A guitarist has been left fuming after American Airlines shattered his acoustic guitar, sparking outrage online.

Airlines have demonstrated time and again why they have a ‘heavy-handed’ reputation among musicians.

In one of the more grisly cases we've seen, Titus Tucker, who has over 35,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok, posted images of the aftermath of a flight. In the shared clips, the guitar’s hardshell case is seen badly damaged, and the instrument inside is “unrecognizable.”

Its back and sides are now separate entities. There’s also a heart-wrenching mangle of wood atop the guitar’s severed top, which looks to have been broken from the soundhole to its edge.

“They dragged it out like a dead body,” he’s heard saying in a video clip. He then points to a brutal-looking gash on the case, saying, “This is a tire; there’s no other explanation.

“That’s a brand new case, and a brand new guitar,” he adds.

One small silver lining is that Gator Cases can be found in the comments, saying, “DM incoming,” which suggests he’s likely getting a new case. But, of course, it does little to rectify the sheer savagery American Airlines has shown toward Tucker’s beloved six-string.

Horror stories like these are, sadly, all too common, and it’s no new phenomenon, either. This is not an isolated incident.

Back in March, a baggage handler went viral on TikTok after a clip of them carelessly tossing guitars around like confetti surfaced on the platform. It very quickly clocked up over four million views.

And in August last year, Emily Wolfe went to war with Southwest Airlines after her guitar was decapitated, despite it being in a hard case. The Airline refused to acknowledge responsibility, as Peter Thorn and Gilby Clarke spoke out about similar gut-punch incidents.

What is it?

It has to be said that we’ve been impressed by virtually every instrument we’ve seen from the Cor-Tek Corporation in recent years. The company is also responsible for building a number of guitars outside of its own Cort house brand (including PRS’s SE range) and the quality is always tip-top with playability that hits the mark every time.

This Gold A10 hails from the company’s highly automated acoustic guitar facility in the Jinzhou District of Dalian, Liaoning, China, and just reading the spec put us in a bit of a swirl even before opening its case. Cocobolo back and sides with a torrefied Adirondack spruce top? That’s a match made in heaven if ever there was one – on paper at least.

The company’s website proclaims that “the Cort Gold-A10 Cocobolo exudes boutique-style craftsmanship that extends beyond gorgeous tonewoods and distinguished accoutrements, with time-intensive hand-rolled fret edges, tone-enhancing torrefied materials, and Fishman Flex Blend electronics for unforgettable performance”. And at a price that won’t break the bank (too badly, anyway…).

So, what’s all the fuss about the woods that are involved? Well, first let’s take a look at cocobolo. To begin with, it’s a member of the rosewood genus Dalbergia retusa and is often employed by luthiers as a more than able substitute for that Dalbergia superstar, Brazilian rosewood.

There are tonal variations between the two, of course, with cocobolo being renowned for its bright tone, lower register resonance, articulation and note distinction. Native to Mexico and Central America, it is also renowned for its wild grain pattern, which often challenges all but the most sublime Brazilian variety.

As you can see from the pictures here, the back wood has a beautifully complex pattern with the paler sapwood running down the centre. It’s strange that all the fuss is made about the beauty of back woods on acoustic – and classical – guitars when it’s the part your audience never sees. But that’s all part of the fun of owning such an instrument.

The cocobolo’s running mate on the Cort A10 is torrefied Adirondack spruce, and this is another tonewood that goes hand in hand with exceptional levels of tone and performance.

Known for its “ringing yet complex and nuanced tone that carries right through high volume levels where other spruces start to break up”, according to the Wood Database, ‘Addie’, as it is affectionately known, has graced the tops of some celebrated pre-war Martin acoustics. Indeed, its legend continues, optimising as it does an acoustic’s dynamic and tonal ranges.

But the equation doesn’t end there as we find a mahogany neck, very good-looking reddish-brown padauk binding and maple purfling to both body and neck, plus an ebony fretboard – with mother-of-pearl and abalone inlays – to complete the body timbers.

We’re told the neck is also reinforced with strips of walnut either side of the truss rod underneath the ’board for extra stability and reinforcement. Factor in a bone saddle and nut, with Grover open-gear tuners and a factory-fitted Fishman Flex Blend pickup and you can see what excited us when we scanned the A10’s bill of goods in the first place.

Oh, and if you’re thinking that it would have been nice of Cort to include a scratchplate to protect the top from those wilder plectrum wielding moments, fear not, there’s one in the case for you to fit yourself if you want to. Nice touch.

Freed from its case and turning the A10 over in our hands, its finish and build look as exemplary as we’ve come to expect from Cort.

The cocobolo on the back and sides is the star of the show – and we mustn’t forget that the precise patterning of the wood will vary from instrument to instrument – but if this guitar sounds half as good as it looks, then we’re on to a real winner.

Specs

• Price: $2,599/£1,899 (inc case)
• Origin: China 
• Type: Grand Auditorium
• Top: Torrefied AA-grade Adirondack spruce
• Back/Sides: AAA grade cocobolo
• Max Rim Depth: 113mm
• Max Body Width: 402mm
• Neck: Walnut reinforced mahogany
• Scale Length: 648mm (25.5”) 
• Tuners: Grover gold open gear
• Nut/Width: Bone/44.5mm
• Fingerboard: Ebony
• Frets: 20
• Bridge/Spacing: Ebony with bone saddle/55mm
• Electrics: Fishman Flex Blend
• Weight (kg/lb): 2.4/5.2
• Left-Handers: No
• Finish: Natural gloss with satin neck
• Contact: Cort Guitars

Build quality, playability and sounds

Every player would agree that no matter how good looking a guitar is, it’s the playing surfaces – neck, fingerboard, et cetera – that either win or lose the day. In the case of the A10 we’re happy to report that the satin-finished neck is a very comfortable C profile that feels like it belongs in the hand.

It sits in that area where it’s neither too chunky nor too skinny, measuring 21.5mm deep at the 1st fret, broadening only slightly to 22mm at the 8th. The nut has been expertly cut and the ’board is very nicely finished, too, with those hand-finished rolled fret-ends adding extra boutique swish.

When we first tried a few pioneering chords the sound was a little compressed. But we concluded the A10 had very likely not been out of its case since it left China many moons ago and would probably respond to a day or two left on a stand to come up to room temperature and prevailing humidity.

We also made sure to give it the occasional campfire chord serenade each time we passed and it began to open up nicely. Basses became stronger, trebles noticeably sweeter and, although it’s impossible to measure, we could swear it got louder, too.

Of course, all this is in line with how new acoustic guitars can come out of storage hibernation and begin to blossom and bloom – everything we would expect from an Addie top backed with a nice member of an elite rosewood family. And, of course, it bodes well for the future as we’re sure there’s plenty more opening up to be done by the guitar in the months and years ahead.

The instrument responded well to both fingerstyle pieces and chordal workouts, the latter offering a very good blend of clarity and complexity.

The Fishman Flex Blend pickup and preamp system adds another important dimension to the sound. Combining an under-saddle piezo with an internal mic, the plugged-in sound reflected that of the A10’s acoustic nature when interfaced with our Boss Katana-50 EX.

The Fishman’s tone control added more colour with a variable midrange that you can adjust for chordal oomph or fingerstyle finesse. It has a built-in tuner, too.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

We were aware that this is a factory build with a degree of hands-on along the way. But it successfully escapes that stereotypical ‘cloned’ tone set that some factory builds succumb to and when it left us was well on its way to being a standalone individual with a very good portfolio of usable sounds.

Sure, if you gave a set of triple-A grade cocobolo and some Adirondack spruce to a boutique luthier you might find that further tonal refinements and build enhancements would become available. But then the price would very likely be five times what it is here.

Guitar World verdict: What Cort’s A10 offers is a step towards the upper echelon of acoustic guitar lutherie at a very reasonable price and, from what we’ve heard, once the guitar has fully opened up, your investment could be, quite literally, very sound indeed. Try one, we think you’ll like it.

Hands-on videos

Cort

WM Sound Guitars

• Cort Flow-OC and Gold-A6 Bocote review
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Guitarist and producer Chris Turpin of Ida Mae and his Jake Kiszka collab Mirador has an enviable selection of vintage guitars to work with, but one of his most frequently used instruments proves that buying vintage can be quite affordable.

His prized acoustic is a Gibson B-25 12-string, which began life as a budget instrument when it was first introduced in 1962. Glen Campbell used one and it appeared on the cover of his 1964 Capitol Records album The Astounding 12-String Guitar Of Glen Campbell.

It was clear, however, that when Chris bought his own B-25, it had seen a lot of action over the years.

“I really like Fanny’s House of Music In Nashville,” Chris says. “They have great stuff to play and they’re very friendly – good, honest folks. I went in and they had this particular 12-string, which had clearly lived a life.

“It’s had the back panel smashed in, and I felt it just had the energy, like it had been to a bunch of political protests or something in the ’60s and someone had played Simon & Garfunkel covers on it. I got it for not very much at all, 800 bucks or something, and it became quite an important guitar.

“I took it over to Jake [Kiszka’s] house, and he whipped out a case and he had the same one. I was like, ‘Oh my god, aren’t these the coolest 12-strings, or the best recording 12-strings?’ and it’s been on records ever since.”

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Martin has brought back a gem from the archives in the form of the 5-28 Terz – a reissue of the smallest acoustic body shape it's ever produced.

Forget your parlor guitars and travel guitars, the 5-28 Terz is a different proposition altogether. With a pint-sized 21.28” scale length and a total fret count of only 18 – with a body joint at the 12th fret – this newly revived Size 5 model is officially the smallest guitar Martin has on its books.

Its return has been a long-time coming. Martin says the 5-28 Terz answers “long-standing player demand” for its comeback. And while at $3,599 it might not have returned in the form everyone was hoping (surely there’s a cheaper version in the pipeline?) it’s nice to see a bit of extra history in the Martin lineup.

As per the price tag, Martin has rolled out the red carpet for this one. There’s East Indian rosewood back and sides, a spruce top with “Aging Toner” top color for a vintage feel, and an ebony-topped dark mahogany neck.

Flourishes include mother-of-pearl fingerboard inlays, multi-stripe body binding, and a Style 28 multi-stripe rosette. There’s also an ebony bridge with bone pins, a compact 1 ¾” fingerboard width at the bone nut, and a Modified Low Oval neck with High-Performance taper.

Because of the tiny setup, this one features Terz tuning – which pitches it a minor third above standard. So, not only is this unusually small, it is also unusual-sounding. Plus, it kinda looks like that priceless 1870s acoustic that Kurt Russell mistakenly smashed in The Hateful Eight, so that’s a plus.

In its pitch, Martin writes, “The Martin 5-28 Terz answers long-standing player demand for the return of this uniquely voiced Size 5 model to the Martin lineup – now the smallest guitar we offer.

“With roots dating back to the earliest days of Martin, this ultra-compact 12-fret instrument features a short 21.38" scale length and is designed for Terz tuning – a minor third higher than standard – delivering a focused, bell-like voice that adds shimmer, clarity, and new sonic texture to any arrangement.”

The 5-28 Terz has been released alongside three other new acoustics – the OM-35 Inception, and Custom Shop 0-18 and 0-28.

Head over to Martin to find out more about the new models.

It’s hard to imagine a world without the Gibson flat-top. But as senior product development manager, Robi Johns, reminds us, you have to wind back the dials of the time machine a full century to find the Michigan luthier on the brink of arguably its most exciting quantum leap (at least, until the electric revolution of the ’50s).

“It’s amazing to think that it’s 2026 now,” considers Johns, “and although they’d existed before that, for those in the know, the first time a flat-top appeared in a Gibson catalogue was 1926. I don’t attribute the death of the banjo and the rise of the guitar so much to the crash of the US economy. I think it was influenced highly by the development of the radio in 1919. Most people didn’t know the guitar prior to that.”

From that leap of faith, the flat-top made a perfect landing. Today, scanning the Gibson website reveals acoustics sprawling into the hundreds. And yet everybody still wants to own the models that made the legend, and the luthier’s latest cache of vintage-modern collectibles will certainly scratch that itch (for those who can afford the ticket).

As the branding implies, the three-strong Century Collection – comprising the punch-above-its-weight L-00, populist J-45 and cult-hero J-185, each with a thin satin finish – salutes that formative era when it seemed that every year heralded another stone-cold classic.

And while there are concessions to modernity, the period-correct authenticity spans from the minutiae (hide glue in place of PVC) to the freshly introduced 12-fret neck-to-body joint that gives these acoustics a striking look and feel.

First, let’s talk about that 12-fret neck-to-body joint. It was ultimately overtaken by the 14-fret format, but what are the selling points of that earlier design?

Number one, it’s more comfortable. I mean, this is hypothetical – I’m not sure everyone would agree with that. But it’s a little bit closer to the player. As you know, there’s a [standard] scale length to the instrument, which is 24.75 inches for short scale and 25.5 inches for long scale. But when you get rid of a couple of frets and move the neck into the body, you have to move that bridge further out to make that 24.75-inch scale length.

It’s more than a theory. I’ve noticed over time that moving that bridge into the widest part of the lower bout just opens up the sound even more. It’s much more responsive, more resonant, more vocal-sounding – it just sounds better.

That’s why we went to the 12-fret Century Collection models. We wanted to make these amazing, early-designed guitars sound as beautiful and resonant as possible. And the 12-fret neck-to-body accommodates that, by virtue of its construction.

It’s common to hear pre-war necks described as ‘baseball bats’. But the Century Collection models have adopted the more modern Gibson SlimTaper.

Yeah, it’s much more comfortable for the player. Although the theory might be with some people that the more mass of a neck [the better]. Like, the 1928 models and the 1942 J-45 had some really big V necks.

Now, some people like the V neck because of the way they can put their thumb over the top of the fingerboard. The resonance of that neck is something that can be attributed to a better-sounding instrument. The lighter neck works for us beautifully.

However, some people say that the heavier neck transfers more of the vibration. There’s more vibration going down that neck; it’s like a giant wooden tuning fork, if you will. And it’s vibrating into the body, which is why that dovetail is so important to transfer that into the body.

These three Century Collection models look stunning, from the subtle finish to the old pre-war Gibson logo on the headstocks.

Well, [it’s] the vibe of these guitars – and I say ‘vibe’ in the sense of the allure of the style of the guitar, and the simplicity of it, and the size of it. We put a light satin finish on them, which makes it sound even older because the old finishes kinda dissipate over time and therefore the body resonates even better. So we were very pleased.

Let’s look at the individual models, where they fit into Gibson’s history and how you’ve approached them for this new collection. Starting with the L-00…

Well, the L-00 was an evolution, it seems, from the Nick Lucas Special and the L-1. It’s a little bit elongated instead of round. That came out in 1932 – in my opinion, to supply the American market with a really nice, relatively affordable (at the time) acoustic guitar made by a manufacturer, with mahogany back and sides. The Nick Lucas Special was more expensive.

The L-00 became one of the more long-term sustained models that we do. One of our most popular small-bodies today is the L-00, still. A lot of people like the L-00 because it’s really comfortable to sit with. And it’s so resonant, with that 12-fret body and its bridge pushed out. It’s very popular with blues players – a very focused sound.

The construction is virtually identical to what was happening in the 1920s or 1930s. That can be identified in two ways: we still use the dovetail joint, and we still use organic hide glue to bond that neck to the body.

Nowadays, it’s PVC glue, typically, but in those days we used hide glue and we still use that. And we do that on our Custom Shop models so they sound even more authentic because of the bond between the hide glue and the wood – which is much more molecular than PVC glue.

With the next model, we’re moving on a decade, with the iconic J-45.

“We had already developed the J-45 body. But it wasn’t called a J-45 in 1934: to compete with our competitors, who were building bigger guitars at that time, it was called the Jumbo. This was the first round-shouldered Gibson acoustic. And it eventually turned into the J-45 by 1942.

“The J-45 is so versatile. You can use it for blues. You can use it for rock. It’ll growl at you if you hit it hard. But it can also sound nice and warm and balanced if you play it lighter. You can fingerstyle it. So that round-shouldered dreadnought rose up from the 1930s, and by 1942 it became the J-45 – and it stayed and it’s our biggest seller.

“My hypothesis is that the J-45 became embedded in society not just by virtue of its sound but because we saw it in the broadcasts of the early ’60s. I was just at the edge of that. And I have to attribute it to the Brits coming to America in the ’60s with all this amazing music. I remember Donovan playing a J-45 on his legendary songs.”

There’s a Beatles connection with that model, too, isn’t there?

Yeah. What did The Beatles use on the orchestration of Love Me Do, one of their first recorded songs? An acoustic guitar. And that acoustic guitar looks like a J-45 because it was a J-45, with a single-coil pickup, called the J-160E at that time. I think The Beatles had a lot to do with the exposure of the J-45 – even though it was a J-160E, which was the J-45 design.

In 2026, we just re-released the J-160E in our core line-up. And it’s still revered. It’s kinda retro for young people playing modern music. They say, ‘Oh, that’s kinda cool.’ It’s a very distinctive acoustic-electric sound: not fully acoustic, a little bit of both. That J-160E is still popular because of George Harrison and John Lennon – and rightfully so.

Moving on another decade, we’ve got the J-185, which is probably lesser-known relative to the Hummingbird, Dove, J-45 and so on. It’s almost a bit of an unsung hero, isn’t it?

Yes. It was released in 1951. From my perspective, the J-200 became quite famous from the 1930s on as the big, extravagant model. You know, Elvis played it.

It was the biggest thing available, the most pronounced. But the J-185 is actually just a one-inch-smaller version of the J-200: the J-200 was 17 inches across, the J-185 was 16-inches across with the exact same proportions.

So now you could have this J-200-looking guitar, beautifully balanced looking, pretty big sound but one inch less depth. And the idea was that it was a wonderful rhythm guitar. You have a little less bottom-end, which makes it very balanced in the lows, mids and highs – but the J-200 has more depth.

And then, in the early ’60s, the Everly Brothers wanted to use the J-200 as a [signature] model. But Gibson wisely said, ‘No, let’s leave that alone. Use this body instead, it’s a little bit smaller but it’s very balanced.’ So they used the J-185 body to create what was the Everly Brothers model. Without that low-end – and due to the fact it had warm lows, mids and highs – it became an excellent rhythm guitar.

But the other connection is that the body mould that was used for the original L-5 jazz guitar was also used for the J-185. That was 16 inches across, too, so we had that available. With the flat-tops, we didn’t want to get much bigger than 17 inches. I think that might have been risky.

We did do the Super 400 [in 1934], which is 18 inches across – but that was an archtop. So, anyway, I like to say that the J-185 Century Collection model has all these connections to our history.

How has the popularity of the J-185 ebbed and flowed over the years?

When we first started this Gibson plant in Bozeman, Montana, in 1989, I was the only one here in sales and marketing because it was all builders. I was getting calls from the UK, from the wonderful artists there – George Harrison’s group and Eric Clapton’s group. They were working together doing some unplugged things. And what were they interested in? The J-180 and the J-185.

That’s a fact. That’s what they were talking about. That’s what they wanted. I remember that vividly. It was the J-185 that all the artists were talking about, saying, ‘It was off the market for so long. Thank you for building it again, Gibson.’ That’s what I heard on the phone.

And that wasn’t just coming from the Brits. There were American artists contacting me, too. I remember Jackson Browne calling me up because he’d heard a rumour that we were building the J-185 again.

Are there more Century Collection models coming down the line?

We have a few models prototyped, but what’s really happening is that our historic models – which started 100 years ago – are a part of our Custom Historic line-up in our Custom Shop, where we replicate as much as possible the sound, the feel and the look of those models back when they were first released. So what you’re really seeing is an extension of our historic revival of these models, going back to 1920.

You know, we have a 1942 J-45, a pre-war Super Jumbo 200 like the original, a 1942 Southern Jumbo, a 1960 Hummingbird – which is when that model appeared. And that was made popular from The Rolling Stones playing a Hummingbird back in the day. So when people ask me, ‘Why did these models become famous?’ I always like to say – it’s your fault! It was [because of] the popularity of British music in the ’60s onward and the love that the British artists had for American blues and jazz. And, therefore, the interpretation of that coming from England is indelible.

But, yes, we are going to continue this resurgence of the historic models. The Century Collection is limited to the models that reflect more of what was happening during what is typically called the Depression era.

We wanted to capture the love of those old original models that came out closer to the beginning of the broadcast industry. Gibson grew out of that – which is why those models became so famous.

• “The lower mids and bass vibrate through your body – it’s tone you can feel”: Gibson J-185 Century 12-Fret and J-45 Century 12-Fret review
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Gibson and country rock singer-songwriter Eric Church have united for an Epiphone signature acoustic guitar – and it’s been launched with a whiskey.

The Epiphone Inspired by Gibson Eric Church Hummingbird Dark is a square-shouldered electric-acoustic based on his signature Gibson Hummingbird, bringing it down to a more affordable price point.

The Cobra Burst finish and custom Hummingbird Dark pickguard are pretty striking, and the black binding is also a lovely touch. As an instrument, it promises a “crisp articulation and dynamic headroom.”

Build wise there's a solid Sitka spruce top with layered mahogany back and sides, and a rounded C-profile mahogany neck with a tapered dovetail joint. Its rosewood fingerboard has grey pearloid parallelogram inlays.

It’s built to a 24.75” scale length with 20 frets, a 12” fingerboard radius, and a Graph Tech nut.

For hardware, there's a belly-down rosewood bridge, Grover Rotomatic tuners, and a Fishman Sonicore pickup, with a Fishman Presys VT preamp. It comes in at $799 and ships with a hardshell case.

What's most notable about this release, however, is what the guitar has been paired with: a signature blend Tonewood whiskey.

It comes from JYPSI, a distillery co-owned by Church, and is said to “bring together guitar craftsmanship and whiskey-making in an organic, innovative way.”

It’s certainly not every day that a guitar gets a signature brew. The catch is that maple tonewood offcuts sourced from Gibson guitar production were repurposed for the whiskey’s finishing.

Two whiskeys are being produced. Tonewood: Vol. 1 (109 proof) uses toasted Gibson maple offcuts for a whiskey with mature oak, vanilla, and honey-like flavors, while Tonewood: The Collective (103 proof) has a smokier, graham cracker taste.

“For me, a great guitar is about expression – finding something honest and putting it out into the world,” Church says of the guitar. “We’ve been working on this Epiphone Hummingbird Dark, and it’s been with me out on the road for the past two years. It’s where songs take shape, where ideas turn into something real.

“I’m excited for other players to get their hands on it and see where it leads them, because that’s what this is all about – finding your voice and having the right partner to help you say it.”

The Epiphone Eric Church Hummingbird Dark, Cobra Burst is available now for $799.

See Gibson for more.

Flat-top acoustic guitars weren’t really part of the plan for Gibson back in the pre-war years of the 20th century.

The Kalamazoo-based company was known for its archtops, and Martin, over in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, had a big head start on them by the time flat-top guitars were becoming really popular in the 1930s.

Yet when Gibson did embrace dreadnought and jumbo-style guitars in the 1930s, it led in time to the creation of some of the company’s most iconic instruments – from the expansive-sounding J-200 to the sweet-toned Hummingbird.

We join Gibson’s vice president of Product and de facto archivist Mat Koehler to explore how archtops literally gave shape to Gibson’s most influential acoustic guitars.

So where does the story begin with Gibson flat-top acoustics?

In the beginning, Gibson was consciously trying to avoid flat-tops because, obviously, Martin was present in the US, and flat-tops weren’t Gibson’s thing – archtops were Gibson’s thing. But clearly, the demand for more folk-style guitars and singing-cowboy movement shaped how Gibson grew. But even before that there was Robert Johnson playing Delta blues on the inaugural 1926 L-1 model acoustic.

But I think how the experimentation started involved the same principles that [archtop pioneer] Lloyd Loar employed: it was trying different things, like messing around with mandolins. You’ve probably seen the early ‘Army-Navy Special’ guitars [designed for WWI servicemen to buy affordably] that have those interesting cat-eye f-holes – but that was a flat-top guitar.

So there were lots of different types of flat-top guitars that they were experimenting with – and also flat backs, where they were putting flat backs on archtops. So they didn’t dive right into it straight away.

They definitely tried a bunch of different methods. And, to me, that’s also part of the reason why I think they got it right the first time, when they finally had their range of flat-top guitars.

The great luxury they had was to be able to use unique rim shapes that they originally developed for archtops. So, for example, the L-1 flat-top guitar had the same rim shape as the L-1 archtop guitar, and that has continued to this day. Likewise, our L-5 archtop and the J-200 flat-top use the same rim shape. That’s how we got our flat-top shapes, by and large.

What was the first Gibson flat-top acoustic model to really catch on?

Probably the Jumbo, which debuted in 1934 and was the predecessor to the J-35 and then the J-45 after. [There was a 1936 transitional model that featured in the company ledger known as] the Gibson Trojan, and then it became a J-35 and the price was $35. But whatever we call that model, that’s the one that really stuck – and we are still producing it today.

There’s a common misconception that [the price-based naming convention] continued into the 1950s, but it was pretty unique to the 20s and 30s – and actually maybe just the ’30s and possibly during wartime. I honestly don’t know! But I know that it wasn’t around in the ’50s. So it was a short period.

Tell us about the invention of the L-00. Its quaint parlour-style looks and sound strongly evoke pre-war musical styles and yet it’s still a pillar of Gibson’s acoustic line-up today.

Yeah, to me, that is the perfection of those very first flat-tops: the L-0 and the L-1. Those were a little bit more crude and less refined because they had deeper bodies. And so the proportions – like the scale length and the bridge location – were great, but the body depth was the place to improve. So, basically, an L-00 is an improved L-1 with a shallower body depth.

The other key move there was the introduction of X-bracing. Early L-1 models did not have X-bracing, but that one evolution made for a really solid guitar that held up well. I mean, it held up good enough for Woody Guthrie to use it all through his early career. I have a 1930 L-00 12-fret, which is my go-to guitar.

It’s great because it’s super lightweight. And I think there’s something about the feel of that guitar in your lap and its light weight. It’s so resonant and you feel that in your body. So if I had to guess why they’ve remained so popular, it’s not just because of the size, it’s because of the experience.

We tried a vintage L-00 at Vintage Instruments in Philadelphia a few years back that almost seemed to defy physics in terms of how loud and resonant it was for its small size and feather weight.

Was that a 12-fret or a 14-fret L-00? Because the 12-fret and the 14-fret versions are so vastly different in terms of sound that if you get the chance to compare the two, you should – because they’re both good for different reasons.

You can play bluegrass on the 14-fret version; it’s going to be more focused, it’s going to bark. The 12-fret is more of a fingerstyle player’s guitar, but it’s also such a balanced, warm sound. And that kind of gets us into how we’re celebrating [Gibson’s acoustic heritage] today, which is the Century Collection – and that’s a collection of solely 12-fret instruments at entry-level prices.

Honestly, I think anniversary celebrations by guitar companies can be a little contrived, when it’s like the 65th anniversary or something – it’s like, “Okay, yeah, but it’s not the 75th anniversary or the 100th.” So we’re always looking for those opportunities to celebrate the 50th, 75th and 100th because those are real milestones, in my opinion, that are really worth celebrating – these quarter-century increments.

So 100 years [of Gibson flat-tops] is definitely an occasion we’re celebrating. And we also wanted to reassert ourselves and remind people that we’re the second-oldest acoustic company that exists and we have more shapes, more styles, more diversity of acoustic platforms than anybody else.

We literally have something for everybody in our range. And 100 years ago, those very first guitars seemed to get it right and resonate with artists on the first try.

Moving from small to large guitars, the J-200 is undoubtedly one of the most iconic flat-tops Gibson has produced. It was originally rosewood-bodied but famously changed to maple back and sides for most of its production life. Why the switch?

I don’t have the ‘why’ very well sorted out, other than I know that at least one maple-bodied J-200 was made pre-war. I think, again, there were lots of experiments happening. I also think World War II definitely played a part in that evolution – that’s why we have the pre-war style in our line-up, which is rosewood-bodied, but also the post-war model, which is maple.

In terms of how the model itself came about, we were talking before about the rim shapes [that Gibson had originally devised for archtops]. So you have archtops getting larger and larger at the same time that flat-tops are getting larger and larger. Basically, once you had the L-5 archtop, that rim shape was available to use in a flat-top.

A lot of people think it was a case of, ‘Well, the singing cowboys [a genre of Western-inspired popular music popularised by Gene Autry and others] needed bigger guitars to go on the horses.’ Well, yeah, they definitely wanted that. But it was definitely the available rim shape influencing the guitar design more than it was the singing cowboys requesting it.

So I think the ability to try something was, again, the determining factor in how the model was created. You know, if we went through our ledgers and logbooks, we’d probably see some of the very first entries, certainly in 1938 and I think at least one in 1937. At that time, it was not described as a J-200, or anything like that; it was called an ‘Advanced’ body shape flat-top guitar or ‘Experimental’.

So usually there was a customer on the other side of that, whether it was a custom order, or they had an artist in mind, or it was borne of a dealer discussion, or they wanted to experiment with it, and then they wanted to pre-sell it. Because in that time, post-Depression, that was the other side of experimentation – they weren’t going to waste materials.

Again, the proportions evolved. The very first J-200s were 12-fret models and had the bridge placement in the centre of the body. And, unfortunately, on that big, giant body, a 12-fret is a little less [than ideally proportioned]. They sound amazing, but I think it was the right move to go to 14 frets with that big jumbo body. So that’s another evolution point of that model.

How did the J-200’s beautiful ‘moustache’ bridge design first evolve?

We have the original blueprints for the moustache bridge – there were a few different designs – but [country singer] Ray Whitley personally influenced that bridge. So there was definitely an artist element there where he had custom-ordered a smaller-body guitar that actually we own now.

You may have seen it at Carter Vintage years ago, it’s a really cool guitar. Then the next one that he ordered was on that big, giant [J-200 size] platform.

He got that first customer-order, small-body guitar, and then for a second guitar, he was like, “Can you do it with this [bridge]?” And so that wasn’t the very first SJ-200, but it was among the first three and that was really the one that set the stage – plus, Ray Whitley was the biggest singing cowboy of the day.

