What is it?

A budget relic guitar is honestly not something I ever thought I’d have to review, yet here we are with the Harley Benton ST-62HA. The new Aged series from Harley Benton marks something different, giving guitar players pre-worn electric guitars that still carry that value-for-money ethos but look like something that came out of a custom shop.

Relic guitars are divisive; there’s no doubt about that. They’re also typically very expensive, so Harley Benton’s move to capture that part of the market with a budget option is an interesting one. I imagine there’s a portion of the guitar community that will be really happy to pick one of these up, especially when they look at the price tag.

Very much channeling the spirit of Rory Gallagher, Mike McCready and John Frusciante’s iconically beaten Stratocasters, this model comes in at well below the $250 mark. It’s got an American alder body and a caramelized Canadian maple ‘C’ profile neck with a laurel fretboard, which in turn is fitted with 22 nickel silver, medium jumbo frets with dot inlays.

It’s packing the classic 25.5-inch scale length and a 12-inch radius on the fretboard for a more modern feel. Kluson-style tuners adorn the headstock, with a synchronized tremolo system at the other end. A trio of Isola single-coil pickups sits alongside a master volume control, two tone controls, plus a 5-way switch for all those iconic S-type tones.

Specs

• Launch price: $238 / £214 / €249
• Made: N/A
• Type: Six-string electric guitar
• Body: Selected American alder
• Neck: Caramelised Canadian maple, C profile
• Fingerboard: Laurel, dot inlays, 305mm radius
• Scale length: 648mm (25.5")
• Nut/width: Graphite, 42mm (1.65")
• Frets: 22, premium 2.7mm medium jumbo, nickel silver
• Hardware: Kluson-style tuners, synchronized tremolo system, aged chrome hardware
• String spacing at bridge: 52mm
• Electrics: 3x Isola VT-ST Alnico 5 single coils; 1x volume control, 2x tone controls, 5-way switch
• Weight: 3.1kg
• Options: Light relic available (LA models)
• Left-handed options: N/A
• Finishes: 3-Tone Sunburst (as reviewed), Black
• Cases: Not included
• Contact: Harley Benton

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★½

Despite looking like it fell down the stairs and skidded across the factory floor, the ST-62HA is very nicely put together.

The neck pocket is snug, and in spite of the aging, all of the hardware is very robustly applied. It feels relatively lightweight to my hand, and comes in at 3.1kg on the scales. It’s a bit lighter than the TE-62LA I also reviewed, which is to be expected with the cutaways, sculpting, and perhaps a little less paint.

The body features all the typical S-style comfort carves. There’s an armrest and a belly cut, and the edges of the body are all rounded off. The body aging is pretty egregious, and I have to say I don’t think it looks that great. The main problem is that the wood underneath is totally fresh, so it really doesn’t give that worn look that’s done much better on the TE-62LA, where the wood looks darker where the paint has been removed.

It looks like someone picked it off, whereas if you look at a genuinely worn guitar, the damage is quite different in appearance. Using Frusciante’s Strat as an example, the paint at the armrest blends into the wood as it’s worn down over time. On the ST-62HA, there’s a harsh line between the paint loss and the wood itself, which is not how it appears on a guitar that’s actually been worn down from years of agitation.

That said, there’s no gloss on the finish, making this a guitar that will age more quickly through natural use. If you want a relic guitar with a head start, then this might not be a bad shout. It’s hard work, but you could definitely scrape more of the paintwork off yourself and refine the aging.

The lack of wear on the fretboard is an interesting choice, too. This is present on the ‘Light Aged’ maple fretboards, but not here on a guitar that’s meant to be more heavily aged. Wear on a dark wood fretboard is a lot less obvious than that of a maple ‘board, but it would’ve been nice to have something here, like slightly discolored inlays. The obvious newness of the neck sticks out like a bum note in a solo classical piece.

The reverse of the neck is pre-worn. It looks pretty realistic when compared to my over 20-year-old Squier Strat, but is a little too even across the neck.

The hardware, on the other hand, is really nicely done for the most part, giving an authentically tarnished look. It would be nice to see a bit of extra wear (as you get in real life) on the bridge saddles, but overall it’s pretty convincing.

Less convincing are the pickup covers, all three of which appear to be in different states of age on the review model. The bridge pickup is pretty much totally yellowed, the middle has a lot of white still showing on it, and the neck pickups cover is mainly yellow with a touch of white showing through. The knobs and toggle selector feature a similar yellowing, but the pickguard itself is mainly white, too, which means the aged components stand out even more.

This is a $250 guitar. And I think trying to get a decent relic at this price is going to be difficult for any manufacturer. The problem is it just doesn’t look particularly good.

It also appears that the Black-with-maple-neck version of the ST-62LA has fretboard wear and darkened body wood, so if you want a budget relic that looks the part, it seems like a much better choice to me.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

Harley Benton is onto a winner when it comes to its guitar necks. The neck here is equal to that on much more expensive instruments, providing awesome playability for not a lot of money. This guitar features a classic ‘C’ profile that feels immediately familiar as soon as I pick it up to play. It’s comfortable up and down, and the flatter, 12-inch radius makes it feel very playable.

The action measures 1.5mm at the 12th fret with my finger on the first fret of the low E string, and although there’s room for improvement, it doesn’t hold me up in the speed department. Lead licks and legato come very easily, and the medium jumbo frets offer a nice platform to play against, providing that tried and tested middle ground of fret size that suits a variety of playing styles.

Sliding my hand up and down the neck, I can feel the frets a little against the edge of my palm. They’re not sharp, but the guitar would be more comfortable with a little work to get the frets feeling buttery smooth. My overall impression is that this is a fantastic playing guitar, especially as it’s so keenly priced. The only limiting factor here for any style of playing is technique rather than any limitation inherent in the design.

I’m not usually a fan of six-screw tremolo designs, but this one isn’t bad. It has the typical lack of fluidity you get from this design versus the two-point design, but using it doesn’t send the guitar completely out of tune (although deeper dives do knock it out), which is nice.

Even without locking tuners, I find it holds tuning pretty well. Generally, every string is out of tune by the same amount. For more subtle vibrato, it does a fine job.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

Plugging the ST-62HA into my audio interface with my favorite Neural DSP plugin, Tone King set to a clean sound with some spring reverb and tremolo, I set about putting the guitar to the test sonically. It’s wired to vintage specs, so the neck and middle pickups both have a dedicated tone control, while the tone knob has no effect in position 1, as the bridge pickup is wired straight to the output jack.

Consequently, the bridge single coil is a little brittle-sounding to my ear, and there’s no way to control it other than amp controls or an EQ pedal when I play it clean. It’s very full on, especially as I get further up the fretboard where the high-end moves towards harsh territory. Thankfully it's a really easy mod to apply one of the tone controls to the bridge pickup if you were to buy one of these.

Moving to position 2, I get that classic S-type quack. The ability to roll-off the treble a bit is much appreciated here, and I can get a much more usable sound out of it. Ditto with the middle position, which is really full sounding and ends up being one of my favorite sounds this guitar can do.

Again, in position 4 I feel the need to roll off the tone a bit as there’s a bit too much high-frequency stuff going on. It’s coming from a touch of sharpness in the neck pickup sound, and doing this makes it much warmer and rounder sounding, getting rid of what feels like excessive brightness to my ear and making it more like that classic S-type neck tone.

Moving onto some distorted sounds, I switch up the channel of the amp sim and add a simulated King of Tone overdrive pedal into the signal chain for some more aggression. Again, I find the bridge pickup to be very bright, and it gets pretty harsh further up the fretboard. You can really tell these are cheaper pickups just by that. It’s not terrible, but that slight harshness in the high end is more noticeable with the gain up.

It’s a similar story in positions 2, 3, 4, and 5. The addition of a drive pedal means I need to roll off even more via the tone knob to make it less brittle and icepicky in the highs. But with this done, those classic S-type tones are all accessible; you’ll just need to augment your amp and effects a little bit to compensate. There are some really great sounds here, especially when you factor in the low cost of the guitar.

Verdict

Aesthetics aside, this is a really playable electric guitar, slightly let down by the electronics. The neck profile is incredibly comfortable no matter what your preferred style, and the guitar was well set up out of the box. The pickups unfortunately sound quite cheap rather than punching above their weight, so while they’ll be fine for beginners, those with a more learned ear might look to upgrade them.

There are some weird choices with the relicing here that appear to have been solved by the black, maple neck version. The fresh wood beneath the removed paint and a fretboard with zero wear on it make it look like a much more obvious attempt at stolen glory than the other models in the range. It means I can’t help but recommend the version in black versus this one if you want a relic’d guitar that actually looks the part.

Guitar World verdict: If relics are your thing and you want one on a budget, I’d recommend getting the black, maple-neck version of the ST-62HA. For me, the 3-colour sunburst just doesn’t hold up due to some poor visual-design choices. It’s got a really playable neck profile and is well put together, and there are some great sounds here if you’re willing to chop and change your settings. Overall, this is a solid but flawed guitar that’s let down by the lack of attention to detail in the looks.

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What is it?

Back in 2024, Gibson set out to give an obscure '80s model a second chance at joining the ranks of the Les Paul, SG, or ES-335, and well, it was mission accomplished. This new version of the Victory was sleeker, meaner, and, by all accounts, more modern, too. It went down well with Gibson fans as well as guitarists who often steered clear of the Nashville guitar giant's offerings. It would seem that after decades of trying, Gibson finally managed to introduce a super-strat alternative that players actually wanted – it only took 45 years!

​But it seems fans of the updated model have been very vocal about a small missing detail – the lack of a locking tremolo system. According to Gibson, fans have been asking for the guitar to be equipped with a Floyd Rose, and it has finally listened.

Aside from the new whammy bar, this supercharged Victory sticks to the same specs as the previous version. Much like many Gibson options, it pairs a mahogany body with a rather striking figured maple top. The body is also deeply beveled and contoured for maximum comfort.

​As expected, there’s a shredder-friendly SlimTaper mahogany neck with a contemporary 10-14" compound radius, 24-fret medium jumbo frets, an ebony fingerboard, and a Fender-esque 25.5” scale length. The neck is crowned with the hockey stick headstock borrowed from the Explorer and houses the six Grover Mini Rotomatic tuners.

​Pickups are a pair of 80s Tribute humbuckers, voiced somewhere between classic PAF and proper hair metal. They're wired up to a push/pull volume for coil split and a push/pull tone for inner/outer coil selection, offering a surprising palette of tones for a dual-humbucker setup.

​The guitar ships in a sleek Gibson case with blacked-out latches and is available in three distinct finish options – the exotic Iguana Burst I have for review here, plus the metal-ready Translucent Ebony Burst, and the aquatic Deep Ocean Burst.

Specs

• Launch price: $2,799 | £2,399 | €2,499
• Made: USA
• Type: Six-string electric guitar
• Body: Mahogany with flame maple top
• Neck: Mahogany SlimTaper
• Fingerboard: Ebony
• Scale length: 25.5-inches / 647.7mm
• Nut: Graph Tech
• Frets: 24 Medium Jumbo
• Hardware: Floyd Rose, Grover Mini Rotomatic tuners
• Electrics: 80s Tribute pickups, 1 Push/Pull Volume (Coil Split), 1 Push/Pull Tone (Inner/Outer Coil Select)
• Weight: 6.7 lbs / 3 kg
• Left-handed options: No
• Finishes: Iguana Burst (as reviewed), Translucent Ebony Burst, Deep Ocean Burst
• Cases: Gibson hardshell case
• Contact: Gibson

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

The first impression from just looking at the case is strong. It’s sleek and very modern with its all-black Gothic-astic latches. Before I even open it, the lack of brown tolex lets me know there’s no retro reissue tucked away inside. Before receiving this electric guitar for review, I had no idea which of the three finishes I was getting. Once I open the lid, I'm delighted to see a stunning green burst finish.

To me, the Iguana Burst top is even more striking in person than in the promo shots. I’ll be the first to admit I’m a traditionalist when it comes to finishes. I think ES-335s should be red, Les Pauls Sunburst and Juniors TV Yellow, but somehow, this wild finish suits the Victory’s unapologetically distinct styling. It’s got a sharp, contemporary vibe that works.

Out of the case, this is a guitar that feels reassuringly solid, and there are certainly no finish issues or stray marks to distract from its handsome good looks.

The construction is up to Gibson’s current USA standards with a clean and tidy build. The fretwork is on point, being well polished and installed flawlessly. It’s worth mentioning that there are no fret nibs, those little extra pieces of binding that cover the ends of the frets you typically find on Gibson models. This means there’s no fear of snagging your high-E on a wayward piece of plastic. No fret nibs can mean you feel sharp ends if the frets haven't been dressed perfectly, but thankfully that isn't the case with the Victory. The fretwork is spot on.

That said, I can’t help wondering why Gibson hasn’t gone with stainless steel frets for this model. We’ve seen them use this fretwire on the very modern Epiphone Futura, and it feels like a natural fit here, too.

The deeply contoured body and those bevels make it genuinely comfortable to play standing or seated, and it's balanced just right. Even with that elongated peghead, there’s no neck dive here.

Hardware is all solid and dialed in. The Floyd Rose is set up perfectly from the factory, and it feels rock solid. There’s no weird creaks, no tuning instability, and crucially, no sense you’ll need to reach for an Allen key every five minutes. The Grover Mini Rotomatics hold their own, even if they’re mostly for show with the locking nut in play.

If I have one gripe with the design, it's the placement of the volume control. It sits directly under the Floyd arm, and I found myself accidentally rolling down the volume mid-dive bomb. It’s a common complaint for Strat users, so it’s not wholly unique to the Victory, but if the volume control was scootched back a touch, it would solve the issue.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★★

There’s a distinct feeling when I pick up a guitar with a well-set Floyd. It just makes me play and approach things differently. Growing up, I went through the obligatory Dimebag Darrell phase, owning a Dean Razorback that would eventually be traded for a ‘72 Fender Tele Deluxe when I came to my senses. What my time with that guitar taught me, along with how to harmonic squeal, is how freeing a Floyd Rose is to perform with – so I was excited to relive my youth and dive bomb my way over some shred-worthy backing tracks with this Victory.

The SlimTaper neck profile is genuinely fast, but never feels too skinny or insubstantial. The compound radius, which morphs from 10” to a flatter 14” as you reach the higher frets. It's pretty subtle but makes a real difference for shred runs and wide fret-spanning legato licks.

This is a slick-feeling guitar, for sure. The set-up is low – at 1.25mm on the low-E and 1.00mm at the high-E – and buzz-free, and the trem stays exactly where you want it, even after some aggressive use.

I must say, it’s a guitar that makes me want to keep playing, whether I’m burning through scales or just messing around with some classic Floyd Rose flutter. The only real adjustment was getting used to the volume knob placement, which is a small price to pay for everything else that works so well.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Tonally, the Victory is served by a pair of Gibson 80s Tribute pickups. These are higher-output passive humbuckers featuring Alnico 5 magnets and can be found in the ‘80s reissue of the Explorer and Flying V.

For testing, I plug into a Positive Grid Spark Live and its matching cab. I dial up the gain, add a splash of delay, and set about testing what the Victory can do.

Now, while they aren’t what I’d call super high-output by modern standards, these pups aren’t shy either. There’s enough oomph for hard rock and metal, but enough note definition and clarity if you want to clean things up. The mids are smooth and up front, the lows are tight, and the high end has a pleasing bite and top-end. The result is a pickup set that perfectly fits the vibe this guitar is going for.

The push/pull volume for coil splits and the push/pull tone for inner/outer coil selection give you a lot of tonal options for a two-humbucker guitar.

Switching from the high-gain amp to that of a Roland JC model, I want to see how it handles the cleaner side of things. Popping up the volume coil activates the coil split. Okay, so single-coil sounds aren’t going to fool anyone into thinking you’re playing a Strat, but they’re more than usable for a gig.

Experimenting with the inner and outer coils in the middle position, suddenly it has an almost out-of-phase character that’s genuinely cool for funk, or anything where you want to step outside the standard Gibson box. A very useful tone indeed.

Verdict

Much like a Pokémon, I think we’re seeing the Victory reach its most evolved and most powerful stage yet. The Floyd Rose genuinely feels like the finishing touch this model always needed. It’s finally the super-strat alternative Gibson fans have quietly wanted for decades, and it stands up to anything from the big names in the shredder world.

Everything about the Victory Floyd Rose feels right, from the bold finishes to the rock-solid hardware and the great-sounding pickups. As it stands, this is a fabulous guitar, but I can’t help but wonder what it could be if Gibson was a little bolder.

Now, I don’t think people are buying the Victory because it’s an ‘80s throwback – it’s because it’s the most modern thing in the current Gibson catalog. So, with that in mind, I’d love to see Gibson double down on this for the next version. Why not throw in stainless steel frets? And while we’re at it, what about a set of Fishman Fluence pickups for good measure?

Look, that’s maybe just wishful thinking on my part. At the end of the day, this is still a fantastic axe. If you’re after a high-performance, visually wild, and fiercely playable instrument for modern genres, this is the one you’ve been waiting for.

Guitar World verdict: The Victory is a sharply dressed, rock-solid shredder that is good enough to entice Gibson skeptics over to its side of the fence. It’s well finished, easy to play, and the ‘80s Tribute pickups sound great for higher-gain playing.

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What is it?

Relic’d guitars: you either love 'em or hate 'em. Most guitarists baulk at spending thousands on an electric guitar that looks like it’s already taken a beating, which is understandable, but paying less than $250? Well, maybe you don’t mind getting something that looks a little aged when it costs so little. The Harley Benton TE-62LA is exactly that, an inexpensive, relic’d guitar. What a world we live in.

It's part of the new Harley Benton Aged Series, which breaks down into two sub-lines: HA (Heavy Aged), and LA (Light Aged), the latter being the subject of this review.

Harley Benton’s budget-busting antics are nothing new to most guitar players; the brand, owned by Thomann, has made a serious dent in the affordable guitar market over the past ten years, and, as you may be aware, big players in the guitar game have started sit up and take notice.

Aided by cutting out the middleman and going straight to the manufacturer, the brand manages to deliver great-quality guitars at prices much lower than the competition. Thomann has marketed clever, realizing nobody wants a retailer’s name on their headstock, and HB has blossomed into a genuine brand-offering that’s reaching household status in the world of guitar.

The original Harley Benton TE-62 has some very favorable reviews online, and this guitar is similarly spec’d, but it’s not just the same instrument with aged hardware and a distressed look. It’s got an American alder body, with a caramelized Canadian maple neck and fretboard combination. It’s a ‘C’ profile, rather than the TE-62’s modern ‘D’, with both guitars featuring a more modern, 12-inch radius with 21 medium jumbo frets.

The electronics have changed too; previous models had Tesla single coils in the classic T-style lineup, but here we have Isola pickups. The controls are arranged in the typical lineup with a master volume and tone, as well as a three-way toggle switch for selecting pickup combinations. The bridge features three compensated brass saddles, with the classic ashtray-style layout, while at the other end are Kluson-style tuners, with the vintage tops to poke the end of your electric guitar strings through.

Specs

• Launch price: $238 | £214 | $249
• Made: N/A
• Type: Six-string electric guitar
• Body: Selected American alder
• Neck: Vintage caramelized Canadian maple, C profile
• Fingerboard: Vintage caramelized Canadian maple, dot inlays, 12-inch (305mm) radius
• Scale length: 648mm (25.5")
• Nut/width: Graphite, 42mm (1.65")
• Frets: 21, premium nickel silver
• Hardware: B01 bridge with brass saddles, Kluson-style machine heads
• String spacing at bridge: 53.4mm
• Electrics: 1 Isola VT-TE-B Alnico 5 (bridge), 1 Isola VT-TE-CR-N Alnico 5 (neck), master volume and tone, 3-way pickup selector
• Weight: 3.2kg, 7.05 lbs
• Options: Heavy relic available
• Left-handed options: No
• Finishes: Sea Foam Green (as reviewed), Lake Placid Blue
• Cases: Not included
• Contact: Harley Benton

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

Picking the guitar out of the box, it’s a bit lighter than I’d expect from an alder body, and taking it to my scales, it comes in at 3.2 kg. I have my own Mexican-made Telecaster with an alder body, and it’s much heavier than this one. Like a Formula 1 car, maybe taking the finish off really does save some weight.

The finish itself is poly, but it hasn’t been glossed over, which means it will age quicker with new scratches, scrapes and dents as you inevitably add them over time.

Up close, it’s pretty easy to tell that this isn’t genuine wear, but from further back you could definitely be fooled into thinking the guitar is much older than it actually is.

The aged hardware looks really good, with that yellowing of the pickguard and tarnished chrome of the bridge plate and tuners holding up even under close inspection. There are giveaways, though. The frets look brand new, as does the pickup selector and the bridge pickup. I doubt Harley Benton could have done these and kept it under $250 to be fair, but these details stand out more when the rest of the guitar looks well aged.

On the back of the neck, the wear looks almost genuine. I have a Squier Strat that's over 20 years old and has taken an absolute beating over the years. The neck on that is tarnished similarly to this. I will say the TE-62LA is a bit too uniform. Part of the aging is that guitarists tend to spend a lot of time in particular positions. The heaviest wear on my Squier is all around where you’d play open chords, and up near the 12th fret, as it’s the guitar I honed my chops on when I was first starting to play.

The fretboard wear does not look very good. It makes the guitar look like it’s only been used to play an open major D chord and its variants for 20 years. It’s too clean as well, and would look much better if it’d been dirtied up at the spots of wear so it looked more like it’d been made by sweaty hands. You’d think if a guitar was this worn at the top of the fretboard, it would have some wear elsewhere, too, so it feels a little out of place only being in one spot.

Despite the aged look, it’s a very solidly put-together instrument overall. There’s no movement in the neck pocket, the knobs and switches all feel well installed, and despite the artificially aged hardware, everything is neatly and tidily applied to the guitar.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

Sitting down to play the guitar unplugged, I’m reminded that Harley Benton really has nailed the playability of its guitar necks. It’s something I’ve noticed on quite a few HB guitars I’ve reviewed over the past year, where the feel of the neck is just superb. I don’t need any warming up coming from my Mexican-made Telecaster, and the profile feels just as nice as that, despite the guitar costing significantly less.

The fretwork is neat, although I think this guitar could really benefit from some rounding off of the fret edges. It’s not sharp, but you can feel the frets as you move quickly up and down the neck. A little sanding would solve this quickly. The action is nice and low out of the box, measuring in at 1.5mm at the 12th fret with my finger on the 1st fret. You could get it touch lower and have a real speed machine in your hands.

It means whether I’m playing licks inspired by Don Rich or doing the simple, heavy riffs from my post-punk band, the guitar is supremely playable. It feels comfortable with open chords, and moving further up the neck, I’m easily able to lay down my favorite lead lines without any adjustment required. As a vintage-style guitar, there are only 21 frets, but the medium jumbo size feels nice to bend against, and there’s no noticeable scratchiness as I do.

As you might expect from a hard-tail T-style design, the tuning stability is impeccable. Despite some seriously rough playing, plenty of bends, and really thrashing it with my picking hand, I seldom have to retune throughout my playing. When I do have to, the tuners feel a little stiff, but they operate as normal without any slipping.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

Sitting down with the guitar at my home studio desk and plugging into my audio interface, I load up the Neural DSP Tone King guitar plugin to see how the TE-62LA handles the clean tones. I’m immediately impressed by the bridge pickup on my standard clean sound with a dash of tremolo and a dollop of spring reverb. It’s nice and trebly without being overly harsh, and open chords sound really articulate across the strings.

Single-note licks have that classic twangy attack that’s sharp and dies off quickly, ideal for country or surf-inspired lead lines. It’s got a nice bite to it when you dig in, and really encapsulates that classic Tele sound well. Switching to the middle position and turning the tone knob down a touch gives a Strat-like tone perfect for surf-style tremolo picking.

The neck pickup on its own is a bit woolly with open chords. There’s a muffled feel to it that makes it a bit lifeless compared to the bridge position. On single notes, this isn’t so noticeable. It sounds a bit warmer here rather than dull, and it’s a similar feel with arpeggiated chords. With barre chords, the low end again feels dulled rather than warm.

Adding a simulated King of Tone and dialing up the gain on my amp sim, the neck pickup wooliness is amplified. Adding a little 1 kHz boost with an EQ plugin gives it a bit more clarity and bite, but as is, it’s noticeably dark and muddy sounding. When I switch to the middle position, it takes over the bridge pickup a bit more, overwhelming it with that wooliness that wasn’t so present when played clean.

The bridge position still sounds great with added gain though, aggressive without ever getting too harsh. When you get really far up the neck it can sound a touch ice-picky, but this is easily remedied by rolling back the tone knob a little. For power chords and lead lines, it’s really open and articulate, and stays that way when I try some open chords. It can handle punk, rock, blues, math-rock, and pretty much anything else I throw at it.

Verdict

I’ll be the first to admit relic'd guitars aren’t my thing, but this one is done pretty tastefully. For the untrained eye, it will definitely fool audience members into thinking it’s a guitar that’s much older than it actually is, although a close inspection will reveal some tell-tale signs. If relicing is your thing, this is a great example for not a lot of money, and you'll be able to add your own damage much quicker than you would with an unblemished, regular guitar finish.

Harley Benton has really nailed their neck profiles and overall feel, making the TE-62LA a brilliantly playable instrument. Honestly, it’s worth the entry price for that alone. Stick in a pair of better pickups, and you’d have yourself a gig-worthy guitar for less than $250. An absolute bargain in anyone’s book. It is a shame that the neck pickup underperforms, but the bridge pickup more than makes up for it.

Guitar World verdict: Relic’d guitars are polarizing, but aesthetics aside, the Harley Benton TE-62LA is an awesome guitar for the money. It plays fantastically well, feels really nicely put together, and that quick aging finish is a neat touch. It’s a little let down by the electronics, with the neck pickup being vastly inferior to the bridge, but this is expected at this price point.

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This is a custom-made Super 400 that Gibson built for Merle Travis. I bought it at Christie’s in New York when his stuff went up for sale, along with several other guitars that belonged to him. It intrigued me because it has some features that were rarely seen in 1968.

By the late 1960s humbuckers were standard pickups for the Super 400 and this body has humbucker cut-outs. But Merle must have specified P-90s, and Gibson placed a very thin plastic cheat ring under the neck P-90 cover to hide the humbucker rout. The bridge pickup has a standard spacer that also conceals the hole.

The really cool pickguard is obviously custom-made, and the Bigsby has the burnished brown colour that you sometimes see on archtops. It’s actually an enamel finish that has chipped off in certain places. It has a palm bar, which is more like a long wire with a hook on the end.

When he played, Merle would operate the Bigsby with his pinky finger as he picked with his thumb and index finger. The bar is fixed so it doesn’t swing out of the way; he had about a hundred guitars with this setup. That was Merle’s thing and I’ve bought several instruments that belonged to him, including a 1952 Fender Esquire. He mounted a big old Bigsby right on the end of that with the same long bar.

The pickup selector is a standard three-way switch, but it’s in a completely different position from a standard Super 400 switch. It’s maybe an inch lower and almost directly in line with the pickup. A second switch, next to the pickguard, was used to put the guitar in standby.

The witch-hat knobs are pretty standard for late-1960s Gibsons, and there’s a big plastic plate where the jack socket is mounted. I’m sure somebody broke the jack at one point and just stuck that sucker on to cover it.

There’s also a homemade wire hook for his strap that is screwed into the tail block. It’s not the first time I’ve seen one and it’s the kind of thing techs did back in those days. I don’t really care because, to me, this is an artist guitar.

The guitar has such a thin neck, I’m sure it was carved that way especially for Merle. It’s a very comfortable instrument to play and it’s made from three pieces of maple with a fair bit of flame.

In contrast, the back of the body, which appears to be carved from a single piece of maple, has no figuring at all. The sides are maple, too, but the really interesting thing about the body is that it has less depth than a regular Super 400.

The scary part is that this represented Gibson’s best in 1968 and, to be honest, the materials are just not that great.

I sometimes look at guitars from this era and wonder where they found such unremarkable wood. I can’t believe they used maple like this for their flagship model guitar, particularly one made for an artist like Merle. But I guess they didn’t really care that much.

The truss rod cover says ‘custom’ and the front of the headstock has a Les Paul Custom-style split diamond inlay that is echoed on the back of the headstock, in regular Super 400 style. The fingerboard is ebony, with typical Super 400 inlays, and it has been refretted with wire that’s a little flatter and wider. The Kluson Sealfast tuners are also original and have never been replaced.

The biggest differences between this custom-made guitar and a regular Super 400 that you could buy off the shelf are the thinner body, the pickups, the pickguard and the switching arrangement. It’s wonderful to be able to feature it here because most people don’t get to see guitars like these and it isn’t one that we have publicised.

There is a little wear and tear because this guitar has been played and loved on, and Merle did keep it to the end of his life. I have a cute little thank you note from Christie’s and the original poster board that they made to display the guitar.

There is also a CD that was in the case when I bought it with session outtakes and noodling on this actual instrument. On it, you can really hear how Merle used the vibrato and he was an absolute master of it.

I had a conversation about this with Brian Setzer a couple of weeks ago and he was commenting on Merle’s command over the instrument. He was such an exceptional guitarist.

• 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.

What happens to iconic guitars after a famous (or cult hero) guitarist dies? These days it’s common to see instruments sold at high-profile auctions and vanish into the clutches of anonymous collectors with deep pockets.

However, some guitars live on in museum collections, remain under close guard as family heirlooms, or pass along to famous player friends, where they continue to make history.

We decided to take a closer look at five of the most celebrated Telecasters, (actually, one is an Esquire) played by guitarists we’ve loved and lost, and figure out where those instruments are now. We start with George Harrison’s legendary 1968 Fender Rosewood Telecaster Prototype...

Sales of electric guitars skyrocketed in the mid-’60s, shortly after Beatlemania reached the U.S. However, American guitar companies were initially hesitant to capitalize on the phenomenon by striking deals with the Beatles, even though the Gibson, Gretsch, and Rickenbacker (and later Epiphone and Fender) guitars they played instantly became desirable icons.

Rickenbacker did make an early effort by giving George Harrison a prototype of its 360/12 electric 12-string, which made that model an instant success, but the relationship didn’t go much further than that.

The generation gap between the marketing/artist relations departments of American guitar companies and young rock ’n’ rollers was apparently still too wide, as manufacturers preferred to align with more “respectable” jazz, country, and pop performers at the time.

However, that attitude started to change during the late ’60s. In July 1968, Fender’s director of sales, Don Randall, met with Paul McCartney and John Lennon at Apple Corps, hoping to convince the Beatles to sign an endorsement deal with Fender.

As a symbolic gesture of trust, Randall gave the band Bassman and Twin Reverb amps, a Jazz Bass and Bass VI, a Rhodes electric piano, and a Fender PA system.

Lennon and McCartney greatly appreciated the gesture but remained reluctant, so Randall decided to sweeten the deal by giving lead guitarist George Harrison a very special instrument that was already in the works: a prototype of the Rosewood Telecaster model that Fender was planning to introduce.

Fender designers Philip Kubicki and Roger Rossmeisl built two prototypes each of the planned Rosewood Tele and Strat models, choosing the best example of each for Harrison and Jimi Hendrix, respectively (Hendrix died before Fender could give him the Rosewood Strat).

Coincidentally, Rossmeisl already had an indirect relationship with the Beatles as the designer of the body shapes for the Rickenbacker 325 and 360/12 guitars and 4001 bass played by Lennon, Harrison, and McCartney.

The Fender Rosewood Telecaster did not depart too radically from the standard Telecaster’s design other than its two-piece rosewood neck and body construction, which consisted of two slabs (top and back) of Indian rosewood with carved chambers and a very thin layer of maple in the center.

Beyond that, it retained the two single-coil pickups, a three-way blade selector switch, master volume and tone knobs, and other standard Tele features.

A clear satin finish preserved the rosewood’s natural root beer brown color and grain figuring, and a black pickguard was chosen over the usual white version because it complemented the rosewood’s deep, rich hues better.

Rossmeisl had already developed both the short-lived “smuggler’s” variant of the Telecaster body, where a huge hollow cavity was hidden underneath the pickguard to relieve excess weight, and the Telecaster Thinline model that made its debut in 1968.

