig in, and cleaner as I hold back and roll the guitar's (in my case, a Les Paul Classic) volume down.

The amps feel dynamic and lively under the fingers. In other words, real.

Verdict

I find myself a little conflicted about the Tonex Board. On one hand, it’s rather underwhelming. The Tonex line of products has always offered professional-grade tones at great value for money, with a few compromises on the usability side of things.

So, for $999, I was expecting a little more processing power than the Tonex Board provides, and perhaps a couple more footswitches considering the ‘Board’ moniker.

Also, the usability is still a little awkward in some aspects, and, at this price, it really should be able to create Tone Models without requiring an extra purchase (as its competition can).

With this in mind, the Tonex Board feels more like an upgrade to the Tonex Pedal than a brand new product. However, viewed this way, it is a significant upgrade.

Depending on when and where you buy it, the Tonex Board is roughly two/three times the price of the Tonex Pedal. But with a vastly increased I/O, a five-inch touchscreen, a fully editable signal chain, and a collection of high-quality multi-effects, it is more than reasonable to say that it easily does more than twice as much.

And the tones are undeniably brilliant. The array of effects is almost universally stellar, and the Tone Models are right up there with the competition in terms of both sound and feel.

Speaking of which, the likes of Neural DSP, Kemper, and Line 6 don’t yet offer something quite like the Tonex Board.

The Neural DSP Quad Cortex Mini, for example, is significantly more expensive than the Tonex Board (but also does modeling); the Nano lacks a touchscreen, as does the Kemper Profile Player, and the Line 6 Stadium lineup with the new Proxy capture tech has yet to launch something as compact and affordable as the Tonex Board.

An outlier, of course, is NAM. We are seeing this free capture tech becoming more mainstream with its inclusion in products like the Darkglass Anagram Guitar Essentials, and while there is still nothing exactly like the Tonex Board (the Anagram lacks the vast number of effects), this is certainly something to keep an eye on.

Guitar World verdict: The Tonex Board cannot create Tone Models on its own, and is not quite as powerful as some may have been expecting, so it is imperfect. But those imperfections are redeemed by the sheer quality of the effects and Tone Models, meaning that when it comes to guitar tone, the Tonex Board easily holds its own.

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The Studio Rats

John Nathan Cordy

Pete Thorn

The Super Black Mini, as the name suggests, is an 'amp in a box' pedal modelled on a black panel Fender.

As a result it's got a punchy, vintage voicing and can be used as a preamp as well as a standalone boost, pre or drive pedal.

It's a stripped-down version of their original Super Black, which also contained Mad Professor's Sweet Honey drive on its own footswitch.

Specs

• Launch price: $219 | £174 | €219
• Type: Preamp/drive
• Controls: Cut/Comp, Presence, Volume, Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble
• Connectivity: In/Out, Power
• Bypass: True
• Power: 9V Battery or 9VDC Centre-negative 27mA
• Dimensions: 58 x 36 x 110 mm
• Contact: Mad Professor

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

The Super Black build quality is what you'd expect from such an established and long-running boutique pedal outfit. The pedal is rock-solid and the six rotary controls are well laid out with two mini switches above them.

The black hammered metal casing with an off-white typeface color scheme is simple and classic – reflecting the influence of the Fender amps it takes influence from.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★☆

The Super Black is a true 'amp in a box', which recreates the signal path of a black panel Fender amp.

It's designed this way so that it can be used either as a standalone preamp, or into the power stage of an amp (or a sim) to replicate the tone of that amp in a compact package. To help with headroom, the pedal can be run at up to 18V if needed.

Though this functionality isn't as complex as it initially sounds, I'm pretty certain using it that way rather than just into the front of an amp is more of a power user feature. Besides, for the average bedroom player, there's enough ways to emulate a Fender amp using DAW plug-ins, modelling pedals and amp sims.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Luckily for the Super Black, it sounds the business. I'm primarily a pedals in-front-of-amp kind of player, leaning on a trio of tube amps in the studio: a 100-watt JCM900, 50-watt Mesa DC-5 and a DIY EL84 5-watt mini amp.