The original bridge design for the J-200, with its delicate pattern of interlacing curves, looks really ornate. How was it made, back in the day?

Today, obviously, we can scan an original and CNC it, but I would have to think that it was all hand-shaped. I mean, even a rectangle bridge was hand-shaped back then. It probably was a template and it was cut out and then it was hand-shaped.

The apertures in the original J-200 bridge were later replaced by a ‘solid’ design with pearl inlays. Why did that come about?

That occurred much later, into the 1960s, and definitely aligned with Ted McCarty’s exit.

Then, under Norlin ownership, those principles that were kind of in the ether as soon as Ted McCarty left in 1966 – simplification of processes and whatnot – those changes were well intentioned and some of those guitars are fantastic.

But I think that is one thing that you see in that period: those really time-consuming processes were sacrificed in order to get the guitar complete sooner because there was a huge order book. I mean, this is like during The Beatles era, so the people wanted guitars.

People often assume that the mid-60s shift away from the more labour-intensive aspects of production – which occurred at Fender, Gibson and other major makers – was about maximising profit. But they forget that demand went wild for guitars in the 60s and firms couldn’t make guitars fast enough to keep up.

Nobody wants back-orders. If you build up a year of back-orders… you’re hearing about it from all of your dealers and customers constantly. We’ve been there, in modern history, and you definitely want to find a way to fulfill those orders.

But cutting corners was not really the mentality – it was more like, “Let’s find processes that are maybe needless and just aesthetic-based.” I would say that was probably one consideration.

There’s probably also someone there like [Gibson president from 1968] Stan Rendell who’d argue there was more surface area to glue the bridge on [with the later, solid J-200 bridges].

The round-shouldered dreadnought shape is indelibly associated with the J-45. How did it evolve?

Again, it was directly influenced by archtop shapes. Certainly the Sears catalogue archtops [made for the giant US mail order goods company and its compendious catalogue] were a little bit different to other Gibson shapes on purpose, but those shapes lent themselves perfectly to flat‑top guitars.

At the same time, historically, Ditson was ordering similar shapes through Martin, so there was something about the slope-shoulder shape that was considered intriguing and interesting at that point in time. But, fortunately for Gibson, it was the brand that made it famous.

Gibson’s Dove and Hummingbird acoustics, with their ornately decorated pickguards, are among its best-loved acoustic designs. How did they come about?

There was a gentleman called Hartford Snider who was a pattern-maker at Gibson but also a keen birdwatcher, and eventually his [interest in sketching birds] came to the attention of Ted McCarty and John Huis, who was Ted McCarty’s right-hand man, and they said, “Well, hey, you know you’re making these patterns, but we can see you’re sketching all these birds and stuff. Why don’t you make a pickguard design?”

So the very first one was the Hummingbird, and the next one was the Dove, and then came the Excellente, in the same year as the Dove, which had an eagle on a pickguard.

He created all those pickguard designs, and I think the success of the Hummingbird in 1960 allowed Gibson to go back to the well and introduce a couple of more bird pickguards. Which was kind of a wild idea in 1960 – to call a guitar a Hummingbird. Back then, it was as wild as calling your band The Beatles, because in that era band names were usually something very conventional like ‘Marty and the something-or-others’.

And in the same way, guitar names were not typically words like ‘Hummingbird’, you know? So it was just such a cool move. And, again, it was testament to Ted McCarty and his team to empower the workforce and empower the talented folks within it, and they struck gold.

After 1957, Gibson also owned the Epiphone brand – and some great Epi flat-tops were produced, too. How did the Epiphone and Gibson flat-top ranges compare?

Now we’re getting to the fun stuff [laughs]. I love Epiphone history. Some of my absolute favourite flat-tops ever are really early wartime Epiphone flat-tops, like the FT-79, so before it was ever a Texan FT-110, which was a beautiful figured maple back-and-sides [design]. And those were dreadnought styles, so they were very early, late-30s Epiphone dreadnoughts. They are super-cool instruments.

But when Gibson purchased Epiphone in 1957, one of the first moves from Ted McCarty at the time was assembling a team – and we actually have the notes from the meeting – to create a whole unique line of instruments for Epiphone because they had all these parts, but they didn’t want to do the same thing [as Gibson models]. So they wanted to have this melding of Gibson forms and Epiphone parts to create a line of instruments.

One unique instrument to come about was, again, a dreadnought – a square-shoulder dreadnought – so that debuted with Epiphone as the Frontier, a continuation of the FT-110… The 1958 Frontier comes about immediately.

Ernest Tubb then popularised it and a lot of those Nashville and Bakersfield country artists were playing Epiphones, which is really a testament to a guy named Ward Arbanas really pushing the line at the time and helping to sell it.

Those acoustic guitars – those Epiphone flat-top guitars – were managed like a unique product line because they were in different stores from Gibson. That was the whole strategy. It’s like, if you put Gibson in the mom and pop store across the street from the other brand, then you’re not going to be competing for the same hook share in the store. So that was the thinking.

Other really cool models then developed. Another awesome square-shoulder dread was the Excellente, one of my absolute favourites. Again, that was kind of a collaboration between Andy Nelson, who was a salesman for Gibson and some artists. It was adopted by many artists, including Ernest Tubb. It was cool to see that Epiphone had its moment in the sun, especially in the 60s, with really influential folk and country players.

What lessons from Gibson’s acoustic heritage does Gibson take most to heart today, 100 years on?

How we think about innovation today is similar to how we developed the line over 100 years, but it’s become refined [to an understanding] that the success of those guitars in our past are what makes us great today. And that’s kind of true on the electric side as well.

We know we don’t need to try to reinvent the wheel, but we are still focused on using those familiar shapes and the same iconic sounds that you’ve heard in records for the last 100 years, and improving them aesthetically, ergonomically and sonically: so basically working with those parameters of the shape and the basic principles of creating a great acoustic guitar, X-bracing, forward-shifted bracing and so on.

And you could be experimenting with new materials, but if you’re keeping to those platforms and shapes and paying tribute to the originals in your experimentations, you’re usually on the right track to finding something cool.

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

When we visited Furch’s guitar-making facility near Brno in the Czech Republic a couple of years ago, we were struck by how unapologetically progressive the brand’s approach was.

When we asked if its guitars were all about handmade tradition, the company’s CEO Petr Furch smiled and cheerfully shook his head. Plenty of artisan-quality handwork goes into every Furch guitar, but Petr prefers robots to do the lutherie processes that require total precision and consistency – such as making the company’s innovative neck joints.

Therefore, he dismisses the idea that acoustic lutherie is a technological cul-de-sac fenced in by immovable tradition, and instead views it as an open road towards ever-improving playability and tone.

This spirit finds its highest expression in the Red Series guitars. Furch’s ranges are categorised by colour, with Red being the highest-quality guitars made by Furch outside of the company’s custom-order department.

The Deluxe tier within this series is, therefore, intended to be a bit special – and this guitar doesn’t disappoint.

Among many features unique to Furch, the most recent innovation that appears on this model is the Booster Soundport on the shoulder of the upper bout. Soundports are nothing new, of course, but Furch has designed its own to be an attractively understated array of slots, rather than a yawning hole in the side of the guitar.

Turning to fundamentals, the guitar’s body is made of Malaysian blackwood, which somewhat resembles a rich rosewood, while the soundboard is made of Alpine spruce.

Furch analyses and individually voices each of its soundboards for optimum resonance – a high-end process it performs even on its cheaper lines. But on this Red Series guitar the back is tuned, too, a further mark of its top-tier grade.

Furch is a very detail- and engineering-oriented maker, so even the Full-Pore High-Gloss Finish lacquer that clads this guitar was developed in-house to optimise volume and resonance.

The finely sculpted armrest on the top edge of the guitar’s body is complemented, unusually, by a belly cut on the rear – a doubly ergonomic feature that Furch has dubbed the Bevel Duo.

Ornamentation is also top-notch here, with koa binding and soundhole rosette, the latter with abalone inlay, plus a decorative koa wedge at the tail of the guitar.

Figured ziricote is used, meanwhile, for the bridge, fingerboard and headstock face. It adds up to a seriously elegant, feature-rich and capable instrument.

• The Red Deluxe GC-LI a 2026 is priced €6,265 ($7,169) approx. See Furch Guitars for more details.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

What is it?

It was 1926 when acoustic flat-tops first entered the Gibson catalogue and so, to celebrate this really quite significant centenary, the company has released a trio of guitars, two of which we see here.

In order of original production dates, the Century models comprise an L-00, which was first introduced in the early 1930s, a J-45 from the 1940s and a J-185 from the 1950s. But these are not meant to be faithful recreations of those decades-old guitars, rather than a glance back at the past with feet firmly planted in the present.

Certain traditions have been observed, such as using hide glue in the construction, but modernity has crept in where the necks are concerned with Gibson opting to install its SlimTaper profiles on all three models.

But possibly the most obvious veer away from original spec is the fact that all three have necks that join the bodies at the 12th fret, rather than the 14th. This might seem to be a curious move to some, perhaps, but Gibson’s reasoning is that these are “fresh interpretations” of these legendary guitars.

Of the pair we’re reviewing here, the J-45 needs no real introduction from us, having reached the same workhorse status as Martin’s D-28 throughout its long life.

But, to recap, the J-45 was introduced in 1942 and, to quote Gibson itself: “Since the 1930s, Gibson’s full-size, round-shoulder acoustics have shaped the sound of American music, becoming the most frequently recorded acoustic guitars thanks to their rich warmth, expressive character, and remarkable balance across every note. Among these celebrated instruments, the J-45 has earned iconic status.”

It has been seen in the hands of artists like John Hammond, Bob Dylan, Vince Gill and, legend has it, that Monty Python’s Eric Idle used a J-45 to compose Always Look On the Bright Side of Life. And you can’t really get any more iconic than that.

The J-185 isn’t quite as well known, but since its introduction in 1951 it has gained a lot of fans and is regarded as a sort of best-kept secret among the acoustic cognoscenti. Its body profile harks back to another Gibson legend, the L-5 from the 1920s, and could be looked at as being a slightly smaller and more compact version of the SJ-200.

Like our J-45, this version of the J-185 has a 12th-fret body join, which Gibson tells us “shortens the neck and moves the bridge plate farther from the waist and closer to the body’s widest point, enhancing top movement and improving playing comfort. The result is a warm, lively, and responsive voice that especially suits fingerstyle players and anyone with a lighter, nuanced touch.”

Looking at specifics and turning our attention back to the J-45, we find that the build is pretty much standard fare for the model. But like everything that remains functional for decades, simplicity is the key here.

With a top of Sitka spruce – a very nice bookmatched piece with characteristic rippling in the grain – and backed with mahogany, both woods are enhanced by the satin nitrocellulose finish that has been applied so thinly that it’s almost possible to feel the grain under your fingers, especially on the guitar’s back. It certainly promotes the 45’s vintage ambience and actually feels very good under the fingers.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a 12th-fret neck join on a J-45, but Gibson tells us that such models have been limited to “artist collaborations or limited Gibson Custom runs”, and so it looks far from being in any way odd or out of place. In fact, it has the effect of making the guitar look (and feel) more compact and, as we’ll see later, it balances incredibly well, too.

Mahogany is used for the neck, with the aforementioned SlimTaper profile instead of the tree trunks of yore, and the fretboard is rosewood, as you’d suspect.

The older Gibson logo sits atop the guitar’s headstock, but without the banner found on originals that reads, “Only a Gibson is good enough”. Tuners are the vintage-inspired ‘Golden Age strap’ variety with simple white buttons, and both nut and saddle are made from bone.

We noticed that there was no second strap button on the guitar’s heel – an odd omission these days – but when we rifled through the glove compartment of the very nice purple-lined tweed case, we found that Gibson had provided one for the player to install if desired.

That won’t be anything other than a few minutes with a drill and a screwdriver for all the jolly modders out there, but if you’re a little squeamish about wielding sharp objects around $/£2k guitars, it’s probably best to have a professional do the deed for you.

Moving over to the J-185, construction details are very similar, with the same Sitka spruce and mahogany combo for the top, back and sides. The former is camouflaged in a very nicely applied vintage sunburst, which gives the guitar that extra dose of vintage chic and, looking at its outline, it’s possible to see that family resemblance to the revered L-5.

We’ll admit that we’re not as familiar with the J-185 as we are with the J-45, but concede that it’s a very attractive‑looking instrument without any of that bulbousness that jumbos can acquire. In fact, with that classic figure-eight profile, you wouldn’t really think you were looking at a jumbo. It just looks classic.

Neither guitar comes with any electronics onboard, and so it’s time to fire the guitars up and hear how they sound.

Specs

Gibson J-185 Century 12-Fret

• Price: $2,499 | £2,149 | €2,379
• Origin: USA
• Type: Jumbo
• Top: Sitka spruce
• Back/Sides: Mahogany
• Max Rim Depth: 123mm
• Max Body Width: 405mm
• Neck: Mahogany
• Scale Length: 629mm (24.75”)
• Tuners: Golden Age strap 
• Nut/Width: Bone/44mm
• Fingerboard: Rosewood
• Frets: 19
• Bridge/Spacing: Rosewood/56mm
• Weight (kg/lb): 1.63/3.6
• Options: Finish only – Vintage Amber or Ebony 
• Left-Handers: Yes, same price
• Finish: Vintage sunburst satin nitrocellulose lacquer

Gibson J-45 Century 12-Fret

• Price: $2,399 | £2,049 | €2,279 (inc hard case)
• Origin: USA
• Type: Round-shoulder dreadnought
• Top: Sitka spruce
• Back/Sides: Mahogany
• Max Rim Depth: 123mm
• Max Body Width: 407mm
• Neck: Mahogany
• Scale Length: 629mm (24.75”)
• Tuners: Three-on-a-plate with cream buttons
• Nut/Width: Bone/44mm
• Fingerboard: Rosewood
• Frets: 19
• Bridge/Spacing: Bone/56mm
• Weight (kg/lb): 1.57/3.48
• Options: Finish only – Vintage Sunburst or Ebony
• Left-Handers: Yes, same price
• Finish: Vintage Amber satin nitrocellulose lacquer
• Contact: Gibson

Build quality, usability and sounds

It’s a very strange thing, but when we were fumbling with freeing the J-45 from its case, we balanced the guitar on our knees and it didn’t budge.

It was perfectly balanced and not a shade heavy on either the body or neck side. In fact, both guitars seem really light and would almost disappear on a strap. So it might be time to consider installing that extra strap button, after all.

Strumming a few exploratory chords on the 45 was like putting on a pair of comfortable slippers. Everything we love about the model is present in spades. There’s bags of volume to that familiar J-45 woody growl and campfire chords ring out with complex harmonics and tons of sustain. Gibson certainly got it right the first time with the J-45, and it’s no wonder that the model is so revered among singer-songwriters and fingerstylists alike.

We particularly liked the way we could feel lower mids and bass vibrate through the body – tone you can feel. And the range of dynamics is very good, too: played quietly, all the subtleties you need are present, but let it rip and there’s all the toneful power you’ll ever need. We very nearly had a ‘Dear Santa’ moment with this instrument…

The J-185 is a contrast in that the bass isn’t quite so strident. It’s more refined, more demure, and would definitely suit a fingerstylist who doesn’t want the full-on bombast of a dread but still needs a reserve of power for those fortissimo moments in their set.

Don’t get us wrong, all the tone is there – it’s just slightly more ‘polished to a shine’ than its roguish stablemate. Once again, singer-songwriters would find a very workable companion in the J-185, and fingerstylists alike would possibly find a soulmate.

Did the SlimTaper necks interfere with our test drive? Not one whit. We didn’t even think about it.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

We thoroughly enjoyed the time we spent with them, and if we say that the J-45 just nudged past the winning post, be aware that it’s merely a subjective opinion, based on that familiar woof and grunt that has served acoustic players for over eight decades. We’d urge you to check out both models and decide for yourself. Happy 100th, Gibson!

Guitar World verdict: What can we say? Both these revisits to Gibson’s acoustic heritage have hit the mark in their individual ways, and those modern touches have enhanced playability and aligned two vintage models with a more contemporary mindset.

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What is it?

We recently looked at Taylor’s revised and updated 324ce Grand Auditorium acoustic and heard how the company is continually reviewing and tweaking its instruments in the search for sonic nirvana.

We saw that designer-in-chief Andy Powers had taken his innovative V-Class concept a step further, instigating scalloped bracing to reduce mass, but maintain strength. Then there was a new neck-adjustment system that sees simple tweaks to the angle of the neck in order to maintain a comfortable playing action. And we were also introduced to a new acoustic guitar pickup system, the Claria, aimed at producing the best possible plugged-in tone for live use.

We were impressed, concluding that the changes to the 324ce’s manifest has “paid dividends” and nodded in agreement in the direction of Taylor’s claim that the instrument is “its most plug-in-and-play version” of that particular model.

Naturally, when you’re a fast-moving, upwards-spiralling manufacturer such as Taylor, a practically continuous programme of re-evaluation of the catalogue is going to be whirring away in the background. And so it is no surprise that the 324ce doesn’t stand alone when it comes to the production of new and exciting twists from the Californian maker.

Enter the 710e, a deep-bodied square-shouldered dreadnought, which Taylor claims “offers a playing experience that combines traditional acoustic sound with modern innovation”.

It’s part of Taylor’s Gold Label Series, introduced around a year ago, which draws inspiration from past eras of traditional, non-cutaway acoustic guitars; hence a ‘new’ body shape in the company’s range. And you can’t really get any more traditional than a dreadnought, can you?

But what’s all this ‘deep-bodied’ designation about? Obviously it’s there to add punch and heft to the guitar’s sound, but is it all that new? If you take Martin’s D-28 as an industry standard then we’d be looking at a body depth of 123mm, whereas the 710e comes in at a smidge under, at 122mm.

On the other hand, a D-28 has a lower bout of 397mm and the Taylor comes in at 403mm. So deep and wide seems to be the order of the day with the 710e, promising a robust volume level with good bass and singing mids.

But let’s not skip ahead too far; if the 710e is a nod of the head towards celebrated acoustic designs of yore, we’d better have a quick look in the builder’s yard to see exactly how traditional things are.

To begin with, we have a torrefied Sitka spruce top, backed with East Indian rosewood and so we are spot on, as far as tradition is concerned as this mimics, again, the D-28’s winning formula. While we’re here, it’s worth noting that the 710e’s top wood is very attractive with plenty of shimmering chatoyance that dances when the light hits it.

Currently, of course, the colour is a very pale amber, but is sure to darken to that more familiar hue as the years pass. The Indian rosewood is no slouch in the looks department, either, with a nice straight grain pattern and that distinctive chocolatey bloom.

The body is bound, front and back, in black and white, the pattern reflected in the rosette. The pickguard is a ‘firestripe’ pattern and the bridge and string pins are Honduran rosewood.

Moving on to the neck, we have tropical mahogany, with an incredibly subtle scarf joint below the headstock. Turning the guitar over, we find a West African Crelicam ebony fingerboard with what Taylor refers to as “cream dot” inlays in all the accustomed places.

The headstock has Taylor’s own tuners and the new-old Taylor logo – we’re used to seeing the distinctive ‘block’ logo from Taylor, but more recently we’re seeing this new cursive variation, which looks ‘old’ in the manner of Gibson’s earlier acoustics.

Other highlights include the aforementioned Action Control Neck mentioned earlier, whereby your action is kept stable via a simple adjustment through the guitar’s soundhole.

A simple bolt on the neck block will tilt the neck to compensate for climate irregularities – think Fender’s neck-tilt idea. Add to this another variation on Andy Powers’ V-Class bracing – here it’s fanned to “increase volume and sustain”.

The final piece of the puzzle is the LR Baggs VTC pickup and preamp system, with controls secreted within the upper arc of the guitar’s soundhole. So the guitar is all set and ready for the stage, but first we’d better explore its unplugged voice and find out how it handles.

Specs

• PRICE: $2,999 | £3,275 | €3,199 (inc hard case)
• ORIGIN: USA
• Type: Dreadnought
• Top: Torrefied Sitka spruce
• Back/Sides: Indian rosewood
• Max Rim Depth: 122mm
• Max Body Width: 403mm
• neck: Tropical mahogany
• SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5 inches)
• TUNERS: Taylor Nickel with nickel buttons
• NUT/WIDTH: White Tusq/44.5mm
• FINGERBOARD: West African Crelicam ebony
• FRETS: 20
• STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: Honduran rosewood with Micarta saddle/56mm
• ELECTRICS: LR Baggs Element VTC
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 2.08/4.6
• LEFT-HANDERS: Made to order only
• FINISHES: Gloss
• CONTACT: Taylor Guitars

Build quality, usability and sounds

We’ll never tire of saying how user-friendly Taylor acoustic necks are. It really is like shaking hands with an old friend every time. And it’s good to note that Taylor has decided not to go ‘full vintage’ and change the profile to one of the more vintage-inspired chunky variations. In any case, the neck here is that familiar C-shape, the satin finish adding that essential finishing touch for neck excursions.

We should mention the 45mm nut width, too, as just a couple of millimetres here makes an enormous difference to fingerstyle players. Needless to say, sitting down with a dreadnought is not to everyone’s taste as they do tend to be a bit of an armful, but we’re happy to report that the 710e is very well balanced and comfy either sitting or standing.

With everything shipshape in the feel department, it’s time for those first exploratory chords. Now, it’s very hard to sum up the sound of a dreadnought. We’d even question whether there is a definitive dreadnought sound. Is there that much of a similarity between Gibson’s J-45 and Martin’s D-28, for instance?

The characteristics they share would be a robust midrange with plenty of volume and a good amount of bass – and that’s virtually what we find here, give or take. If you take the aforementioned models as a reference, we’d say that the 710e lacks some of the ‘woodiness’ of the J-45 and leans more towards the sing-song musicality of the Martin.

There’s certainly a lot of volume to hand and without that dreadnought muddiness that you sometimes find in the lower midrange. Plenty of sparkle at the top end as well. We tried a range of campfire chords, a bit of fingerstyle, a smidge of blues and the only bluegrass licks we could remember and everything passed muster with panache.

Plugged into our Boss Katana-50 EX on the Acoustic setting, the 710e came to life. This writer’s acid test for plugged-in acoustics is the intro and verse to Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here. If that particular combo of plectrum-fuelled blues and lusty chords sounds stadium rock-worthy, then you’re on to a winner. And let’s just say the Taylor shone like a crazy diamond…

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

Guitar World verdict: Naturally, this level of build quality and sound performance doesn’t come cheap and $2,999/£3.2k might be a determining factor in one’s prospective purchase stakes.

If you did decide to go down the deep-bodied Taylor dread route then you’d be getting a fine, gig-ready instrument with a very good array of sounds on tap as well as premium build quality. And you can’t really say fairer than that.

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• "Crisply built and shines like a gem on the live stage": Taylor 314ce Studio review
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Epiphone is continuing its hot streak of producing affordable beauties in 2026 with the $229 Hummingbird Tribute.

In Gibson’s own humble words, the Hummingbird acoustic guitar is “one of the most celebrated models in music history.” A guitar that has been played by everyone from Jimmy Page and Mark Knopfler, to Keith Richards and Chris Cornell, Gibson’s ultra-successful square shoulder dreadnought is getting a low-budget, but highly stylized revamp here.

It has a layered spruce top with layered mahogany back and sides for those warm, classic tones, with antique ivory‑colored binding and tortoiseshell pickguards.

The 24.75” scale guitar also features a glued-in mahogany neck, with a rounded C profile and 12” radius for its laurel fingerboard. The reverse belly bridge is also laurel to help keep the price down while still looking the business. Beauty has always been a big part of the Hummingbird lore, and this sub-$250 certainly isn't lacking.

The eagle-eyed will also spot that it features a Kalamazoo-style headstock, a lovely nod to the guitar’s illustrious history. It is heartily bestowed with Epiphone Deluxe die-cast tuners and an engraved Tribute truss rod cover.

To complete the look, choose from Heritage Cherry Sunburst, Antique Natural, and Ebony finishes.

Speaking to Guitar World at NAMM 2026, Gibson laid out its grand plans to redefine its Epiphone guitars this year, with stainless-steel frets and wild finishes empowering its Futura Series of electric guitars.

Here, it’s bringing a lot of acoustic to a tiny price range, making a strong case for it becoming the most desirable sub-$250 acoustic out there.

As Gibsons says, this is “an acoustic legacy once reserved for the world’s biggest stages, now within reach of every player.”

The Epiphone Hummingbird Tribute is available now for $229/£229/€249.

Visit Epiphone for more.

Hot off the heels of the Memorial Day sales, Guitar Center has followed up with an awesome acoustic guitar sale, seeing up to 30% knocked off a huge range of acoustic instruments. There’s big money off acoustic guitars, acoustic electric guitars, classical guitars, and even some ukuleles, resonators, and banjos.

The sale runs until June 24th, so you’ve got almost a full month to take advantage of the offers. All the mega brands like Taylor, Martin, Gibson, Yamaha, Fender, Epiphone and many more are represented in the sale, making it one of the best opportunities to pick up a quality acoustic I’ve seen this year.

Keeping an eye on the best deals and sales in the world of guitar is part of my job here at Guitar World, so I’ve looked through the whole sale this morning to see what’s what. One of the first deals to catch my eye was this Recording King RPH-R2-E Dirty 30s Minnie Bucker Resonator, which is down to just $399.99 thanks to a $100 reduction.

Great for slide work and delta blues, resonators offer a gritty acoustic tone that’s super punchy and cuts through a mix well. A mini humbucker in the guitar means it works great for live players, adding an extra layer of versatility for those players who need it.

I covered this in the Memorial Day sale, where it had a bit more off the price, but I still think $200 off a Gibson J-45 Studio is super value for money if you want a pro-level acoustic guitar for performing or recording. The Sitka spruce top and mahogany back and sides offer a time-tested tonewood combination, LR Baggs electronics ensure it delivers for gigging, and it comes with a hardshell case to keep it protected no matter where you go.

The Taylor 414ce is one of our top-rated acoustic guitars, and this Sunset Blvd edition is available exclusively at Guitar Center. It offers an exclusive sunburst top, gold Taylor tuners, and Italian acrylic diamond inlays, which help separate it from the more typical guitars in the Taylor lineup. We reckon the 414ce is one of the best acoustic electric guitars out there at the moment, so with a $200 discount this limited edition version is super value for money.

What is it?

If you’re a musician on the move, you aren’t exactly short on options these days when it comes to a well-spec’d traveling companion. It seems every brand now has a pint-sized 3/4 acoustic in its lineup, with more effort than ever going into making them top-tier instruments in their own right. Joining the fold is the new Nomad Mini-Neptune Trembesi from Faith. Built in West Java, Indonesia, these guitars benefit from the expert touch of Patrick James Eggle, who continues to leave his mark on Faith’s ever-growing lineup.

Faith has taken its acclaimed Neptune Baby-Jumbo blueprint and miniaturized it for the road. The Nomad boasts a compact 590mm (23.2-inch) scale length and a body that’s been slimmed down without sacrificing the guitar’s signature silhouette. To maximize portability, the neck meets the body at the 12th fret. The bracing is hand-scalloped quarter-sawn spruce, and the model is coated in a very light Satin finish.

​Now, if you know anything about Faith, it's probably its commitment to all-solid wood construction, and the Nomad is no exception. The star of the show here is Trembesi, a tonewood Faith praises as “sought after by furniture manufacturers for its magnificent beauty and stunning variety of patterns.” Visually, it’s a stunner, reminiscent of Hawaiian Koa. Sonically, it channels a mahogany-like warmth, with Faith claiming it offers enhanced balance across the strings and a little extra sparkle up top.

​Up the neck, you’ll find an ebony fingerboard with a comfortable 16-inch radius, 18 medium frets, and Faith’s signature ‘F’ inlaid at the 12th. Ebony accents also grace the headplate and bridge, while a NuBone nut snuggly holds your strings in place.

As for electronics, the Nomad comes loaded with a Fishman Presys 1 preamp and undersaddle piezo pickup, complete with built-in tuner, contour EQ, phase switch, and a conveniently placed volume knob. The output jack is tucked neatly into the strap button at the base, keeping everything sleek and stage-ready.

And yes, Faith knows you’ll be hitting the road with the guitar, so the Nomad ships with a padded, Faith-branded gigbag to keep your new companion safe between shows.

Specs

• Launch price: $909/£715/€836
• Made: Indonesia
• Body shape: Mini-Neptune
• Body top: Solid Trembesi
• Top bracing: Hand-Scalloped Quarter-Sawn Spruce
• Back & sides: Solid Trembesi
• Neck: Mahogany
• Scale/length: 23.23 inches
• Nut/width: NuBone
• String spacing at bridge: 55mm
• Fingerboard/Radius: 16"
• Finish: Satin
• Bridge/pins: Plastic
• Tuning Machines: Faith Precision Chrome
• Electronics: Fishman Sonicore Pickup and Isys T preamp
• Weight: 3.9Ibs
• Case: Faith Padded Gigbag
• Left-handed options: No
• Contact: Faith Guitars

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★★

Okay, so first things first, Faith’s Nomad Mini-Neptune Trembesi is a stunner right out of the gigbag. The first thing I notice is that gorgeous Trembesi figuring. The stripes and swirling patterns catch the light nicely, and I can see why this wood species gets compared to Koa.

This wood hails from Indonesia, where it thrives in the rich volcanic soil of Java. It’s a handsome specimen for sure, and it's obvious to me why Faith uses this wood on the higher-end Blood Moon models. It’s exotic, but not over the top, like mahogany’s more sophisticated cousin.

Still, it’s not just about the looks. The Nomad is all-solid wood, setting it apart from competitors like Taylor’s GS Mini Koa, which, while it sits in a similar price bracket, leans on layered back and sides. To me, that “all-solid” tag is a real feather in Faith’s cap at this price point. This guitar doesn’t really feel like a travel guitar in hand; it feels like a great mid-priced acoustic, just, well, smaller.

The construction is neat and tidy throughout. Taking a look in the soundhole, the joints are clean, and there’s no sign of glue runs or sloppy craftsmanship hidden away inside. The fretwork is on point, too. Every fret is perfectly set and polished to a mirror shine, so no sharp ends or rough spots to be found.