Rosewood was even heavier than the dense variety of alder supplied to Fender during this time period, so the chambered designs that Rossmeisl devised became a necessity to produce a guitar that was even remotely comfortable. Regardless, Harrison’s Rosewood Telecaster still tipped the scales at more than 10 lbs.

The Rosewood Telecaster occupied a seat next to Randall when he flew to England in December 1968 to personally deliver the prototype to Harrison. Although he never felt fully comfortable with the guitar’s excess weight, Harrison loved the Tele’s looks and tone, and he immediately put it to use for the Get Back sessions in January 1969.

It remained his studio companion from February through August 1969 as the Beatles worked on Abbey Road. The Rosewood Tele can be heard on several classic Beatles songs, including Don’t Let Me Down, Get Back, I’ve Got a Feeling, the single version of Let It Be, and the solo-tradeoff section of The End.

Most importantly, it is the guitar that Harrison played during the Beatles’ final live performance on January 30, 1969, on the rooftop of the Apple Corps headquarters at 3 Savile Row in London, captured for the feature film Let It Be.

Fender probably hoped to capitalize on the film to promote the Rosewood Telecaster, but they released the model prematurely in 1969, well before the film was released in May 1970. Public response to the model was passive, mainly due to its then-expensive $375 price tag.

By the time Let It Be reached theaters, dealers lost interest in stocking the model, even though a few eagle-eyed Beatles fans sought the distinctive Tele they saw Harrison playing. The Rosewood Telecaster appeared on and off in Fender catalog and dealer price lists until 1972, when they finally shipped all of the remaining stock.

Harrison also lost interest in the Rosewood Telecaster well before the film came out. In December 1969, he gave the Tele to Delaney Bramlett while he briefly toured as a member of Delaney & Bonnie. Bramlett played the guitar often on stage during the ’70s and beyond.

He even famously loaned it to Jerry Garcia in 1970 when the Grateful Dead guitarist joined Delaney & Bonnie on stage for a jam when their bands were on tour together. Bramlett made a few modifications to the guitar over time, including routing the body for a humbucking pickup in the neck position and sanding the finish off the back of the neck.

In 2003, Bramlett sold the Rosewood Telecaster through Odyssey Auctions in Hollywood on September 13. The winning bidder was actor Ed Begley Jr., who snagged the instrument for $434,750. Apparently, Begley was meant to act as a distraction from the real buyer, which was Harrison’s widow, Olivia.

The news of the guitar’s return to the Harrison family became public knowledge anyway, and it still remains in their possession, often seen in the hands of George and Olivia’s son Dhani.

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

What is it?

The term Stratocaster-style guitar is a bit of a loaded one at the moment, but that’s what we’re dealing with today in the Sire Larry Carlton S7 Ash Top. It’s a double-cutaway instrument with the ever-versatile HSS pickup configuration, a vibrato bridge, and a 25.5-inch scale length. S-type? ST-type? Double-cut? I’m not sure anymore.

But I digress; Sire is a South Korean company that first found fame through its partnership with jazz legend Marcus Miller. In a rather shrewd move, instead of releasing a pricey signature model, Sire bucked the trend by releasing cut-price instruments with the sort of features you’d expect from pro-level instruments.

In 2020 Sire partnered with Larry Carlton, legendary session guitarist, to recreate that same magic. Carlton, whose credits include Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Dolly Parton, and plenty more, has his name put on S-styles, T-styles, 335-style semis, and LP-type guitars. The ethos is the same: good value instruments that deliver pro features at a price most musicians can afford.

Looking at the spec sheet of the S7 Ash Top, it’s hard to believe that it sits so far below the $1k mark. The alder body is paired with a solid Swamp Ash top; it’s got a roasted maple neck and fretboard combo with a 9.5-14-inch compound radius, and 22 stainless steel, medium jumbo frets.

A Graph Tech TUSQ nut is positioned below a set of staggered locking tuners, negating the need for a string tree, while Sire’s own 2-point tremolo bridge anchors the guitar at the opposite end. The Sire LC Super HSS super pickup set is augmented by a push-push knob that splits the humbucker, with a single volume and tone knob and a 5-way position switch.

Specs

• Launch price: $869 | £739 | €749
• Made: Indonesia
• Type: Six-string electric guitar
• Body: Alder body with solid Swamp Ash top
• Neck: Roasted maple / C shape
• Fingerboard: Roasted maple with rolled edges
• Scale length: 25.5 inches, 647.7mm
• Nut/width: Graphtech Tusq XL / 42mm
• Frets: 22, medium jumbo, stainless steel
• Hardware: Sire premium locking tuners, Sire modern 2-post tremolo bridge
• String spacing at bridge: 54.3mm
• Electrics: Sire LC Super HSS pickup set, volume, tone, 5-way lever switch
• Weight: 8.15 lbs, 3.7 kg
• Options: Non-ash top available for $769
• Left-handed options: No
• Finishes: Natural (as reviewed), Amber Burst
• Cases: No
• Contact: Sire

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

Taking the Sire S7 Ash Top out of the box, I’m once again reminded why I don’t really like natural finishes on electric guitars. They just look like your grandmother's kitchen table. That said, pictures of the swamp ash top on the Sire site don’t quite do this guitar justice. It’s got a bit more depth to the color and grain of the wood under natural light, versus the rather surgical shine of the product photography lighting, and it grew on me in my time testing it.

The back of the body has a cherry-red stain, and the alder grain is visible underneath, revealing a three-piece body construction. The difference in colors creates a rather dramatic contrast between the dark back and the lighter wood of the Swamp Ash top, which is immaculately bound together.

The body has a forearm carve, as well as a belly cut to make it more comfortable to play. There’s no sculpted neck heel, but the lower horn is slightly carved on the back side, though, to be honest, I never feel like this really aids playability, as my hand tends to go over the front of the guitar when reaching for the upper frets.

The fretwork is exceptionally well done, much better than I’ve seen on a lot of Indonesian-made guitars of late, and better even than some of the Mexican-made instruments I’ve had pass through my hands.

The ‘Edgeless’ fingerboard ends are nicely rounded off, with nary a sharp edge to be seen or felt. The tangs of the fret ends are neatly finished, so there are no visible gaps or bumps on either side of the fretboard edge.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★★

Sitting down to play the Sire S7 sans amplifier, I’m immediately impressed with the playability. It’s listed as a ‘C’ neck profile but feels decidedly modern and fast-playing as I tear through some of my favorite licks and riffs. It’s a nice all-rounder neck that, combined with the compound radius, feels effortlessly playable no matter where I am on the fretboard.

It feels satisfying bending and playing against the medium jumbo frets, although a full jumbo-sized fret would likely take it into proper shred guitar territory. As it is, it feels more suited to more classic rock styles rather than all-out guitar acrobatics, which I don’t mind one bit. It’s still comfortable enough to pull off frenziedly fast legato, and I can’t find any dead spots or scratchiness across the length of the neck.

Trying some power chords with alternating strikes of the two high strings open, the high E pops out of the nut slot when I really lay into it. This only seems to happen on the upstroke, occurring a couple of times when I was striking the strings very hard. It points to a nut that's likely been cut too shallow, but could also be compounded by the lack of string trees.

The tremolo comes ‘decked’, with the bridge sat against the body so you can’t pitch up, only down. This means it’s a lot more stable, preventing any forward lean when bending the strings and making the tuning more sturdy. You can set it up to float if you want as it’s a two-point design.

In the decked configuration, it works really well, maintaining stability even under heavy load. I can pitch it down two-to-two-and-a-half tones, and it puts up with the abuse, pretty much perfectly maintaining its tuning alongside the locking tuners.

One thing I do notice when playing is that the position of the push-push tone knob is a little further away from my picking hand than I’d like. While a push-push knob is much more ergonomic for live players, its position –– spaced apart from the volume knob ––means you have to reach over the tremolo arm to get it, which can sometimes get in the way when you need to make a quick change.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Plugging the Sire S7 into my pedalboard and feeding it into the clean channel of my Orange Rocker 32 tube amp, the first thing I notice is that the humbucker feels quite a bit louder than the other positions. Going from soft-picked arpeggios and laying into some power chords results in quite a jump due to that midrange bump, so some players may need to slightly adjust their playing style (or the pickup height) to account for this.

Flicking through the positions with the clean channel engaged, as well as a nice helping of spring reverb with a sprinkle of tape delay, it's got all those typical S-type honk and spank tones you’d expect. It sounds great with some of my favorite Spaghetti western-inspired licks, and adding in some tremolo is the cherry on top.

The neck single coil is particularly great. It’s warm and round but never feels dull, and I found myself noodling here for a good twenty minutes during my testing. With some generous reverb and delay, it’s great for those Explosions in the Sky-inspired spacious licks, and chords sound full and articulate.

The split humbucker sound was my least favorite of the bunch. There’s a little harshness in the top end here, although I was able to tame this with a little roll back of the treble knob. If you have a particularly bright amp, you might find that this is a little much in this position, but you can help cure it by rolling back the tone knob a touch. In combination with the five regular pickup selector positions (where position two gives a mix of the split humbucker and middle pickup regardless of the push-push switch setting), that gives a total of six pickup selections in total for a lot of versatility.

It’s not just good at the clean stuff, either. Adding in my Joyo Tauren Klon clone into a Victory Amps V1 Sheriff overdrive pedal, I get some properly good, raunchy rock, PAF-tones from the humbucker. It can chug, too. It’s not quite djent territory, but cranking up the gain I can get some nice modern hardcore tones with chugging power chord licks, and it lends itself well to some prog metal fretboard expeditions.

Verdict

Much in the way AI is disrupting the world, I think we’re getting to a point where players are recognizing you don’t have to pay premium prices when looking for a new guitar.

Of course, there will always be those loyal to the old guard, but this Sire is living proof that if you’re not fussed about brand loyalty or particular headstock shapes, you can get a lot more bang for those hard-earned smackeroonies.

The most striking thing about the Larry Carlton S7 for me was that I couldn’t help myself from picking it up. I’m always testing gear, and I often have a round-robin of guitars on my $7 D’Addario guitar neck rest. The Sire has been solidly in position for the past week, and I’ve picked it up to play countless times, whether testing pedals, an audio interface, recording demos for an upcoming project, or taking it to rehearsal with my band.

The fretwork is particularly good, miles better than guitars I’ve tested costing closer to the $1k mark, and apart from the issue with the high-E nut slot, I can find little to fault here with it. The fact that the non-solid wood top is available for well below $800 makes the S7 a real dark horse, and for those working players who need playability and tone without spending loads, I can’t think of many guitars that deliver better than this.

Guitar World verdict: I’ve tested too many guitars to remember over the past few years, from budget-friendly to those costing in the thousands. Honestly, I think the Sire Larry Carlton S7 Ash Top is one of the best value-for-money instruments out there right now. The build quality is superb, it plays like a dream, and unlike other guitars in this price range, the electronics don’t let it down. It had a couple of tiny niggles, but overall it plays and sounds like an instrument that costs two times as much.

Also try

Kramer has partnered with genre-blurring blues guitar hero Malina Moye for a historic signature guitar.

The arrival of Moye’s first signature electric guitar has been a long time coming. The underrated artist has melded blues, hip-hop, R&B, funk and soul across her four studio albums. Her 2023 record, Dirty, was voted one of the best guitar records of the year by GW readers.

With her flipped-southpaw style, Molina has channeled Jimi Hendrix, Albert King, Elizabeth Cotten, Eric Gales, and many other greats of the instrument.

Now, having played everything from Flying Vs to Stratocasters, Moye has turned to the Kramer ranks for a milestone model that cements her place in the history book as the brand’s first woman of color signature artist.

Moye’s signature builds off Kramer’s S-type Pacer Deluxe platform and is available in left and right-hand configurations. At its core, there’s an alder body and maple neck with 10” radius fingerboard, as well as a TUSQ nut, 2-point tremolo and gold hardware.

Since it’s been designed to cover all bases from sultry soul to rootsy rock, it features Moye’s preferred DiMarzio pickups – specifically, Virtual Vintage Blues, Area 7 and Super Distortion.

Finishing touches include a Splash Blue finish – with color-matched headstock – a tortoiseshell pickguard, locking tuners and Moye’s signature on the rear of the headstock. Oh, and the Moye inlay at the 12th fret is a very nice touch indeed.

“I really wanted to make sure it was perfect – a completely different type of Kramer,” Moye says of her new signature. “And you know what? I think we nailed something really hot.”

The Malina Moye Pacer Deluxe is available now for $1,299.

Visit Kramer for more.

Harley Benton has hopped on the relic hype train with the launch of its Aged Series – which offers hand-aged electric guitars and bass guitars for as low as $238.

Love 'em or hate 'em, artificially aged guitars have experienced a boom in popularity over the past few years.

Gibson has pioneered the Murphy Lab. Fender has debuted the Heirloom treatment. Charvel, EVH, Solar Guitars, you name it. Almost everyone is leaning into the relic trend right now. Heck, there are even relic guitar stickers to make your box-fresh guitar look faux-damaged.

Nowadays, players want the best of both worlds; to have the battered aesthetic with a brand-new condition.

But these relic’d guitars can be quite expensive. Fender’s American Ultra Luxe Vintage guitars start from $2,849. Gibson’s Murphy Lab? An Ultra Heavy Aged 1959 Les Paul will set you back $10,699.

Enter Harley Benton. The affordable gear champion’s new Aged Series comprises a bunch of classic double-cut, single-cut and offset silhouettes, each of which offer a relic’d finish. The best part? They cost under $250 – and they’re all aged by hand.

The Aged Series has taken two years to refine, scale and finesse. Each model is available in Light Aged and Heavy Aged versions, with finishes such as Olympic white, Sunburst, Seafoam Green, Shell Pink and Black all on tap.

It’s the hand-aging thing that’s the real sell here, along with that incomprehensibly low price point. That’s almost custom shop-level attention to detail at an entry level budget.

Granted, it remains to be seen just how effective the aging looks up close, but from afar they look like the real deal. Kudos to Harley Benton for also aging the hardware.

The Aged Series includes S-type, T-type and offset electric guitars, as well as a P Bass-inspired four-string. Specs across the board include alder bodies, caramelized Canadian maple necks and laurel fretboards, as well as ISOLA alnico 5 pickups.

“We’ve always had ambition here at Harley Benton,” the company says. “The Aged Series is a dream that’s been years in the making. We’ve been working hard to develop a durable finish to nail the character and patina that make these guitars so breathtaking.

“The result? Authentic, hand-aged instruments, each one unique in aesthetic, all for incredible value, and we’re ever so deeply enamoured.”

Head over to Harley Benton for more info.

The inclusion of the S-types here is particularly notable, given the backdrop of Thomann's recent legal tangle with Fender over a high-profile copyright dispute. Depending on how that case develops, it remains to be seen how long these models will stick around for.

Back in the mid-1960s, Gibson’s cherry sunburst Les Paul Standard had been discontinued five years previously. But some devotees of blues guitar, such as a young Eric Clapton, knew that, if you could find one, the pre-SG Les Paul was an instrument to be reckoned with. The problem was finding one.

A post-war embargo on American luxury goods and musical instruments had ended only a few years previously, in June of 1959, and US guitars, such as Strats and Les Pauls, were rare birds and genuine examples coming up for sale were hunted down diligently by London’s leading guitarists.

So when Eric’s 1959 Les Paul Standard he used on John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton – aka ‘Beano’ – was stolen from a church hall in Brondesbury, London, where he was beginning rehearsals with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker for their nascent supergroup Cream, Eric needed to get his hands on a replacement in a hurry and there were very few to be had.

In the end, Eric turned to another young pro on the London scene, Andy Summers, and implored him to sell his 1960 Standard.

Despite Summers’ initial reluctance, money – to the princely tune of £300 – soon changed hands and Clapton had the guitar he needed to press on with recording Fresh Cream, the debut album for a group that would become every bit as influential as Clapton’s era-defining work with John Mayall.

Beano’s replacement wasn’t perfect, however. Not that it mattered much at the time, but it featured a newer style of sunburst that Gibson had debuted in 1960 to avoid fading red tints in the finish – a process that customers didn’t like at the time, but which has since passed into ’Burst lore – and this newer finish had a gaudier ‘tomato soup’ tone to it.

Eric’s new Lester also had a malfunctioning bridge pickup that would need sorting out, too. But in the cut and thrust of the 1966 music scene none of that mattered much – it could all be fixed or overlooked – because the sound that guitar made was tarnishless gold.

By turns biting and mellifluous, the voice of that guitar is all over Cream’s debut album, recorded at London’s Rayrik and Ryemuse studios and released in the UK on 9 December 1966, which featured tracks that shaped what blues could be in a new, free-thinking era of psychedelic rock. Tracks such as Spoonful, I’m So Glad and the single I Feel Free, which appeared on Atco’s 1967 US release of the album.

But though the guitar’s story as a famous instrument began in London, it ended – or rather went dark – across the Atlantic in New York, where Clapton and Cream soon ended up, initially playing dates at the RKO Theater in March of 1967, before returning to record their follow-up album, Disraeli Gears, in May of that year.

Somewhere in among these New York trips, Clapton’s Les Paul suffered what is now believed to be the second of two serious neck breaks and he took it to Dan Armstrong’s repair shop, where it was given a ‘creative’ headstock replacement that was crafted to please the young guitarist but prompted him to dump the guitar at the shop after refusing to pay the bill.

And there, after changing hands a few times, the guitar came to rest – in New York, in a private collection, kept out of sight through all the years that saw original sunburst Les Pauls change from being somewhat obscure, niche collector’s items to icons of mid-20th century guitar making.

There it stayed, widely speculated about but seen only in scarce photographs. Until today. Now, Matthieu Lucas of Matt’s Guitar Shop in Paris has acquired the guitar, which has sometimes been dubbed the ‘Summersburst’, and wants to share it with the world while it remains in his keeping. We join Matt to pick up the story…

How did this guitar come into Clapton’s hands originally? And what was Andy Summers’ connection to it?

So this guitar was bought by Andy Summers originally, way before he went into The Police, in 1964, to the best of my knowledge, at Rose Morris in London. At the time, there were only about two Les Pauls available in London – or very few.

We all know that Keith Richards was already playing one [in The Rolling Stones], and I think his was the very first sunburst Les Paul to appear on [British] TV, so he was playing his. But in ’64, it was not easy to get one in London.

During my research, I’ve seen Andy talking about how he got the guitar at Rose Morris and Clapton was playing with John Mayall already at the time, and then Clapton saw this beautiful Les Paul that Andy had in the case, and he said, "Wow. Where did you get that?” Andy told him that he bought the guitar at Rose Morris’s shop, and so Clapton went right away and bought the guitar we all know as ‘Beano’.

Then Andy was not really using the guitar that much and, in the meantime, as we all know Eric’s ‘Beano’ ’Burst got stolen – and we are still wondering where that guitar is. So Clapton kept calling Andy Summers and reportedly he said something along the lines of, “You need to sell me your guitar. I’m going to record Fresh Cream, I need a Les Paul, that’s the sound I want.”

Andy initially said no because he wanted to keep the guitar for himself, but, apparently, Clapton [persevered] and pressed him to sell him the guitar and, in the end, Andy accepted. I think he charged him £300.

An interesting point to draw attention to is that when Andy sold the guitar to Eric, the bridge pickup didn’t work properly and Andy was already using a Tele at the time, which he still has today. So he sold him the guitar, and after that Cream were rehearsing in London and recorded Fresh Cream.

The headstock on the guitar today is very clearly non-original – what’s the backstory of the neck on this guitar and how did it end up with this mandolin-style headstock?

In my opinion, Clapton broke the headstock of the guitar twice. The first time was very early on after he bought the guitar from Andy Summers. I can’t tell where and when, but when you really search the archives, in the very early pictures of Clapton with that almost ‘bowl’ haircut, you can already see that the headstock has been badly repaired and it has already been broken off, in a major way, a first time.

Apparently, what happened – although of this we can’t be sure – is that the repair [of the first break] was so bad that when the guitar was dropped a second time Clapton went to Dan Armstrong’s shop in New York City to have the guitar fixed properly.

Dan Armstrong was there and a then-young luthier called Matt Umanov, who checked the guitar, said, “Well, it’s not possible to fix the [original] headstock on that guitar because that’s a really, really bad break that the guitar just had,” so they offered to replace the headstock for Clapton.

And that’s where Matt Umanov got very innovative with the way he replaced the headstock of the guitar. He removed the original headstock and we don’t know where it went.

But then he grafted a new headstock on, keeping the original binding and fingerboard intact, and what he did was create the [new-built] replacement in the shape of the headstock from an F-5 mandolin, which made the guitar unique because nobody ever did that again on a Les Paul, to my knowledge.

[He] put Eric Clapton’s name, with a mother-of-pearl inlay on the headstock, too, plus a [representation of someone’s] face. It’s unclear if it’s a woman or if it’s Eric Clapton’s face that Matt Umanov put on that guitar with mother-of-pearl inlay.

What happened next?

From what I can tell, Eric Clapton was very unhappy with the repair, and that way he didn’t pay for the repair, but he just said words to the effect that, ‘No, no, I don’t need the guitar any more anyway, I’m starting to use the ES and the SG,’ because he was already searching for another kind of sound. So the guitar just stayed in [Greenwich] Village of New York City, at Dan Armstrong’s shop.

Then the guitar went to a guy called Adrian Barber, who was the guitar player for a Liverpool band called the Big Three at the time. After he quit the band, he stayed in Germany and he became a sound engineer. When he passed away, the guitar went [back] to New York with his son, who was living there. He didn’t really want the guitar, so he called somebody named Chris Such, who had a small guitar shop in the [East] Village called Mojo Guitar.

Chris’s place was a little neighbourhood guitar shop, so he didn’t have the money to buy a sunburst Les Paul at the time, so that’s how he called [collector] Perry Margouleff to offer him the guitar, and Perry met the guy and just gave him money, and then owned the guitar since 1986.

Nobody saw that guitar for many years because, first of all, Perry was a curator for the largest guitar collection ever – and this was part of his private stash – but mainly because Perry was very attached to 100 per cent original ’Bursts, at the time, and he didn’t care so much about the fact it had been Clapton’s guitar. And, in any case, the market for star-owned guitars didn’t really exist back then.

It was kept in the collection for years and, eventually, when I first met Perry 13 years ago, he showed me a lot of those guitars, and I was very blessed that he kind of put me under his wing – he was always showing me and teaching me about [vintage] guitars, especially this one.

Back then, you know, I was never in a position even to imagine that I was eventually getting this guitar 12 years later, but that’s what happened. And we started talking, I would say, around October last year. It took a bit of time, but we arranged a deal a few weeks ago and then I went to New York City and picked up the guitar myself.

Tell us about the pickups. The bridge humbucker isn’t the Patent Applied For humbucker it left the factory with. So what’s the story behind that?

Well, what’s interesting is that when you look at the picture of [this guitar] in The Beauty Of The ’Burst book [Yasuhiko Iwanade]…

We all know that picture of Perry with the ’Burst wall behind him – there’s [famous ‘named’ ’Bursts] Red Eye, there’s the Stanley ’Burst, the red cherry [finish] ’59 Les Paul, all of those, and there is also Eric Clapton’s guitar on there and you can recognise the guitar immediately from the mandolin headstock, of course.

But what’s interesting is that this guitar – on that picture – has a zebra bridge pickup, which, of course, it doesn’t have today. That pickup is long gone and Perry doesn’t have any idea where it went.

But what Perry is sure about is the Patent Number pickup – because the pickup now in the bridge is one of those, a mid-’60s Gibson pickup, which is good news for the guitar because Perry remembers that this pickup was in the case of the guitar, in the case pocket.

And that matches Clapton playing this guitar with the double-black pickup in the bridge. So Perry said, “Okay, well, we have this pickup in the case and I think that’s the pickup that belongs to the guitar, I’m going to put it back, so it matches really what Clapton was playing at the time.”

Because if Perry had restored the guitar [to a generic period-correct spec] back then, based on his meticulous restoration work, he would just have put an original Patent Applied For [pickup in the bridge] that he had back then from his stash – he would never have put the Patent Number pickup in the bridge position [but for the Clapton connection].

The [otherwise anomalous] Patent Number pickup makes total sense because when you read Andy Summers’ biography, and the interviews that Andy gave on that guitar, that’s one of the reasons why he sold the guitar to Eric in ’65 or early ’66 – because the bridge pickup didn’t work on that guitar.

My guess is that Clapton obtained a pickup on Denmark Street – a Gibson pickup – from 1965 or early ’66, which was a Patent Number humbucker, and he put the pickup in the bridge position of the guitar and then went to record Fresh Cream with that pickup configuration because the neck pickup on that guitar is the original Patent Applied For pickup.

We checked the solder joints on the parts, and that guitar for sure has all-original solder, except for the volume pot in the bridge position – and that’s the only major electronic change that’s on the guitar. Back then, nobody cared about original [Patent Applied For pickups] – they were all players [not collectors], and so my guess is that he just put a working pickup in the bridge position and that was it, you know?

So that’s the journey of this guitar, and that’s interesting because I knew about it for years; I couldn’t tell anyone about it because that’s not how Perry is working – he wants his guitars to be top secret, if I can say.

But then I decided to make it public for several reasons because my theory is that guitars like this should be played, should be shared with people, and I think it’s not even belonging to me, or whoever is going to buy the guitar – it’s belonging to, I would almost say, humanity because that guitar is a major piece of the ’60s and the British music and a major piece of guitar history, so my feeling is that all those guitars need to be shared and played.

So that’s why at some point, I said to Perry, “I want to buy this piece, but in my opinion it’s just a shame that it stays off the internet because I think it’s a different time now and everybody should know what happened to this guitar,” because nobody knew where it was, basically.

Speaking of the guitar just as an instrument in its own right, what’s it like from a player’s perspective?

I have had the chance to play ‘The Fool’ SG, I’ve played Eric’s 335 and – with the exception of the Firebird – I’ve played a lot of instruments that he played in the Cream era. And it’s funny because all of them [have notably slim necks], except the 335, which has more like a ’64 neck but still a very thin neck.

So I think Clapton really loved a very thin neck on guitars, you know? This guitar is quite the same: it has one of the thinnest necks on a ’60 I’ve ever played.

I would say it’s a very late ’60, too, probably one of the last 1960 [Les Paul Standards] ever made because of that ‘tomato soup’ finish and other details. It’s not a lightweight guitar, but the neck is, as I say, super thin and, surprisingly, somebody did refret it at some point with huge frets – it would make sense if that was in the ’80s as they were all refretted with big frets back then…

But yeah, the neck is super-thin. I think maybe they shaved the neck a bit when they put that new mandolin headstock on [during the repair process by Matt Umanov] and a new finish on the neck – and I would say there is a very old overspray on the guitar, too.

Structurally speaking, it’s super-easy to play and super-fast because of that thin neck. I would say the neck pickup is one of the creamiest neck pickups that I’ve tried. It’s not like a woody sound, it’s very creamy, very dense. It makes total sense when you put the guitar into a Marshall and you put the tone at zero – you get exactly the Spoonful sound.

Also, the fact that on the bridge position you have a Patent Number makes total sense because it’s really brighter in those mid-’60s Gibson pickups. When you play the guitar, you really hear the Fresh Cream sound, which is very particular.

I would say this pickup had [originally come] from an SG – it’s so bright and it’s such a rock ’n’ roll-sounding guitar. And in the middle position, surprisingly, the tone is almost out of phase as well. Or rather, not out of phase but it’s almost there – it’s really close to that sound. When you play the guitar, it’s incredible because that’s the record, you know? It already sounds like the record.

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

It’s probably fair to say that very few guitar techs enjoy doing wiring work on Gibson semis. I attempted a repair on my old ES-330 for the first time a few decades ago. It took me about an hour to get the loom out and a fortnight to put it back in…

Some compare the task to putting a ship in a bottle, but once you know a few tricks and techniques, it can make wiring a little easier than you think.

Our subject is a late-’00s Gibson ES-335 with scratchy potentiometers and tone controls with no audible effect unless they’re almost completely backed off.

James, the guitar’s owner, decided it would benefit from a new wiring harness with Armstrong Music’s Premium 450 Series 550k potentiometers and a pair of Sprague Black Beauty replica capacitors from Luxe Radio.

Pulling Rank

Taking out a harness from any guitar of this sort begins with removing the strings, tailpiece, bridge and pickguard. If you aren’t able to measure and make a note of the action prior to disassembly (or you forget to do it), place some masking tape over the bridge-post thumbwheels to hold them in place.

Removing control knobs can be tricky, especially when they’re pressed tightly onto the pot shafts or there’s insufficient space to get the tips of your fingers underneath them. There are tools designed for the job, but I lever them up using a pair of teaspoons. If you try this, just remember to place some thick cardboard or, better still, cork tile between the spoons and the guitar body or you’ll probably end up with some nasty dents.

Undo the nuts holding the potentiometers and output jack, along with the ring nut securing the switch, and the harness should drop down inside the body. But before you can remove it, the ground wire will need to be disconnected. It’s usually soldered to the braiding of the bridge pickup’s leadout wire, so remove the four pickup ring screws, lift out the pickup and you should find the joint.

The wire is sometimes quite stiff and wrapped around the pickup wire, so you’ll need to unwrap it very carefully as you melt the solder. You might also want to place something over the guitar while you’re working to protect the finish from blobs of molten solder.

By looking inside the bridge pickup cavity, you’ll discover if it’s possible to pull the harness out through the pickup hole. On this guitar there was a wide gap through the centre block into the body, but some semi-solids will only have a narrow hole for the pickup wire. If that’s the case, the harness will have to be taken out through the treble-side f-hole.

Using my fingers and a wooden dowel, I coaxed the switch towards the pickup cavity. This pulled the neck-pickup control pots out, too, followed by the jack socket and, finally, the bridge-pickup pots. If things get tangled with the pickup wires, back up and move the wires out of the way. If things get snagged, stay calm, back up and think it through, rather than try to force anything.

With the full harness resting on top of the guitar, I de-soldered the pickup wires from the volume potentiometers and lifted it clear. Had we been keeping the original pickups, I would have left the neck pickup in place, but James was also upgrading the pickups so I removed them both.

Soldering On

Wiring up Teles, Strats, SGs and Les Pauls and so forth is relatively easy because you can attach the switches and pots to the body, plate or pickguard before soldering everything up. You can’t do that with Gibson thinlines or most other hollowbody guitars, but getting the component spacing correct is crucial for easy harness installation.

The solution is to make a template. I started by placing a sheet of A4 over the holes in the body and pressing down with my finger to make indentations in the paper. Although basic, it’s a quick and accurate way to register the control layout positions, and I marked the centre of each indentation with a pencil.

Placing the paper over a piece of MDF, I pressed a spike through all the pencil dots to transfer the layout. I then drilled holes through the MDF so I could mount and secure the socket, potentiometers and switch onto it before assembling the new wiring harness. For the jack socket and pots you’ll need a 9.5mm or 10mm bit, and a 14mm bit or step cutter for the switch.

I used MDF, which isn’t ideal as it’s too soft and powdery, so next time I’ll use Perspex instead. Since the harness has to be assembled from the ‘underside’, it makes sense to mark each template hole both front and back to avoid confusion.

Harnessing Up

Although the potentiometers James had provided were all nominally 550k, the stated value and the actual value rarely coincide. You can measure the true value of any potentiometer by taking a resistance reading across the outer solder tags. In my experience, vintage 500k pots tend to read way higher than 500k, and are sometimes closer to 600k.

If you want a little less mud from a neck pickup, use the pot with the highest actual value in the neck volume position. Conversely, you can use the pot with the lowest value for the bridge volume if it sounds a bit bright. Three of these pots read between 515k and 519k, and one was 529k.

With the switch, jack socket and all the pots mounted onto the template, it was time to start assembling the harness. While it might have been possible to install the harness through the bridge-pickup cavity, I prefer to go through the f-hole, and over the years I have learned a couple of things that make it easier.

Inside Track

The first trick is to solder the braided wires to the sides of the pot casings, rather than the backs. It’s hard to pinpoint when Gibson started doing this, but I discovered it when reassembling a chopped-up harness from a 1964 ES-335.

Getting potentiometers through an f-hole requires a twisting motion and there is relatively little wiggle room.