Each amp reacts differently, with the Super Black more than capable of pushing the lower-wattage crates into power tube saturation even at moderate volume levels.

True to its inspiration, it's easy to get a voicing that's akin to a black panel combo, but naturally it's closest on the Mesa clean channel.

Like a black panel amp, across all three it's quite brittle on bridge pickups, but easy to pull back from the edge with the presence control. I found myself with Les Paul in hand, writing punchy, edge-of-breakup lead parts in no time.

My favourite setting was with the low-cut on and more compression, to get greater saturation out of it when pushed. As an 'amp in a box,' it comes into its own when stacking gain stages.

With a discrete op-amp boost in front and the gain pushed up a little, there was a lot of sustain on tap. Into the real amps, it functioned as a great full-range mid-weight drive with 3-band EQ.

Elsewhere, its punchy and tight saturation meant I had to track some lead lines with it to experiment with DAW amp sims and NAM A2 captures. Like with the real amps, it works well as a pre, but I found myself mainly running it into either a full Mesa stack emulation, or even a 5150-style amp.

As it stacks so well, the greater harmonic content resulted in more characterful recorded tones. For lead parts, this unlikely pairing resulted in tight, compressed, dirty alternative rock leads.

Verdict

Amp-in-a-box pedals are strange in a way; the truer they are to their mission, the less flexibility they offer. That's true of the Super Black. It sounds like a black panel, and even into the front of another amp, it gives a little of that black panel flavour.

Naturally, if that isn't for you, you're probably better off with a more straightforward drive or boost.

Guitar World verdict: As far as non-tube Fender emulations go, the Super Black is a good effort, and the Mini brings that to a tiny form factor. As a bonus, it's affordable compared to larger or digital emulations. It sounds good, it's inspiring, and it gets the riffs flowing. What more could you ask for?

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Mad Professor

Mike Hermans

Pete Honore

• "An impressive drive/boost pedal with a unique Body control": Mad Professor Little Green Wonder review

The first thing most players will likely note about the Cort KX507MS Pale Moon, is the striking top from which it gets its name. The precision-playing multi-scale seven-string guitar has a look that steps away from the usual djent-friendly guitar aesthetic, but the South Korean firm is also eager to reinforce that the guitar is “more than a pretty face.”

Cort is perhaps better known for its factory – which churns out quality builds for the likes of Squier, Schecter and Ibanez – more than its own creations. But the tides of its reputation are starting to turn. From out of its Indonesian facility its builds throw top-end specs into very competitively priced instruments. More and more players are realizing how well they play for the price, and so the KX507MS can rightly be seen as a potential rival to some of the industry mainstays.

Cort has a rich history to lean upon too. Having built for Kramer and Hohner in the ‘80s, right through to Strandberg’s futuristic headless guitar offerings today, it has had a plethora of designs and production lines in its charge. Here, it aims to put its learning into a guitar that can pull heavy riffers away from the more obvious brands.

Away from its snazzy top wood, there’s a mahogany body, a five-piece maple and purpleheart neck, carved into a fast-playing, Ibanez-reminiscent D-profile neck. That’s capped with a 24-fret stainless steel macassar ebony fretboard.

Hardware, from its individually saddled hardtail bridge to its locking tuners and truss rod spoke wheel, are Cort-branded, but it’s invested in Fishman’s hugely popular Fluence Modern humbuckers set, complete with its multi-voice capabilities, to power its tones.

So, in a corner of the market dominated by the likes of Ibanez, Strandberg and Schecter, can this multi-scale seven-string strike fear in its opposition?