All told, there’s really nothing to nitpick here. The Nomad feels dialed-in and gig-ready right from the start, and certainly lives up to Faith’s reputation for quality and attention to detail.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★☆

When it comes to playability, the Nomad Mini-Neptune Trembesi punches above its weight. Out of the box, the action hovers around a super-comfortable 1.5mm on both E strings, which makes for a fast, inviting feel whether you’re strumming or fingerpicking.

The neck is slim and compact, definitely on the smaller side when compared again to the GS Mini, but it never feels cramped or claustrophobic, thanks in part to the 43mm nut width and generous 55mm string spacing for a guitar of this stature. Even players with bigger hands won’t feel too boxed in, and that smooth ebony fingerboard makes moving around a breeze.

That said, the one caveat here is the Nomad’s tendency toward neck-heaviness. The featherweight body means that if you let go, the headstock will dip downward. It’s a classic quirk for travel guitars, but it’s something to be aware of if you spend a lot of time playing seated without a strap. Still, the overall ergonomics are impressive, and the Nomad feels like a guitar that’s eager to be played for hours.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

Sonically, the Nomad Mini-Neptune Trembesi delivers more than you’d expect from a guitar this size. Bright, lively, and surprisingly loud, it projects with a clarity and presence that belies its compact footprint. The midrange really pops, adding a punchy, articulate character that’s perfect for both strummy rhythm work and subtle picking.

While there are lows in the mix, don’t expect the thump of a full-sized Neptune; there’s a touch of that small-body thinness, but it never veers into boxy or nasal territory, which is a positive.

Faith says that tonally, Trembesi is “full-bodied and resonant, with a rich low end and a sweet, chiming top that helps it cut through a mix without sounding harsh.” Now, while I certainly hear the top-end response they detail, I think the low end is lost when the guitar is shrunken down to this size. That said, the Nomad does offer an airy, sweet top end and a pleasing shimmer that keeps things interesting whether you’re strumming hard or picking softly.

Plugged in, the Fishman Presys 1 system gets the job done. It’s a classic piezo setup that’s reliable, budget-friendly, and more than capable of handling local gigs, open mics, or even casual recording sessions. You get a bit of that familiar piezo scratchiness, but the tone remains serviceable and clear, and there are no major complaints for a guitar in this bracket, from me. The electronics are exactly what most traveling or casual players are after: dependable, easy to use, and versatile enough to suit a variety of playing situations.

Verdict

I must say, the Faith Nomad Mini-Neptune Trembesi is a pretty attractive little package. After spending some real time with it, I can see why Faith is starting to get more attention from players who would’ve normally just gone straight for the Taylor GS Mini or a Martin LX1. There’s a unique vibe to the Nomad, and that’s most definitely down to the all-solid Trembesi construction, and the care that’s gone into every little detail – there’s no question, it stands out in a sea of travel guitars.

Compared to other options on the market, the Nomad really brings something special to the table. A lot of travel guitars feel like budget instruments, but here you’re getting a guitar that feels like a shrunken-down pro-level instrument; it’s most certainly not a toy or a stopgap. It’s a given that an all-solid build is a big win, especially at this price point, but it needs to be pointed out that the finish work is incredibly clean right down to the last fret.

Of course, it’s not flawless. The neck-heaviness is a thing, and the plugged-in sound is good, not mind-blowing. But in terms of playability, looks, and that bright, clear sound, the Nomad hits the sweet spot. It’s perfect for throwing in the car for a road trip, bringing to a jam at a friend’s place, or even just noodling around the living room.

I honestly think if you’re looking at a GS Mini, Baby Taylor, or a Little Martin, you’d be doing yourself a favor by giving the Nomad a serious look first. It’s a guitar with character, built to travel, and ready for just about anything you can throw at it.

Guitar World verdict: If you’re scouting for a travel guitar that feels like the real deal, the Faith Nomad Mini-Neptune Trembesi absolutely deserves a spot on your shortlist. With its eye-catching all-solid Trembesi build, flawless fretwork, and punchy, lively voice, this little powerhouse is way more than just a “throw it in the back of the car” guitar. Sure, it’s not immune to the classic neck-dip that comes with a featherweight body, and the pickup system plays it safe rather than being spectacular, but the overall playability, looks, and sound are a cut above most rivals in the travel category.

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Faith Guitars

• Best 3/4 acoustic guitars: small-bodied, short scale sensations from Taylor, Martin, Faith and more

Epiphone has teamed up with Korean superstar singer-songwriter Lee Seung Yoon on his first signature guitar, the Epiphone Lee Seung Yoon LSY-200 Studio EC acoustic-electric guitar. The signature also marks a historic milestone, as Lee becomes the brand’s first Korean signature artist.

Built on the foundation of the J-200 Studio EC Super Jumbo cutaway, the LSY-200 Studio EC pairs “a legendary silhouette associated with room-filling acoustic tone with an artist-led aesthetic.”

Specs-wise, it features a Super Jumbo body with a cutaway for expanded upper-fret access, a solid spruce top with a layered maple body – finished in Antique Natural gloss – as well as a mahogany neck carved to a 1960s SlimTaper D-profile for “comfortable playability.”

Signature appointments include the artist’s signature graphic on the rear end of the Kalamazoo headstock, and a custom artist-designed pickguard with gold artwork and a matching custom truss rod cover.

This is topped off with a rosewood fingerboard with J-200 pearloid crown inlays, gold Grover Rotomatic tuners and gold hardware, plus Fishman S-Core pickup and Presys II electronics.

“I’m someone who writes songs, so I thought a lot about why I’d ever get a signature guitar,” comments Lee.

“But with the Epiphone EJ-200 [the budget-friendly Super Jumbo acoustic-electric guitar inspired by the Gibson J-200], I wrote hundreds of songs… I was an Epiphone user, and I thought all those songs I made with the Epiphone EJ-200 over the years, they’re being preserved in the form of a guitar.”

After being part of the indie rock group Dda Band and debuting as a solo artist in 2013, Lee became globally recognized for his genre-blending songwriting and reached mainstream appeal in 2021 after placing first in the South Korean singing competition, Sing Again.

Since then, he’s released three studio albums, Even If Things Fall Apart (2021), Shelter of Dreams (2022), and Yeok Seong (2024). His recent single, PunKanon, a punk-styled reimagining of his recent album era, won Best Rock Song at the this year's Korea Music Awards.

The Epiphone Lee Seung Yoon LSY-200 Studio EC is currently available at authorized Epiphone dealers across Asia, with initial distribution throughout Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand.

For more information, visit Epiphone.

Korean guitarists are continuing to make waves internationally, with Fender launching its first-ever signature guitar with a South Korean artist, JUKJAE, last December.

What is it?

Having a small body acoustic guitar around the house can be a real boon to your guitar playing, particularly if you position it somewhere in sight of your sofa. The easy pick up and playability of these instruments has made them incredibly popular over the past few decades, with nearly every major acoustic guitar manufacturer offering one. The Taylor BT1 Baby Taylor was one of the originals, though, and has been popular for going on 30 years now.

Much like the early successes of guitars in the 50s and 60s, the recipe for the BT1e hasn’t changed at all in the three decades since it launched as one of the world’s first mass-produced travel guitars. It’s got the same arched back in lieu of back bracing, those unsightly screws in the fretboard at the 16th fret, and the same 3/4 acoustic guitar scale length that makes it cosily appointed. The only thing that’s changed really is the competition, with a huge number of guitars available in a similar format.

It’s a dreadnought body shape with layered walnut back and sides and a torrefied, solid spruce top with X-bracing underneath. The neck wood is tropical mahogany with an ebony (or eucalyptus, depending on availability) fretboard, and the fret markers are 4mm dots made composed of acrylic. It’s got a Tusq nut and micarta saddle material, and the bridge is made from ebony. Die-cast tuning machines and Taylor ES-B onboard electronics complete the specifications lineup.

Specs

• Launch price: $549 | £399 | €359
• Made: Mexico
• Body shape: Dreadnought
• Body top: Solid torrefied spruce
• Top bracing: X-bracing
• Back & sides: Layered walnut
• Neck/shape: Tropical mahogany
• Scale/length: 22.75" (577mm)
• Nut/width: TUSQ nut / 43mm
• String spacing at bridge: 52mm
• Fingerboard/Radius: Ebony
• Body depth: 85.7mm
• Finish: Natural, varnished
• Bridge/pins: Ebony, plastic
• Tuning Machines: Die-cast chrome
• Electronics: Taylor ES-B
• Weight: 1.5kg
• Case: Taylor structured gig bag, tan
• Left-handed options: Yes
• Contact: Taylor

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★★

The Taylor BT1e comes in a semi-solid gig bag similar to what you get with the GS Mini, which is a nice touch considering the price of the instrument. Pulling it out, I’m reminded of how absolutely tiny it is compared to a regular dreadnought. It’s super lightweight at just 1.5kg, and feels not that much heavier than the case it comes in.

Doing a close visual inspection of the body, I can find little out of place in terms of aesthetics. The solid top wood is well joined to the body with a clean line separating the two, and there’s also a lighter colored wood visible where the back meets the sides, showing what is presumably a poplar layer between the two pieces of layered walnut. The back is arched outwards, although it’s a very slight hump that’s not all that noticeable when playing.

Sitting the guitar on my lap, I can see gaps where the frets have been hammered in, which on more expensive models would usually be filled or covered with a binding. The frets themselves are very well installed, though, and everything is even up and down the dark wood of the fretboard.

The neck sits at an angle against the body near the soundhole, ever so slightly proud of the spruce top, so you can see a tiny sliver of the mahogany showing. This is part of the bolt-on neck design rather than a flaw, however, as this guitar can be easily shimmed instead of having to completely reset the neck as you would with a joint that’s glued in.

It’s that typical Taylor build quality I’ve experienced on basically every model I’ve played, and the tuners and bridge are similarly well-appointed. Interestingly, the finger joint that glues together the neck and headstock is quite visible, with the headstock wood being significantly darker than the one used for the neck, but the grain of the two woods is very well matched. The joint itself is very smoothly done, though, and when looking down at the neck side-on, you can barely see it.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

Sitting down in front of my TV with the BT1e on my lap, I proceed to start testing it with some gently fingerpicked melodies to get a feel for the fretboard. Despite the small dimensions, it doesn’t feel overtly cramped near the nut. Coming from a 3/4 classical guitar that I normally play in this position, it’s a very comfortable neck profile, and I’m able to play everything from melancholic Radiohead-inspired arpeggios to classical standards with ease.

Its neck-heavy nature does make itself immediately noticeable every time I sit up to pause playing, however, and the guitar naturally wants to fall out of my lap when I do this. With my right arm over the body in the typical playing position, it’s not all that noticeable, though, so just something to be mindful of if you decide to quickly reach for your phone or the TV remote.

An Eb major barre chord at the 11th fret is as comfortable as I can reach with my picking hand touching the body, but for single notes, I can get all the way to the 15th fret for some pentatonic scale runs. I can even hit the notes on the 16th fret above the screws for the neck joint, and they ring out just as clearly as those around it, but to be honest, I can’t see many players ever needing to go higher than this when playing this style of guitar.

Taylor doesn’t list the neck profile of this guitar on its official website, but to my hand it feels like a very soft ‘V’ profile. This is most likely due to the narrower-than-usual nut width, which means there’s less wood from which to carve a ‘C’ profile while still keeping the neck slim and playable. It’s noticeable coming from a guitar with a more usual ‘C’ profile, but it doesn’t stop it from feeling very comfortable with a variety of different playing styles.

Getting my ruler out and placing my finger on the 1st fret, I measure the action at 2mm at the 12th fret, and it certainly feels comfortable for the more fleet-fingered stuff. The short scale means it feels very quick, and full tone bends are nowhere near as difficult as they are on a full-size dreadnought. This is partially aided by the light, 12-gauge acoustic guitar strings that come with it from the factory.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

When played fingerstyle, the tone of the Taylor BT1e is absolutely gorgeous. It’s quite a bright-sounding guitar overall, so it responds really nicely to more gentle touch of fingerpicking. The notes sustain really well, ringing out with some lush overtones as I pick a mixture of chords with open drone notes.

Switching to a pick for some hard strumming, it’s pretty easy to get it to compress with a good whack of an open E major. My current strum tester track is the opening of ‘Master Exploder’ by Tenacious D, and when attacking the BT1e with a guitar pick, it’s a very bright sound, with heavy strumming leading to a slight harshness in the upper frequencies.

It’s not designed to be a hard strummer, of course, you’ll need a full-size dreadnought or jumbo acoustic for that, and with a more measured pick attack, it’s a lovely-sounding guitar. There’s not a huge amount of low end, but it’s balanced across the spectrum, with plenty of clarity across all the notes, whether I play barre chords, open chords, or single note licks.

Plugging it into my audio interface to test out the onboard pickup and electronics, I find a surprisingly lifelike sound. It’s not as good as it sounds in the room, and there’s that very present ‘plink’ sound you get from most acoustic guitar pickups, but overall, I’d be more than happy to put it into a PA system for live playing.

I did find it needed a significant gain boost even with the onboard electronics at max volume, adding around 15dB to get it peaking at -6dB in my DAW meters, so if you are planning on playing this guitar live, it’d definitely be worth adding an acoustic guitar pedal to help shape and boost the sound.

Verdict

Despite its toy-like dimensions, the Taylor BT1e Baby Taylor comes across as a very grown-up acoustic indeed. The unplugged sound is phenomenal for everything shy of the hardest strumming, and sitting on the sofa playing fingerstyle is a joyous experience with this excellent acoustic. With a surprisingly usable onboard electronics system, it can also do the job for live playing, should you wish to take it out of the house.

Those with very large dimensions might struggle at the upper registers, and it is very neck-heavy, but these are two flaws small enough to forgive when the overall playing experience is so comfortable and sounds this good. It doesn’t respond particularly well to really hard strumming, but then that is the nature of small body acoustics as they compress more easily due to their size.

Guitar World verdict: As far as 3/4 size acoustics go, there’s a reason the Taylor BT1e Baby Taylor has been at the top of the game for the past 30 years. The combination of excellent tone, fantastic playability, and rock-solid build quality makes it a brilliant addition for any player, whether you’re looking for your very first instrument or you’re an experienced guitarist who wants something comfortable for songwriting sessions and sofa noodling.

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Hands-on videos

Marty5150

Matthew Finch

Rimmers Music

Harmony Guitars has announced the return of the iconic Stella brand, unveiling an all-new lineup of parlor-sized acoustic guitars that have a lot of vibe for a very small price tag.

Throughout music history, Stella guitars have been played by the likes of Kurt Cobain, Leon Bridges, Elvis Presley, Lead Belly, and Woody Guthrie – and of course, B.B. King.

The King of the Blues cut his teeth on a Stella, and Meng Ru Kuok, CEO of Harmony and Stella Guitars’ parent company, Vista Musical Instruments, hopes that Stella’s second act will make a similar contribution to popular culture.

“B.B. King’s first guitar was a red Stella acoustic,” he says. “That’s the kind of impact we want this brand to continue to have, being the guitar that starts someone’s story.”

Well, we might have to wait a few years to see this impact, but in the here and now these are very impressive looking instruments. We’ve got solid spruce tops, layered mahogany on the back and sides, bone nuts and matching saddles, off-white binding tying them all together – and yes, there is a quartet of sweet finish options but, first, what about that slotted headstock? Too cool. It wears that Stella logo well. The rosettes are very nice, too

Now, finish options, we have Moonstone Blue, Backwoods Green, and Ivory solid-color tops, with natural high-gloss stain on the back and sides. There is also a Sunburst model that looks like the kind of thing you’d play when visiting Woody Guthrie in hospital and want to throw a few folk chords over a verse. These parlor guitars would absolutely work for folk.

But they’ll do blues, and all different strains of Americana – if there’s one thing a compact little couch buddy with mojo does well, it's fingerstyle.

And they also record well. Those small-bodied acoustics always seem to treat a ribbon mic with the respect it deserves.

Those aforementioned solid spruce tops are buttressed with a contemporary X pattern bracing, but tone-wise, Harmony/Stella is promising a more vintage voicing.

The Stella brand was founded in 1899 by Oscar Schmidt, and made instruments aimed at the beginner and intermediate price points. Affordability was a big part of the appeal, hence how one found its way into the hands of a young Riley B. King. At $349, with a gig bag included in the price, it’s continuing on in that vein.

To paraphrase the King of the Blues, the thrill was gone – but now it’s back. And you can check out this range of Stella guitars over at Harmony, where, incidentally, they are listed at just $299. The press release says $349.

Inflation is in the news a lot this weather, so just imagine our surprise when a news alert pinged to say that an Epiphone acoustic guitar just sold for $96,000 – but lo, false alarm, this was no ordinary Epiphone guitar.

No, this EJ-200, the Epiphone version of the storied Gibson SJ-200 jumbo, belonged to Noel Gallagher, and the Oasis guitarist not only used it during the writing sessions for the Manchester, England rock superstars' über-smash debut album, Definitely Maybe, but played it in the video for Wonderwall, too. And the guitar has been signed by the Chief himself.

It was sold at auction via Sotheby’s. Guitar World brought you the news when the auction first came online. The initial estimates had this big-lunged acoustic pegged somewhere between $60,000 and $80,000.

It is being called the Wonderwall acoustic because of the video, but the guitar that Gallagher recorded the actual track with met a different fate. If you cast your mind back to the pre-reunion days (well, actually to the pre-breakup days) you might remember Oasis being one of the more volatile beat combos on the indie scene.

The brothers Noel and frontman Liam Gallagher would often have it out. During one ruckus, an acoustic got turned into kindling and it didn’t even belong to them – it was the engineer Nick Brine’s.

“It was the morning after a heavy night and Liam was worse for wear,” said Brine, speaking to the BBC last year. “Noel had said something about him in the papers and Liam kicked off.

“I’m in Abbey Road’s famous Studio Two setting up equipment and hungover myself, then looking up I saw a guitar come flying over from the control room. It was Noel’s Fender Jag and it smashed to bits. I ran to the control room and Liam also made a big dent in Abbey Road’s mixing desk.”

Brine took cover. What was coming next.

“Then I see another acoustic guitar flying over the top and in a thousand pieces on the floor,” he says, “and realize that’s my guitar.”

Brine was well recompensed. The brothers gifted him the actual acoustic that tracked Wonderwall as compensation.

As for this one, well, it’s a pretty sweet Epiphone build. Epiphone doesn’t carry that model in the 2026 catalog, but the Inspired By Gibson Custom 1957 SJ-200, all-solid wood build, with figured maple to impress your gran, could be yours for $1,499. And that is a pretty sweet deal.

This Martin is very much a product of the folk era, with its slope-shouldered dreadnought body and 12th-fret neck join. The model designation is D-35S, with the S designating the slotted headstock that differentiates it from a regular D-35 dreadnought.

The defining feature of both D-35 models is a rosewood back made from three pieces, rather than Martin’s usual two.

By the late 1960s, harvesting and export bans on Brazilian rosewood were making it increasingly expensive and hard to source, so Martin devised the three-piece back so they could use up remaining scraps of Brazilian rosewood that were too small for OM, 000 and dreadnought bodies. This one is fairly typical because the centre section is darker than the bookmatched sides.

Based on the visual appearance and the lines per inch, I would say this top is Sitka spruce, rather than red Adirondack. Another thing I find interesting about this model is that the neck is wider than a regular D-28 or D-35. It’s a very large neck with a rounded profile that hits the sweet spot between typical nylon- and steel-string necks.

The design is fairly basic with five-ply plastic binding, a very simple rosette, dotted white plastic pins and unbranded three-on-a-tree tuners that are probably Grovers. At some point it went back to Martin for a neck reset, refret and a new black pickguard, and we have all the paperwork from the previous owner.

A lot of people aren’t crazy about Martin guitars of this era, but there are good and bad ones and this D-35S happens to be an exceptional playing and sounding instrument. It takes a few minutes to get used to the wider string spacing, but you can play light fingerstyle or hit it really hard with a pick and it responds equally well.

I think that around the mid-1960s the quality of materials available to guitar companies was going downhill and most of the major guitar companies were struggling to meet demand. They were also facing tough competition from overseas guitar manufacturers and they had to cut costs and corners.

Martin always had a way of introducing new models to make them more affordable. Examples might include the mahogany-topped guitars of the Depression era and the Style 21s that were less expensive to make than the herringbone-bound Style 28s and could therefore be sold to less affluent customers who really couldn’t afford an extra 10 bucks.

You can see differences in the thickness of Martin tops as the 60s progressed, and the grain wasn’t as tight on the later ones. Of course, players could hear the differences, too, and they didn’t feel the newer guitars sounded as good as those Martin made during its heyday. Everybody has their own ideas about when that heyday actually was, but nobody would argue that it was the mid-1960s onwards.

The D-35S actually harked back to the very earliest dreadnoughts that Martin first made for the Ditson music stores back in 1916. The model was also revived as a limited-run custom order for Wurlitzer between 1962 and 1968 and it was called the D-28W. Martin began offering 12-fret dreadnoughts, in Styles 18, 28 and 35, during 1967 and produced them for seven years.

Despite the retro looks, the D-35S doesn’t have pre-war style forward bracing and the construction doesn’t really differ from the regular D-35. I can’t say for sure, but I have a feeling the slot-headed models were reintroduced to use up Martin’s stocks of classical necks because the nylon-string guitars were no longer selling.

They would have shaved them down to make them more suitable for steel-string players, but they’re basically the same necks.

I don’t usually like regular D-35 guitars, probably because the backs are dampened by the additional bracing and they don’t hold a candle to D-28s. But this one is huge sounding with almost piano-esque undertones coming from the back, and it sounds better than any other late-60s Martin I’ve ever played.

It’s a little bit of an odd duck, but it is cool and I would love to use it for recording. It would be a monster in the studio and I think it would come across really well.

I’m surprised it has stayed in the shop as long as it has because it is priced very fairly. I think people are maybe put off by the 12th-fret body join, when in reality most acoustic players don’t really need those two extra frets anyway.

• Vintage guitar veteran David Davidson owns Well Strung Guitars in Farmingdale, New York / 001 (516) 221-0563
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

The acoustic guitar that Noel Gallagher used during the writing sessions of (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? is mooted to sell for £60,000 (approx. $81,000) as its online auction goes live.

Released in June 1995, Oasis’ second album continued the Manchester band’s huge rise, after 1994’s Definitely Maybe, and Noel’s Epiphone EJ-200 was central to its creation.

The guitar is one of three Oasis auction items being sold by Sotheby’s, with the guitarist’s 12-string Rickenbacker, his loyal servant for a decade, and a handwritten lyric sheet for Don’t Look Back In Anger rounding out the power trio.

As its name suggests, the Epiphone EJ-200 is a wallet-friendly take on Gibson's esteemed SJ-200 acoustic, which has been adopted by seminal artists like Brian May (he dropped a signature model with a touching tribute to Freddie Mercury last year), Mark Knopfler, and the Beatles duo George Harrison and John Lennon.

Speaking to the Guardian ahead of its auction, Sotheby’s New York-based pop culture specialist Craig Inciardi sees the acoustic guitar as a symbol of the band's inspired mid-‘90s period.

“It was quite extraordinary how they managed to record it in such a short period of time,” he says. “He [Noel Gallagher] was just so prolific at the time, with the amount of songs that were coming out of him, it’s almost unprecedented. And if you look at that album and you look at the track listing, it looks like a greatest hits album.”

The guitar’s lucky new owner will also receive an all-important letter of authenticity that confirms the guitar’s prominence in the making of Oasis’ UK chart-topping sophomore.

It's quite the looker too, boasting a decorative vines and flowers inlay on its pickguard, and crown inlays across its fingerboard. It's said to be in excellent condition.

While the guitar was one of the select few featured in the Wonderwall music video, the guitar used to record the track was gifted to one of their engineers after his acoustic was smashed to smithereens during a Gallagher brothers row.

See Sotheby's for more.

What is it?

Jacob Collier has become an unlikely guitar hero over the past few years, but true to the Grammy-winning, multi-instrumentalist's own unique style, he hasn’t done it the ol’ fashioned way. Indeed, he hasn’t sought to go toe-to-toe with the contemporary greats who are reinventing conventional technique. He’s found a way to borderline reinvent the acoustic guitar itself.

Some of you will be familiar with Collier’s exploits in the guitar world. He has signatures with Strandberg and Taylor (the latest of which I have in front of me here), and they’re all linked by one quirky specification: they only have five strings.

The five-string approach has informed Collier’s guitar playing for some time now, after the multi-instrumentalist cut his teeth on a four-string tenor that served as his formal introduction into the world of guitars.

Collier also devised his own unique way to approach the instrument, settling on a five-string setup and a mirrored open tuning (D, A, E, A, D) that opens up a whole new avenue for guitar playing. Open chord shapes, easy arpeggios - a reimagined vocabulary at your fingertips…the world of five-string guitar is an enticing prospect indeed.

And it’s not a gimmick at all. This writer spent an hour with Collier in 2025, learning the ins and outs of his unique playing style and getting to grips with the five-string guitar. Having it come across my desk for review purposes was particularly thrilling because –since I'd played this exact model during a guitar lesson with Jacob – I was already well-versed in its sound and style. Getting the chance to spend a little extra time with it and put it under the microscope, allowed me to confirm what I was already beginning to suspect about this guitar…

Specs

• Launch price: $999 | £1,099 | €1,199
• Made: Mexico
• Body shape: Grand Concert
• Body top: Walnut
• Top bracing: X-bracing
• Back & sides: Layered walnut
• Neck/shape: Neo-tropical mahogany, C profile
• Scale/length: 24.875" (631mm)
• Nut/width: White TUSQ nut / 43mm
• String spacing at bridge: 54mm
• Fingerboard/Radius: Smoked eucalyptus
• Body depth: At deepest point 10cm
• Finish: Natural walnut
• Bridge/pins: Smoked eucalyptus/black plastic
• Tuning Machines: Paddle, standard
• Electronics: Fishman Presys VT
• Weight: 4.1lb/1.9kg
• Case: Academy Series Gig Case
• Left-handed options: No
• Contact: Taylor

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

I’m yet to play a Taylor that isn’t built to near-perfection, and I’ve played plenty of the affordable models, too. My early-edition GS Mini is still going strong, and has fared wear and tear far better than some of the other models I’ve had in my collection over the years. The Academy 22e version of Collier’s signature model, while by no means cheap for a five-string guitar, is certainly no different, and a testament to Taylor’s expert quality control and craftsmanship.

Arriving in a sturdy, padded gig bag that oozes with premium charm – and that would give me complete peace of mind if I were to travel with this – the Jacob Collier Academy 22e features an interesting tonewood combination of a walnut top, with layered walnut back and sides. It also has a mahogany neck and smoked eucalyptus fingerboard, all of which are adjoined in a very expert manner.

The slightly porous, tactical grain of the mahogany and walnut is really inviting and is delightfully presented, with the top curve benefitting from a subtle bevel that you can’t really see at a distance, but one you can definitely feel. The layered walnut offers a really rich aesthetic that doesn’t feel cheap, and the top has a stunning, earthy hue to it that offers something a bit different from your regular spruce – both visually and sonically. The wood examples chosen here are exquisite.

Interestingly, this is proportioned exactly like a six-string, meaning it has a regular fretboard size and a nut width of 43mm. An excellent design choice, because not only does it avoid the potential issue of this feeling like a novelty instrument, it gives the five-string setup the space and respect it deserves.

As we’ll find out, this is a guitar well-suited for fingerpicking, so the regular string spacing of 54mm is beautifully primed, and the super-smooth fret ends are wonderfully finished. The three-plus-two tuner configuration looks a bit odd, but it works, and tuning stability is worth noting.

Let’s not forget this is a $999 acoustic, so by no means cheap, but there really is no cause for concern here. There is a separate Jacob Collier Taylor for $2,799 – a sizable sum for a five-string, let’s be honest – so what you get here for just shy of $999 is really nice.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

Because this is proportioned like your standard six-string, the form of the guitar itself feels completely ordinary, in the best way possible. The Grand Concert body hasn’t been downsized so has a nice silhouette that feels comfortable and translates nicely into playing. The neck is a modest C that’s well-shouldered but doesn’t feel too hefty in the hands. The smoked eucalyptus fingerboard is a nice touch, and though it’s not quite my thing (I think ebony would’ve looked killer here) it certainly plays into the Collier style of doing things a bit differently.

All that is to say, if this had six strings, you wouldn’t have any problem with it whatsoever. That aforementioned bevel really is a nice touch, and although I’m not usually the biggest fan of beveled guitars, the contouring here is so minimal that you really can only feel it once it’s under your strumming arm.

Things change when you start playing, of course, and the whole five-string setup can take a while to get used to. Taylor and Collier’s decision to put five strings on a six-string-sized guitar, rather than try and fashion a downsized instrument to accommodate the lesser string count, is a wise choice.

Not only is this approach probably much cheaper (we can’t imagine Taylor would gear production for such a complex and niche instrument in that way) but it also makes it way more accessible for the average guitar player.

Because of this, there is so much room between strings, to the extent where the fingerpicking hand has ample room to rest a digit on each string and have space to flex and pick. Coming from someone who has tried to do Collier’s five-string thing on a regular acoustic, this really is the best and only way to really explore its potential.

The tension across the strings is also nicely dialed in, especially given the D, A, E, A, D open tuning this thing ships in. Again, I’ve previously tried to force my own acoustic into that tuning, and I’ll tell you this for free: the B string absolutely hates being put up to D.

Here, because it’s been specifically set up for the five-string tuning, the strings have a slinky, tactile, bendable feel to them at a 24.8” scale, meaning you do not have to fight to get a tune out it. That goes for the fretting hand, too. A tiny bit more distance and stretch is required for certain things – most notably flourishing hammer-on runs that span two or three strings – but nothing major.

This really is a fingerpicking instrument, and the tuning – through which open chord shapes and arpeggios can be really easily formed – is an excellent access point to exploring some interesting shapes and intervals. Barring across, with one finger placed two frets up on the middle string, forms a major chord. Knock that finger down a fret for a minor chord.