When the braided wires are soldered to the rear of the pot casings it can be an even tighter fit, but when they’re attached to the sides, it’s almost as if they aren’t there.

The second trick is to increase the length of the wires running from the neck tone control to the jack socket, and between the neck pickup controls and the bridge pickup controls. Just look at the photo of the assembled harness to see what I mean.

I do this because I prefer to install the harness in stages, rather than try to get it in all at once. Some guitar techs thread twine or string through the holes, tie it onto the parts and then pull them into position. The same can be done using surgical tubing, but I’ve ended up with a tangled mess whenever I’ve attempted this.

Instead, I started by getting the jack socket fixed in position while the rest of the components remained outside the body. To do this, I threaded some braided cable through the socket hole and pulled it out through the f-hole. I popped a star washer over the wire, pushed the wire through the socket and then tied a knot.

The star washer and socket went through the f-hole into the body, and I tugged the braided wire to pull them both into position. Maintaining tension, I ran a washer and nut down the wire before tightening everything up. So long as you’ve used enough wire for it still to be accessible at the f-hole, you can pull it out and phase one is complete.

Before installing the neck pickup controls, the pickup itself must be connected to the volume pot. I threaded the pickup wire through the f-hole and ensured there was plenty of protection between the pot and the paintwork while I made the solder joints. With that done, the switch and the neck pickup controls went in through the f-hole, too.

Once they were inside, I popped on star washers to prevent things from twisting around – you can use your fingers to manoeuvre the switch into position before securing it with its ring nut. You can do the same with the volume pot, but the tone pot is always just out of reach and out of sight.

When a harness is assembled on a template, you can be confident that the pot shaft will be within the vicinity of the hole. I manoeuvred the pot using a piece of dowel until the shaft was visible through the hole and I grabbed it using long tweezers to pull it through.

From here it’s straightforward – just solder the bridge pickup to the volume pot and push the pots through the f-hole. Both pots will remain within easy reach and you can lever them up through the holes using your finger to complete the installation.

Back In Control

The extra wire length on the harness is probably equivalent to a couple of pedalboard patch cables, so that doesn’t concern me. In addition to making the harness installation far easier, the volume pots can be taken out individually for cleaning or pickup swaps without having to remove the entire harness.

Despite only doing this job maybe once a year, I’m no longer daunted by it and these days it takes me closer to 45 minutes than a fortnight. Give it a go!

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

What is it?

For a brand that originally shut its doors in 1969, Danelectro’s rebirth some 30 years later has subsequently given us a huge number of reissues and mash-ups.

Although prices have crept up in recent years, Danelectro models still fall into the affordable part of the market with a retro vision and a reminder of a different time. Head over to the brand’s website and you’ll find a dizzying number of available models, not least this year’s new crop to add to the stew.

These 2026 models definitely fall into the mash-up category: they’re not model- or period-specific but come with features that span quite a period, from the get-go in the mid-’50s to the return of Danelectro in the mid-’90s and on to the present day.

All three new models centre on the double-cut Short Horn outline, with a 635mm (25-inch) scale length and – uniquely for any reissued model – a repro of the original and short-lived Full Bell headstock. More unusually, there’s even a logo change: as you can see these are branded ‘Dano’.

The three Dan O models offer subtly different themes. First, the Golden 50’s features “the show-stopping body/headstock graphic that is borrowed from an authentic 1950s kitchen table top”, the press release gushes, and is combined with a pair of hot Lipstick pickups.

There’s no scratchplate, which allows that “kitchen table top” feel to shine in four solid colours of Cream, Black, Maroon and Green. Next is the Dan O Cool, the first of our review models and effectively the same guitar with the ‘rare’ U3-style pickguard (originally from 1955) in Black, Maroon, Blue and Green. A 12-string is offered in Aqua Blue, plus there’s a baritone in Green only.

Finally, the Dan O Mano swaps the overwound Lipstick single coils for two soapbar single coils, there’s no scratchplate here and just three colours of Maroon, Black and Silver.

“With their Atomic Age styling – drawing heavily upon Danelectro’s boldly original 1950s roots – and turbocharged retro vibe, the Dano line might be the company’s most true-to-the-spirit guitars ever,” says Danelectro. Although exactly what the rationale here is, is far from concrete – the brand has been drawing on its ’50s roots since the guitars became available again in the late 1990s.

Conversely, Danelectro might well have created some of its more fit-for-purpose electrics in its now quite extensive history. For example, the so-called ‘Short Horn’ outline is a Danelectro classic, and although not mentioned directly in the marketing blurb – “back to the magic of the 1950s Daneletros” – was first unveiled in 1958.

It’s never been paired with that original and short-lived headstock, and with the Dano logo here it looks quite modern, far from 1950s. Likewise, the moulded ‘D’ logo plastic truss rod cover, which follows the pickguard, style-wise, and the electrics cavity cover on the back.

Construction is ignored by Danelectro’s PR, and indeed its own website. Alex Davis from the brand’s new distributor Strings & Things says: “The publicly available info does leave a little to be desired, but official build specs are pretty much unchanged in decades with the neck a hard Canadian maple and the fretboard in rosewood.”

While Alex states that “the body frame is solid spruce [and] the top and bottom panels are hardboard”, these look more like what we’d call MDF. Another original-style Danelectro feature is the vinyl tape applied to the sides, though here it’s virtually identical to the body colour whereas back in the ’50s it was typically contrasting.

Again, nodding back to the original design is the long heel, quite long and square edged, the strap button placed at its tip, so it’s not doing much to help upper-fret access or comfort.

The hardware certainly looks back and we have the original-style ‘four-way adjustable bridge’ with its one-piece rosewood saddle, liked by many for its sound, less so its accurate intonation. Uniquely, Danelectro is including the much later six (metal) saddle, fully adjustable bridge in the box so you can easily swap: a nice touch, not least that getting hold of Danelectro spares isn’t easy.

Another specific feature is the ‘Skate Key’ tuners. Well, we don’t have any from the ’50s to compare, but these have pretty basic Kluson-style backs with pressed metal buttons, quite thin and small-feeling though perfectly usable.

The nut, as per the originals, is aluminium screwed onto the end of the rosewood fingerboard. Details such as the fingerboard radius aren’t divulged, but historically Danelectro has quoted 356mm (14 inches), which is pretty much what we measure.

Internally, it’s all very clean, the rear cavity opening cut after the guitar is finished, we’d wager. As to how hollow, well, there seems to be a narrow centre block, less wide than the pickups with a pretty large block around the bridge. The actual sides – which are a part of this ‘frame’ – are quite thick, too, and the lower body is certainly much more hollow than the almost solid horns.

Specs

Dan O Cool

• PRICE: $599 | £689 | €669
• ORIGIN: Korea
• TYPE: Double-cutaway semi-hollow electric 
• BODY: Composite top and back over solid wood frame
• NECK: Maple, C profile bolt-on
• SCALE LENGTH: 635mm (25”)
• NUT/WIDTH: Aluminium/ 41.8mm 
• FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, small white dot inlays, 356mm (14”) radius
• FRETS: 21, medium
• HARDWARE: Hardtail rosewood saddle bridge, Kluson-style ‘Skate’ tuners – chrome/nickel plated
• STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 55.5mm
• ELECTRICS: 2x single-coil Lipstick pickups, 2-way lever pickup selector switch, master volume and tone controls
• WEIGHT(kg/lb): 2.81/6.24
• OPTIONS: None
• RANGE OPTIONS: There is a Dan O Cool 12-string (£759) in Aqua Blue only with different pickups, plus a Baritone (£759) in Green only
• LEFT-HANDERS: Not this model, but lefty versions of the ’59M NOS+ (the ‘Page’ model), Vintage 12-String and Baritone are available
• FINISHES: Green (as reviewed) Black, Maroon, Blue – all-gloss with vinyl-tape sides

Dan O Mano

• PRICE: $599 | £689 | $669
• ORIGIN: Korea
• TYPE: Double-cutaway semi-hollow electric 
• BODY: Composite top and back over solid wood frame
• NECK: Maple, C profile bolt-on
• SCALE LENGTH: 635 mm (25”)
• NUT/WIDTH: Aluminium/ 41.7mm 
• FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, small white dot inlays, 356mm (14”) radius
• FRETS: 21, medium
• HARDWARE: Hardtail rosewood saddle bridge, Kluson-style ‘Skate’ tuners – chrome/nickel plated
• STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 55.5mm
• ELECTRICS: 2x soapbar single-coil pickups, 3-way lever pickup selector switch, master volume and tone controls
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 2.83/6.23
• LEFT-HANDERS: See Dan O Cool
• FINISHES: Maroon (as reviewed) Black, Silver – all gloss with vinyl‑tape sides
• CONTACT: Danelectro

Build quality, playability and sounds

We’d call the setup functional, rather than dialled in. The nut’s slots are a little wide but not deep, and the strings are held by a good back angle to those tuners.

The string angle from nut slot to tuner post is fairly straight, too, splaying only slightly. The radius at the rosewood saddle bridge is closer to 305mm (12 inches), so with standard string heights at the 12th fret it does mean the inner strings are a little higher than most would set with separate saddles.

The intonation is nowhere near as ‘off’ as the one-piece saddle would suggest, and while you can tilt the saddle (there’s a small screw under the bridge that holds the saddle in place and allows this angle change), it really is pretty close as supplied.

The fretwork is pretty neat, too – a medium gauge, approximately 2.68mm wide by 1mm high. Overall, then, while not the most dialled-in setup that you should expect from a modern guitar, it ain’t bad, certainly if you live on the bluesier side of the style tracks.

Same with the neck, which feels a little wider than it actually is, perhaps because of the flatter radius. But it’s a pretty classic shallow ‘C’: 20.5mm deep at the 1st fret, 22.8mm by the 12th – no issues at all.

Despite the overwound claims of these new Lipsticks, they are still a pretty low output, although today that’s not really an issue – a little clean boost or whatever takes your fancy easily compensates. It’s the very clear tonality that impresses.

Add in a big reverb and it’s a twang-fest at the bridge, fuller and softer at the neck – which really is almost a middle position – but with a nice clarity.

The surprise (again due to the total lack of specification) is that in the both-on middle position on the selector we have more output and a bigger voice, instead of the expected bounce and funk.

A quick check with our multimeter and the pickups are wired in series (the pickup’s individual outputs are combined), which, of course, is typical Danelectro. There’s still some of the both-on character here, though; it’s just louder with slightly rounder highs.

So you really have some choices. Those individual coils are classic Danelectro; the middle series voice is certainly familiar if you’ve played any of the two-pickup models with stacked volume and tone controls.

However, with just the master volume and tone we have less ability to shade the voice, which might well be an advantage for many players. The controls give a very direct feel: the volume has a good taper, the tone less so, with not a lot happening until the near end of travel where we drop to a woolly roll-off rather quickly.

The same trick is pulled off on the Dan O Mano. The soapbar single coils have a fuller and warmer tonality overall compared with the Lipsticks and, from the off, seem to suit a little more grit.

Again, the middle position combines the pickups in series so there’s more heft and this one sort of has it all: power with clarity. But, again, the three sounds are distinct here – as with the Dan O Cool – and give both guitars their own voice.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★

The backstory here is a bit laboured as the majority of contemporary Danelectros since the late ’90s reference the ’50s. Nothing new there.

It is good to see the rosewood bridge back (with the modern six-saddle unit as back-up), which might not be perfect but really suits the lo-fi vibe.

In-store, these will drop below £600, with the exception of the baritone and the 12-string. Not exactly bargain basement but then neither are the guitars, which remain strangely unique after all these years.

Guitar World verdict: While these finishes give a contemporary and quite moody sheen, the sounds are anything but. The low-output soapbar single coils really suit the lightweight resonant platform; the Lipstick single coils are far from ‘hot’ but have a really appealing clarity and definition, and are archetypal Danelectro.

Hands-on videos

R.J. Ronquillo

Danelectro vs Death Ray Cat

Guitar Interactive

• Best electric guitars 2026: our top picks for every playing style, ability and budget

Welcome to Guitar World’s weekly gear round-up, your one-stop-shop for keeping up to date with what’s been happening in the big wide world of guitar gear over the past seven days.

From new electric guitars to amp modeler updates, the guitar industry is never short of fresh releases, and it can sometimes be hard to stay in the loop with every new launch.

To make things a little easier, we’ve put together an essential must-read guide that will cover the major releases, the boutique drops, and everything in between.

Below you'll find my personal highlights from the week, along with plenty of honorable mentions for the new gear you might have missed. Agree with my picks? Have a highlight of your own? Let us know in the comments.

Fender Japan Active Modern Series

Fender Japan has delivered the goods once again. Meet the Active Modern series – a collection of classic Big F silhouettes that have been on the receiving end of some choice FJ-style tweaks.

Chief among those Active Modern updates is the SILENCOIL system. Now, this looks to just be the same patent-pending Silent System that debuted on those USA models a few weeks ago, but with a different name. Either way, it promises true noise-free single-coil sounds through an independent coil under the pickups.

Elsewhere, it has an intriguing Turbo Tone Boost feature – which effectively simulates increasing the winding count of a single-coil pickup – as well as a new five-bolt neck plate.

There's also a nice new neck heel curve, and body binding across the collection (yes, that includes the Strats). It's like an American Ultra spin-off series, but with some even more desirable features.

Vemuram Las Lunas

Well, talk about dream pedal material. I’ve always admired Vemuram from afar – some of my favorite players swear by them – but I’ve never pulled the trigger. Why? Well, because they are very expensive. The Las Lunas, ‘70s/’80s style distortion, is no different.

With two sides for a choice of either “flat and detailed drive” or “edgy, sharp and full-bodied” gain, the Las Lunas looks like the pinnacle of boutique distortion design, with plenty of onboard controls to really dial in those tones.

Developed over “many years”, it looks to harness those old-school guitar sounds of the 1970s and 1980s, and while I don’t particularly lean into those sorts of waters for my own stuff, there’s just something about Vemuram pedals I find irresistible. Maybe one day…

Gretsch Streamliner CVT

When I reviewed the Gretsch Jack Antonoff Princess signature guitar, I pleaded for the return of a standard run Corvette. If you’d have told me back then that my dreams would not only be answered, but I’d be able to buy one for $249, I’d have called you all sorts of funny names.

However, I would’ve had egg on my face, because that’s exactly what has happened. After launching the affordable Electromatic CVT last year, Gretsch has now launched the even-more-affordable Streamliner version. And it looks very tempting indeed.

For $249, you get two humbuckers, that awesome CVT body shape, a mahogany build, and what Gretsch is calling a “Pitch Perfect Head Angle”. The Sea Foam Green is nice, but I kinda wish it had some more colorful finishes on tap.

ALSO LAUNCHED THIS WEEK...

Warm Audio Dirty Boy Jr. Series FX Pedals

A new collaborative series of wallet-friendly recreations of legendary effects, covering classic overdrive, fuzz and booster circuits to boot. A nice entry point to the world of Warm Audio.

Gibson Cremona Burst Collection

2026 marks 100 years of Gibson flat-top acoustics, so the firm is keeping the party going with a limited edition Cremona Burst collection comprising five iconic silhouettes.

PRS Birds of a Feather Custom 24

PRS has celebrated 10 years of its Birds of a Feather inlay by bringing the intricate inlay – previously only available through the Private Stock collection – to its Core series for the first time.

Fender Player II New Finishes

These were announced a few weeks ago, but now two new Player II colorways – Cactus Grey and Rallye Orange – are now available. The former is giving serious Silver Sky vibes…

Mooer Meta FX

A three-in-one reverb, delay and modulation pedal, built around Mooer’s new X Algorithm platform. There are 40 stereo effects to play with, a 1.28” circular touchscreen, and a wild artwork that will look great on any pedalboard.

Martin 5-28 Terz

The smallest Martin ever made makes a return after the storied acoustic maker finally caved to player demands. The picture doesn’t really do it justice. This thing is tiny.

Epiphone Billy Joe Armstrong Les Paul Jr.

A week after Billie Joe Armstrong’s Marshall dropped, the Green Day leader has another piece of signature gear: a new-look red Les Paul Junior.

Catalinbread Jimothy

A gnarly new bitcrusher from Catalinbread, which has the power to degrade your guitar signal at an interval you choose. Only 50 will be made. Side note: it almost made it into the highlights spot for the name alone…

DOD Drag Analog Delay

A wild new Bucket Brigade Device analog delay pedal from the minds over at DOD, the Drag looks to be an all-in-one textural tool designed for ambient, shoe gaze, and experimental players alike. There's also some patent-pending time-warping tech, which sounds interesting...

Gibson Mod Shop High Five

Gibson has introduced five extravagant Heavy Flake Sparkle finish instruments to mark the fifth birthday of the Mod Shop.

• What's your favorite new gear release of the week? Let us know in the comments below.

Fender Japan is continuing to set the pace for the Big F when it comes to innovation by rolling out its new Active Modern collection.

Covering two Stratocasters, a Telecaster, and a Modern Jazz Bass, the quartet introduces some choice aesthetic, functional and electronic features that would certainly be welcome additions to the US lineup.

Key among the updates is a new Turbo Tone Boost. Activated by a push/push volume knob, it smartly simulates the effect of increasing the number of windings on a single-coil. There's also a new five-bolt neck plate and neck heel design, which looks like a refinement of the American Ultra II style and a neat way to grant further access to the upper frets.

Further still, the Stratocasters and Telecasters feature body binding – a novelty especially for Strats, and a rarity among Fender's regular collection. Here's hoping some similarly styled six-strings make their way to the US lineup.

Then we have the the all-new SILENCOIL. On paper, it looks to be the same, if not incredibly similar, to the patent-pending Silent System found Pro Classic Silent series announced last month.

In practice, the SILENCOIL promises to retain the original tone of the single-coil while also ensuring noiseless operation. Expect the “delicate nuances and clear attack inherent in single coil pickups,” with some extra wiring wizardry that sends a connection from the pickup’s ground side to cancel out only the hum noise picked up by the coils.

This results, Fender Japan says, in “a clear and three-dimensional sound”. The independence of the SILENCOIL means that its noiseless benefits will be injected into new pickups, should the stock ones be replaced down the line.

The DNA of the guitars remains defiantly Fender, with an alder body-maple neck tonewood combination at their core. The three electrics serve up rosewood fingerboards with 22 frets and abalone dot inlays, while the bass stands out with a Bluewood board. It also gets 22 frets, with a 34” scale length.

The Strats are available in SSS and HSS formats, with Two-Color Sunburst, Feather Gray, and Black finishes on offer for both. The SSS model throws in Sapphire Blue Transparent, and both cost ¥275,000 apiece. The Tele is priced the same, but drafts in a Vintage Natural look.

The bass, available in Sapphire Blue Transparent, Vintage Natural, Feather Gray, and Black, is priced at ¥275,000.

“Combining the precise craftsmanship unique to Made in Japan with modern functionality, this series inherits the traditional Fender sound while being a modern guitar for players seeking more freedom and expressive playing,” says Fender Japan.

The Fender Japan Limited Active Modern Series is available now but, as ever, is limited to a Japan-only release.

See Fender Japan for more.

Fender has been in the mood for pickup experimentation recently, with one of its 75th Anniversary Teles delivering its first-ever rail pickup.

Gretsch has unveiled the latest guitar to come off its production line, and the Streamliner CVT stays true to its name with a sleek, no-nonsense design.

The Fender-owned firm has been smashing out some very impressive budget builds of late, with the single-cut Premier Jet and Electromatic Jet baritone proof of that. At $249, its new stablemate is another axe that’s kind to your wallet, and this time, is geared primarily for rock and metal.

The key details to note, besides its simplicity, are the high-output HotWire pickups, which give it its voice, and a C-shaped neck built with fast playing in mind. The two humbuckers, which sit atop a solid and contoured mahogany body that nods to the Gretsch Corvette models, are wound with a mid-range focus for “fiery riffs”.

Both pickups are also wax-potted to kick signal buzz to the curb, and such heat should encourage players to dig in and get heavy. With that in mind, a pitch-perfect head angle, compensated wraparound bridge, and die-cast tuners mean it should take the beating with aplomb.

The headstock design helps reduce string tension and keep strings from slipping, and the NuBone nut promises to keep the guitar’s tone consistent and balanced, improving sustain. Those small details matter.

Mahogany features again with its bolt-on neck, which gets a rounded heel. It’s capped with a 22-fret Indian laurel fingerboard, a GraphTech NuBone nut, and thumbnail inlays.

While the more clichéd chic of Jet Black is catered for with its finish options, Sea Foam Green, Aged White, and Olive Drab also offer a splash of color. Black pickguards are a non-negotiable.

“This no-nonsense tone machine delivers exceptional performance, easy playability and rock-solid tuning stability at an incredible value,” says Gretsch.

The Gretsch Streamliner CVT is available now for $249/£299/€349.

See Gretsch for more.

What makes a signature guitar successful is not just the name on the headstock but what that name is looking for from the instrument, and how their preferences resonate with the guitar-playing public at large.

You can put an A-lister’s signature on your headstock, swap out the stock pickups for the artist’s own, maybe apply a custom finish, and it’s job done. There’s your marketable signature model, complete with the artist kudos that we have recently discovered makes guitars hold their value in the used market.

But one of the most successful signature models of all time – and one of Paul Reed Smith’s most popular builds – was not for a globally recognized superstar. It was for the Texan virtuoso David Grissom, the guitar player’s guitar player, solo artist and session ace who played with John Mellencamp – and a former Guitar World columnist to boot.

His PRS DGT is one of the great electric guitars of the modern era, long established as part of the Maryland’s US-made Core lineup and its Indonesian SE lineup. It came together out of Grissom and Smith’s long-standing friendship. And in a recent interview with Guitarist, Grissom and Smith reflected on the DGT’s evolution.

“David wanted a McCarty guitar with a tremolo, he wanted everything right,” says Smith. Grissom’s specs were put to work in prototypes that were rigorously tested each night. The DGT was “born out of thousands of gigs and hundreds of sessions”. Such was Grissom’s involvement that PRS even started changing the way it wax-potted its pickups. Grissom was worried that 10-minutes soaking in wax was killing something in their tone.

But the interview reveals something deeper – Grissom could have put his name on a PRS Guitar before. Smith had him onboard when he was testing out the specs for the guitar that would become the McCarty model, the guitar that Smith named in tribute to the former Gibson president and guitar designer extraordinaire Ted McCarty, who oversaw the Nashville brand’s golden era designs.

Grissom was PRS’s trusted test pilot and sounding board and his ideas brought in a raft of changes to the guitar, such as the thicker mahogany body and pickup design. He demurred when the prospect of his name being on the guitar came up.

“I was really at the point where nobody knows who I am and I don’t want my name on the guitar,” says Grissom. “A lot of the ideas that I was trying to translate into the PRS were really ideas that Ted McCarty had pioneered at Gibson, and I thought it was extremely fitting. We bounced ideas off each other for years and we would always come up with different stuff.”

But in Grissom’s hands, the PRS McCarty was about to change. He wanted an instrument that was designed exactly for how he played the guitar and Smith was going to make him it. When we talk about the success of the signature model, this is where it’s won and lost, in the details, in the physical geography of the instrument. The DGT became something grander than simply a next-gen McCarty – every single detail was gamed out, from the pickups and the search for the “sweet spot” of warmth and clarity, right down to the fret bevels.

“We changed the control layout so the bridge pickup volume knob was closer to my little finger because I worked that constantly,” says Grissom. “We worked on the neck profile quite a bit over several years with quite a few prototypes.”

You can read the full interview with David Grissom and Paul Reed Smith in a the latest issue of Guitarist, available now from Magazine’s direct – subscribe and you will save a heap of money… Which would be useful if you are in the market for a PRS DGT.

Ned Steinberger did not invent the minimalist guitar – the ’60s La Baye 2x4 and the skeletal Gittler introduced during the ’70s both precede his design.

Nor was Steinberger the first to make a headless instrument – Les Paul invented a headless guitar with an aluminum body in the ’40s, Dave Bunker patented his headless “touch guitar” in the mid-’60s, and numerous Northern California luthiers built custom headless instruments during the late ’60s and ’70s. This writer vividly recalls seeing a few headless guitars and basses at Stars Guitars in San Francisco during the mid-’70s.

However, Steinberger was the first company to successfully mass produce minimalist, headless instruments.

Built from non-traditional composite materials – a graphite/carbon fiber blend neck and body and phenolic fretboard – the original Steinberger guitar design is noteworthy for its appealing combination of radical elements, familiar features, brilliantly engineered innovations, and comfortable ergonomics.

The first Steinberger GL Series guitars appeared on the market in May 1984, starting with the GL2 model featuring EMG 81 and 60 active humbuckers and a stop tailpiece. At 29 ¾ inches long, it was only a few inches longer than its 25 ½-inch scale length.

Standard features included 24 frets and master volume and tone controls. By 1985, the lineup expanded considerably, consisting of the dual humbucker GL2 and GL3 with three single-coil EMG SA pickups, both offered with either the standard S-Trem (GL2S/GL3S) or revolutionary TransTrem (GL2T/GL3T) vibrato systems. The popular GL4 model with an HSS pickup configuration then followed in 1986.

An instrument unto itself, the TransTrem is an engineering marvel that allows users to lower or raise pitch while keeping chords in tune. A metal stop piece can lock the strings in six positions that transpose the key to B, C, D, E, F#, and G. Both the TransTrem and standard floating S-Trem provide a lever that locks the tremolo arm for non-tremolo performance, which also maintains tuning when a string is broken.

One rarely mentioned feature of Steinberger GL guitars is the Co-x connector system that allows users to quickly swap EMG pickups using snap on-off connectors. The body's removable rear-mounted faceplate also made it easy to access the electronics and install other non-EMG pickups with minimal hassle.

Initially, the GL guitars came with a plug-in leg rest for comfortable playing in a sitting position, but later a simpler, improved fold-out leg rest was adopted. The double ball end string design radically simplified the process of changing strings, although the non-standard strings were not always easy to find.

Although Steinberger stopped offering composite versions of their GL models by the late ’90s, the timeless minimal design has become a classic that still lives on today via Steinberger's budget Spirit line.

Thanks to its prominent use by a wide variety of guitarists like Elliot Easton, Reeves Gabrels, Jerry Garcia, David Gilmour, Steve Hillage, Allan Holdsworth, Steve Howe, Mark Knopfler, Mike Score of A Flock of Seagulls, Andy Summers, David Torn, and Eddie Van Halen – the latter two being among the few who truly mastered the TransTrem – the Steinberger GL model has become a desirable icon of both ’80s/’90s nostalgia and futuristic innovation.

Anthony Ferraro has proven to be a key activist for accessible guitar gear. As a blind guitarist, he’s managed to push for a vibrating guitar tuner, a specially made Braille amp, and now, the world’s first accessible guitar.

In a new social media video, Ferraro is seen unboxing an electric guitar with a difference: one that has tactile markers instead of the usual visual inlays.

“I just found out this year that sighted people have fret markers they can look at on the guitar. This is incredible!” Ferraro exclaims.

“You realize this is the first accessible guitar ever made in the world? This is amazing. I can feel where I'm at on the fretboard without having to look for the harmonics.”

And if the Sensory Navigation Neck wasn’t enough, NVision Guitars – the boutique guitar company behind this build – has also equipped it with volume and tone knobs featuring different textures to make it even more accessible.

“This is like musical freedom. Not to mention, it sounds amazing,” continues Ferraro.

Notably, the guitar doesn’t include any Braille, the tactile system that allows blind and partially sighted people to access literacy. By doing this, NVision Guitars is opening up its design to a wider audience of guitarists who might not necessarily understand Braille.

“My new friend Tristan just made the world’s first accessible guitar by adding tactile markers to the neck for frets so I can tell where I am without being able to see,” reads Ferarro’s caption.

“Not to mention he literally built this guitar from a piece of wood and flew from Iowa to New Jersey to hand-deliver it to me and make sure I like it.”

This is the third piece of accessible gear that Ferraro has championed – and helped turn into a reality – this year alone.

Canadian digital programming whiz Kieran Eglin managed to program a $33 Donner DT-1 chromatic guitar tuner so that it vibrates whenever the string reaches the correct pitch. Victory Amps also produced a one-off Braille tube amp – the first of its kind – especially for the guitarist.

One thing is for sure: Ferraro is helping reshape the industry by making guitar gear more accessible to all guitarists.

The following feature first appeared in the March 2010 issue of Guitar World.

How a small California guitar parts and repair facility kick-started
the guitar custom shop revolution and became the premiere maker of super-fast guitars for everyone from Eddie Van Halen to Steve Vai to Warren DeMartini. Guitar World celebrates the storied history and glorious renaissance of Charvel.

Wayne Charvel unwittingly spawned a guitar custom shop revolution when he opened Charvel's Guitar Repair in 1974, in Azusa, California. The shop performed aftermarket customizations and sold parts that allowed guitarists, including an early customer named Eddie Van Halen, to build their own instruments.

At the time, the major guitar companies didn’t offer custom work to the public, and they typically turned over artists’ modification requests to independent luthiers, such as Charvel. In that respect, Gibson, Fender and the other big firms helped independents like Charvel prosper.

Ironically, the poor quality of those companies’ guitars during that era drove more business to the doors of Charvel and its ilk, as players sought competent luthiers that could turn their mediocre instruments into something special.

It didn’t take long for Southern California guitarists to appreciate the Charvel shop’s hot-rodded electronics and the superior playability that its modifications provided. By the late Seventies, when Charvel began to build its own guitars, the company’s aptly dubbed “superstrats”—with their flat, unfinished necks and large fret wire—had become synonymous with the rising trend of shredding.

As the Eighties gave rise to virtuoso shredders, Charvel guitars could be seen in the hands of players like Steve Vai, Jake E. Lee, Warren DeMartini and George Lynch. But Charvels weren’t exclusive to metal players. Fusion giant Allan Holdsworth played custom Charvels, and in the late Eighties Jeff Beck exclaimed, “These guitars made me want to start playing again!”

Charvels were built for speed, but they also had a sound all their own. “They never sounded like Fenders or Gibsons,” says Dweezil Zappa, who acquired his first two Charvels in 1982. “They always had their own sound and personality. The guitars were built with more dexterity in mind. It was easier to reach the top frets, and the vibrato systems were set up well.”

Credit for the company’s mainstream success is due to Grover Jackson, the man who is considered the mastermind and father of metal guitars. Though he’s known today for the brand that bears his own name, Jackson first made his mark with Charvel after he bought out Wayne’s interest in the company in November 1978. Jackson and his team of noted luthiers refined the instruments and instituted production facilities that allowed him to bring Charvels to the masses.

Under Jackson’s guidance, Charvel grew in popularity throughout the Eighties as the shred phenomenon took off. Production began to shift to Japan in 1986, and in 1989 Jackson sold his interest in the company to the Fort Worth, Texas investment firm, International Music Corporation (IMC).

Charvel’s numerous original employees went to work as master builders at Fender, where many of them still work today. High-quality Charvels continued to be manufactured in Japan, but the rise of grunge in the early Nineties reduced demand for the instruments. As the decade went on and sales waned, quality began to dip, and the brand became associated with inferior budget instruments.

By the time Fender acquired Charvel in the fall of 2002, the brand had been all but abandoned. Over the past seven years, Fender has managed to return it to its old glory, thanks in great part to those many original employees in Fender’s ranks. Charvel senior product manager Michael McGregor says, “Charvel is a brand steeped in history and tradition. Building these guitars again with the original recipe is a true labor of love.”

Charvel’s colorful story is a convoluted history of genius, serendipity, iconic players, third-party financiers and talented builders. But whatever the circumstances, there was something special about each Charvel, whether it was made in America or Japan.

Grover Jackson says, “There was a vibe and a team spirit at Charvel that I never experienced anywhere else. Sometimes the good intention of the creator gets into the product, against all odds, and this was certainly true of every Charvel that went out the door.”

Charvel’s Guitar Repair

The man whose name is on Charvel guitars was a part of the company for only four years, but Wayne Charvel’s contributions and importance to the history of player-centric guitars can’t be understated. He was a typical Southern Californian hot-rod enthusiast, whose innate mechanical and artistic talents inspired his desire to help players improve and personalize their instruments.