Specs

• Launch price: $999 | £799
• Made: Indonesia
• Type: Seven-string electric guitar
• Body: Mahogany with a pale moon ebony top
• Neck: Five-piece maple and purpleheart
• Fingerboard: Macassar ebony
• Scale length: 25.5”-27” multi-scale (648mm-686mm)
• Nut/width: 2 1/16″ (52.3mm)
• Frets: 24, jumbo stainless steel
• Hardware: Cort string-through-body hardtail with individual string saddles, Cort locking tuners, black PPS nut, two-way adjustable truss rod wheel
• Electrics: Two Fishman Fluence Modern humbuckers, 1 x master volume control and 1 x master tone, both with push-pull, and a three-way switch
• Left-handed options: No
• Finish: Natural Black Burst
• Case/gig bag: No
• Contact: Cort

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

Given just how littered the extended-range guitar market is with S-types, Cort wins no points for imagination when it comes to its silhouette. Like its other S-types, it is mildly contoured without it feeling too luxurious or fitting like a glove – far more emphasis has been placed on its back.

Its horns, meanwhile, give way to decent access to the upper frets, and the neck joint is pretty smooth. The look does a fair degree of heavy lifting in that regard. The open-pore finish, and the striking quality of the guitar’s top on the whole, is very nice. But it has to do far more than look pretty to stand out here.

After having this guitar in my lap for mere minutes, one issue becomes clear: neck dive. This is something I've found particularly bothersome about some its seven- and eight-string models I've tried, and I actually owned a KX508 for a while, so I can speak from experience.

The neck dive here, to put it bluntly, is brutal. Owners of these guitars need to be careful or, like my KX508, you may lose a chunk off the headstock. It’s a real nuisance.

As someone who believes in maple fingerboard supremacy – it’s an aesthetic more than a tonal choice in all honesty – the macassar ebony ‘board helps maintain a dark look and sound, but gives it a little more nuance and a hint of maple ‘board goodness. I really enjoy the novelty of that.

The neck’s finish, meanwhile, is satin, but still has a little roughness to it which I also quite enjoy. It reminds me that I’m running my hands across a piece of wood; heavily finished necks can feel disappointingly artificial to me.

I do find the tuner action to be somewhat lacking, unfortunately. The D string especially is pretty unresponsive to a lot of turns. It certainly holds its tuning well enough, thanks to the locking tuners, but the pegs themselves leave a lot to be desired.

One big positive is the bridge. On the KX500 Pale Moon – its six-string sister – the Cort-branded hardtail felt like a cheap afterthought to me. Here, it feels a far more considered choice. Each string gets its own adjustable saddle, and it fills me with far more confidence from the off; a confidence which is never tarnished during my time with the guitar.

Elsewhere, it might seem like splitting hairs, but the edging on the headstock finish looks a little rough to me, and a couple of the frets are a little scratchy when playing vibrato. The omission of glow-in-the-dark side dots, especially considering how many low-mid-priced guitars come with them these days, is a disappointment too.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★☆

For all intents and purposes, Cort has angled the neck profile of this range of builds towards Ibanez’s D-shaped necks, combining flatness at the mid point with a shred-happy playability that isn’t too thin. In fact, I find there to be a bit of chunkiness to the neck that makes me want to really dig in. That extra bit of chunk is more than welcome.

It is by no means a difficult guitar to play, but I do feel I have to wrestle with it; it doesn’t just roll over and submit. That, actually, is one of the best aspects of the guitar to me. I will caveat this by saying that the flatter, D-profile Ibanez-style necks not to everyone’s tastes, but I’ve certainly played worse in this vein, even if I’m not madly in love with it.

Its multi-scale system means that, for leads, it feels like business as usual – especially if this is your first seven-string playing experience. Big fret jumps are no more difficult, and the slanted frets certainly help with that. There are faster-playing guitars out there, for sure. But it strives to be a solo machine without ending up in an extreme territory.