In other words, it’s seems it would be easier to learn a D major chord on a Collier guitar than it is on a regular acoustic, which is why I can see this being a good option for beginners.

Yes, barring can be tricky at the best of times, especially for beginners, but because at a basic level you need only one finger to make this work, you remove the necessity to form additional shapes with your ring, pinky and middle fingers underneath. Plus, regular chord shapes (D in particular) can be a bit of a challenge for un-trained fingers.

Will that chain beginners to this tuning? Possibly, but in my mind it can only help build confidence on the guitar. The quicker aspiring guitarists can start strumming a tune with minimal ease – and start exploring their own voice and shapes right from the off – is only a good thing.

For example, 1-5-6-4 progressions are so easy, and there are no radical shape changes required. And, because the tuning is mirrored, everything you do on the top two strings, you can do on the bottom ones. Already that encourages experimentation, and forces you to think outside the box.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★

There’s a lot of ‘different’ about this acoustic, from the string configuration to the setup, so it’s nice to see the reliable Fishman Presys VT system present to give this some sonic familiarity. With the benefit of soundhole-mounted volume and tone controls, the Presys performs as reliably as usual, and transforms this experimental instrument into a genuinely giggable workhorse.

It’s not extraordinary by any means, and there are acoustic pickup systems out there that would perform better than this one, but for an Academy guitar it’s a solid option.

With that in mind, I much prefer this as an unplugged acoustic. When I played it with Jacob, we mic’d it up and it sounded really nice, and a large part of that is down to the tonewoods used. The walnut/layered walnut combo really does offer something a bit different to your usual maple, spruce or rosewood combinations, and when fashioned in a Grand Concert size you get really good output and a surprising amount of depth.

There isn’t an abundance of low-end, and there’s definitely more of a pronounced mid and high-end to this, but not overly so, and there’s a nice balance that positions this well as a strummer for chordal accompaniment and presence for fingerpicking melodies.

It’s a good all-rounder, no-nonsense acoustic tone that might not blow your socks off that way a more premium Taylor might, but there’s enough there to give a versatile and usable voice that doesn’t get in the way of the nicely layered voices and unusual inversions that the tuning requires.

Verdict

Jacob Collier’s five-string guitar is an enlightening instrument, and I had much joy getting to grips with it and re-familiarising myself with the oddball setup. Speaking from experience, it can force you to think about new ways to play the guitar, but it serves a very specific purpose that might not be for everyone.

Could it replace your six-string? No. Is it a useful tool to have in your collection? Possibly. Should you prioritise spending $999 on this over something else? It depends on your goals and priorities. If you already have a few acoustics in your arsenal, and need something that will light a fire under your creative tendencies, this will certainly do that for you. I know it did that for me.

This isn’t primed just for Jacob Collier fans, and I’d advise against assigning the artist connection too much value in this case. Similar to how the Silver Sky is a great electric guitar, regardless of the John Mayer association, the JC Academy 22e is an excellent tool if you need something different.

I’d liken this somewhat to the rubber bridge guitar. It might not be a go-to for the vast majority of players, but it serves a purpose, and can give a whole new palette that no other guitar can give you.

Guitar World verdict: Jacob Collier’s Taylor Academy 22e guitar is a fascinating entry point into a whole new world of guitar playing. A solid option for beginners, as well as those looking to push their voice into new directions, this is an enlightening creative tool that will help you rethink your relationship with the instrument – and perhaps make you a better player for it.

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A guitar designed and thematically crafted around Palestine and its rich cultural history has just been put up for auction to raise funds for the non-profit organization, Medical Aid for Palestinians.

Built by UK-based luthier Gary Leddington, the acoustic guitar serves as a nod to Palestinian heritage and aims to be a symbol of the unity that's brought about by the power of music.

“Like many around the world, I have been profoundly moved and deeply shaken by the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” asserts Leddington. “The scale of suffering, especially among innocent children, has left me heartbroken and searching for a meaningful way to help.​

“As someone in a relatively privileged position in the ‘west’, I often feel powerless, but after some thinking, in response to this tragedy, I decided to use my craft to take action.”

The back and sides are made of olive wood, the national tree of Palestine, and a powerful symbol of peace. Further trimmings include a dyed burl ‘end graft’ and ‘heel cap’ that represent the watermelon, “a symbol of resistance and cultural unity”; brass tuner buttons, referencing the Dome of the Rock, a place of spiritual significance for the Palestinian people; and a sterling silver ‘Key of Return’ at the 12th fret.

Leddington also reveals that building the guitar itself served as a community project, with many people “donating wood, materials, inlay designs, ribbon, embroidery, prints, portraits, strings, merch, and more” to make it happen.

Aside from the one-of-a-kind acoustic, the auction winner will also receive a custom handmade hard case, covered in black gator faux-leather and lined with black crushed velvet, with custom jacquard silk ‘freedom’ ribbons and a hand embroidered lid that reads in Arabic, ‘Where words fail, music speaks.’

To learn more about this initiative, visit Gary Leddington's official website.

What is it?

Faith’s latest entry in its PJE Legacy range is, we’re told, an all-rounder: “Big enough to perform well unplugged but small enough to be used on stage for long periods by players of any stature,” states the website.

It certainly sounds like a good proposition to us, but dig a little deeper and we find that designer Patrick James Eggle has taken the renowned OM body shape and tweaked it to his own taste, based on his own Linville model from his acoustic-building era.

In essence, the body width of 400mm (15 inches) is the same as Faith’s Venus model, but, to quote the company once again, “its overall contour is somewhat more refined”.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the brand, Faith acoustic guitars first appeared in the marketplace around the turn of this century.

The design team is helmed by Mr Eggle, and they have won a shelfload of awards for best in breed ever since launch. The FG4 Earth we have before us inhabits Faith’s slightly higher tier of Legacy models, but it still retails at the £1.5k mark and includes a rather posh-looking ABS hard case to protect your investment.

Add to that the fact the instrument is stage-ready with a Fishman Flex Blend system, combining an under-saddle piezo with an internal condenser microphone, and the FG4 would appear to be a one-stop shop for your mid-priced acoustic needs – whether you’re looking for a sofa buddy or a get-up-and-go open-mic companion. But that’s enough of an introduction from us; time to zoom in for a close-up on the finer details.

Faith guitars have always had kerb appeal. And, opening the FG4’s case, it’s apparent that a lot of creative thought has passed its way – not just from the general design point of view, but also the aesthetics of the fixtures and fittings, which have a definite ‘pick me up’ lure.

As you’ll have gathered from the guitar’s full name, its finish is satin throughout and this is not only for purely artistic reasons, there’s a function here, too. Faith tells us that the finish allows the tonewoods present to work at a premium level.

And if you’re curious as to what those woods are, the top is torrefied Sitka spruce. In other words, it’s gone through a drying and heating process whereby the wood dries out more thoroughly in order to ‘age’ the wood and deliver a more vintage-inspired tone.

It’s not a new process, for sure, but one that has had the nodding approval of builders big and small across the globe, and who have universally claimed that, yes, there is a difference in tone.

The spruce is supported by mahogany for the back and sides, set off with the contrasting flamed-maple binding. Add in the multi-hued abalone rosette and a scratchplate of unspecified wood (that looks like figured ebony to us) and there’s no doubt that the FG4 is dressed to impress. The neck is mahogany, with an Indonesian ebony ’board that is bare of the usual position markers on top, save for Faith’s signature mother-of-pearl ‘F’ at the 12th fret.

In all, there are 20 very nicely polished and well-seated medium frets that have been smartly finished with no discernible sharp edges. Both the 45mm nut and saddle are unbleached bone, the former expertly cut, the latter sitting in a Macassan figured ebony bridge. The tuners are Grover Rotomatics featuring very subtle matte-black buttons.

All well and good, of course, and acoustic players everywhere will agree that the sum of the FG4’s parts should add up to an extremely capable instrument. But the fun doesn’t end there: if your acoustic world extends to playing in a band or being a regular at open mic spots, then you’ll definitely be interested in the Fishman Flex Blend acoustic guitar pickup and preamp system.

This entails not only an under-saddle piezo but an under-bridge-mounted condenser microphone with its own blend control set into the upper bout, too, along with the regular volume and tone rotaries. There’s also an onboard tuner that mutes the output when activated to ensure that keeping everything harmonious remains a strictly private player experience.

Everything about the general build quality is typically fine and dandy as we would expect, having seen some very good instruments coming out of Indonesian workshops recently. So the next thing to do is strum a few chords and see how everything sounds.

Specs

• PRICE: $1,979 | £1,565 | €1,831 (inc hard case)
• ORIGIN: Indonesia
• TYPE: OM cutaway
• TOP: Torrefied Sitka spruce
• Back/Sides: African mahogany
• MAX RIM DEPTH: 111mm
• MAX BODY WIDTH: 400mm
• NECK: Mahogany
• SCALE LENGTH: 650mm
• TUNERS: Grover Rotomatic 18:1 nickel
• NUT/WIDTH: Bone/45mm
• FINGERBOARD: Indonesian ebony
• FRETS: 20
• BRIDGE/SPACING: Macassan figured ebony/55mm
• ELECTRICS: Fishman Flex Blend with condenser mic
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 1.95/4.3
• LEFT-HANDERS: Not for this model
• FINISHES: Satin
• CONTACT: PJE Guitars

Playability and sounds

Not only is the FG4’s satin finish pleasing to the eye, it’s also a very pleasant tactile experience, inasmuch as the guitar feels very nice in the hand.

Naturally, the finish extends to the back of the neck, which will help with those rapid barre-chord changes by presenting a minimal drag factor for the left hand. The neck itself is a fairly slim and shallow C profile, which sits at that precise point where it’s neither too skinny nor too chunky.

A lowish action means there is little resistance for the fingers while playing chords or single notes, and both give a good account of themselves with chords sounding full and single notes singing out exactly as they should.

There’s a good amount of snarl to the bass register, sitting beneath a full midrange and sweet trebles. We tried a variety of different styles – a bit of bluesy fingerstyle, chordal strumming with and without a pick and so on – and the FG4 dealt with everything we threw at it like an absolute pro.

Plugged in, the Fishman Flex Blend was a new pickup system to us. There are three rotary controls that deal with volume, tone and condenser mic blend.

The tone control gives a flat EQ when fully anti-clockwise, whereas in the middle of its travel it thickens up the midrange, and at the top (fully clockwise) it scoops some of the mids out for those busy strumming sessions. Furthermore, press and hold the volume control and it activates the onboard tuner; do the same to the tone control and it reverses the phase. Very neat and compact.

In practice, the controls work precisely as described, and we discovered that we had a whole range of sounds available to us with the guitar plugged into our Boss Katana-50 EX Gen 3’s acoustic preset. The mic adds some necessary ‘air’ to the audio signal, complementing the under-saddle piezo perfectly.

In short, what Faith said about this instrument being something of an all-rounder is shaping up to be bang on the button.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★

Faith’s PJE Legacy FG4 Earth sits at that price point where it’s well above and beyond the budget range and, at the same time, well below the boutique and bespoke world.

And it fits in that midrange niche very well, ticking all the musical boxes necessary for a workmanlike, no-fuss instrument that is particularly able for both living room and gig duty, as well as giving a very good account of itself through an amp or PA.

Guitar World verdict: For any singer-songwriter, busker or open-mic-night trooper it really has everything going for it. Or if you’re in a band where you cover a couple of acoustic songs per gig, it has all bases covered.

Hands-on videos

Faith Guitars

• “The tuning did not need tweaking for the entire time we spent trying to avoid playing Stairway To Heaven”: Faith Eclipse Venus E/Cutaway & Neptune E/Cutaway 12-String review
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Cardboard has become a weirdly talked-about tone-material in recent years, and now the brains behind the viral cardboard electric guitars has returned for its latest wood-less creation – the world’s first acoustic electric guitar made of cardboard.

In the past, we’ve seen Cardboard Chaos – the joint venture between Ernest Packaging and Signal – partner with the likes of Fender on Telecaster and Stratocaster-style guitars, as well as a bass, which have been played by everyone from Robby Krieger and Billy Gibbons to Keanu Reeves to Dweezil Zappa.

Now, the cardboard enthusiasts have unveiled the result of their latest collaboration with famed guitar builder Gabriel Currie – the world’s first archtop acoustic electric jazz guitar to be made almost entirely from cardboard.

The project has been a long time coming. The idea of an archtop of this ilk has been in the minds of the Cardboard Chaos team for “over a decade”.

To bring it to life, the jazz guitar began life at the Ernest Packaging innovation lab in Southern California, carving bodies, backs, sides and necks out of poly and paper. The lab’s leader, Mike Martinez, had to “push cardboard to its absolute limits” so he could pass the production baton onto Currie.

From there, Currie of Echopark Guitars – who has built instruments for Josh Homme and Steven Tyler – took it past the finishing line, but not before rethinking his approach to guitar-making: “Everything I thought I knew, I put aside,” Currie says of the build.

The guitar was inspired by a vintage Benedetto jazz box, of which the team had schematics and blueprints to study going into the process.

It’s something of an engineering marvel, built from countless resin-coated molds, a delicate archtop construction, lattice-style reinforcement and a neck made from mostly solid resin with paper as a binder. Throw in some electronics and you have a fully playable, fully functioning archtop made from cardboard.

“Chaos is an understatement when you set out to make an arch-top acoustic guitar out of cardboard,” a press release says.

“What comes out the other side is the world’s first Cardboard Acoustic Guitar that actually slays,” adds Signal, one of the driving forces behind the project.

“Not a prop. Not a joke. A real deal, jazz-style cardboard guitar that rings, sings, and proves what a small crew of friends with ridiculous ideas can pull off when they decide to bend the rules on purpose.”

Like the cardboard guitars to come before it, the Echopark Cardboard jazzbox will be put to use in an upcoming Cardboard Session.

Keep your eyes peeled on the Cardboard Sessions YouTube series for when it drops.

We always knew Jason Isbell could play. But even longstanding fans who remember the Alabama country star’s twisty fingerstyle on 2013’s Southeastern were stopped in their tracks by last year’s Foxes In The Snow.

Inspired by his divorce from former bandmate Amanda Shires and new relationship with artist Anna Weyant, this 10th album found Isbell relieving his trusty backing band, The 400 Unit, in favour of a virtuoso man-and-guitar format.

And as the 47-year-old tells us today, the model he chose proved pivotal, with Isbell not only tracking every song on a 1940 Martin 0-17 at Electric Lady Studios, but using that example as the jump-off for his two new signature acoustic guitars designed alongside the Pennsylvania luthier.

What can you tell us about the pre-war 0-17 you used on Foxes in the Snow?

I was spending a lot of time in New York, staying in my girlfriend’s apartment. Down here in Nashville, I’ve got a bunch of guitars. But up there, I just had space for something small. The shop that I love in Brooklyn – RetroFret – had this 1940 0-17. So I got that just to write and practise and have something to sit around and play.

When I went in to make the record, I took a few different acoustics – a pre-war D-18 and a couple other things – but pretty quickly figured out that the 0-17 did a better job than anything else.

I think it was partially because of the sonic space that guitar takes up. Y’know, it’s not big or boomy, and in a mix when it’s just guitar and vocal, I think sometimes that works better. The D-18 just sorta overpowered everything.

What was it about the 0-style shape – as opposed to a dreadnought – that you wanted to pursue for your signature model?

Well, I’m a pretty big guy – I’m 6ft 1in. And honestly, just from a logistical standpoint, playing a dreadnought on a recording while I’m singing is pretty difficult because that guitar takes up a whole lot of room.

If you’re making a guitar-focused record and doing a lot of instrumental stuff, the single-0 size works really well for me. I think this new signature guitar will be really good for singer-songwriters who go out and perform unaccompanied because it’s not dwarfing the vocal.

Let’s talk about your premium 0-17 signature model. The body is solid sinker mahogany, isn’t it?

Yeah. The wood was underwater for a long time – we’re talking thousands of years – and then I guess they pull the log out of whatever river bed it’s in and dry it over a period of time. It’s pretty shocking that it works as well as it does.

I’ve got a lot of old acoustics, but I don’t tour with them, so if I can find a new guitar that resembles them sonically, it’s very convenient. This 0-17 doesn’t have the harsh, brittle upper midrange of a new guitar; it retains the volume and punch of a newer piece of wood, but it sounds warmer.

Despite the compact size, it seems like your 0-17 has punchy projection.

Yeah, they scalloped the bracing on this one. It’s plenty loud enough. I mean, it’s one of those things where you look at the guitar and think, ‘This doesn’t look big enough to put out that much sound.’

But you can do pretty much anything with it. I’m sorta obsessed with guitars, so I try to have at least one really good example of every different type of tool I need. But if I was just going out by myself and playing solo acoustic shows, this would be a perfect guitar to take.

And the 0-17 neck is sinker mahogany, too?

Yeah, with the Brazilian rosewood ’board and bridge. The tough thing about the neck for Martin was getting the shape because on those pre-war guitars they were all hand-shaped.

My original 0-17 has a really interesting shape – the ‘V’ is more intense as you go further down the neck. So it took some work on the part of the folks at Martin to get that just right. But they got it. They nailed it.

That’s some pretty fluid fingerstyle on the Foxes in the Snow album. Do you think this acoustic will deal with more advanced picking?

Well, there’s enough space. The nut width is wide enough to where I can get my fingers in between. And it’s balanced. To me, that’s so important because if you’re strumming, you’re not hearing individual notes like when you’re playing fingerstyle, obviously.

So you don’t want the B to be quiet compared with the D. You need everything to have a uniform volume and intensity coming out of the instrument, almost like a piano.

Are there any differences between the original 1940 0-17 and your signature guitar?

The pickguard on my pre-war 0-17, apparently, somewhere within the first few years of that guitar’s life, somebody switched it out for one that was just a tiny bit larger. And so when they went to make this one, Fred Greene from Martin called and asked if I wanted my signature model to have the ‘proper’ pickguard. But I said, ‘No, let’s use the one that’s on the 0-17 that I own because I want it to be as close a replica as we can possibly get.’

The only other difference that I know of is the finish. It’s super-close, but it’s impossible to exactly replicate the lustre of a guitar that old. It’ll get there in time.

Was it important to you to offer a cheaper version of your signature in the form of the 0-10E Retro?

Yeah. I’ve played both of them a whole lot since they got finished and, truthfully, the less expensive model is a really great guitar and I’m not missing anything when I’m playing it. It intonates well. It plays well. The neck is a little bit smaller and faster – I think that’s probably because it was factory-made, rather than handmade.

When I put out my signature D-18 a few years ago, that was a really expensive guitar and made for a very limited run. And with these guitars, I don’t want to split the difference. I’d rather have one that’s more collectible and made in smaller numbers, then another that’s accessible to everybody, rather than just do something in the middle that doesn’t quite capture either of those categories.

So I’m very happy about the 0-10E Retro, too. Actually, I was shocked when I got it, at just how good it sounded acoustically. But it’s got the tuner and electronics, too, and sounds really good plugged in. It’s very, very usable.

Did it take a lot of meetings and prototypes to get these guitars over the line?

No, with just a handful of conversations, we were able to narrow it down. A lot of that is due to Fred. We’ve worked together on a lot of guitars in the past and he knows where the line is for me.

Y’know, if we’re going to replicate something, then I like it to be done as closely as possible. And he knows my preferences, as far as vintage guitars. He knows I like things that feel and sound old. So it didn’t take a whole lot of back and forth. Maybe part of it is also due to the fact that Martin’s just doing really, really good work right now.

You have a slightly quirky tradition of blasting your new acoustics with loud music. Does that actually help bed in the tone?

I mean, I don’t have any real way of quantifying it, but when I take a new acoustic guitar out of the case for the first time, it sounds new to me. So I leave it in front of the speakers and play some music – something with a lot of bass, like OutKast – just to keep the wood moving.

I think there are devices that do it now, where you can put them in the soundhole and they’ll just constantly keep the vibrations going. I used to set the guitar out on a table and prop an EBow up on either the D or G string and just leave it there until the battery ran out. I’ve done no scientific testing, but I think it helps to bring it in a little quicker.

Alongside the two acoustics, you’re releasing signature acoustic guitar strings in Martin’s new Era range.

The thing with acoustic strings is that they sound so different when they’re new on the guitar. That has sorta driven me crazy over the years. I hate that brand-new out-of-the-box sound. To me, it’s kind of like an avocado – you have five minutes when it’s perfect and then you’re either too early or you’re too late…

With the silk wrap on these strings, it helped make them sound a bit broken in. And that window – where the strings don’t sound too new and they’re not dead yet – has been extended because they’re treated.

You’ve also specified your usual 0.012 to 0.054 gauge.

Yeah. I do a bit of bending and I don’t hit it quite as hard as a real flatpicker, but I’m also not a soft-touch player. So 12s have just always worked for me on an acoustic, and I use 10s on electric. And it’s, like, the least exciting gauge because everybody wants to say, ‘Well, I use 13s,’ or if you’re a Billy Gibbons fan, then 7s or 8s or something. But I’m right in the middle of the road as far as the gauge goes.

Do you have a particular personal history with Martin guitars?

I’ve always held Martin in the highest regard. When I was a kid, I had a lawsuit guitar – y’know, one of those from the late ’70s when everybody was ripping Martin off. And then there was an uncle of mine who had a herringbone D-28 he would bring by, and everybody would pass it around and play it. I just remember feeling, like, ‘Oh, this is as good as it gets. This is the best possible guitar you could play.’

Do you remember the first Martin you actually owned yourself?

I sure do. Our van had gotten broken into in Dallas and my acoustic guitar was in the gear that got stolen. So I contacted Martin to see if they would send me a loaner, and they suggested we do an artist deal.

So the first Martin I had was a D-41 that I used on the road for a long time. It was just a little too much inlay for me. I’ve gone to D-18s since then because I like it to look a little more simple. But that was the first one. I think I paid half price for it – because I wasn’t helping Martin sell any guitars back then!

• For more on Martin’s Jason Isbell signature guitars and strings, see Martin Guitar.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Gibson has brought back its Songwriter Recording Artist series of acoustic guitars with two hand-crafted instruments that “elevate one of Gibson’s most beloved modern designs”.

These square-shouldered modern dreadnoughts were first introduced in the 1990s and have been in and out of the fray since. Here, the Songwriter Recording Artist and Songwriter Recording Artist EC pick up the torch where their predecessors left off.

The vintage-modern balance is present and correct. Hand-built at Gibson’s Bozeman, Montana facility, these instruments are said to deliver “exceptional studio clarity, stage-ready reliability, and the unmistakable depth and richness of Gibson acoustic tone”.

In terms of their DNA, thermally aged Sitka spruce tops take the headlines. They’re paired with rosewood backs and sides, long-scale mahogany necks, and L.R. Baggs HiFi acoustic guitar pickup systems for high responsiveness and true-to-life amplification.

Partnered with those aforementioned tonewoods, which nod to Gibson’s 1936 Advanced Jumbo acoustic design, the guitars deliver a “warm, balanced” sound full of “rich overtones”.

They’re built to a 25.5” scale length, and share smooth, bound ebony fretboards, mother-of-pearl diamond eye inlays, and a compound dovetail neck joint. These are secured with hot hide glue for a bold resonance.

Premium appointments are shared across the range, with bone nuts, gold Grover open back tuners, TUSQ bridge pins, and wide abalone rosettes. For the finishing touch, each guitar's headstock features a rosewood veneer and a mother-of-pearl Gibson logo and Crown.

Gibson is offering two versions. The Songwriter Recording Artist features a 1930s scalloped Advanced X-braced top with the traditional non-cutaway design. The EC's Venetian cutaway is crafted to appeal to lead players thanks to its improved upper-fret access.

Both models are available in Rosewood Burst and Antique Natural finishes, and are priced at $4,999 apiece.

Head over to Gibson for more.

It follows a busy year for Gibson in acoustics in 2025. A downsized, single-cut take on the SJ-200, its hand-crafted but affordable Acoustic Specials, and the return of its Les Paul acoustic hybrid were among the highlights.

As the CEO and president of Taylor Guitars, which has been in the upper echelon of acoustic guitar-making since 1974, Andy Powers has a lot on his plate. And while the business side of things is paramount, Powers’ passion is forever centered around the making of the instruments.

“It stems around trying to create an instrument that feels inspiring to a player,” Powers says. “It could be inspiring in familiar, fresh and new ways. But I want somebody to feel joy when they pick up the instrument.”

Taylor’s lines range from high-quality, budget-friendly instruments to ornate guitars that’ll make your jaw drop – but the approach never changes.

“The trick is to try and take that one individual instrument and then scale that up in a way where you don’t lose the magic of the first one,” Powers says.

“That’s difficult to do, so most of what we spend our time working on is eliminating the accidental customization that might happen on a shop floor. You’re trying to create a method where every single guitar you build comes out exactly the way you intended it to – even when your own hands weren’t the ones touching it.”

At over a half-century old, Taylor is still a new kid on the block, which means Taylor lives in a gray area, straddling the line between classic design and modern innovation. With this in mind, as far as Powers is concerned, the sky is the limit.

To that end, he says, “One of the things that makes us unique is that our history is defined by changing what we see fit to change.”

You come from a guitar-building background, so how would you describe your role at Taylor?

I come from a guitar-making and playing background, not really so much of a business background. But I started building and playing guitars from a young age, so all I’d ever really done was build. A lot of my focus was on actually building the instrument itself.

I still think about an instrument that might be interesting to a player – maybe an adaptation of a guitar we’re making now, maybe something totally new or something that might be an improvement to an existing guitar. I’ll go build those instruments by hand.

So you’ve still got a hand in that aspect of the company?

I maintain a shop here at our Taylor campus as well as a shop at my home. I’m working like Geppetto. [Laughs] It’s like a lot of old hand tools and a very traditional, craft-oriented kind of construction. That gives me a lot of flexibility to create what might be interesting for us to make next.

Is it a challenge to match and raise the bar on Taylor’s well-known standards?

It depends on which way we look at it. You’re right; Taylor, as a guitar manufacturer, is known for building a very consistent, high-quality guitar. Now, coming from the guitar-making world, that’s not really hard to achieve.

It would be expected for a high-end instrument to be built at a very high level – the fit and finish, the way the parts work, the way it feels. I’d expect it to be working at a high level. And really, a lot of the credit I would give to Bob Taylor, a designer who’s trying to design something for a manufacturing scale.

Of note with Taylor is that your budget models sometimes outpace other companies’ higher-end models.

A lot of it comes down to the process you use, the way you’re gonna build the instrument. So if we’re gonna build a high-end instrument, we’re going to create a process to result in a really great guitar every time. We’re gonna go through that same process, even for a more modest instrument where it might not have lavish trimmings, the rarest woods or something like that.

But that doesn’t simply mean we’re going to import loads of low-end guitars, slap our name on them and sell them. That’s not how we do it. We actually design a thing to go, “This guitar is for a musician of modest means, so we’re going to use more commonly available materials – but I want the musical experience to be a great one.”

What’s it been like trying to source materials these days, where tariffs have hampered companies and there are far more restrictions on the harvesting of certain woods?

It is a challenge. But I would say that at no point was it ever not a challenge, right? Let’s say I went back a couple of hundred years and worked in Stradivari’s day; it’d be a real challenge to get great material. [Laughs] Not so much because the materials aren’t there to be had, but just the logistics and transportation mean you’re gonna be working really close to home to get that piece of ebony for a fretboard.

Man, that is really gonna be hard. So there’s a challenge there as you come into a more modern era where you face depleting resources.

One of the challenges in procurement is actually sourcing the material and how it is harvested. So we’re working a lot closer, a lot deeper into the forest, and oftentimes looking at alternate structures for the future.

What do those alternate structures look like?

Whether that’s plantation-grown wood, whether that’s deliberately planting trees for future generations of instrument use, or whether it’s different forestry models altogether, like using reclaimed urban-harvested wood. There are all kinds of different ways we approach it, and they have their own unique challenges.

One of them is a design challenge, which is to work with what options you have available. As an example, we started pursuing what I describe as urban forest harvested wood – city trees, street trees – trees that cities plant to control soil erosion, create shade, wind barriers, noise barriers, things like that.

When those trees grow larger, because they’re in a more densely populated area, they become a liability. A storm might knock that tree over, and it could fall on buildings, cars or people. Those trees have a managed lifespan. We look at it and go, “Why are you chipping that up for mulch? There’s gotta be some end-of-life usage in that tree.”

With this, the age-old debate over tonewood arises, which is even more critical when discussing acoustic guitars. Do you think a street tree versus a forest-harvest tree would produce a very different-sounding guitar?

Oh, yeah – it’s been super-interesting. The most interesting part of it is that there are no direct comparisons. So what should I do with that to make an equally appealing sound musically on a guitar? It means you’ve gotta start changing the guitar a little bit.

You change your design, maybe you voice the bracing a little differently, you use it in a different spot, you cut it to a different thickness. There are all kinds of different things you could do as an instrument designer to create a musically appealing instrument.

It seems as if this particular challenge is an opportunity to unlock new tones and designs.

It absolutely is. It’s interesting to think about wood material over time and how the instrument world has constantly changed its appetite and developed new materials. It’s become common practice for guitar makers to like what we call Honduran mahogany for a neck, right? That’s pretty common. It’s been used for a lot over the last century.

Well, that was a substitute material for Spanish cedar. Spanish cedar was preferable for nylon-string or early classical guitars. A lot of classical makers still swear by it. But it was commonly used for necks well into the teens, Twenties and beyond.

But Honduran mahogany was more obtainable. It was easier to get in big pieces, and it had a similar enough character to Spanish cedar that it became popular. Instrument making is a slow evolution, influenced by the maker’s skill and the musician’s taste.

At NAMM 2024, Taylor launched the Action Control neck, which allows players to make micro-adjustments to string height without removing the neck.

One of the things we like to do is make a genuine improvement to the instruments we’re building when we can. I like to be able to work that idea into more places because what excites me as a builder and a player is having a wider variety of guitars. I like that we get to choose our voice.