Originally a sign painter, Charvel discovered he had a remarkable aptitude for guitar refinishing. In the late Sixties and early Seventies, he began to perform custom work for Fender, including paint jobs and pickup installations.

Using other company’s parts, he also created two blonde Tele-style guitars for Billy Gibbons, a black Strat-style guitar for Ritchie Blackmore and a one-of-a-kind Plexiglas bass for the Who’s John Entwistle. Painting flames on guitars, as he did on several of Gibbons’ Fenders, became one of Wayne’s particular specialties.

Charvel says, “As far as I know, I was the first person to ever paint hot-rod flames on a guitar.” Over the years, attention-getting paint jobs would be a defining characteristic of the guitars that bear his name.

Wayne opened Charvel’s Guitar Repair in 1974 in the Southern California town of Azusa. There, he continued to take on work from Fender, sell aftermarket parts and offer some custom services to the public. One noteworthy player who wandered into Charvel’s shop in the early Seventies was a young hotshot named Eddie Van Halen.

“Eddie came by the shop a lot and sometimes would sit on the floor and play the guitar while we repaired some of his other guitars,” Charvel recalls. “One day, Eddie came over to the shop and asked if I had an extra body and neck. I told him that I had an extra Boogie Body neck and an old body in my shop.

“I gave Ed the parts, and the next time I saw the guitar he had used a spray can to paint it white with black stripes. He used nails to hold the pickup in the body.”

This was the first of Eddie’s fabled “Frankenstein” guitars, as was featured prominently on Van Halen, the self-titled debut from Ed’s group. It eventually served as the template for the Grover Jackson–built black-and-yellow-striped Charvel superstrat that Ed can be seen holding on Van Halen II.

Though Wayne couldn’t have imagined it at the time, his shop’s association with the guitarist would springboard Charvel’s success within a few years.

Although Wayne was well known for his paintwork, Charvel’s repair guru, Karl Sandoval was the shop’s main attraction. Sandoval is best known today as the innovator of Randy Rhoads’ polka dot V, but long before he worked on that guitar he was Charvel’s chief employee.

Sandoval, who routinely worked on Van Halen’s guitars, introduced Eddie to Charvel’s shop and turned him on to using a Variac voltage-regulating device with his amps, something that Eddie has long credited with helping him create his signature “brown sound.”

After a year in Azusa, Wayne moved the shop to San Dimas, which is now widely celebrated as the birthplace of shredder guitars. Even though the shop offered repair services, most of Charvel’s business was from mail-order sales of Boogie Body and Schecter Guitar Research bodies and necks, pickups from DiMarzio (then in its first years as a supplier of aftermarket guitar pickups), and replacement parts.

Many guitars of the time came stock with plastic and low-quality steel parts, and Charvel was among the first suppliers to offer superior replacement hardware, including brass bridges, stainless-steel tremolo arms and aluminum jack plates.

Unfortunately, parts and repairs didn’t bring in much money, so Charvel tried to expand into building guitars. For funding, he teamed up with an investment firm called International Sales Associate. Not much happened, however. By 1977, Charvel still wasn’t building its own guitars and was facing severe financial problems.

In the early months of that year, an Anvil Case employee named Grover Jackson came into the shop to purchase a Telecaster body. A skilled guitarist, Jackson had been trained in guitar building by an Atlanta luthier named Jay Rhyne. However, it was his business skills that interested Charvel.

The two men got to talking, and over lunch that day they decided to work together. In exchange for helping to turn around the company, Jackson would receive a 10 percent share of Charvel’s Guitar Repair.

Over the next year, the new partners worked together but disagreed vehemently about how to move the company ahead and begin building guitars in-house. In November 1978, after months of growing frustration, Charvel decided to sell the business to Grover for a total sum of about $40,000, which included Charvel’s debt load of nearly $33,500.

Grover Jackson takes over

On November 10, 1978, Grover took sole ownership of Charvel, with the monumental task of turning a faltering repair shop into a thriving guitar production facility. To begin paying off the company’s debt, Jackson borrowed $7,500 from his parents. He recalls, “My father said, if you piss this away, don’t come home again!”

Time was of the essence, and not only for financial reasons. The guitar world was finally becoming aware of Charvel: one of the first guitars built under Grover’s leadership was Van Halen’s yellow-striped, black Charvel superstrat. Van Halen’s first album had just been released, and guitarists were eager to get their hands on a guitar just like Eddie Van Halen played. Suddenly, everybody wanted a Charvel.

Unfortunately, Grover had no means to mass produce the instruments and get them to market. So he began to assemble a team of gifted young guitarists who were willing to learn the trade, some of whom had backgrounds similar to Grover’s, in furniture building and woodworking.

A young guitarist named Mike Eldred was Grover’s first hire. He had initially and serendipitously come into the shop to commission a superstrat like the one his friend Eddie Van Halen showed him weeks earlier. Soon to follow were Tim Wilson, Mike Shannon, Todd Krause, Pat McGarry, Steve Stern, Mark Gellart, Pablo Santana and Kenny McCutchin, many of whom continue to work with Fender or Jackson today. This became Jackson’s dream team, and with it, he paved a future for Charvel.

While Charvel and his employees had built a few guitars, they had generally done so using parts from other manufacturers. That would quickly change under Jackson’s leadership.

Grover recalls, “We had started making bodies for Mighty Mite and DiMarzio to stay afloat, but we didn’t know how to make necks yet.” With interest in Charvel guitars soaring, they had to learn fast. Says Jackson, “It was eight to 12 months before Charvels actually started rolling off the line.”

Charvel guitars debuted in Atlanta at the 1979 summer NAMM show. The relationships that Jackson formed at Anvil Cases helped him sell the first guitars to a handful of dealers, including Musician’s Supply, which became Musician’s Friend. Guitar Center in Hollywood, a hot spot for up-and-coming stars, soon became another major retailer for Charvel.

In preparation for the expected demand, the company quickly moved its operations from San Dimas to a larger facility in Glendora. Many players think that U.S.-built Charvels were made in San Dimas because they all had a neck plate bearing the company’s San Dimas P.O. Box number and address.

In fact, almost every American-made Charvel built after Jackson bought the company came out of Glendora. He simply continued to put San Dimas neck plates on Charvels because the company’s San Dimas P.O. Box was close to his home and spoke to the company’s roots.

The new Charvel models received an enthusiastic reception from dealers and players. The company’s humbucker- and tremolo-equipped superstrat quickly became the favorite model and is still one of the most sought-after guitars on the used market. But Charvel also built an equally impressive San Dimas Tele and Explorer, as well as a guitar inspired by Eddie Van Halen’s modified Ibanez Destroyer, called the San Dimas Star.

Mike Shannon says, “We all worked for perfection and quality—shaping necks to be fast and comfortable, doing superb paint work, and meticulously dressing the frets… Each guitar had a personality for the player to discover.”

One of the superstrats’ key features was a compound radius fingerboard. Eldred describes the flattening arc of the radius as being “like an inverted ice cream cone,” where the lower frets have a smaller radius that’s comfortable for chording and the higher frets have a flatter or wider radius that facilitates speed, low action, high bends, hammer-ons and arpeggios.

Tim Wilson did the math to determine the measurements that made consistent production of a compound radius fretboard possible for the first time.

Early Charvel bodies were all made from heavy woods, typically ash. Lightweight woods didn’t become popular until Allan Holdsworth requested custom-built basswood Charvels. (A friend of Jackson’s, Holdsworth held rehearsals for his 1982 album, I.O.U., at the Glendora shop.) This was the first time that a lightweight wood was ever used by a major manufacturer on a solidbody electric guitar.

Another component featured on almost all Charvels was a modern tremolo from either Kahler or Floyd Rose. Most of the very early Charvels were built with Kahler brass vintage-style trems that were non-locking. A short time later, Charvel started mounting the double-locking Floyd Rose system that’s preferred by the majority of whammy and dive-bomb specialists.

Steve Vai was an early fan of the whammy-equipped Charvels. He says, “Before I created my signature Jem model for Ibanez in the early Eighties, Grover Jackson was working on innovative guitar designs. He was one of the first to put a humbucker and a whammy on a body that actually worked. This helped shape much of the early Eighties dive-bombing extravaganzas that pervaded the metal guitar scene.”

Like Van Halen’s striped Charvels, Vai’s “Green Meanie” Charvel became a highly visible example of the company’s work and growing influence, making appearances on Vai’s Flex-Able album cover, numerous magazines and, later, in the video for David Lee Roth’s “Yankee Rose.”

The guitar that became the Green Meanie was originally one of Grover’s personal superstrats. Vai borrowed the guitar to take on tour with Alcatrazz. A few months into the tour, he called Jackson and said that he didn’t want to part with the guitar and had painted it green. Jackson let him keep it.

While many players, including Vai, were content with an outlandish paint scheme on their Charvel, Randy Rhoads was not. He recognized the playability of a Charvel but wanted a guitar that had a more radical look, right down to the body shape. In December 1980, while in California on a break from the Blizzard of Ozz tour, Rhoads sat down with Jackson and began designing a new guitar.

The result was an offset-bodied white V-style instrument that they named “the Concorde.” The appellation was later changed to RR1, for “Randy Rhoads Model One.” It remains one of Jackson’s most popular guitars.

The guitar’s look was very unusual for the time, however, and Jackson, fearful of alienating customers, was hesitant to place the Charvel name on the instrument. Instead, he put his own name on the pointed headstock, and Jackson Guitars was born.

Jackson had made one V-shaped neck-through-body guitar for Swiss virtuoso Vic Vergeat that predated the Concorde, but Rhoads’ guitar was the first to display the Jackson logo. Going forward, Jackson became the sleekly insane brother to the wild, yet traditional, Charvel brand. From a construction standpoint, Jacksons were the company’s neck-through-body guitars and Charvels their bolt-on instruments.

Ironically, considering Grover’s original concerns about the RR1, the popularity of Jackson’s aggressive styling soon overshadowed the more conventional-looking Charvels. By the mid Eighties, MTV looked like a 24-hour advertisement for Jackson.

Of course, custom and sometimes wild paint jobs remained a highlight of the Charvel/Jackson guitar lines. Numerous graphic artists worked to bring customers’ visions to life on Charvel and Jackson guitars, the first of which was Ernie Predrigon.

Probably the best known and currently active of them were Dan Lawrence and Glen Matejzel. These artists painted everything from hot-rod flames, zebra stripes, snake skins and lightning bolts to skulls and blood, camouflage, and artist-specific paintwork.

Lawrence says, “After Eddie’s stripes and Randy’s polka dots, graphics became the most popular way for someone to truly personalize the instrument.” Adds Matejzel, “Fans sometimes didn’t know a player’s name, but immediately associated a certain graphic with a band.”

Among the most recognizable and requested paint jobs were George Lynch’s Bengal Tiger stripe and Warren DeMartini’s Japanese-themed Rising Sun graphics.

Even with the great demand for Charvels and Jacksons during the early and mid Eighties, the company was barely in the black. Jackson says, “I didn’t understand money. I was just thinking about product. I wanted to push the envelope. If I could do something better, I threw every nickel at it. There wasn’t enough margin built into the price, and we just weren’t turning a profit.”

In an effort to save the company and expand operations and distribution, Grover merged with International Music Corporation, a multi-product distribution and investment company based in Fort Worth, Texas.

In return for giving up sole ownership of Charvel/Jackson, he received a 12 percent share of the larger company. Like many outside investors, IMC was primarily interested in shaking every dollar out of the company’s potential profitability.

The first change was to move all standard Charvel production to Japan, while Jacksons and custom Charvels continued to be made in Glendora. The newly funded company launched eight new Japanese Charvels, simply denoted as a Model 1, Model 2, and so on.

By far, the most popular of these were the Model 4 and Model 6: the Model 4 was a bolt-on guitar with a humbucker and dual singlecoil pickups and a Floyd Rose–licensed tremolo; the Model 6 was a set-neck version of the Model 4, making it, essentially, a Japanese-built Jackson Soloist. Both models featured Jackson’s own active pickup system, an onboard gain-boosting preamp and a bound rosewood fretboard with shark-fin inlays.

By any standards, they were exceptional guitars for the money and set the early standard for overseas guitar production. The neckplates on the Japanese Charvels replaced the San Dimas address with “Fort Worth, TX” a nod to the location of IMC’s headquarters.

That soon changed. In 1986, in an effort to cut costs further, IMC moved Jackson production from Glendora to a facility in Ontario. With Charvel production situated in Japan, the Ontario facility was to produce Jacksons exclusively, although it did produce a few Charvels to satisfy a backlog of custom-ordered instruments.

The following year, as sales boomed, the Ontario facility reached its peak size with 135 employees, 28 of whom worked around the clock winding pickups, thereby making Charvel/Jackson the world’s largest pickup manufacturer—even if it was just making pickups for its own guitars. Both brands continued to sell extremely well for as long as metal ruled the airwaves.

However, IMC wanted to lower costs further, and in 1989 the company decided to fire 80 percent of the Ontario staff and move the bulk of Jackson production to Japan. Grover unceremoniously sold his interest in the company and grudgingly moved on to other ventures. In doing so, he lost the right to use his name on a guitar, just as Wayne Charvel had 10 years before when he sold Charvel to Jackson.

Charvel after Grover Jackson

Charvel continued forward after Grover’s resignation, but the popularity of guitar music was waning in the growing shadow of grunge. Musicians revered for their virtuosity just a few years before were now accused of overplaying the instrument and lacking “feel.” With Jackson production moving to Japan, the Ontario plant was becoming a ghost town. In 1990, Tim Wilson recalls, “we began to experience severe layoffs in Ontario. We went from 107 employees to about 35 by the end of the year.”

Wilson stayed on as plant manager in Ontario for the next 12 years, before eventually joining his friends and many of his former Charvel coworkers at Fender. During that time, Charvel introduced several new lines, including the Classic Series, Fusion Series and Contemporary Series, as well as the semihollow Surfcaster, which had lipstick pickups.

Most of these guitars were sleeker than their mid-Eighties counterparts and more like Jacksons in their body and neck styles. The logo was also changed during these years from the original guitar-shaped lettering to a whimsical and poorly received cursive style script that became known as the “toothpaste logo.”

Things weren’t entirely quiet at the Ontario facility. In 1993, Charvel began manufacturing a limited run of American-made San Dimas Series guitars for a store in New York City. Thanks to their popularity, IMC allowed Charvel to start taking custom orders.

Although production quality had remained high throughout the IMC years, it began to suffer in 1998, when IMC sold the brand to the Akai Musical Instrument Corporation, which was a part of the Chinese firm, Semitech Global. The company shifted the remaining production to Korea and India, in the process severely crippling Charvel’s quality, reputation and what was left of its diminished sales.

Charvel today

In 2002, Fender purchased Charvel and Jackson from Akai and began a concerted effort to bring the guitar maker back to its original form. Marketing manager Mike McGregor says, “We are fortunate to have many of the original Charvel builders and employees with their hands on these instruments. We also had access to a plethora of original Charvel guitars and numerous dealers and collectors.”

Eddie Van Halen’s striped EVH Art Series guitars were the first instruments to come out of the newly reformed shop, located in Fender’s Corona, California facility. The company also made a limited release of EVH Frankenstein replicas from the Custom Shop.

Next were a Warren DeMartini signature model, two San Dimas superstrats and a San Dimas Tele. Fender’s ownership makes it possible for these guitars to feature the Stratocaster headstock once again. In addition, the models sport an exact recreation of the San Dimas P.O. Box neckplate: although a Costco now sits on the space where the hallowed San Dimas shop once stood, Fender receives mail at the Charvel shop’s former San Dimas address.

And considering that Wayne Charvel set off the custom shop revolution, it’s only appropriate that the new Charvel has its own Custom Shop. Adding to the authenticity of Charvel’s customs, Dan Lawrence and Glen Matejzel are again painting many of Charvel’s graphics.

In one respect, the Charvel story has come full circle: It was more than 35 years ago that Fender commissioned Wayne Charvel to do his first official custom work on a Stratocaster. In another respect, the timing is perfect for the reborn Charvel brand. Virtuoso guitar playing has been on the rebound for the past several years.

And then there’s the nostalgia factor: a lot of those new players were inspired by guitarists who did their shredding in the Eighties on a Charvel. McGregor says, “I’m delighted that there is a whole new slew of shredders emerging, many of whom take direct inspiration from the Eighties players who invariably shredded on a Charvel.”

Although not as outlandish as the Explorer and Flying V, the SG’s pointy horns and sharp body contours were nevertheless radical for the era and it continues to divide opinions decades after its debut at the July 1961 NAMM Show in Chicago.

When analysing many of Gibson’s late 1950s and early ’60s designs, it’s often helpful to consider them in the context of the competition the company faced from Fender.

Flagship models such as the Stratocaster, Jazzmaster and Jaguar had popularised smaller lightweight bodies, double-cutaways for easier upper-fret access, and increasingly slim and fast-feeling necks.

In contrast, the Les Paul Standard and Custom were essentially heavy scaled-down jazz guitars, and while the semi-solids were easier to play higher up the neck, they were also bulky and feedback prone.

Slimline Tonic

The Les Paul Junior and Special models indicated where Gibson’s approach to guitar design and construction was heading when the double-cutaway body shape was introduced in 1958. In a sense, the SG can be seen as an evolution of the Special, with a solid mahogany body that was slimmed down from a nominal 1.5 inches to 1.375 inches and given pronounced contours to sharpen up the plank-like appearance.

Many players welcomed the enhanced playability these new features offered, but there were some drawbacks. The lighter bodies resulted in the SG’s notorious tendency towards neck heaviness and, for some, the long skinny necks made SGs feel more like longbows with guitar strings.

There were structural issues, too, that made the challenge of keeping them in tune second only to the challenge of keeping them in one piece.

SGs are just as vulnerable to headstock breaks as any other vintage-era Gibson model, but slimming down the body also meant that there was less wood and reduced glueing surface area where the neck joined the body.

As a consequence, many SGs have suffered breaks where the neck joins the body and extensive repairs are not uncommon.

Less Les

To his credit, Les Paul identified the SG’s structural issues from the get-go, and by the third year of production the embossed Les Paul logo was quietly removed from the truss rod cover.

The model name was also changed from the Les Paul SG Standard to the SG Standard. Les later suggested: “The problem that the SG had was the fact that you could pull back on the neck and it wasn’t strong enough. I don’t want no vibrato by bending on the neck. I want a good solid instrument, and it didn’t sustain as good. Otherwise, it’s a good instrument.”

It must be said that there’s no evidence the likes of Frank Zappa, Angus Young and Derek Trucks ever struggled with a lack of sustain. As for the whippy necks, Pete Townshend used them to create vibrato effects and control feedback, as you can hear on Live At Leeds.

He was eventually forced to stop playing SGs, however, because replacements couldn’t be found in sufficient numbers to replace those rendered unusable by his ferociously physical playing style and tendency to clout self-righteous hippies at music festivals.

Les Paul models of the 1950s ranged from entry-level Juniors and Specials to the flagship Standard and Custom models. SGs followed suit, with the same P-90/humbucker split but far greater consistency in the way they were constructed. And just like before, the two-pickup Standard model was far more popular than the glitzy gold-plated three‑pickup Custom.

For some collectors, the golden era of the SG Standard lasted from 1961 to ’63. Besides the kudos of retaining the Les Paul branding, SGs from that era stand a good chance of having those fabled ‘Patent Applied For’ humbucking pickups.

Although Gibson was granted its patent in 1959, it continued using up stocks of these pickups and Patent Applied For decals for years afterwards, and there are documented examples of gold-plated units still being installed as late as 1965.

This is where things become murky because not all Patent Applied For pickups were created equal. The version that Gibson was making after mid-’61 had shorter Alnico V magnets, which generate a fatter and more midrange focused tone.

Also, some examples have Patent Number decals, despite conforming in all other respects to the Patent Applied For formula. With so much money riding on them, the devil really is in the decals.

Cherry On Top

According to some SG aficionados, the ultimate year for the model was 1963, so we’re pleased to have got our hands on a ’63 SG. Better still, it’s one of those ever so rare examples that retains its full history.

This guitar can be traced back to Hessy’s Music in Liverpool where its original owner purchased it. That same owner consigned it to Gardiner Houlgate in Wiltshire to be auctioned, where it achieved a hammer price of £10,000 in December 2025.

It is clear that this SG saw a lot of action on the Liverpool circuit and the owner is known to have played for The Squares, The Renicks and The Twig. He also regularly performed at the iconic Cavern Club and even shared the stage with The Beatles prior to acquiring the guitar. One of the most charming features is a ‘Frank Hessy LTD’ sticker that the shop applied to the rear of the headstock.

Thankfully, this SG was spared the modifications that were so often done to guitars during the ’60s and ’70s. There is quite a bit of playwear on the back of the neck, along with finish rub-throughs on the edges, and the dings and dents that are typically acquired by gigging guitars. But the finish retains a vibrant cherry colour and there is no evidence of repairs or overspray.

The electronics are also all original, with a full set of 1963 potentiometers and two original pickups. Since 1963 was a crossover year for such things, it’s hardly a surprise to see a Patent Number pickup in the bridge position and a Patent Applied For in the neck. Guitars & Musical Instruments auctioneer Luke Hobbs suggested that the decal is the only significant difference and that both pickups sound exactly the same.

Other than one replaced tuner screw and a new switch tip, this SG is completely original. The owner’s son brought it to Gardiner Houlgate in a Frank Hessy-supplied hard case, which also contained the original Gibson strap.

Sideways Glance

Another reason ’63 SGs are so popular is that they retain most of the desirable early features, but most are unencumbered by Gibson’s notorious sideways vibrato. No doubt this device has its fans, but in most cases any attempt to use it in earnest is just a prelude to tuning mayhem. Since owners generally fold up the arm and tuck it out of the way, it makes one wonder why Gibson went to the bother of making these.

Gibson would have been aware of the popularity of Fender vibratos and maybe considered Bigsbys to be too expensive or too closely associated with Gretsch to be used on its guitars. Either way, the company devised its own vibrato, with a bar that moved side to side, rather than up and down.

As someone who has removed a few of these, this writer can also report that they are extremely heavy. And that’s possibly their best attribute because sideways vibratos do a fine job of counteracting neck dive, and some credit them with enhancing sustain.

Given the aforementioned tendency of SG necks to induce vibrato (whether you want it or not), vibratos on SGs may seem as superfluous as go-faster stripes on a Ferrari. But the Maestro Vibrola unit that features in this guitar is actually very effective, despite being as under-engineered as the sideways vibrato was over-engineered.

The Maestro, which replaced the sideways vibrato, is little more than a springy piece of metal that is screwed onto the body. So long as you respect its limitations, you can use it to apply gentle Bigsby-like vibrato with confidence that your strings will stay in tune. The trickiest part is finding the sweet spot where the screw-on arm stays tight enough to provide good feel but can swing out of the way when it’s not needed.

As for the sizable ‘lyre’ faceplate, it attaches to a metal frame that is also screwed onto the body. They serve no practical purpose, but they do look good.

Between 1963 and the end of the decade, the SG continued evolving. By 1965, Gibson had transitioned from nickel-plated to chrome-plated hardware, and soon after the neck joint was revised. Known as the ‘Stair Step’, the rejigged join was moved closer to the 19th fret and the heel was elongated for additional strength and stability.

The fretboard width at the nut gradually reduced from 1 11/16 inches to 1 9/16 inches, and ended up at 1 5/8 inches. Gibson also changed the headstock angle from 17 to 14 degrees, and the pickguard was enlarged to extend beyond the bass strings and eliminate the need for pickup rings. These days, you can choose whichever style or feature set you prefer from the current range of Epiphone and Gibson models.

• With thanks for Gardiner Houlgate for allowing us to photograph this guitar.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Wayne Charvel, the visionary guitar maker whose namesake brand changed the guitar industry, has died at the age of 85.

The news was announced in a statement posted to Dignity Memorial, which confirmed he passed away earlier this month on July 12.

Charvel leaves behind a legacy as one of the guitar world’s most influential change-makers.

“Beyond his remarkable craftsmanship, he was a devoted father, grandfather, family member, and friend,” the post on Dignity Memorial notes. “He will be remembered for his kindness, integrity, wisdom, and his great sense of humor.

“His greatest legacy is not only the beautiful guitars he built, but also the love, values, and inspiration he shared with everyone around him. He will be deeply missed and forever remembered by all who knew and loved him. His impact in the music world, and his loving spirit will live on for generations.”

Few luthiers have had the same impact on the guitar scene as Charvel. When he opened Charvel’s Guitar Repair in 1974 in Azusa, California, he unwittingly sparked a guitar custom shop revolution.

Charvel originally performed aftermarket customizations and sold parts that allowed players to build their own instruments. He became a go-to partner for the likes of Gibson and Fender, who didn’t provide in-house custom work of their own, and quickly attracted some notable early clientele, Eddie Van Halen included.

“Eddie came by the shop a lot and sometimes would sit on the floor and play the guitar while we repaired some of his other guitars,” Charvel once said.

“One day, Eddie came over to the shop and asked if I had an extra body and neck. I told him that I had an extra Boogie Body neck and an old body in my shop. I gave Ed the parts, and the next time I saw the guitar he had used a spray can to paint it white with black stripes. He used nails to hold the pickup in the body.”

That guitar went on to be known as Frankenstein and changed the face of rock guitar as we know it.

By the dawn of the 1980s and the shred era, Charvel had already begun building its own guitars. They ended up in the hands of the biggest players of the age, including Steve Vai, Jake E. Lee, Warren DeMartini and George Lynch.

Outside the metal world, Jeff Beck and Allan Holdsworth were fans. At Van Halen's own request, Wayne Charvel also built the original Bumblebee guitar.

In 1978, Charvel’s interest in the company was bought out by Grover Jackson, who helped the company level up and delivered Charvels to the masses. But though he was part of his eponymous brand for only four years, Wayne had already left a huge impact on the scene.

A hot-rod enthusiast who inspired players to experiment with their instruments while emboldening them with superior mods and setups, Charvel prioritized speed, sound and quality, pioneering what would later be known as the "Superstrat".

The company’s own instruments continued to follow the precedent set by Wayne, and the resulting instruments virtually became synonymous with the shred scene.

“There was a vibe and a team spirit at Charvel that I never experienced anywhere else,” Grover Jackson once observed. “Sometimes the good intention of the creator gets into the product, against all odds, and this was certainly true of every Charvel that went out the door.”

In 2002, Charvel was acquired by Fender, which helped return the brand to its former glory after decades in the wilderness triggered by the rise in grunge and declining quality.

As such, Charvel’s name continues to be associated with some of guitar’s most iconic instruments and players. More recently, its legacy has been carried by a range of modern virtuosos, from Sean Long and Rick Graham, to Angel Vivaldi, Guthrie Govan and Jim Root.

Charvel is survived by his wife, Susan; his sons, Michael, Richard, and Robert; his daughter, Jennifer; and his grandchildren, Gavin, Glory and Giana.

In Chinese culture, 2026 is the year of the horse. In the guitar sphere, 2026 is the year of Angine de Poitrine and their brilliantly bonkers double-neck guitar/bass.

The band’s KEXP spot in March, in support of their second album, Vol.II, broke the internet with their microtonal guitar the centerpiece. Viewed over 17 million times, their stock continues to rise like a balloon that’s slipped through a child’s fingers. But therein lies a problem.

Their first microtonal experimentations were – by their own admission – a joke as they sawed extra frets onto an existing guitar. Then they turned to French-Canadian luthier Raphaël Le Breton, who made them the polka dot double-neck with which they’ve made their name. It’s served them well. But they never expected to get so big this quickly.

They needed a second guitar to accommodate their intense touring schedule. When Le Breton proved unavailable, they didn’t have to look too far for a solution: Quebecois guitar co Godin was already sliding into their DMs.

“My friend had shown me the band, so we’d sent their manager an email saying we were open to making them a guitar,” says CEO Simon Godin. “Two weeks later they were touring our factory.”

The band had ridden into town – presumably on a double-headed horse – for a show in Richmond, near one of Godin’s five Canadian factories. “They were blown away by all our tooling and the space,” he reports. “So they said, ‘We’re Quebecois, you’re Quebecois; let’s do it.’”

The local connection was important for the band, with Godin having produced the Limelight and Grace guitars for Alex Lifeson, and a signature guitar for fellow Canadian heavyweight Michel Cusson. But speed was essential, too.

“They asked if we could make the guitar in one month,” Godin says. “That’s pretty crazy – a normal production guitar takes eight weeks.” This, of course, wasn’t a normal production. “It should have been impossible, but we stopped everything. We had a lot of people working on those guitars.” They did it in 38 days.

It was Godin’s first foray into both double-neck and microtonal guitars, and they were handed a strict brief. The new instrument needed to be substantially lighter (considering the original is literally two guitars cut in half and stuck together) feature a smaller gap between the necks, and resolve some key playability issues.

“Because they’re so busy, I only got one hour with the original guitar,” Godin reveals. “We weighed it, took measurements, and that was it.” The resulting guitars – they made two with different pickups – were very much the firm’s own design.

Guitarist Khn wanted greater visibility of the fretboard, so Godin placed glow-in-the-dark fret markers on the back of the neck: white lines for the dotted frets and black for the rest. The microtonal frets are unmarked.

A purpose-built basswood body, with a chambered center, dramatically reduced its weight, and upper fret access was simultaneously improved. But Godin brought plenty more ideas to the table.

“Having the headstock six-in-a-row gave them more attack and dynamics because of the string tension,” he says, “especially with the reverse headstock, which also makes a triangle with the bass headstock. It’s got locking tuners and the necks are reinforced with carbon fiber, so they’re really stable.”

The guitar keeps its two inputs (Khn splits the guitar and bass signal between a Roland Jazz Chorus JC-120 and a Hartke HA2500) but they’re now placed alongside each other. That means the Strat-like input for the guitar, the upper of the two necks, stays well away from the bottom neck – a pain-in-the-butt feature on the original.

The guitar features a 25.5” scale length with a flat Godin bridge, while the bass has a 34” scale length with a Hipshot bridge. They both feature Graph Tech nuts and Richlite fretboards, with 37 and 35 stainless-steel frets on the guitar and bass respectively.

Frets 1-15 are quarter-tone, with standard half-tone frets until the 22nd. The quarter-tone frets were installed by hand – Godin claims that making the microtonal necks was the easiest part. It simply required “a formula you can do on an Excel spreadsheet.”

Electronics-wise, they’re saddled with unbranded noise-canceling pickups from major players. Godin assures us that “we put the best of the best in there.”

Beyond that are plenty of Easter eggs. “They wanted three of everything,” Godin confirms. “The dice knobs are all at three; even the serial numbers have 333 at the end.”

Previously, Khn’s makeshift guitar case (a sleeping bag) had caused problems at airports, so Montreal’s Boblen custom-built cases were sworn in. The guitar gets its own seat on every flight they take, so to keep things compact, its necks are removed for travel. The case is tactfully nondescript because “they wanted it to be under the radar.”

Godin notes, “If something happened to it, it’s not like you go to a music store and buy another one.” When GW jokes that their shopping list would need to consist of two guitars, extra frets, and a lot of glue, Godin laughs before adding a stern “It’s not that easy…”

So, the million-dollar question: is there going to be a signature model? “I get asked this every day,” he responds. “I’m speaking with their team. It’s not a yes or a no. Everything went very big, very fast, and now this is the instrument they’ve dreamed of.

“Maybe this is why, for now, they want to keep it unique. If we do make a signature version, it won’t be a big production. It will be more of a collectible item that you hang on your wall.

“One thing’s for sure: we would like to make single-neck microtonal guitars and basses for those who want that sound but prefer something easier to play.”

Other brands, like Eastwood, have hit the market with polka dot-laden, AdP-inspired guitars. For Godin, who sees its work with the band as a real badge of honor, it’s an unfortunate side-effect of their success.

“Counterfeit items like vinyl and t-shirts are a big problem for them,” says Vincent Cléroux, the project manager on the builds who oversaw fretting, shaping and electronics. “A lot of the counterfeit producers are just following trends, trying to make a quick buck. Do you want to vote with your money for that?”

Khn first played the guitar in Joliette, Canada, on June 20 in front of 20,000 people. A week later they performed to approximately 100,000 people at the Montreal Jazz Festival. Godin and Cléroux were among those in the crowd, witnessing history being made with a guitar they built.