The 27” scaling on the lower end is enough to take the guitar as low as drop F# without needing strings thicker than tree trunks. It too replicates Ibanez’s go-to recipe for this scaling, making it a longer player offerings from the likes of Strandberg, which caps it at a fairly stunted 26.25”.

For multi-scale sevens, 27” is very much the industry standard, and so, perhaps the fact that my other sevens are a Strandberg Boden N2 Standard, and a straight-fret Chapman ML1-7, it does feel noticeably larger.

Still, I wouldn’t say it feels cumbersome; but I think newcomers to this type of guitar will have to accept that an adjustment period is part of the process.

The ninth fret is straight, which is also in keeping with standard industry practice, and so really, anyone with experience in playing metal-minded six- and seven-string guitars won’t find getting acquainted with the KX507MS all too difficult. Does it go one better than the big names it’s looking to out gun? Not for my money, but it does a very good job of getting into the same ballpark. It’s a more than respectable showing.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

What immediately strikes me here is just how molten-hot the Fishman Fluence Modern humbuckers are. I’ve played countless guitars with this same set, from six-string Charvels to eight-string Strandbergs and plenty in between – including several of its main competitors in the Ibanez Iron Label and Axoim ranges. So I assure you that this isn’t hyperbole: this Cort feels like it packs more heat than the lot.

That isn’t, I hasten to add, necessarily a plus point for everyone. I often find myself dialling back the amps I use – including a raft of high-gain Neural DSP plugins for my rhythm tones – to keep its bark under control. Once the gain drifts too far past around 2 or 3 o’clock on any remotely hot amp, things can get messy if I’m not careful

Find the sweet spot, though, like I did with the hot amp from Archetype: Gojira (which is based on an EVH5150) and with a moderate amount of noise gate (I have mine set to 11 o’clock), it can be a real monster.

As the pickups’ name suggests, they’re wound to sound modern, and have a glistening quality to them that stops the lows from muddying up the mix, and the highs from piercing my eardrums. There’s a reason these pickups have been adopted for factory models and signature guitars for pretty much every big-name player in the heavy music world – including Ibanez, Jackson, Strandberg, ESP, Schecter, and Strandberg.

They can handle the most earthquakingly-low tunings and they clean up really well – although here I found its mid-gain tones a little meek on this particular guitar. I feel the lower gain and clean tones on the whole are really a “they’ll get me by” job because the KX507MS is very much architected to be a riff machine above all else.

The push-pull features do, however, help me get even more out of them. Pulling up the Tone dial offers a more “organic” sounding tone. Even if it’s subtle, I do regularly A/B test sections and lean into one mode or the other and find it a useful addition to the guitar’s sonic palette.

Doing the same with the Volume gives me a split coil, and don’t get me wrong, it does the trick, but these high-output active beasts will never snap like a passive equivalent to my ears. If I move my hand closer to the bridge, it definitely makes a difference, and with more bass-forward tones and ultra-low tunings, it becomes far more effective. But Seymour Duncan and Bare Knuckle still have the upper hand as far as my tastes are concerned.

Verdict

The market of extended-range guitars for heavy playing has been dominated by the big guns through the years. With the KX507MS, Cort is proving that there is much more value beyond those household names, with impressive specs at very competitive prices.

This guitar very much angles itself towards Ibanez’s playability, and the modern, Fishman Fluence-powered sounds heard on countless records and stages in 2026. It’s doing it with a real aesthetic flair too – the Pale Moon top is a beauty.

This riff beast more than puts up a fight against the competition and stands as a respectable leftfield choice for under $1,000. However, it isn’t flawless, and with the pros and cons fairly well-balanced, it might be hard-pressed to convince some players of those well-known brands to jump ship.

Guitar World verdict: A fine blend of price, playability, and punching tones, for rock and metal needs, the Cort KX507MS has firepower for days. Away from those realms, it does enough to get by. The neck dive on this example is a pretty big issue, but when it comes to making ground-shaking noise, it’s a hell of a lot of fun.

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