We get to choose whether we wanna play a big-body strummer, powerhouse guitars, smaller finger-style instruments or more modern, heritage-based sounds. I like exploring different flavors. Now something like the Action Control neck is a feature or aspect I’d been working on for almost 10 years before those guitars came out – even before I was really happy with the design.

So we introduced that on the Gold Label guitars, and over the course of 2025, we introduced more iterations and variations of that into our Gold Label collection. We’ve added it to the Grand Pacific body shape guitars in that collection. We’ve done more Super Auditoriums and different wood combinations. That’s something I’ll start to spread into other models because of how well that serves the player.

What will you do to match that in the coming years?

There’s instrument development. It comes in kind of waves, but ideas come through different instruments so that all the different players can find what best suits their taste. There are going to be different voicings of the V-Class bracing architecture that we developed a number of years ago.

That’s a very adaptable kind of design that lets us manipulate the sound of the guitar in a lot of different ways. It brings out different nuances of the guitar’s voice, so you’ll see some different flavors there. And you’ll see some different amplification developments from us.

What’s on tap there?

As much as I love to play an acoustic guitar in front of a microphone, you’re gonna see that most players still take a guitar on a stage, grab a cord and plug it in.

We’ve used the Expression System, what we call the Expression System 2, for a number of years. That’s worked really well for a lot of players on a lot of stages. But our development didn’t stop there. So there are other developments coming into our amplification space that I think might serve players even better in an even wider variety of scenarios.

Taylor is as much about classic designs as it is innovation. How do you see the future shaking out?

We’re not afraid to change something. I like to think our best days are still ahead of us as guitar makers. We’re really not all that young anymore; five decades and counting is a pretty good run, and we’ve got a couple of miles on us. At the same time, amongst a lot of guitar makers, we’re still relatively young, so we have a lot of permission to continue developing our instruments.

I like to look ahead and go, “At this point, we have a history we can draw from as well as a still-unwritten future.” You can see designs that are influenced by our past designs, and we’ve got a library of things we’ve built and a body of work we can draw from, kind of a “greatest hits.” We have our modern benchmark guitars like the 814 Standard, the quintessential modern acoustic cutaway electric.

Then we have these other collections, and we’re still developing and pushing boundaries with our Builder’s Edition collection. We’re exploring ergonomics influenced by an electric guitar on an acoustic guitar.

Then we have our Gold Label collection that’s steeped in the tradition of instrument-making. There are all these varieties that we get to continue developing and exploring.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

What is it?

In recent times we’ve examined a host of Epiphone guitars, both acoustic and electric, many of which have exceeded the magical $/£1k barrier.

In the main, they’ve proved to be superb instruments that, in some cases, have caused us to question why we’d part with a load more cash for something with that ‘other’ name on the headstock.

Here, though, we find two unashamedly budget guitars, neither of which busts even the $/£500 ceiling. It will be interesting to see how the degree of cost-cutting required to hit this price point affects the build, playability and sound.

Checking over the big-bodied J-200 Studio reveals that it’s very tidily built, both inside and out. While a five-ish grand Custom Shop Gibbo is constructed using solid, and often finely figured, maple for its back and sides, here we find what Epiphone calls ‘layered’ (we might say laminated) plain maple.

Solid spruce, however, is employed for the guitar’s top. It has to be said that the orangey ageing looks a little garish and unsubtle, but at this price point one can’t really expect hand-rubbed toner.

The neck – which on a ‘real’ J-200 would be flamed maple with a rosewood centre strip and a black ‘stinger’ painted on the rear of the headstock – here is some kind of unspecified mahogany. In order to save timber and therefore cost, the headstock has been scarfed on, and the heel is a two-piece affair.

Rosewood is the timber of choice for the bound fingerboard with its 20 fine to medium frets. It’s dark and nicely grained and the general fit and finish hereabouts is really very good.

Gibson’s super jumbo is recognised as one of the handsomest instruments around and Epiphone has had a pretty good stab at replicating that – the essence of it, at least.

The fingerboard carries one of the original model’s most famous trademarks, its graduated crown inlays, and while they’re not real mother-of-pearl here, they do offer a passable facsimile.

The flower-emblazoned scratchplate on the other hand, which is where these things often fall down by looking thin, cheap and poorly painted, is thick and smoothly bevelled, and looks particularly classy. The guitar’s moustache-style bridge, also from rosewood, bears four fake pearl inlays in a style that looks familiar but is not an authentic Gibson design.

Due to its ultra-simplicity, the J-45 manages to do a more convincing job of looking original than its sibling. The dotted rosewood fingerboard is dark and matches the solid spruce top’s tobacco sunburst finish perfectly. The ‘belly up’ bridge (again rosewood) looks dead right and, to be honest, from the 10th row the guitar – with its short Epi headstock – could easily be mistaken as the real thing.

The body’s back and rims, this time of layered mahogany, receive a dark stain that’s very convincing and does a better job than the J-200’s aged blonde polyester of hiding the neck’s heel and headstock splices.

Overall, the build quality of both guitars is very good indeed, and attention to detail excellent. Although it’s obvious they’ve been built to hit a certain price point, Epiphone has cleverly managed to avoid the instruments coming across as bargain-basement fodder.

Specs

Epiphone J-45 Studio

• PRICE: $449/£449/€499 (inc gigbag)
• ORIGIN: Indonesia
• TYPE: Round-shouldered steel-string flat-top acoustic with pickup
• TOP: Solid spruce
• BACK/SIDES: Layered mahogany
• MAX RIM DEPTH: 106mm (4.173”)
• MAX BODY WIDTH: 406mm (15.98”)
• NECK: Rounded C profile, mahogany
• SCALE LENGTH: 628.65mm (24.75”)
• TUNERS: Vintage ‘Kluson’ style with cream plastic buttons
• NUT/WIDTH: Plastic/43.815mm (1.725”)
• FINGERBOARD: Rosewood with pearloid dot inlays
• FRETS: 20 medium
• BRIDGE/SPACING: Belly-up rosewood with compensated plastic saddle/54mm (2.125”)
• ELECTRICS: Fishman S-Core under-saddle pickup  with Presys VT preamp and soundhole volume and tone controls
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 2.1/4.629
• LEFT-HANDERS: Yes
• FINISHES: Vintage Sunburst (as reviewed), Epiphone Natural

J-200 Studio

• PRICE: $549/£499/€599 (inc gigbag)
• ORIGIN: Indonesia
• TYPE: Jumbo, non-cutaway acoustic with pickup
• TOP: Solid spruce with 4-ply binding and floral J-200 pickguard
• BACK/SIDES: Layered maple
• MAX RIM DEPTH: 114mm (4.48”)
• MAX BODY WIDTH: 431mm (17”)
• NECK: 1960s slim taper, D profile, mahogany
• SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”)
• TUNERS: Nickel Kluson style with plastic ‘keystone’ buttons
• NUT/WIDTH: Plastic/43mm (1.69”)
• FINGERBOARD: Bound rosewood with graduated crown inlays
• FRETS: 20 medium
• BRIDGE/SPACING: Rosewood ‘moustache’ style with pearloid inlays, compensated plastic saddle/54mm (2.125”)
• ELECTRICS: Fishman S-Core under-saddle pickup with Presys VT preamp and soundhole volume and tone controls
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 2.2/4.85
• LEFT-HANDERS: Available
• FINISHES: Epiphone Natural (as reviewed), Vintage Sunburst
• CONTACT: Epiphone

Playability and sounds

In the bad old days, the playability and sound of cheap imported guitars was often questionable, to say the least. Today, however, American parent companies keep a close watch on their partner factories’ production and quality control. So we’re delighted to report that our Epiphone J-200’s action is spot on, right out of the box.

Around the nut area the strings are low and it’s easy to fret chords and single-note lines. Venture further up the neck and barre chords don’t fight back, while lead licks come out cleanly with absolutely no fretbuzz.

Epiphone calls the J-200’s neck’s shape a “1960s SlimTaper D profile”, but it isn’t particularly D-shaped, more like a shallowish C. Whatever you call it, it’s very comfy and a real pleasure to play.

With a slightly more vintage-profile “rounded C” neck, the J-45 Studio feels like an old pal. As with its stablemate, the action is perfectly set and, while neither guitar has the fingerpicker’s beloved 44.5mm nut width (both are typical Gibson fare at 43mm each), picking and strumming are equally well served.

The J-45’s shorter 629mm scale means it handles string bends – should you attempt them – a little better than the 648mm scale and slightly tauter feel of the J-200. But, frankly speaking, neither instrument could be faulted from a playability point of view, most especially at this price.

Sonically, while it didn’t match the similarly sized 1995 Taylor jumbo we had to hand as a comparator, our big Epiphone did a brave job of trying. There’s not the big, booming bottom-end you might expect from a guitar of this size, but it’s perfectly acceptable, and thankfully the treble side isn’t harsh or tinny.

In fact, overall the tone is balanced and pleasant, whether picking or strumming, and anyone buying this guitar would not be disappointed from either its playability or sound perspective.

Tonally, the J-45 seems to have a little less in the top and bottom than the J-200, making it a tad more focused but at the same time a little less open-sounding. It’s not half bad, though, and while it seems a little more ‘enclosed’ against a Martin OM-28, at $/£449 one would have to be the harshest of critics to complain.

This model was always the perfect all-rounder, and while the laminated bodies of both guitars are bound to restrict their sonic depth and openness, our J-45 kicked out a good level of well-balanced tone when strummed and a sweet if not overly rich and woody tone when fingerpicked. Its shorter scale length will also doubtless contribute to the less snappy sound.

We have to remember these instruments’ lower price tags. And with that in mind we can state that anyone starting out their acoustic journey on either model will enjoy a positive and rewarding experience. With their onboard Fishman S-Core under-saddle pickups plus soundhole-placed volume and tone controls, each of these guitars is ready to hit the stage when you are.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★☆

It’s easy to imagine that expensive US- or European-made acoustics are all individually craftsperson-made, while cheap East Asian ones are spat out of machines with never a hand touching them in the process.

Truth is, you can’t build an acoustic guitar at any price without a good degree of hands-on work. And from their setup alone, we can tell that these guitars – even with their sub-$/£500 tickets – have been built with some degree of care and expertise.

Guitar World verdict: They play extremely well, and while they won’t scare your Custom Shop Martin, Collings or Breedlove in the tone stakes, they’ll do a darned fine job of fulfilling the dreams of any aspiring acoustic guitarist. And if you’re a seasoned electric player seeking out a good-looking, playable and not-half-bad-sounding knockabout flat-top in either of these legendary Gibson styles, then look no further.

Hands-on videos

Long & McQuade Musical Instruments

The Canadian Flatpicker

• Epiphone Inspired By Gibson J-45 and J-200 review
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Police in Bel Air, Maryland are appealing for help identifying four suspects believed to have stolen a 1947 Martin D-28 acoustic guitar worth around $15,000 from a local music store.

Officers say that three women and a man entered the stop, Music Land, on February 3. Surveillance footage shows them taking the acoustic guitar from the display area, concealing it, and leaving the store.

“One of the female suspects was on lookout,” store owner Larry Noto tells via WMAR-2 News Baltimore. “The other two suspects took the guitar. She had a long black winter coat on, a very puffy coat. It was freezing out – you know how it was a couple of weeks ago – and had sort of a black bag that they slipped the guitar in.”

“This was a consignment piece from 1947, so a very rare, special piece that we just happened to have on sale as part of our consignment program.”

He continues, “You do feel violated, and it was really sad and disturbing to watch the video that had happened. We’re a local family-owned business, [and have] served the community for 55 years. You just don’t think something like that’s going to happen to you.”

Alongside its unique serial number, another key identifying feature is a distinct cracking on the back from a prior refinishing. Police shared a photo of the suspects who are being sought for identification and interrogation. No charges have been filed as of yet.

Anyone with information should contact the Bel Air Police Department at (410) 638-4500 or kmartin@belairmd.org.

Prince’s eye-catching Taylor 612ce acoustic guitar is back in stock, but you’ll have to travel to Paisley Park to get one.

The guitar, which sports a custom purple finish – it was never going to be any other color – first featured on the genre-bending musician’s Musicology tour in 2004. It was the same year he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where he exacted his revenge on Rolling Stone.

It’s the first time the guitar has been available for fans in 15 years, and it arrives decorated with plenty of subtle – and not-so-subtle – nods to the Purple One.

Featuring a mother-of-pearl inlay of Prince’s Love symbol on the front and back of the headstock, some rather gorgeous-looking binding against the Purple finish, and gold tuners, it’s quite the looker. And with this being a Taylor signature guitar, it seems that no expense has been spared.

Paisley Park says the guitar “faithfully represents the original,” and calls it “a piece as collectible as it is playable.”

The catch is that it is only available to purchase at Prince’s home-turned-museum, Paisley Park, and there’s no mention of price on the Instagram post announcing its arrival. The website makes no mention of it, either.

Over his lifetime, Prince built a reputation for wacky guitars, including a floral Telecaster that ‘ejaculated’ foam, his instantly recognizable Cloud guitars, and his adoption of a rarebreed Vox semi-hollow. Many of those guitars have since fetched six-figure sums at auction, underscoring just how strong his legacy remains.

In related Prince news, Spike Lee recently recalled the time he asked Prince for one of his signature guitars. He was shocked by what happened next.

Nashville's iconic country institution, the Grand Ole Opry, has teamed up with George Gruhn of Gruhn Guitars and Martin Guitar to create a limited edition Martin: the HD-28 Grand Ole Opry 100th Anniversary.

The one-of-a-kind acoustic was handcrafted to “honor a century of music, storytelling, and unforgettable moments on country’s most iconic stage”. The collaboration is a no-brainer, considering Martin’s long legacy with country artists.

Built on the brand’s HD-28 platform, the guitar sports a dreadnought design and promises “powerful bass, clear trebles, and rich overtones.”

Featuring a Sitka spruce top, East Indian rosewood back and sides, bold herringbone top trim, ebony fingerboard, and Golden Era Modified Low Oval neck, the 25.4” scale build is further sculpted with Martin's forward-shifted, scalloped X-bracing.

Further customization is provided via a custom inlay of the historic WSM microphone – the premier symbol of the Grand Ole Opry – in mother-of-pearl and abalone, and, to top it off, matching commemorative fingerboard inlays.

“These elements blend Martin tradition with Opry heritage in a single, remarkable instrument,” comments Martin. “It’s a playable piece of history made for those who keep the circle unbroken.”

Limited to 650, the Opry 100th Anniversary Martin HD-28 Guitar is priced at $4,299 and is currently available from the Grand Ole Opry's official website.

For more information, visit the Grand Ole Opry.

In more recent news, Martin has just introduced its debut signature models for bluegrass virtuoso Molly Tuttle.

What is it?

The paring of an acoustic guitar with an effects generator that can create reverb, delay and chorus sounds through the soundhole without an amp or pedal in sight is a compelling combination. Yamaha's TransAcoustic models prove it, and the retrofit ToneWoodAmp2 was one of my favourite gear releases of 2025. The technology is only half the story, though – you have to be inspired by the guitar it's platformed on too.

Cort's Earth GO aims to bring onboard effects to players at an affordable price point, on a 3/4-size mini dreadnought travel guitar. With a solid spruce top and colour control screen to shape several effects alongside an onboard tuner, looper and metronome, this is a very strong suite of features on paper. Oh, and it can also stream Bluetooth audio through that soundhole. Cort has a great rep in these lower price ranges for both acoustic and electric guitars, so it all bodes well.

Does it add up to what we're hoping? I'd better get it on the test bench and start finding out!

Specs

• Launch price: $549.99 | £425
• Made: Indonesia
• Body shape: 3/4 dreadnought
• Body top: Solid Sitka spruce
• Back & sides: Laminate mahogany
• Neck: C-shape, Mahogany
• Scale/length: 22.8" (578mm)
• Nut/width: Plastic / 43 mm
• Fingerboard/Radius: Laurel / 15.75"
• Finish: Open Pore Brown Burst (as reviewed), Natural
• Bridge/pins: Laurel / plastic
• Tuning Machines: Cort die-cast with black knobs
• Electronics: HyVibe H2
• Weight: 3.8lb/1.7kg
• Case: Gig bag
• Left-handed options: No
• Contact: Cort

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

I think the Open Pore Brown Burst finish here is warmer and more inviting than the more generic natural spruce top option Earth GO model – adding more of vintage touch and standing out a little more in the travel guitar competition too. The satin finish feels good in the hands, the back is highly figured and two-toned. So too is the scarf joint, with the two shades looking a little jarring – like Cort wanted to draw attention to it.

The tortoisehell rosette is understated but complements the edge-style burst here very well, and the build itself is largely what I've come to expect from Cort instruments. Good looks, no sharp frets and a tidy finish, aside from the aesthetic of that scarf joint contrast.

The Natural finish, non-electric version called the Earth Mini (with merbau fingerboard) is available for around half the price of this model, which also lays bare the premium you have to pay for the HyVibe H2 electronics and piezo pickup here.

The price contrast for this kind of technology Vs the guitar itself is absolutely not exclusive to Cort – I've found it when comparing Yamaha TransAcoustics to similar spec'd models without it too. As we find out, it brings some significant features to the table here.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★½

The action on this Earth GO model out of the supplied gig bag is simply too high – 2.70mm clearance from the low E and 2mm from the high E – feels especially unwieldy on a much shorter scale guitar where I feel it adds an extra challenge to overcome if you're transitioning from a longer scale guitar to these smaller frets. Beginner players especially could really struggle with the high action here on this test guitar. So that's a disappointing stumbling block right out of the gate that makes the Cort Mini more difficult to play than it should be for me.

There are two ways to address this issue - one much easier than the other. Fitting lighter gauge strings being the simplest fix (the gauge supplied isn't listed in the specs but I'm guessing it's a gauge 12 set here). Even so, that will only reduce tension and only get you so far compared to the second method – and that is really something you should be careful with.

It involves removing the strings, carefully removing and sanding down the bottom of the saddle a little, and then refitting the strings to try it again. Repeat until satisfied. A job best left to a tech for some players – and adding to the outlay. I personally don't think acoustics should be leaving a factory with this kind of action that's going have such a niche appeal. I'm hoping it's an anomaly as it's not something I've personally experienced from Cort guitars before.

So it's a shame, because apart from the action this seems a comfortable neck, though the shorter scale isn't quite so beguiling as my 23.5" Taylor GS Mini. Some adult players will struggle with it, children much less so.

The Earth GO sits well on the lap, and as I tune a semitone down to slacken the string tension and make the action a little easier to handle, it feels very much on the side of a grown-up travel guitar rather than a child's toy.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★☆☆

This is where things get really interesting. Because the HyVibe H2 tech here is packing a lot of features into a small guitar. In addition to Reverb, Echo, Chorus, Octave, Phaser and Tremolo, there's also Distortion and Boost to be selected via the controls on the top side of the Earth Mini. There you'll also find access to tuner, metronome and looper modes.

Each effect has a level control and one parameter – so for Echo this is delay time, for Reverb it's the decay. The latter effect is my first port of call because previous experience with this kind of tech has shown me it's the most useful and organic combination with an acoustic.

While it's decent, don't expect the extremes of cavernous space here. It's not as prominent as some other acoustic guitars I've tried with this effect but the Earth GO's body is smaller than them. Nevetheless, alongside the moody charms of Tremolo, it's the effect I come back to most for adding inspiring sounds.

The Echo delay repeats can sound too artificial and plasticy at higher level settings, and there's a fine line between balancing this and them being too hard to hear when unplugged. They're certainly much more audible when amplified through a PA – and I was impressed at how the Earth GO's piezo leaned into the little guitar's rounded bottom end for a pleasingly usable live sound.

While the Chorus, Octaver and Phaser work best on the subtle side and have their charms for some of the unplugged covers I play, the Distortion is either too feedback-inducing or hard to detect, and I found the Boost hard to distinguish at all. These two sounds feel superfluous here.

The metronome is the bleeping type for practice exercises, but the looper here requires a learning curve for those used to pedal loopers. You need to set the tempo, bars and time signature before and you start playing after a countdown, rather than activating the loop to stop recording and start playing. To activate this more familiar and instinctive functionality, you'll need to invest in a Bluetooth MIDI pedal – something HyVibe actually sells direct.

It's not really surprising to me that softer playing tends to struggle during loop playback through the soundhole against my own live strumming (you can overdub up to four tracks), so play harder and with purpose for the best results. The HyVibe H2 tech also offers Bluetooth streaming, with the soundhole acting as a speaker, and you may be surprised at how effective it is for this – certainly a welcome addition for playing along to your favourite songs or backing tracks.

Verdict

This package offers an impressive range of features for the money, and the combination of onboard multi-effects and a looper on a travel acoustic guitar is an inspirational proposition here. While the effects aren't at the level of the ToneWoodAmp2's retrofit option, or the Reverb as effective as the quality and range found on the Yamaha TransAcoustic models, the price difference is significant for an all-in-one solution, by a considerable margin in the case of the latter.

Here you get a broad array of effects options, and even some of the looper functionality of the latest TransAcoustics, so it's just a shame that the high action on this test model presented such an unattractive playing proposition out of the box. But that can at least be overcome, because the payoff is a small guitar with plenty to offer new and established guitar players, at home or taken away with them – even to the next open mic night. The USB-C charging functionality (with up to ten hours of battery life) also means you shouldn't be caught short of a charger at home, and could even use a battery pack if you're away from the mains.

Guitar World verdict: A little guitar with a surprisingly expansive set of features with effects, looper, audio streaming and a tuner. Some are more effective and musically inspiring than others, but the combination of Cort value and HyVibe H2 technology is undeniable here.

Also try

Cort

• Best acoustic guitars: 10 top options for guitarists of all ages and abilities

Epiphone has just announced the launch of the Inspired by Gibson Custom WoWkie Da J‑180 acoustic guitar – the brand's first signature team-up with Chinese pop superstar WoWkie Da.

Best known as the lead singer and guitarist of The Flowers – widely regarded as China’s first nationally recognized teenage band – WoWkie Da went on to forge his own solo career in 2009. Since then, he's released 193 singles and sold more than five million records.

The signature acoustic model, which pays homage to the artist's decades-long dedication to the Gibson and Epiphone brands, is built on the Epiphone Inspired by Gibson Custom J‑180 LS platform. As the artist himself declares, this milestone is a great honor, not to mention a lifelong dream.

“I never thought I would release a guitar with my own logo,” confesses WoWkie Da in an interview with Epiphone.

“I hope this can inspire all the friends who play guitar. Don't think you're just a musician... just someone who plays guitar. As long as you keep writing, keep creating, one day, a great brand like Epiphone [which] we've admired since we were young – the brands that have always influenced our musical lives – will partner with you.”

As for why he chose to go for a J-180, he says that it’s “the same guitar as Billie Joe [Armstrong]’s. The shape is basically similar to the guitar I usually play.”

Specs-wise, the Epiphone WoWkie Da Signature IGC J‑180 features a 25.5" scale length and is furnished in a thermally aged Sitka spruce top, and solid mahogany back and sides.

The model's quintessential star inlays on the fretboard are complemented by star patterns on the bridge for an added personal touch. Further customization is provided by the WoWkie Da logo emblazoned on the top.

The Epiphone WoWkie Da Signature IGC J‑180 is currently available at Gibson and Epiphone authorized dealers in China and online via T-Mall.

Epiphone’s release with the Chinese icon follows Fender’s first-ever signature model for a guitarist from mainland China.

What is it?

The fundamental design of acoustic guitars has remained fairly static for many years. Take the dreadnought, for instance; that particular design came about more than 100 years ago and is still in use, pretty much unchanged, today.

But recently we’ve noticed a distinct shift. Maybe it’s the leap forward in amp, PA and particularly acoustic guitar pickup technology that has allowed artists to use smaller-bodied guitars to achieve the effect they want, or perhaps it’s the current generation of luthiers putting their own twist on tradition – it’s hard to tell. We suspect it’s a combination of both.

One such twist is before us today, in the shape of a new design from Rich Jones at JWJ Guitars. Sure, it may look like a dread with a Gibson J-45 somewhere in its family history, but the fact is, it’s something a little bit more than that.

Or, realistically speaking, something a little less, as this is a downsized version of the famous dread blueprint. And its voice doesn’t correspond to a dread’s familiar boom and bombast, either. So what exactly is going on here?

The main reasons for going a little topsy-turvy on the established dreadnought formula are as follows. Simply put, the Chorale has been downsized to make it more comfortable to play, and revoiced so that it provides better accompaniment for vocals by realigning the low and mid ranges.

In practice, the first thing to be aware of is how much the Chorale has ‘shrunk’, when compared with a standard dread. A J-45, for instance, is 406mm (16 inches) at the body’s widest point, while the Chorale is a slimline 375mm (14.7 inches). And the body depth has reduced from a regular 122mm (4.8 inches) to the Chorale’s slightly slimmer 110mm (4.3 inches).

So while we’re seeing a significant reduction in dimensions, we’re not exactly talking about a Martin Dreadnought Junior here. In short (no pun intended), it’s compact and perfectly proportioned and, as we usually expect with instruments from JWJ, its spec comprises some top‑notch components.

For the top, we have torrified Sitka spruce that has been hand-sprayed with a satin nitrocellulose sunburst finish and topped off with a teardrop tortie scratchplate.

For the back and sides Rich Jones has gone with Indian rosewood – slightly unusual, as he’s more of a Honduras mahogany fan for his guitars’ back and sides, but here he thought Indian rosewood was a better fit for the Chorale’s revised tonal palette.

In any case, the rosewood here has a great-looking grain pattern with that darkish chocolate hue so typical of the genus.

Mahogany features for the one-piece neck, complete with a nicely carved volute just south of the headstock (which itself is adorned with a set of vintage-style Kluson open-back tuners). Fretboard duties are given over to ebony, with snowflake abalone position markers in all the usual places.

As we’ve seen before from JWJ, workmanship is faultless and the body furnishings, including herringbone trim and cream binding, are perfectly applied.

All in all, it’s a finely wrought build, but we can’t help but be fascinated by the effect produced by the revoicing of the instrument. A dread that thinks it’s an OM? Time to investigate.

Specs

• PRICE: £2,145 (approx. $2,945, inc hard foam case)
• ORIGIN: UK
• TYPE: Downsized slope-shoulder dreadnought
• TOP: Torrefied Sitka spruce
• Back/Sides: Indian rosewood 
• MAX RIM DEPTH: 110mm
• MAX BODY WIDTH: 375mm
• NECK: Honduras mahogany
• SCALE LENGTH: 632mm (24.9”)
• TUNERS: Kluson 18:1 open geared
• NUT/WIDTH: Bone/43.5mm
• FINGERBOARD: Ebony
• FRETS: 20 medium
• BRIDGE/SPACING: Ebony w/ bone saddle/57mm
• ELECTRICS: N/A
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 1.8/4
• OPTIONS: LR Baggs HiFi pickup adds £300; custom builds from £1,845
• RANGE OPTIONS: The Select Series also includes a full-size Slope-shoulder, Orchestra and Melody models
• LEFT-HANDERS: Yes
• FINISHES: Natural – satin nitrocellulose
• CONTACT: JWJ Guitars

Playability and sounds

Freeing the Chorale from its hard foam case, we noticed at once how light the guitar feels in the hand. Compared with a few other acoustics that have come our way recently, this really is a featherweight.

We’ve always liked the carve on a JWJ neck in the past, as it has that Goldilocks quality of being not too chunky but a very business-like C-shaped handful at the same time. The satin nitro finish here really seals the deal, too, as the feel it gives to the neck makes it a joy to have in the hands.

There’s always a risk when you begin to mess with a well-established formula, that you might throw the whole thing out of balance. But we’re happy to report that the downsizing has kept everything nicely in shape. Firing up a few campfire chords reveals some surprises. You can’t help being convinced that if a guitar looks like a dread, then it’s going to sound like one, too. But not here.

It’s easy to see what Rich means by the shaping of the guitar being dictated by the sound he was going for. Having set out to make something more like an 00 size, the dreadnought outline of the Chorale came about almost by accident.

After all, if you take the traditional hourglass shape of an OM and broaden it at the waist, it’s going to begin to take on some of the characteristics of a dread. Factor in Rich’s fondness for slope-shouldered dreads and the deal was done.

The result is a sound that is uncluttered in the bass and low mids, with beautiful articulation and great note separation and clarity. There’s bags of volume present here, too. Strum it lightly and it responds accordingly with a gentle but rich voice; get a little more energetic with your right hand and the Chorale provides the goods without even breaking a sweat.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

What can we say? The Chorale is another hit for JWJ, and the fact that it’s light, compact and easily portable makes it an absolute boon for players who want to travel or commute to various open-mic nights or gigs.

Guitar World verdict: We’d love to hear it with the optional LR Baggs HiFi pickup as that would have been the cherry on top. But, even as it stands, the Chorale is a very worthy addition to a catalogue that’s already bursting at the seams with great instruments.

• Best high-end acoustic guitars: 10 of the most lust-worthy instruments for guitarists
• “If only we could hand out Michelin Stars for guitar-building”: JWJ Parlour Select, Orchestra Select and Slope Shoulder Select review
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

A new initiative has been launched to help track down Brad Delp’s long-lost 1976 Taylor 885 12-string – the acoustic guitar cherished by the late Boston legend throughout his career.

The social media push, which has so far received support from Taylor Guitars and is on the radar of Norman’s Rare Guitars, has been inspired by the Lost Bass Project, which was responsible for tracking down Paul McCartney’s missing Höfner violin bass back in 2024.

The initiative will be leveraging Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X in a fresh effort to put the vintage acoustic firmly into the public consciousness, with the hope that someone out there will be able to help return the acoustic to Delp’s family.

Heading up the search is Timothy Dwelle, who is working with Micki Delp and the rest of the late guitarist’s family. In January, Micki issued a plea on Facebook, urging fans to check serial numbers and help track down Delp’s Taylor, which was stolen a few years after Brad passed away.

“This one-of-a-kind 1976 Taylor Custom 885 (12-string, Serial #20173) was built for Boston singer Brad Delp,” Micki wrote on Facebook. “It was stolen in Los Angeles, California in 2009. We have not given up hope yet that it will find its way home someday.