“When I brought the guitar to Khn, he didn’t say much. He just kept playing it. I knew he loved it,” says Godin. “Seeing them play that stage with our guitar, the hairs on my arms went up. It was insane.”

“Of course, we’re biased, but I think our guitar sounds better,” Cléroux adds. “We’re really proud. It was a special moment.”

• See Godin for more info.

The following feature contains excerpts from Blow by Blow: The Jeff Beck Story by Brad Tolinski & Chris Gill, out now via Da Capo.

Iconic guitars aren’t necessarily dime-a-dozen (as proven by the results of Christie’s recent Jim Irsay Auction where several instruments sold for astonishing prices that beat previous records), but they are relatively plentiful as almost every player of note is associated with a particular famous guitar, or several.

However, instances where two or more legendary guitarists are associated with one single guitar are much rarer, with the 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard that once belonged to Peter Green and Gary Moore (and is currently owned by Kirk Hammett) and the red “Lucy” Les Paul that passed from John Sebastian to Rick Derringer to Eric Clapton to George Harrison being notable examples.

A certain 1959 Fender Telecaster also enjoys legendary “two-timer” status for the roles it played in the early careers of Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page – two titans of the highly influential ’60s British blues-rock triumvirate, which also included fellow Yardbirds alumnus Eric Clapton.

This was the guitar that Beck played as he rose through the ranks of London’s burgeoning blues-rock/R&B club scene during the early ’60s through his beginnings with the Yardbirds and that later became Page’s main instrument on Led Zeppelin’s 1969 debut album and was featured on select later recordings, including the solo for Stairway to Heaven.

How or when this particular 1959 Telecaster ended up in England is unknown, but its earliest known history can be traced to sometime in late 1960 or early 1961 when John Owen purchased it as a used instrument for £107.

This was a late-1959 example, featuring a slab rosewood neck, white eight-screw pickguard, light blonde finish that looked almost white and an ashtray bridge with six holes for top-loading the strings (a short-lived, poorly conceived feature), although the late-’59 model also had holes for anchoring strings through the body.

Owen was a good friend of Jeff Beck during their teenage years, and when Beck got an offer to join a band called the Deltones he accepted only under the condition that they also hire Owen on rhythm guitar.

It was a bold move, but Beck’s loyalty ran deep. Owen had been one of his biggest supporters, often lifting his spirits during moments of self‑doubt. And then there was a more self-serving reason: Beck coveted Owen’s ’59 Tele.

During his tenure with the Deltones, Beck experimented with several different instruments, including a Hofner Futurama III and a 1960 sunburst Fender Stratocaster, the latter purchased in 1961 with his mother’s reluctant help as a guarantor.

Although both were solid, professional-quality instruments, he gravitated toward Owen’s Tele, borrowing it so frequently that it became less of a loan and more of a permanent arrangement. Eventually, Beck convinced Owen to part with it for good, most likely shortly after Beck traded his Strat for a 1953 Ford Zephyr in late 1962 or early ’63.

The ’59 Telecaster remained Beck’s trusty companion as he joined various bands during the early ’60s, including the Nightshift and the Tridents.

“When I first heard Beck, I just thought, ‘What the fuck was that?’” Tridents lead guitarist Mike Jopp, who Beck replaced, later recalled.

“There was this guy with a Telecaster and a Binson Echorec, and the notes were flying everywhere. Nobody at that point was doing anything like it. He was incredibly flashy, pressing the strings behind the nut, detuning them, making sounds that were just otherworldly. He was on a whole different level.”

At some point, Beck swapped the Tele’s original white single-layer pickguard for a black pickguard. Beck idolized the early ’50s black-guard Esquires he first saw as an impressionable 13-year-old in the hands of the guitarists in Little Richard and Gene Vincent’s bands in the film The Girl Can’t Help It. This simple cosmetic modification brought the Tele closer to those guitars of his dreams.

The Telecaster remained in this state when Beck replaced Clapton as the lead guitarist for the Yardbirds in March 1965. The guitar appeared in Beck’s highly capable hands in his early television appearances with the Yardbirds on shows like Ready Steady Go! and Top of the Pops.

It also appeared in a promotional film shot on June 16, 1965, for American television where the band campily mimicked a performance of For Your Love while dressed in Renaissance Faire regalia. Beck played the Tele on his earliest recordings with the Yardbirds, including the seminal raga-rock hit Heart Full of Soul.

When the Yardbirds returned from Paris, where they opened shows for the Beatles on June 20, 1965, the Telecaster temporarily went missing. While on a previous tour with the Walker Brothers, Beck noticed a 1954 Fender Esquire that belonged to Walker Brothers guitarist John Maus.

The Esquire had a blond maple neck – a feature rarely seen on Fender guitars imported to Britain as most Fenders that made their way to U.K. shores were later models with rosewood fingerboards.

Needing a quick replacement for the lost Tele, Beck made a beeline to Maus and bought the Esquire for £75. When Beck later replaced the white pickguard for a black one, he finally had an Esquire that cosmetically matched the ones he lusted after in The Girl Can’t Help It.

When the ’59 Telecaster was eventually recovered, Beck lost interest in it in favor of his new axe. That interest waned even further when Beck bought a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard in early 1966 and the Les Paul became his main guitar.

When the Yardbirds’ newly hired manager, Simon Napier-Bell, distributed funds from a large advance he negotiated for the band from EMI Records, Jeff bought a 1963 Corvette Stingray. The next day he drove it to his good friend Jimmy Page’s house along with the ’59 Telecaster.

“I was still living with my parents at the time in Epsom,” Page said. “And I heard this car come roaring up. I looked out the window and I saw this blue Stingray outside… and Jeff’s coming out and he’s holding this guitar. [I thought] ‘Oh, he’s come to have a play.’

“He knocked on the door and explained that [the Yardbirds] had just done a new deal and he bought the Stingray with it. Then he said, ‘Here, this is yours’ and gave me his 1959 Telecaster. He said, ‘This is yours for getting me in the Yardbirds.’ Well, obviously, I was really moved, you know, because there was a lot of love in that gesture of giving it to me.”

When Beck gave Page the Tele, Jeff had restored it to its original cosmetic appearance by replacing the black pickguard with either its original white pickguard or one he made himself. Later, when Page joined Beck in the Yardbirds – first on bass and soon as a second lead guitarist – he played the Tele with the band. Page perfected his signature use of the violin bow on this guitar while performing alongside Beck.

The ’59 Tele got the first of two significant cosmetic modifications Page performed to the guitar shortly after Beck left the Yardbirds in late 1966. First, Page acquired eight small circular mirrors and glued them to the guitar’s top on the upper bout and below the bridge as well as to the pickguard.

“After Jeff left, I started to think much more about my visual image with the band,” Page wrote in Jimmy Page: The Anthology (Genesis Publications, 2020).

“I wanted there to be more to the Telecaster than just the sound it made. I thought that maybe I could do something with light, maybe reflecting light from the guitar onto the audience to make a kind of kinetic sculpture. It started to become an art piece in its own right.”

Eventually, Page decided to make a second, even more dramatic modification to the Tele’s appearance by stripping off its finish, installing a custom reflective pickguard that displayed changing colors under bright spotlights and painting a multi-colored dragon image on the body.

“I painted it in one go over the course of an evening, finishing it the next day,” Page recalled in The Anthology. “The pattern took on the imagery of a dragon. I was quite happy with the way it ended up. Now it was the ‘Dragoncaster.’ I played it on the last Yardbirds recordings at the Anderson Theater in New York and on Led Zeppelin. Once it was created and painted it became like the legendary Excalibur as it traveled from the Yardbirds to Led Zeppelin.”

The “Dragoncaster” became a familiar sight at Led Zeppelin’s early shows up until April 1969 when Page bought a Les Paul Standard from Joe Walsh while the band was on tour in the United States. The Les Paul promptly became Page’s main guitar, and he left the ’59 Telecaster behind at his home after Led Zeppelin returned to England in June 1969.

Led Zeppelin’s North American tour resumed during July and August 1969, and when Page came back home in September he was greeted with an unwelcome surprise from his house sitter.

“It’s a tragic story,” Page told Guitar World in 1998. “When I got back, a friend of mine had kindly painted over my paint job. He said, ‘I’ve got a present for you.’ He thought he had done me a real favor. As you can guess, I wasn’t real happy about that. His paint job totally screwed up the sound and the wiring, so only the neck pickup worked.”

In despair, Page stripped off the paint once again. He managed to repair the wiring and used the Tele for one last hurrah in 1970 when he recorded his solo for Stairway to Heaven. “I salvaged the neck and put it on my brown (string bender) Tele that I used in the Firm,” he told GW in 1998. “As for the body, it will never be seen again!”

That statement led many guitar fans to believe that the guitar had joined the list of legendary “lost Teles,” a rumor that still persists to this day. Fortunately, Page broke his controversial promise in 2019, not only by resurrecting the Tele but also by painstakingly reproducing his original dragon artwork from detailed photos and his own memory.

“It was the Met (the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City) wanting to include this guitar in the Play It Loud exhibition that gave me the motivation to get it repainted,” Page wrote in The Anthology. “I’d been meaning to do it at some point but had had so many projects to do and now was the time.”

Later that year, Fender released signature models based on the “mirrored” and “dragon” versions of this legendary 1959 Telecaster, each offered as both a production model and as a limited-edition Custom Shop release.

The Fender Jimmy Page Dragon and Mirror Telecasters were long-overdue tributes to a truly iconic guitar that played a massive role in the historic British blues-rock movement during the ’60s by inspiring the development of hard rock and heavy metal, which made the electric guitar the leading voice of rebellion and free expression ever since.

• This feature contains excerpts from Blow by Blow: The Jeff Beck Story by Brad Tolinski & Chris Gill, out now via Da Capo.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

What is it?

It’s fair to say that the third installment of a franchise is often the hardest. Every threequel wants to be Return of the King or The Last Crusade, but more often than not, it ends up being The Godfather Part III, The Matrix Revolutions, or The Dark Knight Rises – you either die the hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain, right?

In the realm of the electric guitar, looking to break the curse of the third-act slog is Fender and the hotly anticipated Vintera III series. The Vintera range has never claimed to be faithful vintage recreations. Instead, they opt to generalize the specs, going for a decade rather than a specific production year. This is an effort to capture the look, feel, and tone of golden-age guitars, without locking them into the demands of a fully period-correct build – let’s leave that to the Custom Shop.

Picking up where the II left off, this all-new slate of guitars keeps the original's premise, but takes it in a slightly different direction in terms of years. This time around, we have models inspired by the late '50s as well as the early, mid, and late '60s. The guitar I’m looking at today is the Late '50s Stratocaster.

As expected, this Strat features an alder body paired with a 1-piece maple neck and maple fingerboard. The neck is a '50s “D” profile and is peppered with 21 Vintage Tall frets with a retro 7.25" radius.

Tonally, the Vintera III Strat is powered by a trio of suitably vintage Late '50s Single-Coil Strat pickups, which look to get you as close to the charm of an old-school Strat as possible. That said, what isn’t period-correct is the switching. Original late-50s Stratocasters were wired a little differently from how they're wired today. The first tone knob controlled the neck pickup, while the second controlled the middle pickup; this meant the bridge pickup had no tone control, arguably where you need it most!

The Vintera III comes wired like a modern Strat, with a master volume and tone 1 controlling both the neck and middle pickups, while tone 2 takes care of the bridge pickup.

Rounding out the specs is a vintage-style synchronized tremolo and period-accurate split-post tuning machines.

The whole thing is finished in a gloss polyester lacquer and available in three finish options, from the classic 3-Color Sunburst, which I am reviewing today, to Knopfler-esque Dakota Red and the glittering Aztec Gold. The model also ships with a padded Fender gigbag.

Guitar World demo video

Specs

• Launch price: $1,249 | £1,029 | €1,249
• Made: Mexico
• Type: Six-string electric guitar
• Body: Alder
• Neck: Maple, Late '50s "D"
• Fingerboard: Maple, 7.25" radius
• Scale length: 25.5" (648 mm)
• Nut/width: Bone, 1.650" (42 mm)
• Frets: 21 Vintage Narrow Tall
• Hardware: 6-Saddle Vintage-Style Synchronized Tremolo with Bent Steel Saddles, Fender Vintage-Style tuners, 1-Ply pickguard
• Electrics: Vintage-Style Late '50s Single-Coil Strat pickups, Master Volume, Tone 1. (Neck/Middle Pickups), Tone 2. (Bridge Pickup)
• Weight: 7.5 lbs/3.4kg
• Left-handed options: N/A
• Finishes: -Color Sunburst, Dakota Red, Aztec Gold
• Cases: Fender Gigbag
• Contact: Fender

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

Right, first things first, this is a very handsome guitar, indeed. I’ve always had a soft spot for ‘50s Strats, personally owning a ‘54 Commemorative Anniversary model, and this one does not disappoint in the looks department.

While my own Strat is the earlier option with the more subtle 2-tone sunburst finish over an ash body, this model opts for alder and brings in a pop of red, turning it into the universally loved 3-tone sunburst – although there’s no woodgrain pattern showing through, making it look more like a solid finish than semi-transparent, like you would expect. Fender first introduced the 3-tone sunburst in early 1958, so it’s right on the money to match that “late ‘50s” moniker the guitar wears.

I’d say the poly finish feels good enough underhand, but I’d still prefer to see a full nitrocellulose lacquer on these guitars – in keeping with the vintage vibe they are going for. It would really complete the look for me, and some natural aging is an added bonus, too.

Another period-correct feature is the 8-hole, 1-ply pickguard. Yes, it may look a little basic, and dare I say cheap, but it is what guitars from this era looked like. Fender wouldn’t switch to the 11-hole, 3-ply pickguard until around mid-1959, so again, the company is authentically including the correct option here.

The overall fit and finish of this guitar is pretty spot on. In fact, I can’t really see anything out of place. The finish has been neatly applied, the sunburst has a satisfying fade through the three colors, and the neck joint is tight and flush. This build quality also extends to the vintage-style tremolo, which feels smooth and glides effortlessly. It also shows how well the real bone nut – an upgrade from previous generations – has been cut, as there’s no string stickage here.

Some players may notice that you can see the edges of the headstock decals, as they have been applied over the finish. This isn’t actually a mistake or carelessness from Fender, but another period-correct trait they have chosen to replicate.

That all said, I must say the frets could use a bit of attention. They are covered in patches of amber lacquer across most frets. For most glossy maple boards, Fender typically sprays the lacquer after the frets are installed, then cleans up the frets to a perfect polish.

The clean-up job isn’t great on my test example, and as a result, it feels dull and sticky when bending the strings – and generally looks pretty unsightly. I’m seeing this carelessness with frets more and more from the big names, and frankly, it’s something I’d like to see companies take more seriously.

At $1,249, this is most definitely not a cheap guitar, and as such, I really expect things like this to be done at the factory ahead of shipping.

However, it is an easy enough fix, and it doesn’t detract from what is otherwise a smartly built guitar that is teeming with vintage mojo straight out of the box.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

If you’re a modern player who likes modern necks, this Strat will not be for you. This is, by all metrics, a vintage-lover’s neck through and through – and I, for one, love it.

Billed as an “authentic late '50s ‘D’-shaped neck profile,” this neck is certainly rounder than contemporary Strats, but it’s not massive. We’re not talking baseball bat, Gibson Les Paul territory. It’s subtly rounded and very inviting to play, in my opinion.

Now, I have a couple of vintage reissue Fenders, mainly an AVRI Jazzmaster and Telecaster, both based on ‘64 models, so I’m pretty used to a 7.25" radius fingerboard and those smaller vintage-tall frets. But those not all that familiar may take a little bit of time adjusting to the rounder radius.

There’s a lot of common wisdom swirling online around the 7.25" radius fingerboard – some swear by it, others avoid it. The main argument in its favor is that its rounder profile makes chording a dream. Open chords, barre chords, and Hendrix-style thumb-over shapes all feel supremely comfortable, and that’s certainly true of this new Vintera model.

For me, the natural contour of the neck follows the shape of my hand, making rhythm work especially pleasant. That said, critics argue that these curved boards make big bends and low action more difficult, claiming that notes can “fret out” when you push a string up high on the neck – but that’s not something I found on this model.

Bending is easy and expressive. Fender’s vintage-tall frets give you just enough height to dig in for lead work, while the setup – around medium-low for me, at 1.55mm on the low E to 1.25mm at the high E – allows for easy bends and wide vibrato without choking out.

Yes, the neck has some meat to it, but ultimately, it still feels easy to navigate. Okay, so if you’re coming from a flatter, modern fingerboard, you might notice the difference, but for vintage fans this Strat sits in the sweet spot for both chord and lead work.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★★

Maybe it was because my first-ever guitar was a Strat, but I’ve always loved the sound of this famed Fender. Yes, the Telecaster is a straightforward tone machine – simply set it to stun, point and shoot. The Stratocaster, on the other hand, has a few extra sounds locked away inside, and this Vintera does a very good job of representing the best of what Leo's crowning achievement can deliver.

For testing, I start by plugging into my '68 Custom Twin Reverb reissue, set a mild amount of verb, and get to playing.

Labeled as “vintage-style late ‘50s” pickups, there’s plenty of woody warmth here, especially from that neck pickup. There’s a moderate output and a real vintage authority to the pickups as a whole. Which I really appreciate. As I said up top, the model forgoes the 3-way pickup selector that would’ve come on a vintage example and swaps it out for the far more useful 5-way switch. This means I have access to all the sounds typically found in the Strat’s sonic palette.

Arguably the most beloved Strat tone is the combination of the bridge and middle pickup, which results in a smooth, slightly out-of-phase tone that just begs you to play your favorite John Mayer licks.

On the Vintera III, this position is bright, with plenty of attack and a slightly hollowed mid-range. Simply put, it sounds fantastic. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it gives the Custom Shop ‘54 pickups in my own Strat a run for their money.

For the funk-masters out there, you'll most definitely want to stick to the percussive attack of the middle position, which again sounds as good as ever in this new model. The bridge pickup is, obviously, where the majority of the treble lives, and here it manages to stay on the right end of harsh. Never sounding too brittle or thin, for that matter. It certainly helps that I can roll down the tone if needed – something players in 1958 couldn’t do!

Moving on, I switch things up and plug into a Vox AC30, stomp on a Tube Screamer, and see how this Strat handles with more gain. To my surprise, it takes it in its stride. The guitar almost takes on a somewhat throaty vocal quality that is perfect for bluesy lead lines and even alt-rock riffage.

I dare not push the gain much higher, as things are on the cusp of getting too noisy, but I’d say this late '50s Strat does more than rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly or country. It would be easy to write this guitar off as a one-trick pony, but actually there is a wealth of tones here, and it’s a pretty versatile guitar all things considered.

Verdict

If you’re after a Strat that leans hard into its old-school DNA, the Vintera III Late ’50s is a love letter to Fender’s golden era, wrapped in a handsome sunburst finish. This is not a guitar for a shred set – after all, there are plenty of them available elsewhere – it’s for those who want their instrument to feel like one from the past, but with a few choice contemporary updates.

The feel of this guitar is very specific. That late-’50s “D” profile, paired with a 7.25" radius and vintage-tall frets, creates a playing experience that’s tactile, inviting, and packed with character. Is it for everyone? No, definitely not. If you’re coming from modern, flatter necks, you’ll feel the difference immediately. But for those who love wrapping their thumb over the top, digging into big chords, or coaxing out expressive bends, this Strat rewards your effort with a feel that’s perfectly old-school. Personally, I think the frets could stand a better polish from the factory, and at this price, that’s worth noting.

Sonically, the Vintera III goes toe to toe with higher-end Custom Shop models, in my opinion. The pickups capture the warmth, snap, and sparkle you want from a late-’50s Strat, with enough output to handle blues, classic rock, and even a touch of alt grit if you push it – and better yet, the modern wiring is a thoughtful update, putting tone control right where you need it.

The bottom line is that the Late ’50s Strat is a fantastic entry into the now long-running Vintera series, proving that some third installments are most definitely as good as the original.

Guitar World verdict: The Vintera III Late ’50s Stratocaster is a loving tribute to vintage Fender, offering authentic late-’50s feel, sound, and looks in a package that’s both inspiring and approachable. The neck is comfortable, the pickups are lively and versatile, and period-correct details are tastefully done.

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What is it?

Donner is probably the best-known of the budget-friendly Chinese brands out there. It makes everything from beginner electric guitars to multi-effects, keyboards, electronic drum sets, and even did a collab with Jack White's Third Man via the Triple Threat pedal. Donner’s got its finger in a lot of pies, but arguably its most popular product is the Hush line of travel guitars.

Now, this model comes in a couple of flavors. There’s the more advanced Pro X, the acoustic EVO2, and the classical-inspired Hush C Nylon. But the one I’ve got my hands on today is the Hush X Live.

​At its core, it’s built around a mahogany body. The neck is a (club) sandwich of five pieces of mahogany with two 1mm maple strips, and you get Donner’s own Alnico V humbucker at the bridge and an Alnico V single coil at the neck. But honestly, that’s about where the traditional guitar stuff stops.

​The vaguely Telecaster-esque outline comes from a detachable metal wing that slots onto the main core, while a built-in speaker module, tucked away right where you’d usually find the controls, completes the silhouette. This turns the Hush X Live from an already portable headless electric guitar into a truly “go-anywhere” instrument.

But it’s not just a speaker; there are actually five amp models baked in, from a Marshall to a Mesa/Boogie, Fender Twin, Roland Jazz Chorus, and Vox AC30. Plus, you get a built-in multi-effects with modules including delay, reverb, modulation, and a noise gate, all tweakable with little controls on the bottom horn.

​And if that’s not enough, there’s built-in Bluetooth streaming, so you can hook up your phone or tablet for backing tracks or online guitar lessons. Of course, since it’s a travel guitar, you can break it down in seconds, and it comes bundled with a slim but well-padded gig bag, and it’s available in two classic finishes, Black or White.

Specs

• Launch price: $499.99 | £423.99 | €499.99
• Made: China
• Type: Six-string electric travel guitar
• Body: Mahogany
• Neck: Mahogany/maple
• Fingerboard: HPL
• Scale length: 25.5"/647.7mm
• Nut: Bone
• Frets: 21
• Hardware: Donner Headless Tuning System with a Full Block 6-Saddle Fixed Bridge
• Electrics: Hush X '23 Original Alnico V humbucker/ single coil
• Weight: 4.4 lbs / 2.0 kg
• Options: N/A
• Left-handed options: No
• Finishes: Black or White
• Cases: Gig bag
• Contact: Donner

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

Opening the skinny oblong box immediately lets me know that this is no ordinary guitar. Housed inside is a padded rectangular gig bag that is in no way guitar-shaped; in fact, it looks more like the type of case you’d find PA speaker poles carried in. It’s a pretty good-looking gig bag, though. It’s well padded, and there are enough compartments to hold everything you need.

As you’ve probably guessed, the guitar comes disassembled with the main body and neck being one piece, and the metal horns and speaker section bolting-on to complete the guitar.

​Overall, the whole thing feels impressively well made and finished, much more so than I expected from a modular design, especially at this price point. The fit and finish are genuinely tight, with all parts locking together with a satisfying click, no rattles or play anywhere. All the joints line up neatly, and the paintwork and hardware look and feel above the usual travel guitar standard.

The main body is made of solid mahogany, which, in this case, is actually pretty lightweight; it’s not until I add the detachable horns that the guitar gains some heft. The satin finish on the neck has been smoothly applied with no sticky spots or rough patches, and the fretwork is impressively tidy, too. There are no sharp fret ends to be found.

As this is a headless design, the tuners are located at the guitar's bridge, and they hold pitch well and turn smoothly, without any grinding or slack. The bridge is a solid and pretty substantial thing, and feels robust under my hand.

I must say, this is a very easy guitar to put together, taking just seconds to complete. It’s a pretty straightforward affair, and there’s no need to reach for the manual, as it’s very obvious how it all connects – and, honestly, there's something deeply satisfying about how quickly it all snaps into place – and it has the added benefit of making me feel like Jason Bourne assembling a rifle on a rooftop.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★☆

The first thing I notice when I pick it up is how lightweight and balanced it feels, even when fully assembled. It’s easy to forget I’m holding a modular instrument, and that’s a compliment. It sits comfortably on my lap or hangs well on a strap, and thanks to its missing headstock, it has none of the awkward neck dive that plagues so many travel guitars.

Now, the neck is finished in a super-slick satin that borders on, dare I say, plasticky. Some players will love how fast and effortless it feels, and shredders especially will appreciate the lack of resistance. But there’s no denying it’s almost slippery, so if you prefer a bit of grip or a more organic feel, it might take some getting used to. It certainly took me a while to gel with it, if I’m totally honest.

The fingerboard, for its part, has a distinctly synthetic vibe, too. It's billed as HPL, which stands for high-pressure laminate, and even though it is smooth and even, the texture is closer to Richlite than to rosewood or ebony. Of course, this isn’t a dealbreaker, but it’s definitely something you'll notice, especially if you’re coming from more traditional fretboards.

The guitar comes with a plethora of built-in effects and controls, which are located on the speaker module, making it pretty easy to grab and tweak while playing, well, that is apart from one control. One of the more unusual design choices is the placement of the Tap-Tempo button for the delay on the back of the guitar. While this keeps the front face clean, it does make adjusting tempo mid-song very awkward – I have to reach around with my fretting hand, which is not exactly intuitive if I'm performing or even just practicing. It’s a strange oversight, in my opinion.

The built-in speaker is a brilliant feature for truly portable practice, but don’t make the same mistake I did. I, somewhat naively, thought that once I clicked the speaker module in place, that was it and it would just work, but that is not the case. It requires a cable connection to the guitar itself; thankfully, the guitar does come with a small patch cable in the bag.

Once I'm playing, the Hush X Live feels much more like a 'real' guitar than the novelty I was first expecting. The fretwork is solid, bends are smooth, and the intonation is impressively good across the neck, and it doesn't take long to forget I'm jamming on an instrument I've just slotted together.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆½

Okay, so now on to the sound, and I’d say it’s a tale of two halves for the Hush X Live. On one hand, you’ve got a genuinely decent pickup and electronics setup, plugged into a real amp, in my case a Fender Blues Junior, it sounds good. Is it mind-blowing? No, not really, but the Alnico V pickups are responsive enough and exactly what I’d expect at this price.

On the other hand, the built-in speaker is somewhat of a limited practice tool, in my opinion. Through the speaker, everything comes across a bit boxy and narrow. It’s not unpleasant, and it does the job for late-night noodling or hotel room jams, but I'm definitely not getting the full character of the instrument. There’s a midrange hump and a lack of real depth, so chords can sound a little congested, and single notes don’t quite sing the way they do through a proper amp, and things only get worse the more gain you add. For cleaner, more bluesy settings, it works pretty well, but the high-gain shred settings aren’t quite up to par.

Of course, none of this is surprising. The Hush X Live really comes alive when plugged it into a real amp or an interface. The tone opens up, the boxiness disappears, and I get a much clearer sense of the guitar’s true voice.

It’s worth noting that there are a few ways to run the Hush. There's a traditional output on the main body, like a normal guitar, giving you the pure sound of the pickups. I can hook up the speaker module and use the amp models and effects without an amp, or I can take a line out from the module into an amp or audio interface to use the effects at a much louder volume. I chose to go with the latter, so I could really hear what was going on without it being coloured by the boxy speaker.

The Hush X Live comes loaded with a surprisingly ambitious lineup of onboard amp models, including a Marshall JCM-800, a Fender Twin, a Roland Jazz Chorus, and a Vox AC30. It’s an impressive roster on paper and is pretty much all the amps I’d ever need. I’ll admit, these aren’t dead-on replicas. Put them side by side with the real amps, and I’d be hard-pressed to identify which was which based on tone alone. The voicings are more like broad strokes of the originals, capturing a bit of the character and flavor, but not the full depth or nuance.

That said, they’re undeniably fun to play with. The JCM-800 model gives a satisfying crunch, the Mesa setting delivers plenty of gain, and the Fender and Roland flavors are bright and lively enough for clean playing. The Vox model offers some nice chime, though it can get a little fizzy if you push it too hard. For most practice and jamming scenarios, they sound pretty good, and swapping between them can spark a lot of inspiration. None of them are going to fool a purist, but for a compact, all-in-one setup, it’s hard not to be impressed by what Donner managed to pack in.

Moving on to the effects, and again, we have plenty to play with, from reverb to delay, chorus, tremolo, and a noise gate. Again, like the amp models, these aren’t the greatest effects ever made, but they sound pretty good for the most part. The chorus is lush, the delay has tap-tempo, and the reverb can get pretty big if you want it to. For a guitar you can assemble in seconds, it’s almost surreal how much sonic territory you can cover with just a few twists of a knob.

Verdict

For me, I’d say the Donner Hush X Live is a clever bit of travel gear. It’s a genuinely impressive piece of kit that goes far beyond its portable ambitions. Is it perfect? Of course not; no guitar is, and the Hush X Live has its quirks. The neck is slicker than some will like, the fingerboard feels a touch synthetic, the built-in speaker, while handy, won’t be replacing your favorite amp anytime soon, and the tap tempo button’s placement on the back is an odd design call. But none of this derails the overall experience.

The build is solid, it’s genuinely well-finished, and assembly is fast and intuitive. Plugged in, the Hush X Live is more than capable. The pickups deliver tones that certainly don’t embarrass themselves next to full-sized guitars, and while the onboard amp models and effects won’t fool a tube amp or boutique pedal lover, they’re a blast to experiment with and more than good enough for practice, jamming, or writing on the go.

For anyone who travels, likes to play anywhere, or just wants a minimalistic rig that still feels like a proper instrument, the Hush X Live is a winner.

Guitar World verdict: With the ability to shrink into a seriously compact little gig bag, the Hush X Live is a fun and pretty well-made travel guitar that can really go anywhere. Okay, so the built-in speaker isn’t the greatest, but the on-board amp models and effects do sound pretty decent when played through a traditional amp – and we can’t forget about its affordable price tag.

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Fender has fired back at Thomann’s lawsuit against the guitar company by suing the musical instrument retailer for copyright infringement.

In a statement, Fender announced it had responded to the Declaration of Non-Infringement action by filing a formal infringement action against the Harley Benton owner.

Fender says its own infringement action is “the expected next step in the legal process” and a result of the legal proceedings instigated by Thomann.

Last month, Thomann sued Fender after it sent cease-and-desist letters to Harley Benton, Yamaha, PRS Guitars, LsL Instruments, and other firms it believed to be producing Stratocaster “copies”.

Thomann said it was acting on behalf of other prominent brands and smaller manufacturers, specifically naming companies including Tom Anderson, Suhr, Pensa and Maybach.

Fender argues that Thomann’s in-house Harley Benton guitars copy the Stratocaster, and that Thomann initiated litigation in a bid to obtain legal protection to continue selling such designs.

Fender says it attempted and failed to “discuss practical ways to differentiate products while respecting Fender’s intellectual property” with Thomann, leading to the legal filing and Fender’s subsequent countersuit.

“Thomann isn't a small independent guitar builder,” Fender argues in response to Thomann’s claim it’s suing Fender for the good of the industry.

“It is one of the world's largest musical instrument retailers, one of Fender's largest retail partners, and the owner of Harley Benton, one of Europe's largest guitar brands.

“Our preference has always been dialogue and practical solutions – not litigation. Unfortunately, Thomann chose a different path.

“Rather than continuing that dialogue, it initiated legal proceedings asking the court to determine that it can continue selling guitar body designs that Fender believes copies the iconic Stratocaster. Today's filing is Fender's response and the expected next step in the legal process.”

In its own statement issued alongside its Declaration of Non-Infringement, Thomann asserted it had sued Fender “for the many manufacturers, dealers and guitar makers who have shaped our industry for decades and continue to shape it”.

“We urge Fender to stop issuing cease and desist demands against manufacturers, distributors and dealers and to return to a fair, cooperative partnership,” the retailer said.

However, Fender continues to argue that cooperative partnership is at the heart of its legal strategy, previously seeking to frame its actions as “working directly with companies to find practical paths forward”.

The company now says it has already experienced success in working with other builders to differentiate certain designs from the Stratocaster.