“As you can imagine, it's of great sentimental value to our family, Brad has a grandson now and it would mean so much just to see him holding Grampy's favorite guitar. He never got to meet his Grampy, but he is totally obsessed with music, writing, singing, producing and even making his own music videos. I would love for him to be able to play it. It may still be inside its black hard case!”

The Taylor 885 in question (Serial Number #20173) is an important piece of both Boston and Brad Delp's legacy. Custom-made for the Boston guitarist, it was one of Delp's go-to guitars in his collection.

Dwelle is optimistic that, with the right coverage, the guitar can be found. Given the miraculous recovery of McCartney’s Höfner – which was unearthed in the back of someone’s attic 50 years after it went missing – there’s still hope for Delp’s Taylor.

“Given Los Angeles’ dense network of recording studios, vintage instrument shops, and private collectors, there is a strong possibility the guitar is still in the area,” he says, “perhaps sitting unrecognized in someone's attic, a hallway closet, or tucked away in a storage unit.

“Much like the McCartney bass, it’s possible the current owner has no idea they are in possession of a unique piece of the Boston legacy.

“While it’s the voice behind More Than a Feeling that the world remembers, this guitar was Brad’s personal favorite - the instrument he played at home and carried with him throughout his career.”

Anyone with any information or potential leads is encouraged to email B.DelpGuitar@gmail.com.

Anyone who has pointed a condenser mic at an acoustic guitar in the hope of hearing an accurately captured and musically inspiring recording upon playback may have instead felt disappointment at the opposite.

I know I have. The acoustic guitar – whether flat-top or archtop, steel- or nylon-strung, flat-wound or rubber-bridged – can be a bit of a pain to capture, especially for the self-recording player. The reality is the vast majority of acoustic recordings are tracked, at best, in a modest home studio, or, at worst, a completely untreated bedroom (or toilet…).

Quality of sound at source is a vital part of the process. I had an in-depth chat with Nashville studio ace Rory Rositas (Tommy Emmanuel, Bryan Sutton) who has this to offer on the subject.

“I’ve always said a good song transcends a bad recording, but for any recording the source is the most important part. If the source doesn’t sound the way you want it, then the recording will also not sound the way you want it. Getting the sound at source makes recording easier. That’s the first step.”

Evidently, there is some housekeeping to do before we get anywhere near the mics, then. A successful recording depends on a guitar that can do the job. An hour saved in prep is worth double in the heat of battle, so take the time to do an in-depth play-through and really listen to what’s going on with the instrument. Is the tuning slipping? Is the intonation out as you move up the neck? Are you getting buzzing or dead notes?

In short, does the guitar in its current state sound like how you imagine the end results to be? If not, then this probably needs addressing before you press record. Forget the targeted ad for the Turd Polisher 3000 plugin you saw on Instagram this morning. This is real life. Go get a setup.

Having ensured the instrument itself is performing as hoped, we must turn our attention to the player.

Time for some detailed listening and some more questions: are the nails on the fretting hand short enough to ensure clean and accurate fingering? How frictionless is the attack? Are you hearing string squeak or other extraneous noise? It may not bother you now, but the moment you slap a compressor on the track it will take your head off.

Does the player make any non-musical noises? A creaky chair may add verisimilitude to an acoustic blues recording, but wheezing, grunting, farting, moaning along with the melody, foot stomping and stomach noises do not. Ask me how I know.

Flat Baroque

The vast majority of us do not have the luxury of a dedicated recording space – as such, proper care and attention must be paid to the sound within the room. Proximity to flat surfaces such as walls and windows will have an effect on your results.

Legend has it that Robert Johnson was recorded in the corner of a room facing the wall. I have tried this myself, but I’ve never quite managed to get the same intensity of results – maybe it was the source after all…

Berlin-based engineer Kian Moghaddamzadeh spends much of his working days piloting the 56-track SSL desk at Hansa Studios (U2, Coldplay, Yungblud), but offers the following words of encouragement to home-recordists.

“The nice thing about recording at home is that you don’t have the same time pressure as you do in a big studio,” he says. “Aside from that, the same rules apply. So much depends on the space, the instrument and also what sound you’re after – whether the guitar should stand on its own or fit in a larger context.

“Once you start experimenting you can begin to build up a personal library of sounds and textures that work for you,” he adds. “That makes it much easier to get creative later with instrument and mic choice later on.”

Close To You

So your guitar sounds good (only you can assess what this means), and the room is working in your favour. But what about mic positioning? I remember a conversation with Windham Hill founder and producer Will Ackerman who described the process of capturing the sound of Michael Hedges’ Aerial Boundaries with an array of mics all positioned alarmingly close to the instrument.

Close mic’ing was certainly a game-changer for me in the early days, but do you need more than one? I asked another guiding light of acoustic production – Hernan Romero (Al Di Meola, Paco de Lucía) for his take.

“I use the same technique whether I’m recording a Conde Hermanos flamenco guitar or a steel-string fretless: it’s just one mic, that’s all you really need,” he tells us. “I use an Earthworks SR30 and also use the space between the soundhole and the body join as a guide – kind of like an EQ slider.

“The closer you get to the soundhole, the more full and bass-heavy the results. Get closer to the neck and things get clearer. Some say you should aim for the body join or 12th fret – I find that too thin – and I position the mic about six to eight inches away. This lets me work the details and dynamics of the performance.”

This is just the start, but by paying attention to the three esses – ‘Source’, ‘Space’ and ‘So where does this mic go?’ – we can avoid anguish down the line. Whether you’re Bill Leader tracking Bert Jansch’s guitar on a reel-to-reel in a 1960s Camden flat or Shawn Everett and Jonathan Rado putting a wall of acoustic splendour behind Miley Cyrus on a Top 10 hit, the principles remain the same. And there’s something rather beautiful about that.

Three to get ready

Universal Audio Apollo Twin X Duo Gen 2 ESS Audio Interface $1,199/£999

A quality guitar audio interface will bring rock-solid performance and peace of mind. The market is pretty saturated with a large array of options, but we have found the Universal Audio Apollo series delivers the promised results in 24-bit 196kHz style. Not cheap but extremely capable.

DPA Core+ 4099 Instrument Microphone $920/£840

The best mic for the job is the one you’re holding in your hand. Make sure it’s a beauty with one of these German-made cardioid numbers – a common sight in pro studios and my own mic of choice for detailed recordings of achingly beautiful luthier-made guitars.

DPA Core+ 4099 Instrument Microphone $760/£569

This Danish super cardioid mic clips directly on to the instrument, making it a strong choice for home recording. Lightweight, high quality and easy to use, it’s also a favourite for live sound among fingerstyle guitarists such as Gwenifer Raymond. If you’re feeling playful, you can even use a stereo pair!

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

What is it?

If you’ve been living in a shack in the woods, you may not be aware that Jason Isbell is one of modern Americana’s biggest stars – yet ironically, his signature Martin 0-10E might be just the kind of acoustic guitar for backwoods living.

Isbell’s third Martin signature guitar (there’s an 0-17 and a D-18 to his name, too) is, Martin tells us, inspired by the 1940 0-17 he used to record his recent solo album Foxes In The Snow.

For the uninitiated, the letters in a Martin model name (in this case a single ‘0’) denote the body shape and size, while the number after the dash indicates the ‘Style’ – typically the woods used in its construction and level of ornamentation.

Style 17 guitars with a mahogany top, back and sides and no binding date from the 1930s and this 0-10E outwardly resembles that classic look, featuring solid mahogany back, sides and top – not the cheaper sapele wood that’s been used on similar Road Series instruments in the past.

That’s a big perk if Martin’s sonic heritage is important to you – and narrows the gap with Isbell’s limited edition, high-end 0-17 signature model.

Martin has, however, made 0-10E’s neck from ‘select hardwoods’ – a catch-all term for mahogany-like tonewoods such as Spanish cedar, sapele and sipo, which Martin sometimes uses in place of true mahogany to keep costs down. Whichever has been used here, it certainly looks the part, with no jarring grain mismatch with the body.

Meanwhile, the slender Performing Artist profile of the 14-fret neck – with just a faint suggestion of a V – feels slinky and comfortable, especially with its silky satin finish.

East Indian rosewood looks and feels a great fit for the fingerboard and bridge here. Rounding out the package is Martin’s E-1 pickup system with built-in tuner, its display tucked discreetly just inside the soundhole.

Specs

• Price: $1,049 | £1,075 | €1,175
• Made: Mexico
• Body shape: ‘0’ size Concert
• Body top: Solid mahogany
• Top bracing: Scalloped X-bracing
• Back & sides: Solid mahogany
• Neck/shape: Select hardwood / Performance Artist profile
• Scale/length: 24.9” / 632mm
• Nut/width: Corian 1.75” / 44.5mm
• Fingerboard wood/Radius: 16” / 406mm
• Body depth: 4.25” / 108mm
• Finish: Satin
• Bridge/pins: Rosewood
• Tuning Machines: Open-gear nickel
• Electronics: Martin E-1
• Weight: 3.7lbs/ 1.7kg
• Case: Deluxe gig bag
• Left-handed options: Yes
• Contact: Martin Guitar

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★★

Taking the 0-10E out of its attractively plush gigbag, I’m struck by the tactile charm of the body’s satin finish, thin enough to subtly reveal the grain pores but liquid smooth.

At 3.7lbs/ 1.7kg the guitar is strikingly light and the lap-friendly ergonomics of this compact guitar are as comfortable today as they were a century ago.

The 20 smallish frets are tidy and inobtrusive and the open-gear nickel tuners undertake their role smoothly and effectively. Inside the body I find very clean kerfing and bracing work, with no glue dobs or smears at all.

The ornamentation of the guitar is simple to the point of austerity, with no binding and a single-ring fiber rosette around the soundhole. But the overall build quality is top-drawer, turning that simplicity into understated strength.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★☆

The 0-10E has a relatively short scale-length of 24.9 inches, which should offer a slightly looser action than longer-scale acoustic guitars. In practice, the 0-10E still has that hallmark Martin feel – slightly stiff but precise – that rewards good technique but exposes untidy playing.

The nut width of 44.5mm is a little wider than on traditional Martins, in step with changes made to the Reimagined series in 2018, making the 0-10E perfectly comfortable for fingerstyle or strumming.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

As you might expect for a guitar that aims to sound like a vintage 0-17 there’s plenty of midrange punch and woody twang on offer here. It isn’t the broadest of voices, in terms of frequency range, but it is very characterful and it cuts through like a charm.

If old-school country or fingerstyle blues is your thing, you’ll like this, a lot. If you play softly its sustain and sweetness blooms – but hit it hard and its immediate attack snaps into focus, making this a dynamic, exciting guitar.

Time and playing should open up this guitar’s voice further. Plugged in, Martin’s E1 system yields a pretty faithful acoustic tone and with my Boss acoustic combo’s EQ set flat, I found I had only to add a touch of bass and treble to de-emphasise the midrange to achieve an amplified sound that was warm and naturally expressive rather than being a mojo killer.

Verdict

At this price, the 0-10E is a bit of a steal. The use of solid mahogany for the body of the guitar is a tidy upgrade over sapele and the build quality is impressive.

The guitar is light, comfortable in the lap and performs well amplified.

Guitar World verdict: Martin’s relatively affordable, all-mahogany guitars have always punched above their weight – the 0-10E Retro Jason Isbell punches a little harder still.

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NAMM 2026: Martin’s Road Series of guitars is all about newness in 2026, with 18 of the 20-strong acoustic guitars either making their debut or being freshly updated.

Created “to guide players along their road to what’s next,” the cast has been assembled to make it clear what features players should expect – and what kind of guitarists they might suit.

Indeed, for the casual observer, it’s easy to distinguish a Fender Stratocaster from a Flying V, but differences between acoustic models aren’t always as obvious. Thus, the overhauled Road Series is now split into two clear subsets of Martin Guitars: Retro and Modern.

Retro, as its name implies, leans into Martin’s lauded past, with “classic Martin character” and body shapes – via its celebrated D dreadnoughts, and small-bodied 000 silhouettes. Expect, as is the case with any old but gold Martin, warm and balanced tones.

Modern, meanwhile, offers bolder finishes with cutaway body shapes – DC, OMC, GPC, and SC – and necks suited for faster playing.

It’s a move right out of the Gibson playbook. The firm savvily split its range into Original and Modern lines after its 2018 takeover, enabling it to keep a core line of classic builds but use more contemporary finishes and forward-thinking features on the Modern side – neatly sidestepping accusations of ‘guitar heresy’, in the process.

Back to Martin, though. To further simplify matters, each Mexican-made instrument is aligned with only one of four updated style levels, reflective of its US line inspiration:

10 Style acoustics, inspired by its Style 15 guitars, all have satin bodies with solid sapele back and sides, and either solid spruce or sapele tops. They also feature Martin E1 electronics for amplification.

12 Style offers gloss bodies comprising solid spruce tops and solid sapele back and sides, with E1 electronics once more. They are inspired by Martin’s Style 18 guitars.

Moving on, 13 Style pairs gloss bodies made with solid spruce top and solid black walnut or koa fine veneer back and sides, and Martin E1 electronics (although the outlier SC-13E is equipped with L.R. Baggs electronics). They’re inspired by its Style 28 guitars.

Finally, Retro Plus is all about gloss bodies with torrefied solid spruce tops, solid mahogany or granadillo back and sides, and L.R. Baggs electronics exclusively. They are, in Martin’s own words, “elevated interpretations of Style 12 and 13 models.”

The move does provide some clarity on the wide-ranging Road Series, (though I can’t help but think it would have been easier to just call them the “Road 15” etc.) to make a more direct link. Still, it’s all a step in the right direction.

“This updated structure bridges the gap between the X Series and Standard Series, giving players a clear understanding of where each model fits within the Martin family,” explains Martin.

“With clearer choices and expanded features, the refreshed Road Series provides an inspiring entry point into the Martin lineup and a pathway for players ready to take the next step in their musical journey.”

As such, expect to encounter model names like the D-10E Retro and DC-10E Modern Black while perusing Martin’s catalog. In these instances, the retro-modern divide is easy to decipher from both the name and the presence (or absence) of a cutaway, while the shared “10” designation points to common specs.

As a result, both guitars mentioned here feature solid sapele back and sides, Martin E1 electronics, and — by Martin standards, at least — more accessible pricing, landing at $999.99 and $1,199.99, respectively.

At NAMM 2026, Martin also unveiled its first signature guitar models for Molly Tuttle, making the bluegrass great’s dreams come true. The two-time Grammy winner has previously regaled Guitar World with the charming story of how she got her first Martin guitar, and how it ended up in a museum.

Head to Martin to check out the full Road Series range.

NAMM 2026: Ibanez and Polyphia virtuoso Tim Henson have reprised their successful partnership with two new versions of his immensely popular electric-nylon signature guitars.

The TOD100N and TOD100FMN come waltzing with new Fishman pickup systems, tonewoods, and looks, looking to go one better with this next generation of guitars.

Henson’s first signature nylon-string electric acoustic, the Ibanez TOD10N, arrived in late 2022 and was crowned Reverb's best-selling acoustic of 2023.

It's since started a nylon-string revolution, with Tosin Abasi's namesake brand now throwing its hat into the ring with a jaw-dropping seven-string electric nylon. It’s clear the Ibanez-Henson partnership wants to remain ahead of the curve with this drop.

Cue upgraded electronics with the TOD10N's Ibanez AEQ210TF preamp ousted in favor of a Fishman Acoustic Matrix undersaddle pickup – prevalent across both new models – while sapele back and sides are replaced with okoume, a mahogany-like tonewood commonplace across the Ibanez range. The new pair is distinguished by their tops. That’s solid Sitka spruce for the TOD100N, and flame maple for the TOD100FMN.

It's not a complete refresh, however. Its rosewood binding and its C-shape nyatoh set-in neck survive the revamp, while its 22-fret fingerboards, decorated with Henson's gorgeous Tree of Death inlay, are now made of ebony, which comes in for rosewood.

That's the same tonewood trade for its bridge – rosewood out, ebony in – while both guitars share the same fan bracing and chambered body designs and come with D'Addario XTC45 strings, as opposed to Henson's signature set from Ernie Ball.

There’s no mention of price at the time of writing, but it would be surprising if they dwarfed the circa $700 price tag of its predecessor, which also got a left-handed release in July 2024. That means we might be looking at a similar wait for left paw-friendly models.

“I wanted an acoustic guitar I could play more technical riffs on with the same ease an electric guitar would provide,” Henson told Guitar World of the guitar's conception.

“I was extremely impressed with the craftsmanship, especially in comparison to its predecessor, the SCN500. It was a lot lighter and felt a lot more ‘alive,’ as it has a chambered body. The TOD10N uses Ibanez’s FR shape, so imagine a hollowed-out version with a classical headstock.”

The nylon-string beauty has been a barnstormer, with new editions more than welcome. But the wait for the previously teased Tim Henson eight-string electric goes on.

Keep your eyes on Ibanez for more information in due course.

NAMM 2026: The much-rumored Tosin Abasi nylon-string electric guitar, which has been in development for three years, is finally here.

Much like any other Abasi model, it reinvents the nylon-string as we know it through a collaboration with Yamaha-owned classical and Spanish guitar experts, Córdoba, marking the first time Abasi Concepts has ever collaborated with another firm.

Abasi had previously teased the Abasi Stage 7 in a Guitar World interview at last year’s NAMM show, where he stated that, “It’s basically an attempt to create a nylon-string instrument that [takes] a lot of the same design concepts from [other Abasi Concepts guitars] – multi-scale, thin-bodied, ergonomic – but it's for guys who maybe aren't traditional classical players, but do want a nylon-string guitar for recording and specifically for stage.”

At first glance, the Abasi Stage 7 is truly a meeting of the minds. It draws inspiration from Córdoba’s flagship Stage solidbody nylon-string guitar concept and Stage pickup system, and pairs it with Abasi Concepts’ Larada ergonomic platform.

Described as a “unique 7-string instrument” tuned from B to E, the model was specifically crafted with resonance, low-end response, and rich tones in mind, as showcased by its extensively chambered mahogany body with custom internal bracing.

Ergonomics are prioritized via the 24 fanned frets, a compound radius fretboard, and a satin neck finish that guarantees “exceptional range, intonation, and playability.”

Additional features include an oval sound hole on the side of the instrument, a mahogany flat C-Shape set neck with a rosewood fingerboard, black top purfling, and a Fusion Fan headstock with a rosewood overlay. Inlaid Córdoba and Abasi logos cement the collaborative spirit, while a rosewood bridge with a bone saddle and a bone nut wrap add further flourishes to this inventive guitar.

So what's under the proverbial hood? Turns out, all Abasi Stage 7 guitars come equipped with Córdoba's Stage Pickup System, co-developed with Fishman. Thanks to an under-saddle transducer with internal body sensors, the model delivers the quintessential nylon-string tone without the “quack” associated with piezo pickups.

A professional-quality preamp with side-mounted Volume, EQ, and Body Blend controls round up this guitar's keen specs. And in true Abasi form, the model is available in cool Ziricote, Acacia, and Whiteburst finishes.

As Yamaha Guitar Group describes it, “The Abasi Stage 7 defines a bold new direction in nylon-string guitar design – modern, ergonomic, and unapologetically performance-driven. It invites a new generation of forward-thinking players to explore nylon-string tones and make them their own.”

Priced at $1,499, the Abasi Stage 7 is now available for pre-order.

Head to Abasi Concepts to find out more.

NAMM 2026: Two-time Grammy winner and bluegrass magician Molly Tuttle has finally gotten a Martin signature guitar, and it’s proven worth the wait, with two models arriving at once.

The Martin D-18 and D-X2E sprinkles fresh elegance on her treasured 1943 D-18 model, and a more affordable X Series acoustic guitar to the fore, realizing a lifelong dream for the artist.

Tuttle’s D-18 stays fairly faithful to her 83-year-old companion, with a rear-shifted scalloped bracing, 1940s neck profile, and a personalised touch in the form of moon phase fingerboard inlays.

“I feel like the moon represents creativity, inspiration, and your subconscious,” Tuttle explains of that aesthetic flourish. “Sometimes when I realize it's a new moon, I think that's a good time to plant the seeds of new ideas.”

Other features include a vintage sunburst top, stylizing a body boasting a spruce top, mahogany back and sides, and faux brown tortoise binding. Other finishing touches include a Silver Martin script logo atop the headstock and oval tuner buttons.

Its mahogany neck, meanwhile, offers a standard taper and an ebony fingerboard with 20 frets, joining the body at the 14th fret.

The guitar, which Martin enthusiastically describes as coming “wrapped in timeless tone and vintage style,” is priced at $4,199.99, with both right- and left-handed models available.

For players seeking a more affordable entry point, the D-X2E presents a compelling alternative, bringing the coveted 1940s neck profile to a far more palatable $999.99 price point.

It's the first X-Series model to have such a neck, with a “select hardwood” construction helping keep the price down. Elsewhere, it’s fairly generously specced with a satin-finished spruce top and figured mahogany HPL back and sides, scalloped X-bracing, and more lunar inlays for its ebony fingerboard. Playability, moreover, is at its heart.

“It's this beautiful kind of V-shaped neck that I find extremely comfortable to play,” Tuttle beams. “You could pick this up and go down and play a gig with it that very day.”

For a musician who once told Guitarist that she “coveted” Martin Guitars, the Martin collaboration is her biggest ambition manifest.

“I've always dreamed of playing Martin guitars ever since I started playing the guitar,” Tuttle says. “To see my name on this Martin guitar and to have had a hand in designing it, it was just a huge moment for me.

“These are such beautiful instruments, I'm excited to see what songs they hold; there are no limits to what I can create and perform on these guitars. They have the classic sound that I'm looking for, and Martin Guitars always bring the best out of my playing and ideas.”

Both of Molly Tuttle's signature guitars are available now.

Head over to Martin for the full lowdown.

Nuno Bettencourt has launched the website for his new guitar company, Nuno Guitars, confirming that he has two electro-acoustic guitar models in production, alongside the already announced electric models.

The Extreme virtuoso announced his surprise departure from Washburn, with whom he had been for decades, last year. The news confirmed widespread speculation that the mystery axe he played at Back to the Beginning was indeed part of a new solo venture – and Washburn had no idea the brand existed.

Now, in a reel posted to his personal Instagram page, Bettencourt has given fans a first look at his surprise acoustic build, dubbed the Lusitano, which is available in two configurations.

Said to “blend traditional acoustic tone with Nuno’s personal design vision,” there’s talk of “clear articulation, warm lows, and balanced projection.”

The standout aspect of the Lusitano, which is named after a noble Portuguese horse breed, is its dual soundhole design. The traditional soundhole beneath the strings flanked by two custom F-holes that trace the shape of the guitar’s Grand Auditorium body. It’s coupled with soundhole-mounted Volume and Tone controls.

Another notable feature is its Mother of Pearl Portuguese Cross fret markers, capped with a Portuguese national emblem inlay at the 12th fret. The white binding against its black body is pretty neat, too.

The two models – the AS and SL, which are priced at $1,199.99 and $599.99, respectively – are distinguished by those two price points. The AS serves up a solid mahogany body with a solid spruce top, a quarter-sawn okoume neck, and an ebony fingerboard with 20 Nickel Silver frets.

Elsewhere, its ebony bridge is the same for both models, and both are also equipped with chrome die-cast tuners, 43mm bone nuts, and under-saddle piezo pickups, as well as a soundhole-mounted preamp.

There isn't, then, a great deal of difference between the two models, although the AS comes stored in a hardcase, while the SL settles for a deluxe gig bag.

In his Instagram reel, Bettencourt says that, across the Nuno Guitars range, “there’s a price range for everybody.” A look at its new website confirms that it is largely the case.

All model names also derive from horse terminology, apart from the N4, which is a reissue of his Washburn signature guitar.

The premium Thoroughbred models are priced at $4,999.99 apiece, with the mid-tier Stable line ranging between $3,299.99 and $2,799.99. The Colt series starts from $1,199.99 and rises to $1,299.99.

All models are now available for pre-order, with the acoustics shipping in May, and various lead times on the electrics – Thoroughbreds are hand-built over a 6-12 month period.

See Nuno Guitars for more.

What is it?

Yamaha will shortly be celebrating 10 years since it introduced its first TransAcoustic guitar at Summer NAMM in 2016, back when the guitar world circled the new technology with great suspicion.

Was this a novelty? A passing phase? Or could it be seen as a serious instrument that might find space on a professional stage? After all, an acoustic guitar that could generate its own reverb and chorus without any external effects being called into play seemed like some kind of a bizarre magic trick.

But it worked. And the sound it produced was simply uncanny. That same guitar world listened and ultimately nodded in approval.

Since then, the technology that was turning heads a decade ago has been reworked to include more onboard effects in the shape of delay and, unbelievably, a fully functioning looper.

Furthermore, the effects are now all editable via an app – the TAG Remote – that connects to your guitar via Bluetooth and enriches the nature of the effects by offering control over parameters and reverb types.

So how does it work? Is there some sort of dark art at play here? Let’s let the boffins at Yamaha explain: “Two actuators installed on the inner surface of the guitar resonate in response to the vibrations of the strings,” they tell us. “The vibrations generated by the actuators are then transmitted to the body of the guitar and to the air in and around it. This results in authentic reverb, chorus and delay sounds that actually radiate from within the body.”

We’ve encountered TransAcoustic guitars in the past, and spending time with the technology won us over. It really is something that you need to hear for yourself to appreciate – and a good place to start is by watching the video that Yvette Young did for Yamaha, demonstrating the TAS3 C’s looper. We’ll eat our hat if you’re not impressed.

But, of course, this clever stuff is all well and good, but what about the guitar that’s playing host to Yamaha’s cunning? It’s clear the company knows a thing or two about making top-notch guitars and so expectations here are very high before we’ve even played a chord.

The guitar just has that look about it, with a subtle sunburst to its nicely figured Sitka spruce top. And the rest of the construction details spell out a quality build, too, with mahogany for the back and sides, the grain of which is all but obscured by the dark finish. The mahogany theme continues with the TAS3’s neck, which is topped off with some very nice-looking open-backed tuners.

Turning the guitar over, the fretwork on the ebony ’board is right up to standard with an expertly cut nut and very well-finished frets. The face of the fretboard is left plain, without any position markers, but pearloid dots along its edge will aid navigation more than adequately.

If you’re curious about what the circular inlay below the soundhole is, it’s all to do with the looping function – and it’s time to start exploring that and the other onboard effects right about now.

The inner workings of the instrument that generate the effects are hidden inside. And instead of the usual volume and tone controls that would be mounted on a standard electro-acoustic, there is a port for the rechargeable battery on the upper bout near the neck joint and a control panel to take command of the effects. These comprise reverb, delay, chorus and looper around a central on/off button.

However, a couple of the controls have a secondary function – for instance, you hold the reverb button to put the looper into standby mode, then begin playing and tap the circular inlay to stop recording. Pressing the chorus button will stop playback.

This might sound like a faff for an acoustic player who may be used to just plugging in, setting a volume level and getting on with it, but electric players will feel at home as plenty of effects units on the market have similar multi-functional controls. And while it may not seem intuitive, spending a short while with the helpful – and delightfully clear – manual will set you straight.

Apart from the effects, the TAS3 has a built-in tuner and a battery level indicator to ensure you know when you need to top up the power. Another thing that is common with much of today’s guitar tech is Bluetooth connectivity.

Once you’ve downloaded Yamaha’s TAG Remote app, you merely press-and-hold the looper button to get connected.

Once again, this might deter a few technophobes, but the benefits of connecting to the app are, by all accounts, worth it because it gives you the opportunity to customise your effects levels, swap reverb types, recall loops and so on.

It goes without saying that investing a little time scaling the slight learning curve involved here will lead to exploiting the instrument’s capabilities to the full. And that sounds like time well spent to us.

Specs

• PRICE: $1,899/£1,393 (inc hard gig bag)
• ORIGIN: China
• TYPE: Concert cutaway
• Top: Sitka spruce with ARE treatment
• Back/Sides: Mahogany
• Max Rim Depth: 115mm
• Max Body Width: 380mm
• Neck: Mahogany
• Scale Length: 650mm (25.6”)
• Tuners: Open gear Champagne‑Gold
• Nut/Width: Urea/44mm
• Fingerboard: Ebony
• Frets: 20
• Bridge/Spacing: Ebony/54mm
• Electrics: TransAcoustic (System 76) with reverb, chorus, delay, looper, line out vol, tap sensor. Bluetooth audio facility and downloadable iOS/Android compatible TAG Remote app for parameter editing
• Weight (kg/lb): 2.6/5.9
• Left-Handers: No
• Finish: Natural (as reviewed), Sand Burst – gloss with matt neck
• Contact: Yamaha

Playablity and sounds

Returning our attention to the instrument, the TAS3 feels good straight out of its Yamaha-badged custom hard bag. The only thing that would lead you to suspect that the guitar itself is not the full story is the slight increase in weight – a tad more than you’d expect from a standalone acoustic.

The neck is a plentiful C profile and very comfortable in the hand and, despite the heft of the body, balance is good, both sitting and standing. Exploratory chordal strums reveal a sweet sound with a good mix of treble and bass.

Concert-bodied acoustics tend to avoid an inclination towards the boominess sometimes found on their bigger-bodied counterparts and that’s very much the case here. Fingerpicking sounds good, too, and so we were particularly interested to hear what the electronic side of the guitar adds to the picture.

Navigating through the effects is a simple task. The reverb is an immediate favourite for what it adds to the sound-picture, giving it a very professional, produced sheen.

Chorus on an acoustic is very much a Marmite situation: you either love it or hate it. Yet here it offers additional depth and shimmer to strummed chords.

Delay does exactly what it says, layering even more production value to the overall output, and the looper (once you’ve acquired the knack of hitting the circular sensor on time to switch off record mode) provides even more functionality.

Employing the app means that the reverb can be switched between Hall, Room or Plate, delay settings can be fine-tuned, and so on.

In fact, everything here is set for a player to either sit in the living room with a wonderfully produced-sounding acoustic or even attend an open mic night and play in front of a mic and achieve a similar pro effect.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

Whereas you may feel that the whole TransAcoustic thing is a novelty item and not aimed at being a serious performance tool, we’d urge you to put aside any of the preconceptions you might have and try one.