“Our preference has always been to resolve these matters through direct dialogue rather than litigation,” Fender continues. “In many instances, companies have chosen to work collaboratively with us to explore practical solutions, including design modifications that clearly differentiate their products while continuing to serve musicians. This matter is different.”

It’s the latest development in the ongoing copyright dispute surrounding the Stratocaster. Events were set in motion when Fender scored a default ruling in German court, which granted “enforceable rights against any guitars using the Stratocaster body shape” in the EU.

Thomann has been approached for comment.

You can read Fender’s full statement below:

Fender's statement in full

Following Thomann's recent Declaration of Non-Infringement action, Fender today filed its infringement action in the Regional Court of Düsseldorf in response to the litigation Thomann chose to initiate.

Earlier this year, the Regional Court of Düsseldorf recognized copyright protection for the Fender Stratocaster® body shape as a work of applied art under European law. Following that decision, Fender engaged manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and online marketplaces across Europe whose products feature body designs that Fender believes are confusingly similar to the protected Stratocaster design. Our objective has been straightforward: protect Fender's intellectual property, reduce consumer confusion, and explore practical solutions—including modifications that clearly differentiate products from the Stratocaster.

Those conversations continue today, and our preference has always been to resolve these matters through direct dialogue rather than litigation. In many instances, companies have chosen to work collaboratively with us to explore practical solutions, including design modifications that clearly differentiate their products while continuing to serve musicians.

This matter is different.

Thomann isn't a small independent guitar builder. It is one of the world's largest musical instrument retailers, one of Fender's largest retail partners, and the owner of Harley Benton, one of Europe's largest guitar brands.

From the beginning, our goal was simple: have a conversation. Like many other companies across Europe, we reached out to Thomann to discuss practical ways to differentiate products while respecting Fender's intellectual property. Our preference has always been dialogue and practical solutions—not litigation.

Unfortunately, Thomann chose a different path. Rather than continuing that dialogue, it initiated legal proceedings asking the court to determine that it can continue selling guitar body designs that Fender believes copies the iconic Stratocaster. Today's filing is Fender's response and the expected next step in the legal process.

For more than 70 years, the Stratocaster has been one of the most influential and recognizable guitar designs in history. It has inspired generations of musicians, helped shape modern music, and become an enduring symbol of creativity around the world.

Fender has proudly served as the steward of one of the most iconic instrument designs in music history. We don't take lightly our responsibility to protect that legacy. We believe that responsibility extends beyond Fender itself—to the artists, players, dealers, builders, partners, employees, shareholders, and the broader music community who have made the Stratocaster an enduring part of music history.

Let's be clear: competition isn't the issue. Fender has competed—and thrived—for nearly 80 years because musicians have choices. We welcome companies that challenge convention, develop new technologies, and create original instruments that inspire players. That's how this industry grows.

What doesn't move the industry forward is copying someone else's iconic design instead of creating the next iconic design. We believe the guitar industry is strongest when innovation flourishes, musicians have meaningful choices, and companies compete by bringing new ideas to players around the world.

We're proud of what the Stratocaster has meant to generations of musicians, and we believe it's worth protecting. At the same time, we believe the future of the guitar industry depends on original thinking, bold ideas, and the next generation of great instruments. That's the future Fender has always believed in—and it's the future we'll continue to support.

The Edge’s unique mirror-tiled Gibson Les Paul has re-emerged at auction, 27 years after it was last sold.

The reflective Gibson featured in the music video for 1997 U2’s track, Discothèque, lifted from their Platinum-rated album, Pop, which marked an experimental stylistic departure from their earlier work.

All four members had signed the back of the guitar before it was auctioned off for charity in 1999. While the figure it went for nearly three decades ago hasn’t been publicized, the guitar’s second time under the hammer could see it sell for as much as $150,000.

A close look at the guitar shows that the individual tiles look pretty thick, meaning the guitar likely weighs a considerable amount – it’s more of a wall piece (or playable disco ball) than it is a workhorse in waiting.

Gotta Have Rock and Roll is handling the auction, with the bidding sitting at $80,000 at the time of writing.

The band’s Pop album, the auction house states, “marked a significant phase in the band’s evolution, incorporating dance and electronic elements into their music.”

It’s not the only one of the Edge’s Les Pauls to have been auctioned off. His ‘75 Alpine White model sold for $228,000 in the early 2000s. Soon after, Gibson surprised him with a virtually identical replica. The replica would go on to feature on No Line on the Horizon.

Oddball guitars have been the Edge’s bread and butter throughout his career, with an ultra-rare modded Fender the secret weapon behind some of the band’s biggest hits.

The guitar’s auction runs until Friday, July 17.

See Gotta Have Rock and Roll for more.

What is it?

Is it a hot take to suggest the Mustang is Fender’s most underrated guitar? Often overlooked in the release schedule over its larger-bodied offset siblings, the Jazzmaster and Jaguar, the Mustang is nevetheless a crucial design for Fender. Like the Jaguar, it’s a short scale, but a smaller-bodied single-cut.

Designed as a student guitar by Leo Fender and introduced in 1964, its potential for younger beginner players is still significant as a result of the compact dimensions and easier bends from the shorter 24" scale compared to the Strat, Tele and Jazzmaster's 25.5". The Squier Bullet and now Sonic series Mustang models have been a testament to that continuing appeal, but for me, the Mustang isn’t just an excellent 'beginner guitar' option; it’s my favourite Fender.

Both my main guitars are hardtail Fender Player Mustang models, and the dimensions of Leo's design just feel right for me. To be honest, I wish I'd come around to it sooner.

I’ve modded my own guitars’ specs to my own taste around that core appeal – the modular nature of Fenders is always good for that. But when I saw the Vintera III Mustang update on the review slate it was a great chance to get back to a real Mustang that echoes a golden era ‘60s spec. A time long before Kurt Cobain's patronage gave the Mustang a much-deserved reappraisal.

Still, the model remains strangely under the radar even within Fender's own walls – I'm somewhat surprised to report at the time of writing this review that with Performer models phased out, the company doesn't currently have a US-made Mustang in its production model catalogue. Isn't that odd?

So the pressure is on for the Vintera III to deliver, but what’s notable about this iteration that the previous iterations didn’t quite grasp?

In short, it’s truer to the inspiration. Vintera III models are now honing in on specific eras within the decade they take inspiration from – and that means specs reflective of that. And for a mid-‘60s slant on the Mustang, we’re at the very genesis of the model that was launched in August 1964… mostly.

We’re moving beyond just the standard Mustang 24-inch scale and vintage 7.25” radius and vintage-tall frets here with ‘mid-’60s’ pickups and neck profile, and even true-to-era Fender decals added on top of the headstock lacquer. The rosewood fingerboard gains the unmistakable vintage vibe of clay fret dots too. This being a Mustang, there’s much more going on elsewhere too.

Specs

• Launch price: $1,249.99 | £1,029 | €1,199
• Made: Ensenada, Mexico
• Type: Six-string solid-body single-cut electric guitar
• Body: Alder
• Neck: Maple, Mid '60s C-shape, gloss urethane
• Fingerboard: Laminated rosewood
• Scale length: 24" / 610mm
• Nut/width: 42mm / bone
• Frets: 22, Vintage Tall
• Hardware: Vintage-style tuners with vintage white buttons, six-saddle vintage-style Mustang tremolo, four-ply tortoisehell pickguard
• Electrics: Vintage-Style Mid '60s Single-Coil Mustang bridge and neck single-coil pickups, master tone and volume controls, two on/off slide switches (one for each pickup)
• Weight of test model: 7lb/3.17kg
• Left-handed options: N/A
• Finishes: Dakota Red, Sonic Blue, Olympic White (as reviewed)
• Cases: Padded gig bag
• Contact: Fender

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

I personally think we have the choice finish of the three here. The options reflect the initial trio available at the Mustang's original launch with Sonic Blue now replacing the 1964 Daphne Blue, alongside Dakota Red and Olympic White. While purists may argue the pickguard should be a lighter, brighter red for vintage authenticity, I really like the darker burgundy tortoiseshell shades here. If anything, it looks a little more lived-in and well… vintage.

While the originals were first offered by Fender in two scale length options with 22.5" (like the existing Duo Sonic and Musicmaster student models) and the Jaguar's 24" – with the latter soon winning out as the popular choice. The Fender logo here is the transitional type from that time, in the gold with black outline style. And while the decal being stuck over the finish may look jarring to some, it is vintage correct. As are the off-white plastic tuner buttons.

The bridge cover from 1964 is absent here, a '60s idiosyncracy with Fender models there's little demand for now, but aftermarket spares can cater for. The nut is bone – a step up from the Vintera II's synthetic example. Again, true to the vintage era.

The fingerboard is round-laminated rosewood rather than slab here. This allows for the radius to be followed at the top and bottom, rather than just the slab's top. There's less mass of rosewood with laminate, which means – in theory – that this Mustang might sound brighter than a Vintera II equivalent. But you know the score with electric guitars – there are so many variables at play elsewhere, it's difficult to prove in this kind of testing situation.

I am immediately drawn to the dark rosewood and clay dots – it has all the vintage vibe I'd hope for, but it really needs a feed of lemon oil. While this isn't uncommon for guitars coming out of storage and varying conditions of humidity before they reach us for testing, the frets looking like they need a polish is less forgivable. It's taking the closet classic fantasy a bit far.

Still, that coffee dark fretboard really does make my Player II Mustang's rosewood look disappointingly caramel by comparison. Lovely stuff.

The dot placement draws from the '64 pre-CBS era but, more noticeably, the headstock does not – it's the larger late '65 shape . So the 'mid '60s' period is very much reflected here, rather than a specific year. This may not to everyone's taste, but Fender certainly isn't misleading anyone with the name.

At 7lbs, this test model is definitely bang on an ideal alder Mustang weight for me – my own Player II is half a pound lighter but that's without a floating tremolo system. However, looking at the stock Sweetwater has at the time of writing, this example is one of the lightest, though there's not much in it.

Apart from the frets and a tremolo issue I'll talk about next, fit and finish are sound. Would I have liked to see a nitro finish for a truer vintage reflection and much more desirable aging over time? Absolutely, and it would have bumped the price up a bit for sure, but I'm a little frustrated that nitrocellulose is only being rolled out on relic'd Road Worn Mexican-made models right now. However, this is Olympic White is very well delivered and is in the right territory of some vintage examples I've spotted.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★☆

There are a lot of opinions about what a 7.25" radius neck is good, and not good for when it comes to guitar playing. John Mayer entered the chat recently to stir the pot with some sound reasoning, but the fact is, our tastes, styles and hand sizes are all so different. So, I personally don't go in for sweeping statements when it comes to radius and suitability for certain styles of playing.

I do, however, have a period of adjustment whenever I go from my usual 9.5" Mustang modern C necks to this kind of vintage spec. The last time was for the Mike McCready Strat review for our sister site MusicRadar, and I really came around to the charms of a rounder radius. I certainly didn't find bending an issue with it.

The action is higher than I'd like on this test guitar at 1.8mm clearance from the low E and, more surprisingly, 1.85mm from the high E. After checking the truss rod relief and finding all is well (thankfully too, as this is vintage spec with the truss nut at the bass of the neck requiring neck removal), I decide to tweak the string action more to my liking.

Unlike my own Player Mustangs with block steel saddles, the six-barrel examples here aren't individually adjustable in height. It's a case of bass and treble bridge height adjustment with one of the three included allen/hex keys and a quick process even with a cautious approach of small changes. Because of the rounder 7.25" radius I'm careful not to go as low as I would with my 9.5" Fender necks and soon find a pleasing compromise.

Unsurprisingly, those frets feel a little scratchy at first but soon play in, and there's no getting around the fact that a short scale and this radius will be too cramped for some players. But equally, it will be a great fit for many, and a Goldilocks scenario for some smaller-statured players with smaller hands. At the end of the day, this is a vintage spec and of course, other options are available.

I prefer bending on a 9.5" radius, but I found myself coming up with more arpeggiated parts with this Mustang because of the ease of more complicated shapes. It feels like a deeper, more rounded C than modern Mustang necks I've played (at the first and 12th fret I measure the depth at 21.3mm and 23.4mm on the Vinter III vs 20.8 and 22.4mm with my calipers on my Player II's Modern C carve), but the lighter 9-gauge strings it ships with definitely help it feel friendly. Most experienced players will want to move to 10s on a short scale like this, or even 11s.

My testing with Vintera III Mustang covered a really strange period of weather in the United Kingdom – from 15 degrees up to the hottest June day on record here at 36 degrees. While my Player Mustangs with their hardtail bridges and fairly springy tensions with 10-gauge strings were surprisingly solid through it all, this Vintera was a challenge. And that's with light tremolo use - though that kind of more subtle wobble is what this type of tremolo is really meant for unless you want to be tuning every between every song, or even solo .

A safe bet would be that the floating tremolo needs calibrating. Not uncommon and often part of the deal with this design – and the 'cigar bar' for the tremolo leaning back, as you can see in the pic above, suggests that is the case. The strings tremolo plate needs to be removed for access to do this. But it has to be done to fully enjoy the sensitivity and thrills of the tremolo here without gritting your teeth in tuning anxiety every time.

It's worth mentioning that the floating design here requires a hex key to fit, adjust and remove the tremolo arm from the cigar bar every time – so keep a spare handy!

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★★

The obligatory Mustang controls recap is needed here – the pickups are selected and turned off with a pair of three-way switches above them. In the middle the pickups are turned off (no sound), when either is switched left or right they are activated. Switch them both to the left or right together and they're in phase, switch one to the left and one to the right (it doesn't matter which as long as they're both opposites) and they're out of phase.

This out-of-phase position is the least desirable of the options for me. But it's not undesirable either. The low-end drop and reduced output does have some lo-fi charm and useful application for strumming. Especially when contrasted with the other positions.

The Mustang is not a short-scale Strat in tone, it's distinct – in a good way too. And it's just as much an iconic Fender sound for me as its more popular siblings. I'm going to go all-out and say the in-phase position is my favourite 'middle' position on any Fender, and my experience here only highlights that further.

Mustang single-coil pickup polepieces are usually flat, not the staggered heights of a Strats and the Tele's bridge. The result is a finer balance between the strings, certainly to my ears, and it brings detail to chords I find immensely satisfying. I've also found it makes for a great pairing with the addition of a P-90-sized Firebird bridge pickup in one of my Mexican Player models. However, I should note for all you potential modders out there that unlike the Player models, this Vintera III is only routed for single-coil-sized pickups.

For a change, I start on the neck pickup and soon start sighing - there's an added dimension here that my own Player II's neck pickup doesn't have. And I really like that pickup. The round, focused response I love is there, but it's sharper and livelier. I'm an instant fan, the strings ring out for chords so fully, and throwing a touch of plate reverb and some light harmonic tremolo is such an inspiring sound, I think it could convert Mustang newcomers.

It's not the instantly identifiable strat spank, but a very interesting alternative that's more adaptable to my ears. It bodes well for further investigation.

I've found bridge pickups on some Mustangs to be quite gnarly affairs, requiring bespoke dialling on the tone control, and sometimes the amp, to get the best out of them. While I chose to swap out the bridge pickups on both by own Player Mustangs for Sunbear Soapbird P-90-size Firebird humbuckers, what I find with the Vintera III gives me some pause.

The twang and snap I expect has that fullness again and yes, I do reach for the tone control to dial the top off things a little, but I find a voice that's meatier under overdrive than I expected through a clean Princeton and then a Neural Plexi model with my trusty little Wampler Tumnus. The volume control proves super responsive with these setups, revealing a guitar that would be a vibrant tool in a power trio, or a dynamic foil alongside a second, humbucker guitar player.

It's not really a surprise to find the highlight is the 'middle' in-phase position here. A shimmering sound for strumming chords that really laps up light modulation – a Boss CE-2 and Crowded House's Don't Dream It's Over intro and Johnny Marr's Smith arpeggios are addictive stuff here! It's a sublime and expressive experience for Knopfler-esque fingerstyle too, responding sensitively.

As I mentioned earlier, the out-of-phase option is a wiry, lo-fi and lower-output voice in comparison. Though hanging back in a mix or as a contrast in an intro or passages before kicking back into one of the other three voices, it could find useful favor.

Verdict

There's a lot to like about the latest addition to Fender's more affordable vintage-spec'd range, a reminder of why it remains my favourite Fender model. The third-generation additions make it distinct and perhaps the most focused Vintera Mustang we'll see unless the company decides to hone in on specific years for the next iteration.

A couple of setup issues with this test model notwithstanding, this is a persuasive showcase of Fender's dark horse model if you want vintage spec without the eyewatering price tag.

GuitarWorld verdict: This is a great place to go for an authentically full-fat Mustang experience – and the new Mid '60s pickups are a big part of the appeal here, alongside the evocative looks and feel of Fender's golden era.

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Kiesel is back with an all-new guitar shape, which is set to serve as the spiritual sibling to its flagship Aries range.

The Kiesel Antares takes its name from Ancient Greek, and essentially means “rival to Ares”, the god of war. That, then, should tell you what you need to know about this guitar: it’s a weaponized metal guitar ready to step into battle.

It continues the ongoing movement to keep the electric guitar fresh, which in recent years has been spearheaded by brands such as Eastman, Abasi Concepts, Ernie Ball Music Man, Powers Electric and more.

The push to release new body shapes seems to be gathering serious momentum. More variety in metal guitars, especially when it comes to the S-type-dominated extended range market, is always welcome.

Visually, the Antares has a chiseled offset body akin to other popular modern metal guitars, while its scythe-like headstock is taken from the Kiesel Kyber.

This being a Keisel, its specs are extremely customizable, with seven different body woods on offer including alder, mahogany, walnut, and regular or roasted swamp ash. There are also 15 top and fingerboard woods to choose from.

It’s available in 25.5” and 26.5” scale lengths for six-string variants, 25.5” and 27” for seven-string, and 27” for eight-string, with multi-scale options available for all three string counts.

As standard, there are 24 frets, but Kiesel is also debuting its first-ever 27 fret fingerboards here, because more is most certainly more.

There are four bridge options: an Ever-Tune, Floyd Rose, Hipshot trem, and Hipshot fixed. For electronics, choose from active Fishman Fluence humbuckers or passive Kiesel Lithium, Thorium, and Vantium ‘buckers.

Kiesel also believes the new body shape, via a purposeful bevel, is as comfy as it gets, which isn’t always something that guitars with such wild silhouettes can say.

“In 2015, the Aries marked a notable turning point for the Kiesel brand, shifting from classic, soft shapes to an aggressive, metal-leaning design,” says Kiesel. “Now, with over a decade cemented in the scene and partnerships with industry legends, Kiesel Guitars takes the next step.”

“It’s got a more aggressive, totally ground-up styling,” adds founder Jeff Kiesel. “It’s more angular, and I’m excited about this guitar”

The Antares’ wildly varying specs mean prices vary, but the starting price is $1,699 with a deposit of $340 deposit.

See Kiesel for more.

Gibson is revived a totem of 1970s rock with the limited edition 1971 Flying V Medallion Reissue.

The '71 Flying V Medallion has been described by its maker as "one of the most sought-after and historically significant guitars ever produced by Gibson" – and for good reason.

It was a standout in the early hard rock era. Michael Schenker, with his black and white Medallion, quickly became the guitar’s poster boy. Kirk Hammett also has close ties to the model.

The reissues’s recipe is, of course, an echo of the past, with a two-piece mahogany body, three-piece mahogany neck with volute, and a 22 medium jumbo fret rosewood fingerboard and corian nut.

But there’s a touch of premium exclusivity to boot: the guitars each feature individually numbered 1.5” gold medallions.

Tonally, it has a pair of authentic unpotted 1968 T-Top humbuckers with Alnico 5 magnets. They’re flanked with two Volume and one Tone knob, and a three-way selector.

Hardware specs, meanwhile, include an ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridge with Stop Bar, Kluson Deluxe tuners, and Black Witch Hat control knobs. Its pickup covers are chrome.

Handcrafted in Nashville, the body features a thinner two-piece mahogany design to mirror the original. The guitar is said to simultaneously deliver reduced weight and premium resonance and sustain.

The Flying V Medallion was originally created to commemorate the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany, with an estimated run of 350 models produced. That makes it one of the rarest Gibsons around town, which only added to the mythos of Schenker’s monochrome companion.

“The 1971 Flying V Medallion holds a special place in Gibson history,” says Mat Koehler, Vice President of Product at Gibson.

“As one of Gibson’s earliest limited-edition instruments, it helped establish a lasting legacy within hard rock guitar culture. This reissue brings back the details, feel, and sound of the original, giving players the opportunity to experience an iconic instrument.”

Speaking to Gibson Gazette, Kirk Hammett, who now owns Schenker’s #56 V, likened it to a “religious relic.”

“I spent so much time as a teenager just staring at this guitar on the back of UFO’s Force It album,” he says. “There’s a picture of Michael Schenker playing this very guitar – it’s red, you can see the medallion – and I used to stare at the guitar and go, ‘I need to get a Flying V.’ Little did I know that, decades later, I would have the very Flying V that I was staring at.”

The Gibson Custom 1971 Flying V Medallion Reissue is priced at $4,999/£4,399.

See Gibson for more.

Yamaha has been confirmed as one of the companies to have been targeted by a cease-and-desist letter from Fender as the copyright dispute surrounding the Stratocaster continues.

Since scoring a default copyright ruling in German courts in March, Fender has sought to police its legal rights to protect the Strat body shape by issuing a wave of cease-and-desists to US and EU guitar builders.

LsL Instruments and PRS Guitars were among the first to be publicly confirmed as recipients of such orders. Now, Yamaha has confirmed to Reuters that it’s also been hit.

Yamaha says it received the letter in May. No specific model names were named in the comment, but Yamaha said it was “reviewing the notice and weighing how to respond”.

Despite no confirmation from Yamaha, there can be no doubt that the letter formally drags the Pacifica S-type into the dispute. Alongside John Mayer’s PRS Silver Sky, it becomes the most significant guitar to be targeted by Fender’s ongoing legal campaign.

First launched for LA session players in 1991, the Pacifica was pitched as Yamaha’s entry into the Superstrat world and a direct response to the heavy metal and hard rock scene.

“That was a big thing around that time,” Yamaha’s Electric Guitar Product Manager Yusuke Ota told Guitar World earlier this year. “We wanted to create something that was ultra-versatile and able to cover just about any kind of sound and genre.”

35 years on from its launch, the Pacifica is widely recognized as one of the most popular, best and beloved beginner guitars on the market. The 112V variant has become a household name. In 2024, the Pacifica received a premium update in the form of the Yamaha Pacifica Pro – again, one of the best guitars in its price range.

In taking on Yamaha, Fender is going up against the largest music instrument maker in the world. Pair that with the fact Fender has also been sued by the largest music instrument retailer in the world, it raises the stakes of the Big F’s legal strategy considerably.

Fender has maintained it wants to work “work directly with companies to find practical paths forward”, and CEO, Bud Cole, has downplayed some of the more draconian measures referenced in the letters.

That said, the company has attracted widespread backlash from the guitar community, receiving criticism from Guitar World readers and prominent YouTubers.

Yamaha has been approached for comment.

What is it?

With no end to limited editions and artist models costing more than many of us are able to spend, it’s easy to forget that Gibson’s start-up maple-topped Les Paul is still the Studio, which – as you can see here – is far from overpriced.

For many, its reputation as almost a proper Les Paul has relegated it to outside of the Premiership, but it’s arguably one of the best-value and potentially super-sounding ’Pauls, especially if you don’t need ‘fancy’.

But even Gibson sometimes seems to overlook this gem. For example, the Studio Modern ushered in the returning level, and no sooner had the actual good ol’ standard Les Paul Studio returned to the USA line-up in late 2024 than an up-spec’d option, the Studio Session, appeared and grabbed the headlines. But at least this new Double Trouble release (technically a limited edition, we’re told) shines a spotlight on what might well be an overlooked gem.

The Double Trouble name, of course, refers to the ‘Double Classic White’ uncovered pickups (which are actually the same cream hue as the pickup mounting rings and fingerboard binding, slightly darker than the single-ply pickguard).

Cover and bobbin colour aside, they’re the same Burstbucker Pro humbuckers we find on the regular Studio and, in all honesty, that really is the only change here: as we said, you get the vibe of the full-fat Standard Double Trouble but with a saving of $/£900. So, what else are we missing?

The most obvious visual change is the lack of binding around the top edge of the plain maple top. Technically, the body depth is around 3mm slimmer here, but you probably wouldn’t notice that. What you do notice is the weight.

This Studio, like the original we evaluated from 2024, is very far from a boat anchor. It uses Gibson’s most hollow Ultra Modern weight relief, and while plenty of die-hards will be saying, ‘That’s not a Les Paul!’, well, plenty of others find the trimmer bulk quite engaging. To be honest, that includes us.

But with those exceptions the Studio is pretty much identical to the upper-market Standard DT, not least the fingerboard binding, which wasn’t always a part of the Studio’s recipe but here is pretty nicely done – as ever, the binding forms the fret-ends, the so-called ‘nibs’.

Hardware is typical for the Modern guitars, too: a wider-travel Nashville tune-o-matic and lightweight aluminium stud tailpiece, Gibson Deluxe tuners with keystone buttons, and the well-cut nut is by Graph Tech.

Specs

• PRICE: $1,599 | £1,599 | €1,539 (inc soft case)
• ORIGIN: USA
• TYPE: Single-cutaway, solidbody electric
• BODY: 2-piece mahogany with centre-joined carved maple plain top and Ultra-Modern weight relief
• NECK: 1-piece mahogany, SlimTaper profile, glued-in
• SCALE LENGTH: 629mm (24.75”) (NB: measured scale length is shorter)
• NUT/WIDTH: Graph Tech/43.6mm
• FINGERBOARD: Cream bound Indian rosewood, acrylic trapezoid inlays, 305mm (12”) radius
• FRETS: 22, medium jumbo
• HARDWARE: Nashville tune-o-matic bridge, aluminium stopbar tailpiece, Gibson Deluxe tuners w/ keystone buttons – chrome/nickel plated
• STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 50.5mm
• ELECTRICS: Uncovered ‘Double Classic White’ Gibson Burstbucker Pro humbuckers (neck and bridge), 3-way toggle pickup selector switch, volume and tone for each pickup (each volume with pull-switch ‘coil-tap’)
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.45/7.59
• OPTIONS: The standard non-limited Les Paul Studio ($/£1,599) uses nickel-covered Burstbucker Pros
• LEFT-HANDERS: Not this model
• FINISHES: Dirty Lemon Burst (as reviewed) Cherry Sunburst – gloss nitrocellulose
• CONTACT: Gibson

Build quality, usability and sounds

There’s very little here to moan about. The crisp finishing and fretwork suggests it’s a higher ticket model than it is; the SlimTaper neck profile feels familiar, a shallow ‘C’ with a hint of a flat back.

The 3.45kg (7.59lb) weight is a game-changer if your experience tells you all Les Pauls have to be a lot heavier. String height and setup is good; there’s no need to tweak the neck and tuning stability is spot on.

It would be a huge disappointment if what we hear didn’t reflect what we see and feel. But, again, we’re smiling. There’s beautiful depth at the neck, and clarity, too. Meanwhile, the bridge isn’t over-sharp and has good bite that begins to earn its stripes with a little crunch, and the pickup outputs are nicely matched with no adjustment necessary.

Above all, it’s not overly thick-sounding. Yes, there’s some smooth cream, but that’s balanced with clarity. In this lower gain setting you can clearly hear the ‘coil-tap’ effect, too: slightly rounder in terms of attack, marginally (if anything) quieter and, in reality, it’s a subtler option, rather than the more distinct full humbucker to single-coil switching that’s used by so many makers (and also erroneously called a ‘coil-tap’ by some).

It’s certainly fun with both pickups on, and applying the coil-tap to the bridge pickup, for example, just helps pull back the crisp highs that are no doubt enhanced as there are no covers on these pickups.

It sounds a lot more ‘vintage’, if we’re honest – a little played in. Very dynamic and expressive. Also, the Burstbuckers don’t sound potted, which adds to the old‑school appeal.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

Guitar World verdict: This is a hard-to-put-down Les Paul with bags of character, not least if your tastes lie with those earlier ’Burst-like tones.

Then there’s the weight, which you simply won’t find outside of the real vintage deal or the higher end of the Gibson Custom range. We’re not saying the weight relief doesn’t change the response, but playing and living with a ’Paul of this weight is simply a pleasure.

Granted, not everyone will accept the lack of body binding, and we’re not spoiled for choice in terms of finish options, but when a guitar plays and sounds this good, we’re not sure we care.

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• "A traditionally spec'd, workhorse machine that sounds like a Les Paul should while offering some limited-edition aesthetics": Gibson Les Paul 60s Double Trouble review
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Fender has issued a cease and desist letter to an Australian guitar store over alleged trademark infringements.

On Instagram, vintage and used guitar store Cool Old Guitars revealed it had received a cease-and-desist letter over its apparent use of Fender terminology across its website and product descriptions.

As a store, Cool Old Guitars specializes in 1970s and 1980s “lawsuit era” guitars, stocking brands such as Fernandes, Greco, ESP and Tokai, all of which built their own Strat and Tele clones.

In its site taxonomy and product descriptions, Cool Old Guitar employed terms such as “Stratocaster” and “Telecaster” to collectively describe such instruments – for instance, using the phrase ‘Fernandes Stratocaster’.

It’s a practice that has drawn the ire of Fender’s legal team, which has issued Cool Old Guitars a cease-and-desist (excerpts of which were shared by KDH) that calls out the store for infringing on Fender’s trademarks.

“Fender is concerned that the manner in which COG is presenting and offering for sale its second-hand stock infringes Fender’s trade mark rights and is likely to mislead, deceive or otherwise confuse Australian guitarists into thinking they are buying Fender instruments when in fact they are purchasing instruments manufactured by unauthorised third parties,” the letter reads.

“This seems to be because of how COG presents Fender instruments alongside third parties instruments that mimic our client’s distinctive guitars and parts thereof including but not limited to body shapes, headstocks, and other distinctive attributes.”

Fender’s efforts to enforce its long-standing trademarks here are not part of the same legal campaign that has attempted to police a default copyright ruling concerning the Stratocaster body shape.

In May, Fender sent cease-and-desist letters to a number of EU and US-based guitar makers, as part of a high-profile Stratocaster copyright dispute that targeted PRS, LsL Instruments and Harley Benton, among others. Thomann, the world's largest music retailer, is now suing Fender in response.

That case is a separate legal matter, concerned with trademark infringement rather than copyright protection. Fender owns the trademarks for "Stratocaster" and "Telecaster", and as per the cease-and-desist issued to Cool Old Guitars, has taken issue with them being incorrectly applied.

The letter adds, “Given COG is not an Authorised Fender Distributor and our client does not have a relationship with and has never authorised or licensed COG’s use or sale of goods under or by reference to Fender’s trade marks, one can only conclude that COG have deliberately and wilfully engaged in the above action with a view to leveraging Fender’s significant reputation and valuable intellectual property rights.”

Cool Old Guitars has been approached for comment. Fender declined to comment.

What is it?

Jackson Guitars has been on a bit of a spree of signature models over the past year or so, with a bunch of guitars from some very big names in the metal guitar game. The Lee Malia Jackson released last year was huge, and in 2026 we’ve Brandon Ellis’ crazy 27-fret Kelly, the recently reviewed Jackson Pro Plus Christian Andreu Rhoads, and the guitar we’re looking at today, the Jackson Pro Series Signature Wes Borland King V.

Wes Borland first discovered Jackson V guitars while recording The Unquestionable Truth in 2004. He was given a 1981 Jackson Rhoads from producer Ross Robinson, which kick-started a love affair with this sort of instrument. We can trace the roots of his signature model back to 2013, when he came across a faulty, left-handed King V, which he converted to play right-handed and became one of his most played guitars on tour.

For an artist who wears some of the most elaborate on-stage outfits I’ve ever seen, his signature model is a decidedly Spartan affair. That’s by design, though. Borland said himself that “live, it just needs to be as bulletproof as possible.” That means a through-body maple neck with graphite reinforcement, and a nyatoh body painted gloss black with white bevels.