Yamaha has really thought the whole situation through admirably with an acoustic that sounds and plays really well on its own, with the electronic side of things adding a functional bonus on top.

Guitar World verdict: A fully produced pro-sounding acoustic in your living room without having to daisy-chain effects or lug amps about all for a smidge under £1,400? As a practice tool alone, that’s well worth the ticket price. But master the magic within and the sky’s the limit.

Hands-on videos

Yamaha

• Best acoustic electric guitars 2025: electro-acoustic picks for every guitarist, whatever your budget
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

In 2019, Fender launched a product that revolutionized the acoustic guitar space – the American Acoustasonic Telecaster.

At the time, Fender's then-CEO Andy Mooney said, “This is the first time in Fender history an acoustic guitar will take top billing at NAMM.” The hybrid model bridged the gap between traditional electric and acoustic offerings, successfully blending analog and digital technologies to offer not only different acoustic voicings, but also unmistakable and highly versatile electric tones.

“On the acoustic side, I was not happy with how little artist adoption that we were getting,” Mooney says of the project's inception during the new episode of Guitar Center’s Inside the Noise with Gabe Dalporto podcast. “Martin and Taylor are great, great brands, and any number of great artists have used them over the years.

“And so the brief I gave to the product team at that time was, on the one hand, extraordinarily simple but extraordinarily difficult, which is, make an acoustic guitar the way that Leo would have made it. So that took us down a path.”

As Mooney recalls, the team was encouraged to adopt Leo Fender's avant-garde way of thinking, and confront questions such as, “‘Where are the controls going to be? Is it going to be a set neck? Is it going to be a bolt-on neck?’” and, more importantly, “‘What is it that Leo would have done in today's age, that's not out there on the market?’

“Everything's electrified. It has to be, because they're [artists] on stage,” Mooney continues. “What we said is, 'What if we could give them 10 great acoustic guitars with electronics that would enable them to use pedals?' Because that's one of the issues with acoustic guitars on stage: feedback with pedals.”

Mooney divulges that it was an intensive two-and-a-half-year design project, during which the Fender team worked closely with Fishman to develop the electronics, which supercharged the Acoustasonic's hybrid tone and feel. The electric-style tones, though, came as something of a surprise.

“They [the team] took me through the acoustic voicings, and they said, ‘Listen to this.’ And then it was an electric guitar. How did that happen? It was a really happy accident,” he recalls.

“As we both know, guitar players are very reluctant to change, and we never expected the Acoustasonic to be an overnight success, but it's really gratifying now to see folks like FINNEAS or Jack White now asking for custom variations of that,” Mooney continues.

“So we're starting to see the type of artist adoption that we wanted, and we've got the line in various price points so that people can come in at more accessible price points and experience the instrument for the first time.

“So I think that's one of the big things [in terms of wins] for me, because the acoustic category is as big, if not bigger, than the electric category.”

Fender has recently announced that Mooney will be retiring after 10 years at the top, with Edward ‘Bud’ Cole, head of Fender Asia Pacific, taking the reins as the brand’s new CEO on February 16.

NAMM 2026: Taylor Guitars has opened 2026 with an almighty mic drop, expanding its “heritage-inspired” Gold Label series and debuting the Next Generation of its flagship Grand Auditorium – introducing a trio of features that make its super-versatile high-end acoustic guitar even more refined.

At first blush, you would be forgiven for not noticing too many changes. The Taylor Grand Auditorium looks like the Taylor Grand Auditorium; immaculately built, pristine, business as usual. But the Next Generation Grand Auditorium has three new features that drive the design forward.

Firstly, the Next Gen acoustics have an evolutionary new scalloped take on chief designer and CEO Andy Power’s V-Class bracing, which Taylor says “lightens key brace zones for increased top movement and responsiveness”.

That promises to translate to more warmth, richness and low-end, with the same “pitch accuracy, projection and sustain” that made V-Class bracing such a ground-breaking proposition in the first place.

“Like any recipe, it’s a careful balance that you want to make, so that you don’t have one thing overpowering anything else,” says Powers. “On these guitars, you have this incredible, brilliant, real vibrant upper register – great accuracy, great balance – and yet, when I come down to the lower register, all the notes have this classic warmth, a nice presence.

“There’s a familiarity for anybody who’s played guitar for a long time. It feels great when you’re strumming chords, you’re a rhythm player, you’re accompanying a vocalist, something like that. It works really well.”

Secondly, these models come with Action Control Neck systems as standard, allowing players to make super-easy adjustments to their guitar’s action.

It’s pretty much a simple case of reaching into the soundhole and turning a bolt, and you can set it low for that quasi-electric guitar action, or a little higher so those strings have a bit more room to vibrate if you are strumming big open chords.

The Action Control Neck system features a long neck tenon that extends deep into the guitar’s body. Unlike traditional dovetail neck joints, it is supposedly easier to repair.

“We want the guitar to be playing an optimum condition, no matter where in the world you go, how old the guitar is, what the environment’s like,” says Powers. “And so this design was something that we rolled out this last year on our Gold Label guitars, where it has a tremendous amount of adjustability.”

Lastly, and by no means least, we have an all-new acoustic guitar pickup and preamp, the Claria, which Powers promises is a “best-in-class” system for amplified acoustic tone.

Given that it is replacing the Expression System 2, the Claria pickup/preamp has a lot to live up to. It, too, is based on an under-saddle piezo and is paired with an all-new preamp that allows players to really dial in their amplified acoustic tone with a minimum of fuss.

We like how the controls are relocated to the inside of the soundhole. We also like how easy this system is to use. There is a Level control for overall volume output. There is a Tone control. Then there is a Mid-contour knob that allows players to go from a sort lo-fi warmth to a brighter hi-fi sheen.

These Next Generation appointments are being rolled out across a wide range of different 300, 400 and 800 Series models, both Standard and Builder’s Edition, with prices starting from $2,499 for the 314ce.

Note; the 12-string 454ce and 854ce 12-string guitars will feature the quote-unquote "traditional" V-Classic bracing.

Taylor’s new Gold Label models. meanwhile, are voiced a bit more old-school. We’re talking dreadnoughts with broad, square shoulders, and big lungs, and no cutaways – Taylor’s “acoustic powerhouse” – and there are three dreads in the lineup.

The Gold Label 510e has the über-classic torrefied Sitka spruce top and mahogany back-and-sides tonewood combo. The Gold Label 710e pairs torrefied Sitka spruce with Indian Rosewood, while you can go a little more upscale with the 810e and its Honduran rosewood and spruce top. These are priced from $2,799.

“It’s like players are stepping into a different musical skin with our Gold Label guitars,” says Powers. “Songwriters, bluegrass players, Americana players, rhythm players, weekend strummers, worship leaders, all kinds of different players saying, ‘Wow, I love this sound. This is a whole different face of Taylor.’”

And before we leave you, there are a couple of new Gold Label models worth mentioning.

These are 900 Series dream machines, with the Gold Label 914e a Super Auditorium (think deeper body, deeper tone than the Grand Auditorium), and the round-shouldered dread profile of the Grand Pacific 917e (“stunning power in the bass range, without the muddy, woofy characteristics”).

Both have Adirondack spruce tops with Honduran rosewood on the back and sides, and Gold Label specs such as the aforementioned Action Control Neck, golden era aesthetic flourishes and the fanned V-Class bracing are present and correct on these new 2026 models.

To read more and see more on these new models, head on over to Taylor Guitars.

What is it?

With no shortage of acoustic guitars for beginners around, the abundance of choice in the modern era of guitar makes it an amazing time to pick up the instrument for the first time. Combining comfortable playability and low cost with tried and tested build quality, the Fender California Standard Monterey E represents another arm of Fender’s budget-friendly acoustic offerings, giving players an additional choice with a rather unique look.

The mid-sized orchestra/auditorium body is paired with a typical, 25.5-inch scale found on most Fender guitars. Fender’s slim ‘C’ profile neck features here, hewn from okoume and aiming to deliver a playable instrument that won't shred delicate fingertips, encouraging repeat play when first picking up the acoustic guitar.

A built-in tuner and preamp give the option to plug in and play, while a Micarta nut and Modern Viking bridge pair with die-cast sealed tuning machines to complete the hardware offering. Add in that unique - and potentially divisive - 6-in-a-line headstock, and you’ve got a potentially great value guitar that could be just the thing to send beginners onwards onto their guitar journey.

Specs

• Launch price: $/£/€
• Launch price: $262/£249/€239
• Made: China
• Body shape: Orchestra/Auditorium
• Body top: Laminated sapele
• Top bracing: X
• Back & sides: Laminated sapele
• Neck/shape: Okoume, ‘C’ shape
• Scale/length: 25.5" (648 mm)
• Nut/width: Micarta, 1.6875" (42.86 mm)
• String spacing at bridge: 55mm
• Fingerboard/Radius: Walnut, 12" (305 mm)
• Body depth: 104mm
• Finish: Natural (as reviewed), 3-Color Sunburst, Surf Green gloss
• Bridge/pins: Modern Viking, plastic pins
• Tuning Machines: Die-cast sealed
• Electronics: Fender FE-A2 preamp with Volume, Tone (treble roll-off) controls and chromatic tuner.
• Case: No
• Left-handed options: No
• Contact: Fender

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

I’ve played a few Fender acoustics over this past year and the build quality has always been generally impressive. It’s the same story with the California Standard Monterey, which I’m pleased to report bears very few defects I can speak of or see with a well-trained eye. Everything feels very nicely put together, with some nice aesthetic touches like the electric guitar-inspired headstock and the modern, notched pickguard.

I can see that headstock being quite divisive, and it is an initially jarring design when I first look at it in this context, despite the electric-style shape being part of Fender's acoustics since the early '60s. It’s the classic Fender headstock you’d find on a Mustang, but because it’s on an acoustic guitar, it’s angled backwards to create a better break angle. It takes me some getting used to tuning it up, too, as my muscle memory tuning acoustic guitars immediately makes my hand reach underneath when I get to the G-string. Nonetheless, it gives Fender a distinctive identity in a packed market for affordable guitars.

Taking a closer look at the build, I do spy a few tiny aesthetic issues in the guitar’s construction. There are light dents on the wood that make up the bracing in the interior, visible when peering through the sound hole.

I also catch some visible lines where the binding has been joined in multiple pieces, and a small overrun of glue where the fingerboard meets the soundhole. None of these will affect playability though, so I can’t be too hard on it here, especially considering the price point.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

Picking up the California Standard Monterey to play it, I can immediately feel that Fender 'C' neck profile. The neck really doesn’t feel all that different from my Fender Telecaster. Yes, the strings require more effort to press down, but the carve of the neck feels very familiar, and it doesn’t take me long to get up and running with some cowboy chords and arpeggios.

The upper fret access is decent, with the neck joining the body at the 14th fret. I can get comfortably beyond that to the 16th fret before it comes a really big stretch, but to be honest, I can’t imagine many players needing to go beyond the 12th fret here. It’s nice to have though. The fret edges are very smooth too, with no sharp fret ends to speak of.

The string spacing is a nice mix between comfort for fingerpicking, while still being close enough together that it doesn’t feel like a stretch playing arpeggios with a pick. The string tension is as you'd expect for an acoustic at this scale length, with reasonable pressure required in order to press down the strings.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★½

The body size means that the Fender California Standard Monterey E doesn’t have quite as much of that low-end as you’d get on a dreadnought-sized guitar, but that’s not something a beginner is likely to pick up anyway. In combination with the laminate woods, the tonality is overall characterized by a strong emphasis on the midrange, making it a versatile choice for both hard-strummed chords and fingerstyle playing.

It does compress some when you hit it hard, but gentler playing brings out some really nice sounds, with plenty of harmonic overtones that ring out nicely when I hold onto some major 7th chords. There’s a nice balance across the strings when playing fingerstyle that doesn’t require me to adjust too much to account for the more powerful low end you’d find on a larger guitar.

Moving further up the neck as I start to pick harder, it’s very easy to get the strings to buzz due to the low action on this test model. There are a couple of buzzy notes here that aren’t completely dead, but occasionally give out a not-so-nice metallic ringing.

It’s something that can be ironed out with a good setup, and thankfully only happens in the higher registers of the neck versus the likely to be far more chartered territory nearer the nut. It is something beginners may have to factor into the price point if they want their guitar playing nicely all over, however.

Plugging it into my audio interface to see how the built-in preamp sounds, I’m surprised to find that the output level is pretty low, even with the volume at full whack. I have to add a Neve preamp plugin to the track in my DAW to get decent volume out of it, adding around 15dB to really hear the quality of its tone.

There’s a nice bit of low end and midrange present, but the top delivers that typically plinky tone of undersaddle piezo pickups. It’s fine for playing a live show with some added EQ and reverb, but I wouldn’t record it in the studio this way. At this price, it is a useful addition though, meaning beginners could potentially take it to their first show if aided by a decent acoustic guitar pedal.

Verdict

Although it’s not without its flaws, the Fender California Standard Monterey E is a satisfying helping of acoustic guitar for relatively little money. It does the important things right for a beginner-level acoustic, ensuring excellent playability and delivering a very usable built-in tuner, which is one of the best I’ve seen on any acoustic electric guitar.

The sounds probably won’t be sophisticated enough for anyone beyond the beginner realm however, with the lack of low end and reduced sparkle in the top end thanks to the cheaper tonewoods used and the smaller body size. The buzzing frets in the upper registers were also noticeable to me on this test guitar, which means the extra outlay of a decent setup might need to be factored into the cost.

Guitar World Verdict: For beginner guitar players, or those who want an affordable acoustic to play on the sofa, the Fender California Standard Monterey E delivers fantastic playability and rugged build quality. It’s not going to challenge pricier acoustics in the sound department, and some will still find that headstock a little weird to look at on an acoustic, but there’s a lot to love here – especially considering the cost.

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Without a doubt, 2025 has been Guitar World's busiest for reviews, with a growing team of experts to test a huge variety of instruments, amps, pedals and software.

That's reflected in this Gear Of The Year rundown - there's just been so many highlights to cover. As well as our highest-scoring Platinum Award reviews, we have also asked our team to name their own personal highlights and it's made for an inspiring collection that we hope you'll enjoy. It's also a good opportunity to reflect before we begin what's sure to be a great 2026 for releases.

Let's dig in!

Platinum Award winners

We start our haul of 2025 favourites with the undisputed champions – the gear that was awarded 5/5 in every category to receive a coveted Guitar World Platinum Award. It's a diverse elite group too, with classic and forward-thinking design represented.

Strandberg Boden N2 Original

The first of two well-deserved Platinum releases from the super Swedes

Matt Owen: “There have been only two pieces of gear that I’ve reviewed that have made me fundamentally rethink my approach to the guitar. The first was the Neural DSP Nano Cortex last year. In 2025 it is the Strandberg Boden N2 Original – a next-gen headless build from Ola Strandberg, which has opened my eyes to an entirely new way of playing the instrument.

“Headless guitars have enjoyed a meteoric renaissance over the past few years and it seems likely the N2 models, which overhauled the flagship Boden design, could represent another watershed moment for their fortunes. Never have I played a guitar that feels so effortlessly comfortable, so easily playable. The EndurNuck profile and contoured body may sound alien, but they sure as heck don’t feel it. The guitar fit me like a glove, and was unlike anything I’d played before. It helped the new tweaks – including the updated Fishman pickups – sounded so absurdly versatile, too.

“For what it’s worth, while Strandbergs may be seen as inherently prog-y guitars, the N2 changed my perception of that. I’d have no qualms playing this in my indie folk rock band. I said it in my review, and I’ll say it again: every guitar player needs to experience this at some point.”

Read more: Strandberg Boden N2 Original review

ToneWoodAmp2

If only more sequels were as good as this

Rob Laing: "Great ideas don't mean much to guitarists without the execution, and the second ToneWoodAmp knocks it out the park for me on both fronts. Firstly it's accessible to anyone who has an electro-acoustic guitar, even if that means a cheap soundhole pickup you've bought later. Secondly, it opens up a world of inspiring effects that are generated through the guitar's body and out of its soundhole.

"Where ToneWoodAmp has really gone even further this time is with the design and added features. It now has a USB-C rechargeable battery that lasts longer, but its companion app (and honestly sometimes I groan when I see hardware that uses apps) is actually really good and unlocks the preamp side, which is a whole other story. It's a toolbox of EQ shaping and feedback taming that's really tailored for empowering live acoustic players.

"I think you'll not just play your acoustic guitar more with this, but you will play better-sounding gigs too."

Read more: ToneWoodAmp2 review

Epiphone Bonehead Riviera

The best of the Oasis trilogy

Dave Burrluck: "Not only is this Riviera the most Oasis-relevant guitar of the recently launched trio, it’s the most affordable too. As a modern repro of a design that was launched back in 1958 as the Gibson ES-335 it’s not bringing anything new to the table either but that’s not the point. It’s simply a celebration of a guitar that launched a phenomenon and, as Bonehead states, is still in his hands today.

"Step away from the Bonehead/Oasis connection, however, and this Riviera remains a very good and very functional ES-335-alike. The playing, the songs and the style are down to you!"

Read more: Epiphone Bonehead Riviera review

Fender American Professional Classic Stratocaster

A new Fender series - with old values

Dave Burrluck: "While this new American Professional Classic platform doesn’t reinvent Fender’s decades-old designs, this Stratocaster is not only crisply made but really hard to put down.

"It’s a well-sorted fluid player while the ‘hot vintage’ Coastline pickups kick in a little additional fullness that works extremely well on rockier amp voicings without really losing any of the classic Fender voice played clean. No fuss: it’s a superb and well-priced working tool with a well-considered vintage/modern blend."

Read more: Fender American Professional Classic Stratocaster review

Warm Audio Throne Of Tone

This best of both drives?

Paul Riario: "For me, Boost mode is the true highlight here — whether you’re in King or Blues voicing — and an ideal springboard to begin carving out a noteworthy tone. And even if the ToT doesn't fully capture the "it" factor of the original King of Tone, I stand by my assertion that the Throne of Tone comes imperceptibly close as a near-sonic replication of it, complete with all its nuanced goodness. And that’s enough for me to say, it’s a keeper."

Read more: Warm Audio Throne Of Tone pedal review

PRS S2 Mira 594 Satin

A USA-made PRS at a surprisingly palatable price

Dave Burrluck: "While many of us have admired the superb craft of PRS’s USA-made guitars over the past four decades, not everyone has enjoyed the inevitable cost, not to mention the often opulent presentation. Well, if that’s you then this new S2 Mira 594 might have your name on it. It’s a stripped-down down bare-bones guitar but doesn’t cut any corners that matter and has a wide range of pretty classic humbucker and single coil voices that ooze quality."

Read more: PRS S2 Mira 594 Satin review

Tone King Imperial Tri Tube Preamp

The Tone King scales down in size - and price!

Connor Flys: "It does complex things in a simple way, and does them incredibly well. Its feature set is comprehensive and its sounds are stunning. If you think of it merely as 'a pedal', you might decry its price tag – but if you view it as an ultra-flexible way into the Tone King sound for a quarter of the price, and a fraction of the size and weight of the amp it's based on, then what a compelling prospect this is."

Read more: Tone King Imperial Tri Tube Preamp review

Strandberg N2 Boden Standard

Strandberg's other N2 is much more than standard

Phil Weller: "Unlike Matt, I’ve been a Strandberg convert for five years. Similarly, though, it was revolutionary for my playing too. The angular EndurNeck immediately made sense, its tones proved versatile, and its portability unmatched.

"For me, the arrival of the N2 Boden Standard underscores everything that makes Strandberg's builds outstanding. The next generation of its slightly more budget-minded version – although $1,799 isn’t exactly cheap – offers some choice improvements, while doubling down on its greatest features.

"Its refined forearm contour and thinner body somehow make it an even more superbly cosy instrument, and its buttery playability is even better. From the very first note I played, it felt like we’d spent a lifetime together already, and putting it down was difficult.

"The EGS Series 7 tremolo sees tuning stability even more rock solid, but the change that had me grinning the most is the addition of Seymour Duncan's beastly Sentient/Pegasus humbuckers, in place of own-brand designs. They feel like the perfect match for a Strandberg, juxtaposing the space-age design with a more earthly quality, and offering more than just djent tones – this is a guitar that’s suitable for just about any gig you throw at it."

Read more: Strandberg N2 Boden Standard

TWA Source Code

The Tube Screamer's designer evolves the blueprint

Paul Riario: "I personally find the Source Code essential when paired with single coils in delivering that robust and stinging SRV-tone with snap. And alternatively, with humbuckers, it acts just the same, albeit with more brawn. What’s neat is the Source Code's slight compression manages to let the pedal breathe, resulting in a wide-open response. How good is it? Put it this way: I don’t use a Tube Screamer often, but if I did, the Source Code is the one I’ll be grabbing."

Read more: TWA Source Code review

PRS SE NF 53

A PRS for non-believers?

Dave Burrluck: "If you just think PRS make guitars for well-heeled doctors and dentists you might have to change your opinion here. Bird inlays aside there’s zero bling and this comes across as a real working guitar that could sit in pretty much any style you can muster.

"It might appear bare-bones to some but there’s nothing basic about the build, feel or sounds or the tuning stability. Who cares where it’s made, this is a workingman’s tool pure and simple: any guitar player could use one, which might well qualify it as the most essential guitar yet of 2025."

Read more: PRS SE NF 53 review

Boss XS-1 Poly Shifter

Boss's R&D pays off big time in a compact pedal

Phil Weller: "With the XS-100, pedal heavyweights Boss presented the first like-for-like rival to the long-undisputed pitch-shifting king, the DigiTech Whammy. Yet, even with crystal clear pitching and an expansive eight-octave range, its digital menu felt a little convoluted and undermined its magic.

"So it was the underdog XS-1 that, for me at least, proved the real winner of a project Boss has spent years working on. Arriving in the standard Boss pedal format, it doesn’t quite have the same roster of features, but the incredibly accurate, artefact-free shifting – which puts DigiTech and Neural DSP to shame – remains. That makes it a brilliant tool for the stage, but I found its Balance dial delighted me the most. From adding a little discordance to chugs, through to subtle and not-so-subtle octaver grit, I find that it reshapes the effect in a litany of exciting ways.

"That’s seen it join my live rig alongside my Whammy. It does away with the extraneous nonsense and instead serves up an easy-to-use and very dynamic pedal that does far more than its comparatively diminutive form had me assume."

Read more: Boss XS-1 Poly Shifter review

Electric guitars

Gretsch Synchromatic Falcon

The iconic bird for less outlay

Daryl Roberston: "For as long as I can remember, I’ve always loved Gretsch’s White Falcon. This ostentatious, giant hollow body is dripping with retro charm and is a timeless classic in my mind. Now, despite my love of the model, I’ve never really come close to purchasing one. Unfortunately, this beautiful guitar comes with a rather large price tag to match its enormous outline.

"Well, that is until now. I was beyond excited when Gretsch announced that they were finally making an affordable Falcon, and when I got my hands on it, it more than lived up to my sky-high expectations. Boasting the typical 2.5-inch deep maple body with a semi-acoustic bracing, an ebony fingerboard, and a real bone nut, along with a Bigsby B60 and a set of Hi-Fidelity Filter’Tron pickups, it’s clear that Gretsch threw everything they had at this guitar.

"For me, the maple neck had a very comfortable, soft C profile. It also features that classic 25.5” scale length and a flat 12” radius. Honestly, it’s a model that fits my hands perfectly, and I found it difficult to put down. More importantly, it had the sound to match. That iconic Gretsch spank was available in spades, with a bright and characterful tone that seemed to eat country licks for breakfast."

Read more: Gretsch Synchromatic Falcon review

Jet Guitars JJ-300 P90

Setting a new benchmark for affordable guitar value

Neville Marten: "Sure, the pickups aren’t what you’d get in instruments from Anderson, Eggle, Schecter or other ‘boutique’ makers, but they offer a range of classy tones that suit each instrument well. And, as Jet itself says, these guitars are eminently pimpable.

"More than anything else, though, the overall quality on display here took us totally by surprise. Had we been told the guitars cost £600, £800 or even £1,000 we would have had no reason to doubt it."

Read more: Jet Guitars JJ-300 P90 review

Jackson Pro Plus Series Signature Misha Mansoor Juggernaut ET6

The ever-excellent Evertune finds a perfect match

"As someone who has the privilege of regularly reviewing guitar gear, it’s a rare thing indeed when something comes along and completely subverts my expectations of what a guitar should be. From a purely aesthetic perspective, the Jackson Pro Plus Series Signature Misha Mansoor Juggernaut ET6 is just another sharp-edged super-Strat with dual humbuckers and a pointy headstock, but my experience playing it was revelatory.

"The epicenter of that experience is the EverTune bridge, which is one of those mechanisms that is slowly revolutionizing the electric guitar in the same way that the Floyd Rose did when it rose to popularity in the 80s. Rather than being an apparatus for guitar histrionics, the EverTune is all about machine-like precision in the pursuit of a cure to tuning instability.

"The EverTune doesn’t care about the environmental conditions, how far you bend the strings, how hard you push down with your fretting hand, nor how forcefully you dig in with your pick. It doesn’t even care what tuning you’re in. Once set up, it stays in tune and is perfectly intonated all across the fretboard, which makes playing the Juggernaut ET6 an otherworldly experience, and one that has stuck with me all year."

Gibson Les Paul Studio Session

A lighter Les Paul that blurs the lines for what a Studio model is

Daryl Robertson: "Personally, I can't help but feel the Studio line is becoming a little bloated and confusing. With a quad of models all presenting slight variations on a common theme, it could be argued that Gibson should streamline the offering to a standard Studio, which retains its traditional appointments, and the Studio Session, which offers players something a little more contemporary, without straying too far from Gibson's well-trodden path.

Heck, Gibson's own marketing calls the new Studio Session "The One," so there's now an even stronger argument to be made that the entire line could be distilled down to just this single guitar - something I'd totally be on board with if I'm honest.

"The Session successfully combines all the best elements from each of the other Studios, such as vintage styling and sound, modern playability, and a firey top that belongs on a Standard, and for that reason, I think it's by far the best value Studio Gibson currently offers."

Read more: Gibson Les Paul Studio Session review

Orangewood Del Sol baritone

A different approach to baritone that delivers

Matt McCracken: "Baritone guitars can be cumbersome creatures when you first pick one up, the extended scale length providing an added challenge for even the most experienced guitarist. This wasn’t quite the case when I picked up the Orangewood Del Sol Baritone, which, despite the initially monstrous feeling 27.5-inch scale, has a 43mm nut to keep the neck proportions closer to those of a regular electric guitar.

"Yes, some adjustment is required, but once I got used to it, I found myself flying across the neck without much thought to the additional scale length. The hefty 13-72 gauge strings might imply a skew towards the low end, but the semi-hollow body proffers an airy intelligibility, even when playing open chords near the nut.

"The P-90s are superbly voiced for the instrument, complementing its bassy tendencies with a mid-range focus. The phase switch unlocks an additional tone element that cuts through nicely when playing with a full band, and it brilliantly straddles the line between bass and guitar, with fingerpicking unlocking the round, and warm tones of a bass, while digging in with a pick delivers rock and roll guitar tones with some serious heft."

Read more: Orangewood Del Sol review

Acoustic guitars

Bourgeois Slope D Standard T/S

Masterful

David Mead: When faced with the idea that it’s possible to get an extremely high-quality instrument for a fraction of the price of a bespoke handmade affair, you’d be right to be cynical.

"After all, we know that if something seems too good to be true, it often is just that. But that’s not the case here. Bourgeois and Eastman have managed to produce a guitar that sounds far more expensive than its price tag would indicate.

"Seek one out – but hold onto your socks, because they’re likely to be blown off!"

Read more: Bourgeois Slope D Standard T/S review

LR Baggs AEG-1

Amplified acoustic guitar sound levels up

Neville Marten: "It’s several hundred more than even a US-made Fender Acoustasonic, but while there’s no magnetic pickup for those electric tones, O really like the simpler, uncompromising proposition the AEG-1 offers.

"It’s hard to successfully describe ‘tone’, but if you’re a gigging acoustic guitarist you need to get down to your nearest dealer to try an AEG-1 soon. I think you’ll be bowled over."

Read more: LR Baggs AEG-1 review

Taylor 314ce Studio

A serious US Taylor for less

Jamie Dickson: "Combined with Taylor’s slinky playability, the ES2 makes the 314ce a serious live performance tool. Overall, it adds up to a rather charming package that, while not cheap, is fairly priced (with premium gig bag included), crisply built and shines like a gem on the live stage."

Read more: Taylor 314ce Studio review

Fender Standard Acoustasonic Telecaster 

The Acoustasonic finally finds a more universal price point

Rob Laing: "This feels and plays very much like the Acoustasonics I've enjoyed in the past and I'm glad more people will be able to sample that. There's nothing directly comparable in terms of quality and combination in this price range either.

"So let's take stock. You lose the Fender nice soft case of the Player, the Fishman 'imaging' and overdriven voices and arguably, based on my experience, a better unplugged performance. But honestly, I don't feel that adds up to $600. Perhaps it will for others. But I would choose these Standard models over the Player options if I were new to the Acoustasonic. And they make fantastic house guitars too."

Read more: Fender Standard Acoustasonic Telecaster review

Martin GPE Inception Maple

Martin's progressive spirit thrills here

Jamie Dickson: "Anyone buying a high-end guitar knows it’s often a game of diminishing returns. But with the Maple GPE Inception, Martin offers something new, compelling and powerful – and if it speaks to you, you’ll find yourself in possession of a real thoroughbred."

Read more: Martin GPE Inception Maple review

Guitar pedals

Hotone NC-200 Verbera reverb

An unexpected delight from Hotone

Daryl Robertson: "When it comes to guitar tones, I like to keep things simple. Give me bold, in-your-face rock tones, minimal effects, and loads of saturation. So, as you can probably guess, I’m not usually the dreamy-reverb type. But then the Hotone NC-200 landed in my hands, and, well, everything changed. I found this dual-engine reverb to be genuinely inspiring, and it had me rethinking my current approach to stompboxes.

"Packed with both real spaces, thanks to IR convolution, and some seriously clever algorithmic reverbs, this pedal pretty much covers every reverb vibe you could ever want. And while the sounds are definitely top-shelf, it was the ease of use that truly won me over. I’ve never met a pedal with this many features that was also simple to use. With so much packed inside, I braced myself for a headache, but nope, every knob is clearly labeled, and those colorful LED rings keep you in the loop so you always know what you’re tweaking.

"So, I’d say if the idea of jumping into the world of modern reverb pedals freaks you out a little, give the Hotone NC-200 a shot. I haven’t found another pedal that’s this packed with sounds and features and this intuitive."

Read more: Hotone NC-200 Verbera reverb pedal review

Boss RT-2 Rotary Ensemble

A little leslie

Alex Lynham: "This is an excellent-looking, intuitive pedal. Luckily, it also has sounds to match, and enough versatility to earn its space on even a tight pedalboard.

"There's not much to tell between the modes – a wasted opportunity perhaps – but there are excellent sounds in here. It's a best-in-class rotary emulation and a serviceable Uni-Vibe style effect. Does it perfectly match the deep phase tone of the Uni-Vibe? No, but it's close enough."

Read more: Boss RT-2 Rotary Ensemble review

Strymon EC-1 Single Head dTape Delay

The kings of filtering vintage inspiration through DSP know-how

Daryl Robertson: "One of the standout features for me is the tape age dial. It’s incredibly valuable for fine-tuning the delay sound. By adjusting this dial, I can simulate the natural wear and deterioration of vintage tape, which adds subtle variations and character to the repeats. I love how I can create everything from crisp, clear delays to more textured, lo-fi sounds, depending on how far I push the dial. This flexibility makes the EC-1 not only versatile but also deeply satisfying to use.

"Simply put, the Strymon EC-1 is a fantastic delay pedal that really shines when it comes to sound quality. It really nails those classic tape delay vibes and isn't afraid to model the uglier side of the machine, too."

Read more: Strymon EC-1 Single Head dTape Echo pedal review

Crazy Tube Circuits Venus

Dual engine ambience

Trevor Curwen: "While all of the reverbs are available for individual use, it’s the stacking of two together that’s going to be the attraction here for players who like to get creative. With the pick ’n’ mix selection of both traditional and esoteric reverbs (256 combinations with R1 and R2 used together!), there’s plenty of scope to craft some unique ambient textures.

"The Mirage positively celebrates being intuitive and hands-on with no menus. Its routing flexibility, creative sonic potential and performance options could make it a solid reality on your pedalboard."

Read more: Crazy Tube Circuits Mirage review

TC Electronic Dittoo 2 Looper

A update worth waiting for

Matt McCracken: "As far as single-button loopers go, the TC Electronic Ditto 2 stakes its claim to take over from the OG Ditto with aplomb. It doesn’t do a huge amount different to the original, but the addition of the companion app and clever ‘loop snap’ function definitely make it a great looper for beginners or those who just need simple functionality for their practice regimen or live playing."

Read more: TC Electronic Ditto 2 Looper review

Modeling and recording

Line 6 Helix Stadium XL Floor

A new flagship impresses onstage

Pete Emery: "The original Helix made quite a splash when it was first launched back in 2015, and is arguably one of the pieces of gear that made digital modeling commonplace in the rigs of working guitar players. So, following up on it was always going to be a tough job, but in 2025, Line 6 successfully managed to do exactly that with the Helix Stadium XL.

"Featuring Line 6’s all-new Agoura amp modeling technology as well as upgraded inputs, the tones feel more responsive under the fingers compared to the old Helix, but the highlight for me is just how easy the unit is to use.

"With a responsive 8” high definition touch screen and wireless connectivity, plus successful features carried over from Helix, like the Scribble Strips and Mini Encoders, getting up and running with the Stadium takes no time at all. Having gigged it as part of the review process, I’d argue that this is the easiest modeler to use live."

Neural DSP Archetype: John Mayer X

Your plugin is a wonderland

Pete Emery: "Most of us will not be able to get the real amplifiers modeled here, so it’s a real treat to be able to recreate those tones within the plugin at sensible home-friendly volumes, even considering the streamlined controls of the Headroom Hero and Signature 83. With the included pedals, Neural has convincingly recreated the important parts of John’s rig."

Read more: Neural DSP Archetype: John Mayer X review

Neural DSP Archetype: Misha Mansoor X

2025 wasn't just about John Mayer for Neural

Phil Weller: "It felt inevitable that Captain Djent, Misha Mansoor, would get a signature guitar plugin with Neural DSP sooner or later. As a big fan of Neural DSP plugins, the feature laden release was exciting news, and as it was installing, I was licking my lips at its prospects, but I found there to be some pleasant surprises.

"It’s worth noting, from the off, that pretty much everything it does, it does to the Finnish firm’s exactingly high standards. But there are two features that see me returning to the plugin instead of its stablemates, a-la Archetype Gojira and the Nameless Suite.

"Its clean amp is a pedal platform chameleon; capable of crystalline cleans to crushing distortions and everything in between, taking whatever pedals and effects I throw at it superbly. Its Laser pedal is a toy box of weird noise-making delights, and its Chaos pedal is great for adding a little more spice to heavy guitar tones.

"While I was a little disappointed by its Lead amp, and haven’t enjoyed its Glitch pedal as much as I’d expected to, it still stands as a hugely versatile plugin, and it’s become a valuable part of my day-to-day usage."

Read more: Neural DSP Archetype: Misha Mansoor X review

Blackstar Polar Go

An inspired Blackstar left-turn

Rob Laing: "This was a big key to inspiration for me this year, and quite unexpected an move from Blackstar – a brand mostly associated with electric guitar. While it had entered the interface market with the previous Polars, a mobile version with onboard condenser apps must have caught plenty of people off guard. Including me. A bigger surprise was just how good the results sound.

"If you're an acoustic musician or a podcaster this is an incredible tool for your phone. The app allows you to dial in a preset to save to the device or edit on the fly, with huge reverb scope. The results became the base for some recordings of my own songs I'd been putting off tracking, which is crazy considering I was recording vocals and acoustic guitar live through the Polar Go. This is my favourite gear surprise of 2025. "

Read more: Blackstar Polar Go review

Universal Audio Paradise Guitar Studio

A heavenly amp collection at the click of a trackpad

Rob Laing: "I really struggle with option paralysis when it comes to digital modeling, so the more curated approach of UA with its cabs and less-is-more amp models appeals to me. The Paradise Guitar Studio encapsulates that, rounding up the individual Dream, Ruby and Lion amp plugins I've become familar with, but adding in the Woodrow and Enigmatic too, alongside UA's excellent effects and studio tools.

"The user interface is really user-friendly (I think this could be a great intro for players who are new to plugins) and the sounds are a tour de force of classic amps, with inspiring presets that are a great jumping off point for ideas. You could make great records with this, or just have fun exploring."

Guitar amps

Orange Baby 100 Series 

A triple threat

Martin Smith: "The tone these amps produce is classic Orange, with all the top-end presence and low-end grind that you’d hope for. The Class A/B power section has a responsiveness that is inviting and familiar to seasoned valve amp users, requiring little-to-no time to get used to.

"Here, Orange has distilled its distinctive tone and styling into a no-faff, highly practical gig solution for modern use. The sound is as impressive as expected and I can imagine them becoming perennial darlings of travelling bands and sound hire companies alike with good justification."

Read more: Orange Baby 100 Series review

Fender Super '62

New combo, old school thrills

Martin Smith: "This brown-panel classic is the perfect vessel to navigate lesser-plundered sonic waters between the tweed crunch and the black-panel twang, to a place where volume meets saturation with boatloads of gooey, vintage vibe. All aboard the good ship Super. Bon voyage!"

Bad Cat Mod Shop Black Cat 30 

A testament to the late Mark Sampson's brilliance

Martin Smith: "This bolder, louder version of the classic Black Cat amplifier retails for a couple of hundred dollars more than the original and is well below the cost of the Hand Wired series. For this outlay you get a tighter, louder and gutsier tone from an already stellar-sounding amp.

"All in all, this initial Black Cat Mod Shop edition is a hugely desirable combo befitting of both Bad Cat and Mark Sampson’s legacy."

Read more: Bad Cat Mod Shop Black Cat 30 review

Victory V40 The Duchess MkII

The Brits deliver again

Pete Emery: "When I’m out gigging and have the chance to move some air on stage, I’m often running an amp as a pedal platform to show off a carefully curated board. This is exactly what the Duchess range from Victory Amplification is built for.

"The first version of the Duchess was well received, and deservedly so, with stellar clean and edge-of-breakup sounds. Rather than mess with a winning formula, the MKII range builds on this with some tweaks inspired by Victory’s renowned MK amps.

"These tweaks included changes to the Mid and Voice switches. In the Duchess MKII, these are three-position switches that allow the amps to be adjusted to suit any pedalboard setup, leading the Duchess MKII to be my favourite pedal platform amp."

Read more: Victory V40 The Duchess MK II Deluxe Combo and Lunch Box head review

Blackstar ID:X 50

A lot of amp for the money

Matt Owen: "From a design perspective, the overhauled control panel is subtle but effective and lends itself to a genuinely intuitive and inspiring playing experience. The tones are up to scratch, the extended features are impressive – especially CabRig – and it’s well positioned as an at-home amp that can cater to bedroom practice, recording and small gigs.

"In the end, the discourse surrounding whether the ID:X can take the Katana’s crown seems redundant. It is, in its own right, an excellent and competitively priced modeling amp that will no doubt be the right tool for many players."

Read more: Blackstar ID:X 50 review

Laney LFSUPER60-112 Combo

Light in weight, heavy on solid-state value

Martin Smith: "Here’s an amp that I thoroughly enjoyed using. Its ability to speak with a valve-like voice at stage levels in a package that’s liftable with one hand is something many of us could only have dreamed of in my younger days.

"The flawless integration of the effects and speaker emulation is a testament to Black Country Customs’ efforts, too."

Read more: Laney LFSUPER60-112 Combo review

Vox AC30X, AC15X and AC4 Hand-Wired

Re-engineered and iconic

Martin Smith: "While boutique amp makers have built a variety of amplifiers inspired by or based on the Vox circuit – widening the palette in a variety of ways with a plethora of expanded features – Vox itself has managed to reformulate its own unique DNA with this handsome family of Hand‑Wired amplifiers.

"The addition of spring reverb and effects loop, expanding the possibilities for delay and modulation effects, is well implemented without any impediment to the core sound. The design and build quality is impressive, and the efforts Vox R&D has put into replicating the power section performance of the originals, with less interference, has paid off sonically.

"The retail price is significant in comparison to that of the more modest Custom models in the Vox catalogue, but these amps are still significantly cheaper than well-known US boutique offerings."

Read more: Vox AC30X, AC15X and AC4 Hand-Wired review

Bass gear

Darkglass Anagram

Stuart Williams: "There are many reasons to love the Anagram, starting with the fact that it’s a pretty comprehensive set of sounds, aimed at bassists first. This corner of the market has been dominated by the Line 6 HX Stomp, which includes many strengths, but there’s no denying that it was designed with guitar players in mind.

The Anagram flips this on its head to create a well-stocked (for the most part) unit that delivers quality first.

"The most appealing thing about the Anagram is its do-it-all nature. From incredibly high-quality tones and features for practicing on headphones, studio use or as a ‘fly rig’ solution with very few compromises, it delivers."

Read more: Darkglass Anagram review

Tobias Growler IV

Connor Flys: “When it comes to my favourite instrument this year, I loved the Epiphone 1960 Les Paul Special, and the Strandberg Boden N2 was nothing short of a revelation. But the one that sticks in my mind, months later? The Tobias Growler. Such a fantastic, comfortable bass to play, and the unique preamp design is a master stroke. I also love that it revives a cool old model with an interesting story.”

Read more: Tobias Growler IV review

EarthQuaker Devices Chelsea Low End Fuzz Driver Pedal

Alex Lynham: "While it's a versatile pedal, the Chelsea particularly shines on bass, which makes sense, as that's how it's used in LCD Soundsystem. Still, on guitar it's no slacker, and if you want a uniquely-voiced version 6 Big Muff then look no further."

Read more: EarthQuaker Devices Chelsea Low End Fuzz Driver Pedal

MXR Bass Synth

Connor Flys: “It’s been a jam-packed first year of review-writing for me; coming up with favourites has been a challenge. Complicating matters further, I’ve been writing about both guitars and basses, meaning an even wider array of things to choose from.

“My favourite pedal of the year was very nearly the superb Fortin Meshuggah preamp, which could demolish a row of houses with a single ‘djent’. But the one that really wowed me, to the point where I’ve decided it’ll one day become part of my own setup, was the MXR Bass Synth. Remarkable to see how much Dunlop and Ian Martin Allison managed to squeeze into such a small box, and the sheer adjustability and quality of the sounds was amazing.”

Read more: MXR Bass Synth pedal review

Shergold Telstar Standard Bass

Stuart Williams: "Not all bassists are guitarists, but let’s be honest, all guitarists consider themselves some-time bass players, don’t they?

"The Telstar lends itself perfectly to this application, whether it’s for use at home, on the stage or for recording, it’s bursting with staple sounds. So are many other basses, but Shergold has managed to bring something to the table that checks most of the boxes.

"It sounds great, bridges the gap between guitar and bass-playing very nicely, and its done so with heaps of character from the visual design points, tonal offering and overall styling."

Read more: Shergold Telstar Standard Bass SBT14 review

Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster Bass

Connor Flys: "This bass's speciality is providing fat, rich, vintage-tinged low-end in spades, which ought to earn it an audition given its competitive price tag. It's also a well-built, great-looking instrument that's immensely likable. Keep an eye out for the Telecaster Bass – maybe we'll see it hit more stages in the coming years."

Read more: Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster Bass review

• Guitar World's Guitarists of the Year 2025

Kurt Cobain’s legendary MTV Unplugged Martin – “one of the most significant artefacts in rock music history”– has been donated to the Royal College of Music (RCM), London, for public display.

The world’s most expensive guitar, bought by RØDE Microphones founder Peter Freedman for a staggering $6,010,000 in 2020, was immortalized by Nirvana’s unplugged performance.

Freedman has donated the guitar in memory of his father, Henry, who died in 1987, some years before the iconic live performance was filmed in Sony Music Studios in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, in 1993.

The guitar arrives in London in good company; the college's museum also hosts the oldest surviving guitar in existence, which was made in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1581. That’s 412 years before Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged show.

An international touring exhibition, featuring the Martin, is slated for 2026. It follows the success of the RCM Museum’s show, Kurt Cobain: Unplugged. It welcomed more than 15,000 visitors, with the D-18E its big pull.

During the show, a guitar pick used by Kurt Cobain on that fateful night, which had previously sold for over $14k (crazy, right?), was raffled off for much less.

Freedman says he hopes “the guitar’s value and profile will benefit young musicians at the RCM and reach people around the world.”

“This gift is dedicated to my father Henry, who loved music and London, and it’s an honour for me to support the next generation of musicians,” he adds.

“The Royal College of Music is deeply grateful to Peter Freedman for his incredible generosity,” says Director of the Royal College of Music, James Williams.

“This asset opens future opportunities to share the Kurt Cobain: Unplugged exhibition with an international audience; it is also emblematic of Peter’s unstinting support for the performing arts and his steadfast belief in the power of education to transform lives.”

The electro-acoustic guitar was modified to cater to Cobain’s southpaw playing. His daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, inherited the guitar and stored it in a Seattle vault.

In 2018, it was transferred to Isaiah Silva, who claimed ownership of the acoustic during a divorce settlement when splitting with Frances Bean, leading to its record-breaking sale two years later.

What is it?

The Yamaha JR1 is a half-sized, miniature dreadnought-style acoustic guitar. There we go, review done. Joking aside, this little strummer provides plenty of bang for its buck. Yamaha invented the JR, or Junior, range to target two players: the typically small beginner and the travel guitarist. By being an affordable ½-sized guitar, it ticks both of those boxes with aplomb.

Yamaha is no stranger to Guitar World. From the perennial schoolroom classic C40II classical guitar to the more elaborate Standard Plus Pacifica, the brand’s dedication to quality control and playability has been well documented.

So when the pint-sized JR1 landed at my doorstep, I had plenty of past collective experience in mind, alongside the question that matters most: how well does the JR1 perform as a beginner acoustic guitar? Let’s find out together.

Specs

• Prices: $179/£149/€152
• Made: China
• Body shape: Miniature dreadnought-style
• Body top: Spruce
• Body binding: Black
• Back & sides: Locally Sourced Tonewood
• Neck: Locally Sourced Tonewood
• Scale length: 21.25" (540mm)
• Nut: Urea
• Fingerboard/Radius: Rosewood or Walnut, 15.75" (R400mm)
• Finish: Gloss Top, Satin Back & Sides
• Bridge: Rosewood
• Tuning machines: Covered Chrome
• Electronics: No
• Gig bag: Yes
• Left-handed options: No

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

Now, many affordable guitars for kids often look anaemic, unfinished, and almost like they need a dose of vitamin D, but not the JR1. With a tinted gloss top, rosewood bridge, and tortoise-style pickguard, this guitar looks very handsome. Far from being an afterthought, Yamaha has acknowledged that even beginners want a good-looking acoustic, so top points from me.

In terms of build quality, the JR1 feels very Yamaha: solid, reliable, and designed to be genuinely usable. My review model is spotless. It’s set up well out of the box, feels durable in the hands, and was even in tune. The neck is pleasantly smooth, with what feels like a standard C-shaped profile and either a rosewood or walnut fingerboard (depending on what Yamaha had in the factory that day).

Attention to detail is often where affordable guitars fall short. Sharp fret ends are a personal bugbear of mine, so it’s one of the first things I look for, and the JR1 passed respectably. There is a bit of fret overhang, but nothing too crazy, and well within acceptable parameters at this price point. Tuning machines can also disappoint on beginner guitars, but when I finally had to tune this thing, the vintage-style covered chrome machines were smooth, accurate, and didn’t slip.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

Once inspected thoroughly under my keen eye, I did what any guitarist worth their salt would do… immediately brag about it to my friends. After that, I decided to play some simple cowboy chords, the type a beginner will learn early on, and the JR1 proved a comfortable companion. Its slim neck profile will be a great platform for small hands to learn on, and the smooth finish won’t get sticky or uncomfortable for most players.

Having a 21.25" scale length with a small nut, the string spacing is quite tight for my big hands. However, if you’re buying this for a young beginner or have smaller hands yourself, it shouldn’t be a problem. The frets aren’t full-sized, so bear that in mind if you’re looking for a travel guitar and have jumbo hands like me. Although a bit cramped, it does make chord stretches much easier.

Although polished to a decent standard, the frets were slightly scratchy when throwing in vibrato while fingerpicking. Not a huge deal when considering this guitar’s prerogative, but something a more experienced player may notice. The miniature dreadnought-style body is well balanced, and I foresee a very comfortable playing experience for learners, as the lower bout doesn’t dig into your right arm the way some full-sized dreadnoughts do.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

If I’m being totally honest, I didn’t have high expectations for the JR1’s tone. Being a ½-sized, composite-wood guitar, its DNA didn’t exactly inspire confidence in the tone department. However, after spending a few weeks with it both at home and in my office (thanks to the handy accompanying gig bag), I’m happy to say I’m genuinely pleased with how it sounds, and I was proven wrong.

Of course, a guitar this size will lean toward the boxier side, and the mid-range is definitely prominent, but Yamaha’s trademark clarity and brightness are alive and well in the JR1. There’s plenty of note separation, with encouraging sustain and articulation that will make both beginners and travel guitarists very happy.

We do miss a bit of low-end oomph with a miniature body, but having that expectation is unreasonable. If you banish the desire for any real bass thump, there’s a lot of enjoyment to be had in the sounds you can coax out of this thing. After all, my work colleagues haven’t complained too loudly about my playing, so the JR1 must be onto something.

Verdict

Having set the aim for this review to look through the eyes (and ears) of a young beginner, a smaller player, and a travel guitarist looking for an affordable acoustic, the Yamaha JR1 ticks most, if not all, of the boxes. The miniature dreadnought-style body is well-balanced, offering unobtrusive dimensions and a comfortable, satin-smooth neck, all while built to the Yamaha standard.

With the included gig bag, the JR1 will feel equally at home at a school guitar lesson as it will in your work office, or even in the back of your motorhome as you travel the world. With commendable hardware like trustworthy tuning machines, a rosewood bridge, and an attractive tortoiseshell-style pickguard, Yamaha has clearly put thought into both practicality and classic styling.

Sure, the tone can lean a bit boxy, and the frets aren’t quite polished enough to eliminate all scratchiness, but the size and price point of the JR1 go a long way toward justifying that. What you’re left with is an affordable, well-built ½-size guitar that will suit, to a tee, the type of players it’s marketed at.

Guitar World Verdict: Affordable, well-built, and far more playable than its ½-size frame suggests, the Yamaha JR1 is a brilliant option for young beginners and travel-minded players alike. Sure, it can sound a little boxy, and the fretwork isn’t perfect, but with its comfortable neck, balanced body, and trademark Yamaha reliability, there’s a lot to love here for the price.

Also try

Kraft Music

Steve's Strings

Earlier this year we caught up with a new and (relatively) affordable Lowden guitar, the bolt-on F-12, which, along with the F-10, kicks off the acoustic range at £3,400 – approximately $4,500.

From the 12 models you move up in numbers and specification until you land here: the 50 Series, which tops the Lowden line (with the exception of the ultra-limited Master Series). Prices for the line start at around £8,000, or roughly $10-11,000 in the US.

George Lowden places the guitar in context: “Our F model, which is our mid-size guitar, was actually the second guitar I designed, way back around 1980, then I adjusted the shape at the end of the 80s. The ‘F’ was originally used because I designed it specifically for flat-picking; I was hoping to get a little bit more punch.

“I wanted the F model to be a little bit more focused and more suitable for flat-pickers. But plenty of fingerstyle players will choose the F, as well. It’s turned out to be our most versatile body size and is still probably our most popular model, despite what I originally designed it for,” he laughs.

“The ‘50’ level uses the choicest of all the woods we have and it has quite a lot of tasteful inlay work around the binding and so on,” George continues.

“I would say around 25 per cent [of the guitars the company manufactures], possibly a little bit more, perhaps 30, are the 50 Series. It seems to be the end of the market we have excelled in and built up a reputation in.”

Offering the key Lowden body sizes, from the smallest WL to the largest O, the 50s can be ordered in a variety of Master-grade wood combinations that pair some nine different back-and-sides woods with a choice of six top woods.

This is augmented by cutaway and onboard pickup options, plus left or right orientation. Ours is a cutaway sinker redwood/African blackwood combo.

“I discovered African blackwood probably around 20 years ago,” remembers George. “The first guitar I made with it was paired with a cedar top and the volume blew me away. That combination produces an incredibly loud guitar!

“With the redwood top, however, you keep the power of the blackwood and the purity and cleanliness of the sound that the blackwood gives you, but the redwood warms that up. It’s a very nice combination.”

Our acoustic guru David Mead agrees: “The sinker redwood seems the perfect foil for the African Blackwood as the combination sums into an acoustic sound with plenty of harmonic complexity but with a considerable amount of warmth at the same time. Chords ring out and sustain well, and fingerstyle playing benefits from clarity, sweetness and plenty of punch.”

• See Lowden Guitars for more
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

What is it?

The Touchstone acoustic series is an alliance that’s oceans apart between Eastman’s facility in Beijing, China, and the workshop of Dana Bourgeois in Lewiston, Maine, USA.

And if anyone is unfamiliar with his name, Dana is one of the world’s foremost luthiers and his guitars sell at a premium price. The Touchstone Series came about when the Eastman guitar company – no slouches at turning out very high-quality acoustics under its own name – came aboard and a whole new streamlined production process was put into place.

It works like this: Dana and his team source, brace and voice the guitars’ tops in Maine and ship batches of them over to Eastman’s workshops in China. There, the backs, necks and so on are put together in accordance with a strict brief from Bourgeois back in the USA.

Quality control is tight, with every process carefully monitored to ensure that each instrument is of the best possible quality. Certainly, when we reviewed a pair of Bourgeois/Touchstone acoustics, we were mightily impressed by the overall sound and build quality, the OM scoring 9/10 and the dreadnought getting full marks with a straight 10.

Of course, Eastman and Bourgeois joining forces in this way means that instruments can be manufactured more cost-effectively, making it possible to buy into one of the top brands at a greatly reduced cost.

Dana Bourgeois is rightly proud of the quality that this partnership has achieved – and you’ll note that it is the Bourgeois brand name that sits atop the headstock on these instruments, rather than Touchstone or Eastman.

The Slope D Standard is a relative newcomer to the Touchstone stable and, as you can see from the pictures, has the air of a J-45 about it. It’s not our imagination, either – on its website Bourgeois states: “The Standard breathes new life into a classic design that has earned its reputation as the ‘workhorse’ of acoustic guitars.”

The J-45 acquired the nickname of ‘workhorse’ after its entry into Gibson’s catalogue in 1942, subsequently becoming a dependable go-to choice for instrumentalists across the decades. The principle giveaway is the sunburst finish, but maybe not so much the neck inlays or that smaller, squared-off headstock.

Speaking of the finish, we are told that in order to get the ’burst on the tops dead right, a craftsperson from the Eastman factory was flown over to Dana’s workshop in Lewiston to be shown precisely how it was to be applied. That’s attention to detail if ever we heard it.

Needless to say, the actual spec of the Slope D traces that of the J-45, with a Sitka spruce top (which has been torrefied to simulate a top that has been played in over time), and mahogany back and sides. Both body woods look to be of premium quality, the spruce with that characteristic cross-grain shimmer to it, the mahogany with an attractive, stripy grain pattern.

Moving onto the neck, here again the choice of wood is mahogany with what appears, at first sight, to be quite a slim profile. The fingerboard, which would be rosewood on a J-45, is ziricote here; it’s a wood that is sometimes referred to as ‘Mexican ebony’, although it is not a true ebony.

However, ziricote is often used as a perfectly able substitute for ebony and, although it doesn’t share that timber’s black appearance, is renowned for its ‘spiderweb’ grain pattern. At the headstock end, we find a bone nut with a set of Schaller GrandTune tuners and the subtle pearly Bourgeois logo.

With spec like this, you’d be hard-pressed to see where any cost-cutting has taken place, as we’re faced with what appears to be top-notch quality at every turn. In fact, the inventory reads like an instrument that would cost at least twice the price.

One difference from the J-45 spec we noticed is that the scale length is 635mm (25 inches) as opposed to Gibson’s 629mm (24.75 inches), and Bourgeois has trimmed a fraction of a millimetre off the nut width, too. These things are probably all but imperceivable in practice, but it’s interesting to see where these fractional differences lie, all the same.

Apart from the minutiae above, we have 20 very nicely seated and finished frets, a perfectly cut nut, a flamey scratchplate and a compensated bone saddle that sits amid a ziricote bridge, which itself is finished with a set of six ivoroid bridge pins.

All things being considered, at this point we were keen to hear what the Slope D had to say for itself…

Specs

• PRICE: $2,767/£2,899 (inc hard case)
• ORIGIN: China/USA
• TYPE: Slope-shouldered dreadnought
• TOP: Torrified Sitka spruce
• Back/Sides: Mahogany
• MAX RIM DEPTH: 124mm
• MAX BODY WIDTH: 406mm
• NECK: Mahogany
• SCALE LENGTH: 635mm
• TUNERS: Schaller GrandTune nickel with ivoroid buttons
• NUT/WIDTH: Bone/43.6mm
• FINGERBOARD: Ziricote
• FRETS: 20
• BRIDGE/SPACING: Ziricote w/ bone saddle/55.8mm
• ELECTRICS: N/A
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 1.9/4.2
• OPTIONS: None
• RANGE OPTIONS: The Standard range also includes a L-DBO 14 (£2,899)
• LEFT-HANDERS: Not as yet
• FINISHES: Natural High gloss with a satin feel neck
• CONTACT: Bourgeois Guitars

Playability and sounds

The first impression was that we were right about the neck; it’s slim but a fairly deep and generous C at the same time, and so it feels instantly familiar in the hand.

Another, though, was that the 43.6mm nut-width might deter any adventurous fingerstyle, but we were wrong here, too, as any shortfall in width was never a problem during our play test.

Then there’s the sound. When we first opened the case, the guitar had probably not seen the light of day since it began its journey across oceans to the Guitarist studios and so we detected a slight compression in the trebles.

However, after putting it through its paces and replacing it in its case, when we returned to it 24 hours or so later, the sound had bloomed noticeably. It was as if the guitar had woken up from a long sleep and was ready to give us its all.

And what a sound it is. The chords are rich and full of harmonics, basses are controlled but full at the same time, and the sustain and volume are really quite remarkable. But it was our endeavours with fingerstyle that really allowed the Slope D to shine.

There’s a great deal of clarity and separation between the notes and the dynamics – playing soft to loud and vice versa – are very good indeed. There was no sign of brashness when played hard, and even the gentlest strum or fingerstyle was greeted with sweetness and a hi-fi response.

A good yardstick with which to measure the quality of an instrument is the amount of time we end up playing it after we’ve collected all the necessary data to write the review. Such was the case here – it really was that hard to put down.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

When faced with the idea that it’s possible to get an extremely high-quality instrument for a fraction of the price of a bespoke handmade affair, you’d be right to be cynical.

After all, we know that if something seems too good to be true, it often is just that. But that’s not the case here. Bourgeois and Eastman have managed to produce a guitar that sounds far more expensive than its price tag would indicate.

Seek one out – but hold onto your socks, because they’re likely to be blown off!

Guitar World verdict: Does it sound like a J-45? No. It lacks that smokey woodiness for which Gibson’s workhorse is renowned. Instead, you get the impression that the instrument has been reimagined through the lens of a master craftsman and has gained a voice that is not only its own but something really fabulous at the same time.

Hands-on videos

The Fellowship Of Acoustics

• Best high-end acoustic guitars 2025: 10 of the most lust-worthy instruments for guitarists
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.