The reverse headstock, with an upside-down Jackson logo just like Wes’ original guitar, is attached via a scarf joint. The neck features an ebony fretboard with 24 jumbo frets and a compound radius that moves from 12 to 16 inches. A white binding goes all the way around, on which Luminlay side dots are placed.

It’s got a single Seymour Duncan Invader humbucker, with just a single volume control, which continues that theme of simplicity. The Floyd Rose 1500 Series locking tremolo is recessed into the body, with a matching locking nut at the top of the neck. Locking strap pins are included in the Jackson gig bag, which completes the breakdown of this fairly simple instrument.

Specs

• Launch price: $1,299.99 | £1,099 | €1,299
• Made: Indonesia
• Type: Six-string electric guitar
• Body: Nyatoh
• Neck: Maple / Modern C
• Fingerboard: Ebony
• Scale length: 25.5" (648 mm)
• Nut/width: Floyd Rose 1500 Series Locking, 1.6875" (42.86 mm)
• Frets: 24, jumbo
• Hardware: Jackson sealed die-cast tuners, Floyd Rose® 1500 Series double-locking tremolo
• String spacing at bridge: 54mm
• Electrics: 1x Seymour Duncan Invader SH8, master volume
• Weight: 7.27 lbs / 3.3kg
• Left-handed options: N/A
• Finishes: Black with white bevels
• Cases: Jackson gig bag
• Contact: Jackson

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

The Wes Borland King V comes in a generously proportioned soft-shell gig bag, and pulling it out, it feels pretty heavy, but a trip to the scales reveals a weight of just 3.3kg. It’s a long guitar, though, and the weight is distributed weirdly due to the shape, which makes it feel a lot more hefty than the kilograms show on the scale.

Performing a close inspection of the guitar, the paint is very nicely applied for the most part. I spot a few minuscule wobbles where the gloss black meets the white bevel, and there’s a slight detour for the white binding near the Floyd Rose locking nut. These are only really visible with my nose against the guitar, and certainly don’t detract from the overall look of it.

A bit more noticeable are the upside-down pearloid shark fin inlays, some of which look distinctly more yellow than the others. This isn’t so visible looking at the guitar head-on, but I certainly notice it when sitting with the guitar in my lap. There’s also a fleck of black caught in the inlay of the one marking the third fret. Again, these aren’t huge flaws, but with the price of the guitar, I’d expect a little better.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★☆

Sitting down to play the Wes Borland V, it’s well out of tune, so I have to unlock the nut and play a bit of see-saw, getting the guitar close to perfect tuning while keeping the bridge flat. It’s not ideal, but it’s a necessary evil of locking tremolos. The bridge ends up ever so slightly unparallel to the body, but I’ll have to make do with the time allotted. As a natural aside to the guitar’s shape and aforementioned weight distribution, playing sitting down isn’t really an option, even with a guitar strap on it, so I decide to stand instead.

With these hurdles jumped, my initial play reveals that the neck is really nicely done, with a smooth feel across the bound edges and jumbo frets. Jackson doesn’t list the profile of the neck, but it feels ‘D’-shaped to my hand and more in line with the guitar acrobatics of shred guitars than the more experimental nature of Borland’s own playing.

The large size of the frets offers an excellent playing platform, whether I’m churning power chords with a slight bend a la Break Stuff, nailing the chorus riff from Stuck, or laying into the locking tremolo with the main motif from Hot Dog. Wes’ own playing might not be the most technically demanding in terms of pure chops, but his guitar certainly holds up to the less usual demands he makes of his instruments.

Naturally, there’s a bit of a shift in the tuning when I do things like pushing the bar to the body of the guitar or trying some Dimebag harmonic screams. Still, it puts up with extreme use very well, with only cursory retuning via the mini tuners of the Floyd Rose necessary. For your day-to-day flutters and smaller dives, the tremolo holds without having to retune any more than I usually would with a locking system.

Getting into some more traditional playing, it’s easy to fly around the fretboard with some legato licks, and it’s definitely got plenty of that Jackson shred DNA. Bending against the jumbo frets feels lovely; there’s no scratchiness here, and alternate-picked scale runs and three-note-per-string legato licks are easily achieved. It could be better, though. The factory setup is a pretty high at 2mm clearance from the low E string on the 12th fret when I press down at the 1st. That said, it’s already lightning quick as it is, so things can only get faster with a good setup.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

Interestingly, this guitar comes tuned in standard, presumably to make it more accessible. Wes himself uses C# standard on a lot of his songs, drop-B on others, and, of course, his weird intervals on that unique four-string guitar. Thankfully, I have an excellent pitch shifter available via my Neural DSP plugin collection, so I can play the songs as they should be.

The Seymour Duncan Invader is, as expected, a perfect match for high gain. Playing through the Gojira plugin with the amp sim based on the blue channel of the 5150 engaged, it’s incredibly articulate when I chug powerchords. The low end is controlled, the midrange punchy, and there’a lovely smooth sound to the high end. It’s an awesome-sounding pickup. Adding in a helping of reverb and delay, leads hit with plenty of cut and bags of sustain, although it’s not quite as compressed and never-ending as what you’d get from an active humbucker.

It’s interesting because I initially thought I’d find it limiting, but the organic nature of a passive pickup makes it much more versatile than an active equivalent, as I found with the Jackson Christian Andreu model I reviewed recently. Changing to a Fender-inspired amp model, it’s surprising how nice the cleans can get once I roll back the volume knob significantly to stop it hitting the front of the amp so hard. I do lose a bit of high-end due to the lack of a treble bleed circuit, but with the cutting nature of the high-output humbucker, it ends up being a net positive.

To try and keep some of the high end, I trim the input of my audio interface so that I can utilize the humbucker with the volume knob fully turned. Wes himself uses a Roland JC-120 for his cleans, a guitar amp which is known for its very high clean headroom. With the right gain staging, it means this guitar can deliver ambient and experimental cleans just as well as the heavy riffs.

This isn’t that surprising considering that moving from a heavily effected clean tone to a chunky riffing sound is a signature of Wes’ own playing. Trying some more measured stuff like arpeggiated chords and triads higher up the neck, I'm surprised at how organic the humbucker sounds despite the high output, with a lovely clarity and great note separation.

Verdict

Jackson is really on a roll with their signature guitars at the moment, and the Jackson Wes Borland King V is another success in my opinion. It’s well put together, can handle pretty much any playing style, and despite its simple layout, it’s deceptively versatile. I can see it finding fans beyond just those who worship at the temple of Wes.

I prefer the more organic feel and tone of a passive pickup here, so if you like that super controlled metal tone you get with an active pickup, this might not be the guitar for you. There were also a couple of occasions where I found myself wishing for a neck pickup, but for the most part, the single Seymour Duncan offers plenty of versatility for a variety of guitar tones.

Make no mistake, though, this is a guitar for live playing. V-shaped guitars are, at best, inconvenient for playing sat down at home, and this one is no different. The awkward weight distribution and shape make it cumbersome to wield in tight spaces, but there’s no denying that it feels and looks great when played standing up on a guitar strap.

Guitar World verdict: For anyone who knows their chocolate starfish from their hot dog flavored water, there aren’t all that many surprises with the Jackson Pro Series Signature Wes Borland King V. It can handle the heavy stuff just as well as clean tones, and it’s capable of plenty of guitar acrobatics via the locking tremolo. Putting aside the maladroit nature of V-shaped guitars, this is a riffing machine that can be used equally well for metal guitar playing or the more experimental tones Borland is famous for.

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Jackson

Dagan Wilkin

Ninecore Neil

Babicz and Gotoh, two huge names in guitar hardware, have pooled together their genius to deliver a new take on the electric guitar tremolo.

The FCH510G is a new guitar tremolo bridge system that Frankenstein’s the patented Babicz Contact Hardware saddles with Gotoh’s 510 six-pivot-point system.

In other words, it merges two key bridge innovations for a new trem that promises “exceptional tuning stability, tonal enhancement, and unmatched playability.”

It’s very much a best-of-both-worlds scenario, with the two competitors working together to advance trem technology. Here, Gotoh’s tremolo block bolsters sustain and resonance, while its clean design makes it a fitting upgrade to a wide range of guitars.

Add in Babicz’s Full Contact design – which replaces traditional two-point saddle height adjustment with a cam-based mechanism to maintain complete contact with the bridge plate – and it looks like a very interesting prospect.

The Full Contact design also means that energy transfer from strings to the body is maximized. This adds to the trem’s sustain for “fuller note bloom, and more consistent resonance across all strings”.

Additionally, the stable saddle design is in place to eliminate unwanted movement, which tightens the low-end and improves note definition across the fretboard, with string height adjustment that is both easy and precise. And there’s a whammy bar, too, which is always a plus.

The FCH510G is available now for $349.

See Full Contact Hardware for more.

What is it?

The original intention behind the Les Paul Special, in its 1955 launch, was to create a guitar that would offer players something between the more affordable Les Paul Junior and the flagship Les Paul Standard. Nowadays, however, in the collective consciousness of the guitar community, it is much more than just a stripped-down version of a Les Paul, but is instead a bona fide option in its own right.

Like most modern line-ups, Gibson’s catalogue is much more complicated than it was back then, featuring a huge selection of models to satisfy a range of preferences. To this end, we have seen a few different iterations of the Les Paul Special.

This particular model sticks with the original single-cutaway, slab mahogany body, bound fretboard, and dual pickup setup, which defined the Special as being a bridge between the Junior and Standard, but with two key differences: it's equipped with Mini Humbuckers, and is available as a Gibson Exclusive via its website/Garage stores.

In short, a Mini Humbucker is a humbucking pickup the size of a P90. Still hum-cancelling, the Mini Humbucker is considered to be a little brighter and more open-sounding than a normal humbucker.

When it comes to the Les Paul Special, one of the trademarks of the well-loved formula is its two P90’s. So, replacing them with Mini Humbuckers is definitely an interesting choice. But who knows, after playing this, we may be wondering why we don’t see them on more guitars…

Specs

• Launch price: $1,799 | £1,549 | €1,799
• Made: USA
• Type: Six-string electric guitar
• Body: Mahogany
• Neck: Mahogany, ‘50s Vintage
• Fingerboard: Rosewood, 12” radius
• Scale length: 628.65mm/24.75”
• Nut/width: Graph Tech, 43.05mm/1.7”
• Frets: 22, medium jumbo
• Hardware: Vintage Deluxe tuners, Wraparound bridge
• String spacing at bridge: 10mm
• Electrics: 2 Mini Humbucker pickups, 3-way switch, 2 volume, 2 tone
• Weight: 7.9lb/3.6kg
• Case: Gibson hardshell case
• Contact: Gibson

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

The simple design of the Les Paul Special means that there isn’t much that can go wrong. Starting at the top, we have Gibson Deluxe tuners that resist turning enough to feel premium, as do the volume and tone knobs. Additionally, the bound fretboard is a nice addition that lends credence to the guitar's status as a quality instrument.

A slab mahogany body saves some cash in that it lacks the carved maple top of a Les Paul, and further savings are made in a body that is not bound.

If I’m honest, the Tobacco Burst finish is a little boring, at least in my opinion. It allows some of the grain from the mahogany to show through, but it's not that striking a look with the dark colors.

This is down to personal preference, though, as I am sure there are those out there who will appreciate the understated aesthetic.

Out of the box, the setup leaves a bit to be desired, as the action was unbalanced. Medium-high on the low E at 1.75mm and medium-low on the high E at 1.25mm. Having adjusted it, it’s now comfortably in medium-low territory with the low E down to 1.50.

That imbalance seemed to cause some tuning issues, too, but after making the adjustment, the guitar is much more stable. Another easy fix is the dry fretboard, which is a little unpleasant out of the box.

The things that aren’t so easy to fix, however, are as they should be. For example, nicely finished frets, a tight neck pocket, no imperfections in the finish, and stable tuning. All in all, a well-built guitar, with just a little setup required.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

As someone who spends a lot of time gigging a Stratocaster or a Telecaster with a 25.5” scale length, it's always a joy to pick up a Gibson with the shorter 24.75” scale length and the reduced string tension that results from it.

The strings are easy to manipulate, with bends and vibrato feeling effortless under the fingers. This is helped along by the nicely finished medium jumbo frets, creating a smooth feel, and their height offering the fingers plenty of purchase on those strings.

The 12” radius is a sweet spot for a lot of people, with enough curve to allow those open chords to be played with ease, whilst being flat enough for some flashier lines without feeling too shreddy.

And so, I find myself playing through legato lines relatively effortlessly, and easily fretting those cowboy chords down the bottom of the neck. It’s not a guitar aimed at Steve Vai levels of flashy, but perfect for those rootsy, classic rock solos.

Adding to this is the Vintage ‘50s neck profile. It fills the hand whilst stopping short of ‘baseball bat’ territory, and you won't find any carved heel joints here either. So again, not for the shredders, but a good fit for those who like a more vintage feel.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Plugging into my Hot Rod Deluxe IV with the Special, what immediately jumps out is that the clarity on a clean tone is heavenly.

The Mini Humbuckers have a tight bass and low-mid response, meaning all those fancy chord extensions cut through nicely, but not in a way that is offensive. This makes the neck pickup and the relative roundness it brings perfect for choppy, funky rhythms. Who needs a Stratocaster, eh? (Kidding, I love my Strat).

The bridge is, comparatively, a little too brash for most clean sounds, but both pickups together in that middle position present an almost acoustic-like quality, lending itself to some open chord strumming and country-esque picking.

Using the Carbon side of my Browne Amplification Ethane pedal for some edge-of-breakup tones, those tight low mids again pay dividends, allowing for a light drive full of all the detail and overtones you could ask for.

When using gain, rolling back on the volume control yields a glassy clean which is very dynamic under the fingers, returning to breakup as you dig in.

The joys of a two-tone, two-volume setup mean that one pickup can be set to a rolled-back clean, while the other is giving its full output to utilize that drive, making for a versatile guitar that can induce significant and quick changes to tone just by switching the pickup.

As the gain is pushed further, some may start to miss the low-mid bark that adds some smoothness to the sound. This is the case for me, and for that type of tone, I would sooner reach for my Les Paul Classic and its Burstbucker 61T and Burstbucker 61R pickups with the extra lower mid when compared to the Mini Humbuckers.

That’s not to say the Mini Humbuckers don’t have a place in the land of higher gain. It’s a cutting sound that will get you heard in the mix and is pleasing in its own way, particularly on the neck pickup, where its tight nature keeps the cello-like sound associated with neck humbuckers from collapsing in on itself.

So the gain-y tones may not be for everyone, but on the strength of the clean and lightly driven sounds alone, I would challenge anyone not to be won over by the Mini Humbucker.

Verdict

The bones of the Gibson Les Paul Special are of simple materials constructed in a straightforward, minimal-frills manner.

What makes this particular iteration interesting is the inclusion of Mini Humbuckers in the place of the usual P90s. It’s interesting because it's not the norm, but maybe it should be.

They provide something that differs from full-sized humbuckers without expanding on single-coil or P90 territory, offering stellar cleans and breakup tones thanks to a tight low end and airy highs.

It’s a valid alternative to the P90-driven Les Paul Special, and would bring something different to most collections. Perhaps we should all have a Mini-Humbucker-loaded guitar in our arsenal.

Guitar World verdict: We’ve all seen a Les Paul Special before, but this is a little different. Trading those P90’s for Mini Humbuckers results in tones that excel in clean and lightly driven contexts, although they may prove a little divisive when used in higher gain settings. It’s a simple, well-built guitar that competently shows off the joys of a Mini Humbucker. Worth a try for anyone looking for an alternative version of a Les Paul to add to their collection.

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Gibson

The Guitaristas

Eric Clapton’s long-lost Les Paul is back after six decades in the wilderness. But which iconic guitars are still missing in action, and why haven’t our heroes heard of padlocks? Drilling into that very subject, via the medium of a conversation with, er, ourselves… It’s Fret Buzz.

I keep hearing about Eric Clapton’s Summersburst. Has the veteran British bluesman brought out a new Snapple flavor?

That would be amazing. But no. The Summersburst is the 1960 Les Paul bought by Clapton from The Police’s Andy Summers and played on Cream’s 1966 debut album. It’s been missing for [checks watch] 60 years. But it just resurfaced in a Paris guitar shop.

Where’s it been all this time?

Hanging out with the absinthe fairy and cancan dancers at Moulin Rouge? For a long time, its last-known location was Dan Armstrong’s repair shop in New York, where Clapton was apparently unhappy with the neck fix, refused the bill, and ditched the guitar. Now it’s been revealed that it had been kept under the watchful eye of collector, Perry Margouleff.

How does Clapton feel about its resurfacing?

Publicly, he doesn’t seem that bothered. After all, the guy’s already auctioned his guitar collection. Maybe it’s like when you’ve tidied the shed and your neighbor suddenly returns that rusty lawnmower you’d forgotten about. Or your idiot kid comes home from college and starts yelling on Fortnite. And besides, his Beano is still missing.

Well, it’s only a comic book. Just buy another one. It costs, what, $4?

No, we mean the 1960 Les Paul that Clapton played on the Bluesbreakers’ fabled ‘Beano’ album of 1966. That one was swiped from a church hall in the same period.

Any leads?

Joe Bonamassa insists that Beano “is in a collection on the East Coast. It still exists. I haven’t seen it, but I have it on good authority from people who have.”

How do you smuggle a guitar out of a dressing room anyway?

We can only assume, in harem pants. But it happens more than you’d think. Keith Richards had nine guitars stolen from the Stones’ Côte d'Azur mansion during the recording of 1972’s Exile On Main St.

Nine! But surely Keith in that early-’70s period was alert and vigilant, and would have fitted out Villa Nellcôte with burglar alarms or at least completed the relevant contents insurance forms?

Erm, you might want to read his memoirs. Anyway, one of Keith’s Les Pauls turned up last year at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Looking pretty rough after all these years, I’d imagine.

There was deep weathering after decades of abuse. As for the guitar – that looked pretty good!

At least Michael Angelo Batio’s four-neck Quad couldn’t feasibly be stolen.

Actually, it was, in El Paso, by a particularly ballsy thief who presumably told security he was holding an enormous pair of garden shears. Only the top two necks were ever recovered, which is still more than any reasonable person needs.

So stolen guitars do come back?

If you wait long enough, it seems, the universe will provide. In 2024, Paul McCartney was reunited with the legendary 1961 Höfner bass stolen 52 years earlier. And no doubt did a cheery thumbs-up for the cameras.

So what you’re saying is: ‘guitars are like homing pigeons’?

Even better. Because they don’t crap on your shoulder when you’re busking.

Jim Root’s signature Fender Telecaster is back with a stunning new Shoreline Gold finish.

Root’s signature single-cut is up there with the most beloved Telecasters ever created. First launched in 2010, it flipped the traditional Tele on its head, streamlining the design into a no-nonsense metal machine.

Up until that point, Telecasters weren’t generally associated with heavy metal. Nor had the standard blueprint been radically changed. Nevertheless, Root put his own stamp on the Tele, and it quickly won over a legion of fans.

John Mayer called what “every Tele should look like in this day and age”, saying, “It’s smart. It’s awake. It’s doing something completely new.”

It was even included in Guitar World’s roundup of the greatest guitar gear of the 21st century.

Now, the Root Telecaster has returned, this time with a swanky Shoreline Gold colorway. It’s a very tasty cosmetic overhaul indeed, which otherwise retains the specs of the original.

That means a mahogany body, 12”-radius ebony fingerboard, and six-saddle hardtail bridge, as well as a pair of EMG 60 and 81 active humbuckers wired to a single volume control and three-way blade switch.

There’s also black hardware, 22 jumbo frets, and a one-ply black pickguard to go with the Shoreline Gold finish. It is, in essence, another Root classic – but with a gold finish.

“Fender guitars have been a cornerstone of my rig since the earliest days of Slipknot and continue to be today,” Root says of his new-look signature. “Seeing my signature model in Shoreline Gold gives it a completely fresh character.

“It’s the same guitar I’ve relied on for more than two decades, but this new finish makes it feel exciting all over again.”

Speaking to Guitar World last year, Root recalled the creation of his flagship Tele, and discussed how his radical reimaging updated a Fender mainstay for the 21st century.

“I think Fender, at the time, needed something to, not erase the stigma of being an iconic, older company, but bring them into more modern times,” he said. “It made sense, and Fender was down. I got lucky. The stars aligned!”

The Shoreline Gold Jim Root Telecaster is available now for $2,099.

Visit Fender for more info.

This pair was separated at birth. I first discovered the joys of the Fender Mustang Bass – strung with flatwounds, of course – several years ago while recording a Blue Violet album.

I’d been using a Japanese Precision Bass, but Middle Farm Studios’ Pete Miles handed me a 1970s maple-neck, Walnut-finish Mustang Bass loaded with flats. I was instantly hooked.

I kept an eye out for Mustang Basses and spotted one at Vintage ’n’ Rare Guitars in Bath: a ’67 model in White. That finish is actually the same acrylic paint Fender marketed as Olympic White.

An early example, I snapped it up for £3,000 about five years ago. Today, similar models fetch around £4,000, proving you don’t need top-tier instruments to get on the vintage guitar investment ladder.

The Duo-Sonic II was offered in the same White, Red, and Blue (Daphne Blue) finishes as Mustangs and Mustang Basses, and I became fixated on finding one to match my bass (why not?).

I’m very cautious about buying guitars before playing them, but about 18 months ago, I stumbled across a ’65 Duo-Sonic II on Reverb and took a punt because the seller’s photography was so detailed.

Priced reasonably at £2,400, I pulled the trigger, and it joined the family a few days later.

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

Gibson has put a long-scale spin on the Les Paul Custom by matching Fender’s favorite scale length – meet the 25.5" Long Scale Custom.

Whereas Fender’s Stratocaster, Telecaster and Jazzmaster models favor 25.5” scale lengths, Gibson typically opts for a more stunted 24.75” setup for its catalog. The Les Paul, SG, ES-335… you name it, it will have a 24.75” scale length.

Along with body shapes, wood choices and tonal setups, the contrasting scale lengths is a key differential between the two brands, and usually a contributing factor for many players when determining whether they are a Gibson or Fender player.

There are distinct playing differences between 24.75” and 25.5” scale length. The former often translates to a looser, slinkier feel, owing to the shortened distance between the bridge and nut. The latter, meanwhile, has increased tension and as such a snappier, tighter feel.

Under the fingers, they feel different, and they sound different, too. Now, Gibson has catered to those players who prefer a longer scale length by introducing the Les Paul Custom Long Scale.

Everything is as you’d expect from a Les Paul Custom. There’s a mahogany build, ebony fingerboard with block inlays, gold hardware. Yes, there’s the body, neck and headstock binding. Tones come by way of 490R and 498T humbuckers.

But while that all sounds familiar, the scale length doesn’t. A Les Paul that matches the setup of a Stratocaster or Telecaster? Now, that’s a very intriguing proposition indeed.

Gibson has said it’s tailored the Les Paul Custom Long Scale for heavier genres and drop-tuning, and while that will certainly appeal to a wide pool of players, I’m more interesting in just how different this will feel from a conventional LP.

It’s also interesting that Gibson is starting to experiment with scale lengths. The Victory, for example, embraces the 25.5” setup. At NAMM, Gibson also teased that some baritone models could be on the cards.

The Les Paul Custom Long Scale is available now for $5,999.

Visit Gibson for more.

In related news, earlier this year Gibson revived the Les Paul Custom '70s and made it available as a USA Standard model for the first time in 20 years.

Jackson has unveiled its latest signature guitar for Brandon Ellis: a 27-fret shred machine that brings some serious upgrades to the Kelly design.

The former Black Dahlia Murder member is no stranger to Jackson Kelly guitars. He already has one signature under his belt. But this new version, the KE27, is a different beast altogether.

The highlight is that epic fretboard, which bumps the fret count from 24 to a whopping 27. Twenty-seven frets?! That is insane. Not only that, they’re jumbo stainless steel. Pair that with the 12”-16” compound radius fretboard and you have a guitar primed for fretboard pyrotechnics.

The maple neck and fretboard, which has black sharkfin inlays, is fixed to a nyatoh body. Enter the next standout feature: the Gold Crackle finish. Is it an upgrade on the Green Crackle found on its predecessor? Yes, yes it is. Especially when paired with the gold hardware.

Tone-wise, there’s a Seymour Duncan signature Dyad Parallel Axis and PA-STK pickup combo. The former has a hybrid coil design for a wide-open dynamic sound, and is wired to a push/pull series/parallel volume pot. The latter is for “hum-free clarity with smooth sustain”.

Finishing touches include a top-mount Gotoh GE1996T double-locking tremolo, a reverse Jackson headstock, Dunlop strap locks, Luminlay side dots, and ivory binding on the neck and headstock.

“The KE27 has really evolved into a completely different guitar in its own right,” Ellis says of his new signature. “While the first iteration was built on the standard Jackson Kelly spec, this one features meaningful customizations to virtually every aspect.

“When I pick this guitar up, I'm just in awe. It plays like a custom shop guitar and has a unique feel and sound all its own.”

The Pro Plus Series Signature Brandon Ellis Kelly KE27 is available now for $2,199.

Head over to Jackson to find out more.

If there's one thing you can always count on, it’s that the 4th of July sales bring an array of deals on guitars – and this year it’s particularly good if you’re a fan of the Les Paul, like me. The Gibson Les Paul is the dream instrument for so many guitar players, and it’s easy to see why. This rock ‘n’ roll icon has produced some of the best electric guitar tones of all time and has been the go-to guitar for some of the biggest names in music. There is only one catch… they’re expensive. Well, you needn’t worry, as today, I’ve found a bunch of Les Pauls on sale across Guitar Center, Sweetwater and Musician’s Friend, and in some cases there’s up to $899 off!

Now, if you’ve followed Guitar World’s deal coverage for a while, you may know that I’m a devoted Gibson guitar fanatic. While my collection isn't limited to models from the Nashville guitar giant, they make up a significant portion of it. Out of the 25+ guitars I own, 13 are Gibson. Of course, I'm not a purist who sneers at Epiphone. In fact, I believe they offer some of the best value in the guitar market today.

In my view, Epiphone’s current lineup strikes a compelling balance of timeless designs and modern features. From expertly crafted replicas of iconic Gibson models to innovative new creations, there’s plenty to love.

Below, I’ve picked out a few of my favorite Epiphone and Gibson models from across the internet that are heavily discounted in the July 4th sales.

Guild has revived its S-300 electric guitar, 50 years after the unsung offset was deemed too radical for its time.

First introduced in 1977 and – by today’s standards, looking like a cross between a Gretsch Electromatic CVT and a Surfcaster – it had a short production run, as what Guild now accepts was a “radical” design failed to land.

Just shy of half a decade later, the guitar landscape has changed. Offsets in all walks of music have never been more popular. As such, the S-300 – which will no doubt win over more fans this time around – returns at the perfect time.

It’s sure to please contemporary audiences, pairing newly contoured mahogany bodies and Soft U-shaped mahogany set necks with ivory-bound rosewood fingerboards for a unique silhouette.

It sports matching Alnico V HB-2+ humbuckers with dual-rail covers, each with a pair of Volume and Tone controls, and a three-way switch. The tones, as per Guild, range from “old-school warmth and punch to cutting-edge crunch and clarity”. A phase switch is a tidy addition, too.

Other appointments include Ultimate Angle Tune-O-Matic-style bridges, vintage-style Guild Compensated tailpieces, and Grover G2 open-gear tuners. Aesthetic touches come in the form of large vintage-style headstocks, Chesterfield inlays, and five-ply black pickguards.

In an age where funky body shapes are now commonplace – see Abasi Concepts, Strandberg, and the Dali-esque Ibanez Alpha for evidence – it’s high time for this unusual offset to rear its headstock again.

Granted, its futuristic vibe is likely to divide opinion still, but those twin cutaways offer plenty of access to its 24 narrow jumbo frets, and you can’t argue with that. And no matter your predilection, it’s always a joy to see new shapes hit the market.

“The S-300 was viewed as fairly radical when it was introduced nearly 50 years ago,” concedes Nick Beach, Product Manager at Fretted Instruments. “The guitar’s offset body had dramatic cutaways and contours that gave it a futuristic look, and its phase switch was also unusual at the time, but since then it has become increasingly popular and collectible.

“With the new S-300 Deluxe guitar, we’re bringing back a classic with a few key changes to make it even more comfortable and giving players a choice of eye-catching metallic finishes.”

Indeed, its Neptune Blue Metallic and Vintage Sterling Metallic finishes are absolutely gorgeous, and their $799.99 price tags aren't too shabby, either.

Check out Guild for more.

What is it?

Gretsch’s hollowbody behemoths cast a significantly long shadow, one that often eclipses its smaller, overlooked Jet models. Sure, the big-box Gretsches have their fair share of famous fans, but the Jet has built a cult following of its own. Legends like George Harrison and Pete Townshend have slung a Jet over their shoulder, but for me, it’s Chris Cornell, Seattle’s flannel-clad, grunge icon, whose late-'80s sparkling Duo Jet made me want one of my own.

Now, Cornell’s model wasn’t exactly set up for hard-hitting riffs. With its Filter’Tron pickups and Bigsby, it leaned more toward jangle than face-melting. Still, Cornell made it growl in ways the designers probably never imagined. I can’t help but wonder what he’d have done with the new Gretsch Premier Jet in his arsenal. With its modern upgrades, it might have been even better suited for his detuned, heavy riffage and stage-stomping antics.

The Electromatic Premier Jet is Gretsch’s answer to the prayers of players who want classic vibes with some 21st-century muscle. It’s fair to say this isn’t your grandaddy’s Gretsch; the Premier Jet has been dragged, willingly or not, into the modern era, complete with a spec sheet that reads like a wish list for tone chasers and gigging guitarists alike.

As you’d expect, the body of this electric guitar is chambered mahogany, but the top is carved maple, not unlike a certain Gibson single-cut. The neck is also mahogany with a bound ebony fingerboard and a complement of 22 medium jumbo frets. We also have a 10"-14” compound-radius fingerboard and Luminlay side-dot markers.

In terms of electronics, it has a pair of Sphera Twin Six humbuckers. Visually, these are considerably larger than a set of filtertrons, being full-sized buckers in construction. Each pickup features twelve adjustable pole pieces and Alnico VI magnets. The neck pickup uses a clear poly-sol-coated wire, said to lean towards clearer high end, while the bridge uses a plain enamel-coated wire to aid warmer tones. Of course, there are other variables involved too…

Gretsch promises more output, more punch, and a little extra snarl from these pickups in general, perfect for everything from jangly cleans to fuzzed-out grunge, and this versatility continues on to the control layout.

The master volume features a handy treble bleed circuit that helps you maintain clarity at any volume. Individual no-load tone controls for each pickup keep things sounding lively, and a push/pull function on the master volume control engages the custom Lumen Filter for what Gretsch says is a “tighter, snappier response that excels at both percussive hi-gain tones and crystalline clean tones.”

Hardware-wise, the Premier Jet keeps things rock solid with the Lockdown adjustable wraparound tailpiece, locking machine heads, and locking strap buttons. This model is available in a variety of colorways, from the shimmering sheen of the Vintage Pearl to the vintage charm of Robusto Burst, the deep blue Clairvoyant, and the jet-black Onyx Storm I’m reviewing today.

Specs

• Launch price: $799 | £649 | €699
• Made: China
• Type: Six-string electric guitar
• Body: Mahogany
• Neck: Mahogany, Performance 'C'
• Fingerboard: Bound Ebony
• Scale length: 24.88" (632 mm)
• Nut/width: Graph Tech NuBone, 1.6875" (42.86 mm)
• Frets: 22 Medium Jumbo
• Hardware: LockDown locking bridge, die-cast sealed locking tuners, knurled plain top metal knobs, and strap locks
• Electrics: 2 X Sphera Twin Six Humbuckers, Master Volume with Treble-Bleed, Tone 1. No-Load Tone Control (Neck Pickup), Tone 2. No-Load Tone Control (Bridge Pickup)
• Weight: 7.9Ibs/ 3.6 kg
• Left-handed options: No
• Finishes: Vintage Pearl, Clairvoyant, Onyx Storm (as reviewed), Robusto Burst
• Cases: No
• Contact: Gretsch Guitars

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Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★★

Lifting this single-cut out of the box, I’m met with what is, by all accounts, a very handsome guitar. That subtle Onyx Storm finish is stunning, indeed. The light flecks of glitter against the black are seriously classy and a finish I like a lot, which is a good thing as it wraps every inch of the guitar.

It has also been applied very neatly throughout, and this carries over to the entire guitar. I genuinely can’t find a single thing out of place on this model. There are no finish blemishes, no marks, and the ebony used on the fingerboard is as dark as it gets, pretty impressive stuff, considering the price point.

Moving on, the pearloid Neo-Classic Thumbnail inlays have been perfectly installed, as are the medium jumbo frets. You’ll not find any rogue frets here; everything has been installed flush and has been well polished too, meaning you don’t get any of that “straight-out-the-box scratchiness." Lastly, the Graph Tech NuBone nut has been expertly cut and filed, rounding out what is a superbly made and well-put-together guitar.

​Straight off the bat, it’s obvious that this is a model made for performers, as it comes loaded with gig-ready features you typically find on much more expensive instruments. The inclusion of Luminlay side markers is another thoughtful touch, making it easy to see your way around on dark stages, and the addition of pre-installed straplocks and locking tuners is the icing on the cake for me.

It’s these little upgrades that make the Premier Jet feel every bit as roadworthy as guitars costing twice as much, and show that this model is built for live players, not just collectors or home players.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

Okay, so now on to playability, because a guitar can look as good as it wants, but if it doesn’t feel great in hand, none of that matters.

​The best way I can describe the Premier Jet is with one word: modern. This isn’t a model for vintage Gretsch lovers; it’s a contemporary take on the Jet that feels fresh and sleek. The “performance-C” style neck, with its rounded profile and tapered shoulders, fits my hand well. Compared to my own Players Edition Falcon, it feels slimmer overall, but shares the exact same string spacing and a nut width of 42.86 mm, so it still feels familiar. There’s even a whiff of Gibson’s SlimTaper profile in this Gretsch, so fans of the Nashville guitar giant will feel right at home.

​The action measures a very playable height, at 1.35 mm clearance from the low E. It’s low enough to feel slinky, but not so low that it chokes out when I go for full-tone bends high up the fingerboard.

Speaking of the fingerboard, the Premier Jet features a compound radius that morphs from 10" to 14". It’s a subtle change, but it’s definitely noticeable as you play. Starting a run on the 3rd fret E-string and aiming for the 15th, I can feel my hand naturally shifting into more comfortable positions as I move up the neck. That flatter radius higher up is ideal for big bends, fast runs, and complex chord voicings, giving you room to stretch out without fighting the instrument.

All these small design choices add up to an instrument that feels thoughtfully engineered for today’s players.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Next up is sound, and the tonal center of this Jet is a pair of Sphera Twin Six humbuckers. Sonically, this model feels more at home in the Les Paul camp than the classic Jet camp, and that’s thanks to these full-sized humbuckers.

There’s some real power in these pickups. Plugging into a Fender Blues Jr, it doesn’t take much to drive the amp into a nice breakup. The tone is rich, warm, and full of character, but it lacks the sharp brightness of a Filter’Tron. That’s not to say the tone isn’t great, it’s just different from what some players might expect from a brand like Gretsch.

Kick on a Tube Screamer, and the Jet really shows off its hard rock capabilities. That lack of top-end sparkle actually works in its favor here, creating a tight, focused, and well-balanced sound that cuts through a band mix without sounding harsh.

Remove the drive and leave the Gretsch naked, with just a touch of reverb, and the higher-output pickups reveal their drawback. The guitar loses some of the classic Gretsch chime when played clean. I find myself wishing for a little more sizzle and a touch less midrange from the Sphera Twin Six pickups. Still, the treble bleed circuit is a thoughtful inclusion that does help preserve what top-end there is when rolling down the volume.

There’s also a push/pull function on the master volume control. It’s not a coil-split, as you might expect, but instead engages a Lumen Filter. To my ears, this produces a honky, more nasal tone, with the low end shelved off. Does it sound like a single-coil? Not exactly, but it’s a very usable tone that will certainly get you in the right ballpark for playing live.

Overall, the Premier Jet’s sound is unique, balancing power and warmth with just enough versatility to cover a lot of ground. While it may not deliver the vintage Gretsch sparkle some purists crave, it more than makes up for it with its punchy, modern voice. It proves again that Gretsch can surprise us as it continues to evolve and expand.

Verdict

If you’re searching for a guitar that effortlessly bridges the gap between vintage soul and modern muscle, the Gretsch Premier Jet might just be your perfect match. Gretsch has taken the Jet and given it a contemporary overhaul, crafting an instrument that wears its "premier" name well.

I think that a big part of the appeal here is the build quality, which truly stands out at this price point. Every detail, from the flawless finish to the expertly dressed frets, speaks to an attention to detail that Gretsch has brought to a model well under the $1,000 mark.

The Premier Jet’s compound-radius neck and dark ebony fingerboard make for a playing experience that feels fast, smooth, and inviting. Add to that the gig-ready features like locking tuners, the Lockdown wraparound tailpiece, Luminlay side markers, and secure strap buttons, and you’re looking at a package that’s ready for the stage.

Sonically, the Sphera Twin Six humbuckers bring a new flavor to the Jet formula. There’s plenty of punch and warmth for rock and blues. It’s a voice that feels fresh and perfectly at home in modern music, even if it doesn’t chase the classic Gretsch chime.

For me, the Premier Jet is a really smart buy. Whether you’re gigging every weekend or just want a reliable, stylish workhorse for your collection, the Premier Jet proves that you don’t have to spend a fortune to get a professional instrument.

Guitar World verdict: If you’re going to put “premier” in the title of a guitar, then you’d better deliver. Thankfully, Gretsch does, with a guitar that’s chock-full of premium appointments. From the ​Luminlay side dot markers to the adjustable wraparound tailpiece, locking machine heads, and pre-installed strap locks, this guitar is designed to stand up to the harsh realities of playing live and at a very affordable price.

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Gretsch Guitars

Leon Todd

• Best Gretsch guitars: Explore those iconic Gretsch tones with our top picks

What is it?

The Baum Guitars Carve comes from a company that is relatively new on the scene, and seemingly appeared out of nowhere for me. Like most of the modern age’s discoveries, I came across the company via sponsored posts scrolling on Instagram. The sharp design and strangely familiar outlines grabbed my attention, and an encounter with Baum at the UK Guitar Show sealed the deal.

Baum actually goes back to 2015, established by Morten Bau, focusing on custom builds and Danish-made, high-end instruments. Quickly realising it had a winning formula on its hands, Baum switched to replicating these same designs with far-eastern-made guitars, reducing the costs and improving the accessibility to a wider audience. The Carve is made in Indonesia, using proprietary parts and pickups, before being shipped back to Denmark for a proper setup from a professional luthier. It's this new Vega Series that The Carve I have here is taken from.

The Baum Carve features a slim, 36mm mahogany body with a metallic ‘Stone Blue’ finish. The sharp double cutaways are not unlike an SG guitar, but still distinctive enough to look like its own thing. The roasted maple neck is shaped to a ‘C profile, and features a rosewood fretboard with a 12-inch radius. ‘Crown’ inlays decorate the 22 medium jumbo frets, which are constructed from nickel.

The hardware is all Baum’s own, with a Baum Performer tune-o-matic bridge with a stop tail, and a set of Baum Performer tuners with an 18:1 ratio. The dual single-coil pickups are also Baum’s own Goldsound Ember P-90, which feature Alnico V magnets. A 3-way toggle switch gives you traditional switching options, with a master volume and tone controls and 500K potentiometers. It also comes with a very nice Baum Original Deluxe Gig Bag.

Specs

• Launch price: $999 | £669 | €699
• Made: Indonesia
• Type: Six-string electric guitar
• Body: Mahogany
• Neck: Roasted maple / Baum modern ‘C’
• Fingerboard: Rosewood
• Scale length: 25.5” / 647.7 mm
• Nut/width: High-density composite / 42.9 mm
• Frets: 22, medium jumbo, nickel
• Hardware: Baum Performer tuners, Baum Performer bridge
• String spacing at bridge: 51.5mm
• Electrics: 2x Goldsound Ember P-90, master volume & master tone, 3-way toggle switch
• Weight: 3.2 kg / 7.05 lbs
• Left-handed options: No
• Finishes: Stone Blue (as reviewed), Vintage White
• Cases: Baum Deluxe Gig Bag
• Contact: Baum

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

Taking the Baum Carve out of its rather nice gig bag, the shape of the body is immediately distinctive in its metallic blue finish. It’s like a less aggressive SG shape, with the double cutaways more rounded off. At the tail end of the body, there’s an asymmetric cut that starts as an arm bevel but terminates much lower down than usual at the strap pin.

This carve continues up to the top horn, and flipping the guitar around, there’s another bevel that goes all the way around the body edge and into the cutaways, alongside a curved neck heel on the treble side for additional comfort. As I’ve seen with a couple of guitars I’ve more recently reviewed, there’s no panel on the back for accessing the electronics, so if you ever do need to change anything, the entire pickguard will have to come off.

The metallic blue finish is very well applied, and upon close inspection of all the knobs, screws, and body fitments, everything feels very well-made and sturdy. The neck joint is neat, and examining up and down the fretboard, I see nothing out of place apart from a tiny bit of extra glue sticking out from the 17th fret.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

Unlike the SG which it shares so much of a likeness with, the Baum Carve features a 25.5” scale length. Sitting down to play, the Modern ‘C’ neck profile feels very familiar coming from my Telecaster, and there’s no real adjustment period for being able to play my favorite licks. The medium jumbo frets feel nice to bend against, and there isn’t too much resistance from the .10 gauge D’Addario electric guitar strings fitted to it.

I do notice some buzzing at the 1st fret, so I have to remove the truss rod cover and make a small adjustment to get it really singing. Baum did warn me that this particular guitar has been to several shows before reaching me, and that its new guitars always have these adjustments done before reaching customers. With my finger on the 1st fret, the action measures at 2mm on the 12th fret, which, on the face of it, is high. It doesn’t affect the playability all that much, though, whether I’m chugging drop-D riffs or letting fly with some rapid-fire lead licks.

The neck profile is a nice all-rounder. Slim and modern feeling, but not quite in shred guitar territory. It handles everything I throw at it, and I never feel like any particular style or technique is beyond reach. The upper fret access is excellent, as you might expect with a design similar to an SG, but it’s not quite as good as Gibson's design. I have to angle my hand ever so slightly to land those 22nd fret bends.

Using it on a strap in rehearsal, there’s no neck dive either, thanks to the strap pin being positioned on the upper horn rather than at the back of the guitar. I do find that the toggle selector is a bit too close to the neck pickup, so when I got into playing some aggressive barre chords, I whacked it a couple of times onto the neck setting.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

I took the Baum Carve to rehearsal to put it through its paces with my gigging rig of an excessive pedalboard and Orange Rocker 32 tube amp. Starting off with a clean tone, I’m immediately surprised at how hot the bridge pickup is. It doesn’t take much to start pushing my amp into overdrive, and I have to recalibrate some of my pedal settings to get it back to where it usually is with my Telecaster.

It’s got the typical P-90 midrange articulation. It’s cutting, but smoother than a more traditional single-coil sound. Played softly, there’s loads of clean clarity, but as soon as I dig in with the pick, it’s easy to eke out some tube breakup. It’s a lovely sound, without a hint of the ice-pick you sometimes get from single coils, and adding some subtle delay and reverb keeps me playing for a long time.

The neck pickup is a little lower in the output stakes, so it stays cleaner with more forceful picking. Again, there’s that midrange clarity, but the sound is lovely and warm, and noodling single-note motifs sound incredible here. The note sag is really obvious when I attack the string, and it gives a lovely, soft feel that works really well with some busy post-rock arpeggios. With both pickups engaged, there’s a discernible jump in volume, and here the bridge does a lot of heavy lifting with a very bright attack.

Switching in a couple of overdrive pedals and moving to some higher gain stuff, again, the bridge pickup absolutely rips. For punky power chords, it really sings when I leather the strings, but there’s still an excellent clarity when striking full barre chords, even with a Blues Breaker-style overdrive in front of the already driven tube amp. Lead work sings out nicely, and I’m again impressed with the punchiness of the sound.

Switching to the neck pickup, it again retains excellent articulation under higher gain settings, sounding really warm but still with plenty of bite. There’s not quite as much clarity here when I play full chords, but it still sounds inspiring, and there’s a fuzziness to it that sounds great when I attack some single-note riffs on the low E.

Obviously, they won't do metal tones, but I found that pretty much every other style was achievable one way or another. Whether I was playing punky power chords, doomy riffs, or space rock guitar freakouts, the pickups delivered. That said, I think they will likely be too hot for vintage tone hunters.

Verdict

I was admittedly surprised when I saw the price point for the Baum Guitars Carve. It’s more expensive in the US, granted, but you still get a lot for below a grand. The EU and UK should especially sit up and take note, because it’s fantastic value there. It’s a guitar that really nicely balances the retro looks with modern playability and pickups, managing to impressively juxtapose originality and traditionalism that I reckon will appeal to all sorts of guitar players.

My model was very well put together, but it did need a couple of setup tweaks to get it playing perfectly, though Baum did say this was due to this particular test model going to a few expos before it came to me. I’m not sure how I feel about the lack of a panel to access the pots at the back of the guitar, but maybe that’s me being pedantic. After all, how often do we actually check that unless there’s a serious problem or modding to be done? My only other issue is the placement of the toggle switch, which can be easily knocked when getting into a live performance.

Baum’s own Goldsound pickups do a phenomenal job here, especially if you like a hotter, more modern P-90 voice. They’re really adaptable to a wide variety of styles and took to all kinds of effects experimentation with aplomb. It might be a little too much for those who specifically want lower output tones. Overall, I think it’s well voiced for the modern player, and I certainly enjoyed the way they drove my guitar amp hard whilst still retaining plenty of articulation.

Guitar World verdict: Overall, I’m very impressed with the Baum Guitars Carve. It looks distinctive enough to be different in a way that isn’t likely to put off traditionalists, is very well put together, and is fantastic value for money - especially considering you get a high-quality gig bag with it. The pickups deliver that typical P-90 experience, aggressive under gain, lovely when gently picked clean, but always delivering plenty of clarity. It’s easy to see why Baum has seemingly emerged from nowhere when delivering guitars that are this good.

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Thinking About Guitar

Jackson Brooksby

Welcome to Guitar World’s weekly gear round-up, your one-stop-shop for keeping up to date with what’s been happening in the big wide world of guitar gear over the past seven days.

From new electric guitars to amp modeler updates, the guitar industry is never short of fresh releases, and it can sometimes be hard to stay in the loop with every new launch.

To make things a little easier, we’ve put together an essential must-read guide that will cover the major releases, the boutique drops, and everything in between.

Below you'll find my personal highlights from the week, along with plenty of honorable mentions for the new gear you might have missed. Agree with my picks? Have a highlight of your own? Let us know in the comments.

Kramer 50th Anniversary Collection

There is a certain demographic who will be looking at this new 50th Anniversary Collection from Kramer, seeing the Gibson-owned high-performance electric guitar brand respraying all the hits of its current lineup in a really sweet Gold Metallic finish to mark its jubilee year, and they will acutely feel the passing of time.

Some might wince, suddenly feeling the urge to pick up a more age-appropriate instrument. But what even is that? Embrace the dying of the light. Take that Frying Pan out of your Reverb cart. So what if the premier shred brand of the ‘80s used to watch movies on Betamax – it’s still young at heart. And so are we.

Besides, the Baretta, SM-1, the 84, the Volante, NightSwan, and the Pacer Carrera have never looked better.

These all come with a gig bag and everything you need to split the atom, i.e. super-quick necks, jumbo frets, compound radius fingerboards, plus Kramer Eruption PRO humbuckers and Floyd Rose 1000 Series vibratos. And the price on these is not that bad either, with the range starting from $999.

PRS Jon Jourdan Limited Edition

Jon Jourdan’s new signature guitar is something different from PRS. We're used to seeing a more maximalist approach when it comes to its designs, electrics with an array of switching options to rinse everything out of their pickup configuration. But Jourdan’s day job requires something different.

His signature model is all business; a single-cut with a single pickup, one volume knob, and a wraparound bridge. And that’s it. As six-string lieutenant to Wolfgang Van Halen, touring the world’s enormodomes with Mammoth – not to mention his roles in To Whom it May and Clint Lowery’s solo band – he clearly needs something that you can tune down, crank up, and hit hard. This is the electric guitar as a hammer, albeit, a very expensive hammer.

“At the end of the day, my guitar is a tool. I want it to do exactly what I need it to, so we took out all the ‘extra’ stuff I don’t need,” says Jourdan. “This guitar sounds huge and is incredibly fun to play. There’s something about taking out any unnecessary wiring and removing the neck pickup so its magnets aren’t pulling on the strings that makes it feel alive. I can’t imagine anyone playing this guitar having a bad time.”

Its sole pickup is interesting, a PRS Metal humbucker. That’ll slug the front end of your guitar amp nicely. PRS is releasing these in Platinum and Gunmetal metallic finishes. Each instrument comes with signed backplate. The bad news is that they’re only making 200 of them.

Eventide H9 Gen 2

No one has ever accused the H9 Harmonizer of lacking features or sounds, but Eventide has just made it better anyway, and has done so without increasing the size of the enclosure.

The next-gen H9 is still respectful of your pedalboard real estate, but this time it comes with full ARM processing to make it faster and better, and SIFT processing; and with all of the algorithms from the H9 Max and H90, you now have some 74 sounds to play with.

Some of these are the kinds of sounds you can only really get from Eventide, such as its sui generis PitchFuzz algorithm, which comprises a trio of pitch shifters, delay, and a fuzz-cum-distortion, and there are some on-trend sounds that we’d forecast will play well for the avant-indie and shoegaze soundscaper, with Cosmic Web, Glitch, GrainMod, and Stutter showing us what happens when Eventide embraces the “granular” revolution.

The aforementioned SIFT technology now allows the H9 to run the polyphonic algorithms just as its flagship units do. All of these sounds can be bamboozling, but you’ve got more than a thousand presets to organize them.

As before, you can only run one preset/algorithm at any one time, but these effects contain multitudes. The H9 Gen 2 could be a powerful chameleon to have on your ‘board for wildcard sounds and studio-quality delay and reverb essentials.

Also launched this week…

Knaggs 250th Anniversary Limited run

While most people will resort to a box of fireworks and grill some dogs to celebrate the USA turning the big two-fifty, Joe Knaggs had different ideas, and instead turned his peerless luthierie skills towards a super limited run of Kenai and Severn models that have F-18s and F-16s performing a fly-by on an ebony fingerboard. Spectacular. They're only making 25 of them. Order by the end of July.

For more: Knaggs Guitars

Two Notes Genome 2

This is a good week for updating your digital guitar eco-system, because Two Notes Engineering has just launched Genome 2.0, upgrading its fully integrated amp modeler, effects, and virtual cab engine with some serious new features. Its multi-parametric AmpNet capture tech could be a game-changer.

For more: Two Notes

Gibson Custom Historic Reissue 1959 ES-330 and 1962 ES-330

Playing a nice ES-330 is one of the greatest experiences you can have as a guitar player, and while that hollowbody gives some the fear – what about the feedback? – the P-90 mojo, the resonance, the musicality of the instrument... it's really something. And these two period-correct 1959 and 1962 Historic Reissues look truly exceptional.

For more: Gibson

Winzz WCG370 nylon-string

For $399, this new hybrid nylon-string guitar is a sweet deal. It has a thinline African mahogany body topped with spruce and a flame maple veneer. There's an undersaddle piezo with volume, bass, and treble, and some nice finish options, too.

For more: Winzz Guitars

Harley Benton BLOCK Series bass amps

Portable and configurable, Harley Benton's new BLOCK Series includes 200, 300, 600, and 800-watt Class D bass amp heads, plus a variety of matching cabinets. You don't need us to tell you these are affordable.

For more: Harley Benton

• What's your favorite new gear release of the week? Let us know in the comments below.

What is it?

The Gretsch Electromatic Jet Baritone (not to be confused with the G5260 Electromatic Jet Baritone) is an ultra-long scale baritone guitar, coming in at a positively humongous 29.75-inch scale length. Despite being designed for surf and rockabilly, the Gretsch baritone has been effectively hijacked by heavy guitar players, largely thanks to Eric Bickerstaffe of shoegaze-metal chameleons Loathe.

Today’s review model differs in quite a few ways from the guitar that Bickerstaffe tunes an octave down to E with a .105 gauge guitar string, though. The solid mahogany of the G5260 body has been replaced with a chambered mahogany and a carved maple top. It’s more sculpted for comfort and has a rounded neck heel on the treble end for more comfort in the upper fret registers.

The mini humbuckers of the G5260 are also gone, replaced with dual PureVolt Twin 6 humbuckers, which both feature 12 individual adjustable pole pieces. The electronics have also been upgraded, with the addition of a treble bleed circuit on the volume knob and a push-pull control for coil splitting.

The neck profile has changed as well, with the G5260s' thin ‘U’ profile making way for a performance ‘C’ shape. The fretboard wood is bound rosewood, with 22 medium jumbo frets and pearloid classic neo-thumbnail inlays. Both feature adjusto-matic bridges, but the V-stoptail is now a more usual, straight stop tail. Both have die-cast tuners in a 3x3 lineup on the headstock.

Specs

• Launch price: $699.99 | £549 | €599
• Made: China
• Type: Six-string baritone electric guitar
• Body: Mahogany with carved solid maple top
• Neck: Maple/performance ‘C’
• Fingerboard: Bound rosewood
• Scale length: 29.75”/ 756 mm
• Nut/width: Graph Tech NuBone / 42.86 mm
• Frets: 22, medium jumbo
• Hardware: Die-cast sealed, adjusto-matic with stop tail
• String spacing at bridge: 51.7 mm
• Electrics: 2x PureVolt Twin Six humbuckers, master volume with treble-bleed, tone 1 (neck pickup), tone 2 (bridge pickup), push-pull on each tone control splits bridge and neck pickups respectively, 3-position toggle switch
• Weight: 9lb/4.1 kg
• Left-handed options: No
• Finishes: Imperial Stain
• Case: No
• Contact: Gretsch

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

The Electromatic Jet Baritone is ridiculously long for a guitar. Even the box it comes in is supersized to account for the additional scale length, and out of curiosity, I place it next to my Jaguar short-scale bass guitar, which ends up being not that much longer than the Gretsch. I have to take great care moving it around my home studio, not to clang the headstock, and even then, I still managed to knock it off a few things.

Thankfully, there was no damage done, and the overall build quality is very good. A close inspection reveals barely a hair out of place, with the only thing I could spot being some light marks on the fretboard where it terminates by the neck pickup. Other than that, it’s an exquisitely put-together instrument.

It’s really good looking too, in my opinion. The carve of the solid maple top is gorgeous, and the aged white binding is really nicely applied. The body features some very slight comfort contours on the back of the body, with a very shallow belly cut and even a small carve where the guitar sits on my knee.

The Imperial Stain finish on my test model is very dark, looking more like a gloss black in certain lights. That also means that it picks up dirt and dust very easily, and after one playing session in the current UK heatwave, there was a very obvious sweat mark where my picking arm draped over the body.

Placing it on my scales, it comes in at 4.1kg (9lbs), which, while brawny, isn’t quite as heavy as the Sterling by Music Man StingRay Baritone I tested a few months back. Still, when sitting down at my home studio desk and moving it in and out of my D’Addario desk neck cradle, I definitely feel that extra weight.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

Sitting down to play, that scale length makes its presence immediately felt. I regularly play a baritone in a metal band, but this feels absolutely massive in my hands. Out of curiosity, I Google the average hand size for men in the UK, which comes out at 7.6 inches. Mine measures at 7.5, so it’s fair to say that if you have a below-average hand size, you could well struggle with the size of this instrument.

It means that some chord stretches are difficult. Fretting a Loathe-inspired Bmaj7/G# chord is pretty much impossible for me, even after a few days of adjusting to the size of the instrument. It’s fine for your more bread-and-butter open chords, though, and riffing feels really nice on it out of the box.

The stock strings are 13-65, which is a little lighter on the bass end than what I’m used to. It means I can’t hit any Loathe-style downtuning, but I can take it down to drop G. It makes bending at the opposite end relatively easy, too, and I can get a full tone bend without too much difficulty, despite the huge scale length and increased gauge size versus a standard electric guitar. Beyond that, it does get considerably harder, however, so be prepared to practice if you want to nail those Gilmour-inspired two-tone bends on this.

The neck profile is pretty slim for a baritone. It feels more like a ‘D’ than a ‘C’ to my hand, and makes fast riffing and lead legatos really slick feeling. The gloss finish isn’t sticky, and with a nut width of 42.86mm, it doesn’t feel gargantuan when playing open or barre chords, no matter where I am on the neck.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

Plugging it into my audio interface and loading up the Neural DSP Nolly guitar plugin, my first port of call is to see how it djents. I drop tune the low string all the way down to E, and attempt to play some of my favorite Sikth riffs on it. It holds its tuning surprisingly well here, despite the string flapping around all over the place, but despite my best efforts, it’s way too inconsistent, so, ambitions curtailed, I go back to drop A for some high-gain riffing.

It’s chug city with a modeled 5150 and a Tube Screamer-style overdrive pedal pushing the front end. The humbuckers are in that medium output level, which means they stay really clear and articulate despite the low tuning. Playing open chords even on the heavily saturated preset, it’s remarkable how clear everything stays. Moving to some octaves with a drone string throughout, I can hear every string, no matter where I’m playing on the neck.

It won’t be for everyone. If you like that ultra-compressed, effortless active pickup feel of a more usual metal guitar, this might be a little too organic for you. On settings that are usually quite saturated on my other humbucker-equipped baritones, here it sounds more like a hot, vintage-style humbucker rather than something you’d typically hear in modern metal. I don’t mind that at all, but it’s worth noting for those who prefer that type of sound. The low end is also very well behaved, so there isn’t an overload of it even when I crank the bass knob on the amp.

Switching to the neck humbucker, it’s a little less articulate when I play open chords, and lower output than the bridge sound. Cranking up the gain and the bass, I’m straight into lumbering doom power chords territory. It sounds fantastic with single note riffs on the low A, and moving into some lead work and adding a little reverb delivers a fantastic lead guitar sound, with plenty of thick warmth that still manages to sound very clear and defined.

This guitar can be set to coil split individually on each humbucker, so my first instinct is to split the bridge humbucker, leave the neck as is, and move to the middle position of the toggle switch. I switch to the Neural DSP Tone King plugin on my tried and trusted clean setting with a touch of spring reverb and tremolo, and the resulting tone adds a little of that Strat out-of-phase sound, with a bit of honkiness to it. It’s less noticeable with open chords, but as I move higher up the neck, there’s a plinkiness that creeps in.

It’s a cool feature, and adds a lot of different tonal options as you can combine single coil with humbucker sounds, just use the split coils on their own, and have both humbuckers in split coil mode. The sounds are less useful when playing high gain, but for those clean sections or recording, there are a lot of options here.

Moving into some more measured playing, the pickups feel a lot darker with a mid-scooped amp tone and no mid boost pushing the front of the amp. I feel the need to turn up the treble a bit to get them to cut better, and it’s even worse on the neck pickup. They end up coming across so dark that I switch to another plugin, Archetype Cory Wong X, to see if I can eke a brighter sound out of them. Using the baritone guitar specific preset, I have to crank the mids, treble, and presence knobs to get a really bright sound. It sounds great once I get there, but it takes some work.

Verdict

It’s interesting then, because it seems this guitar has been aimed more at the metal crowd than traditional baritone sounds. Under high gain, I found the tones to be incredibly inspiring, articulate, and powerful. It behaves brilliantly with drop tuning, and it’s got plenty of gutsy midrange to power through a full band setup. It can absolutely djent and chug with the best of them. It’s also incredibly versatile thanks to the clever switching of the individual split coil mode on each humbucker.

If you’re after that Spaghetti Western baritone sound, though, I don’t think this is the guitar for you. With clean tones, the pickups end up sounding really dark due to a combination of scale length and the vintage-leaning voicing of the pickups. It means it’s not a clean machine unless you start cranking the treble and presence knobs, which comes with additional side effects.

It will be a very difficult guitar to handle for smaller players or those with smaller hands. The scale length is massive, and even for an experienced baritone player, I found more complex chords hard going on its behemoth span. Despite this, it’s super fun to play for open and barre chords, lead work, and single note riffing, thanks to the slim neck profile and reasonable nut width.

Guitar World verdict: For high gain and metal players who want to downtune, this is a great option if you don’t fancy a 7 or 8-string guitar. The articulate pickups mean it delivers incredibly well when it comes to anything heavy. It’s a tale of two halves, though, because I found the clean tones to be quite lackluster. It means that for players who want the classic baritone experience, I recommend looking elsewhere.

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This three-pickup Les Paul Custom belonged to Neal Schon of Journey. Its distinguishing feature is the cherry finish, and Gibson only made six of them for the Swedish company Hagstrom in 1960.

Very few people know that these exist, and this one may be the only surviving version that is fully intact. The others I’m aware of have suffered broken headstocks and other repairs. We don’t know of Gibson making Les Paul Customs in any other color at that time.

Schon sold it in a Heritage Auction in the pandemic [to clear space in his home]. It turned out to be the worst time to do an auction because his guitars really undersold. I remember having a conversation with Joe Bonamassa afterwards, and he felt Schon should have waited.

I was amazed he didn’t just get a storage place and put it off for a year or two, but nobody knew where the market was going to go at the time. It was a brutal auction to watch because we were worrying that it would hurt the vintage guitar market, but it had no effect either way. Things just started popping like crazy a couple of months after the auction happened. Schon just missed the boat, which is a shame.

The special run of cherry Les Paul Customs all have late-1960 serial numbers and this one is ‘0 5700’. Despite that, it doesn’t have a blade-thin neck, but the neck has a little less depth than ’bursts from earlier in the year. It's never been touched or tampered with, and still has its original case and tiny little factory frets. It’s very much a ‘fretless wonder’, and with only minimal wear over the first three frets, it was probably used by a cowboy chord player.

The gold hardware, Grover tuners, and three Patent Applied For pickups are exactly as you would expect. The plating has worn and the pickup covers look more like nickel than gold, but it’s otherwise very clean. There’s the ebony fretboard, mother-of-pearl inlays, and split diamond headstock inlay. One point of interest is the ‘Made in USA’ stamp, which at the time was something Gibson only did to guitars specifically made for export. After 1970, all the guitars were stamped that way.

Gibson also started making necks with volutes around that time, but not all models had them. For instance, they wouldn’t put one on an L5, or any of the high-end jazz models. Maybe Gibson just figured that the owners were less likely to drop them or send them flying off guitar stands than Les Paul, SG, or ES-335 players.

I think Gibson preferred making necks without volutes but it was aware that the necks had gained a reputation for being weak, and rival companies like Fender were alluding to it in their advertising. I often wonder why the company didn’t try putting some kind of reinforcement in there. Maybe Gibson tried it and didn’t like the way the guitar sounded because it disturbed the way that energy traveled from the tip of the headstock to the body.

The switching options are neck pickup, then the neck pickup with the center pickup out of phase, and then the bridge pickup in the back position. A lot of people modify the circuit if they’re going to play the guitar out live, and some don’t like center pickups because they get in the way when they’re strumming.

People complain about scratching sounds, hitting the pickup cover, and making noises. Although, when I discussed this with Peter Frampton, he insisted it’s easy to play between the pickups. I just laughed and said, ‘Yeah, but not everybody’s you.’

The body is solid mahogany and there’s no maple cap. The translucent finish has a very pretty and rich color. Some call it ‘wine red’, but I think Gibson’s official ledger refers to it as ‘Cherry’. It’s completely unfaded, so Gibson had obviously transitioned to a light-fast red pigment by the time this guitar was made.

It doesn’t resemble ‘aniline red’ and it looks like a stain with clear gloss coats on top. You have to be right in front of the guitar to notice any lacquer-checking and besides a few nicks and things on the back of the neck, it’s in very fine condition.

• 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.

Kramer is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a golden new line of S-types, treating its most popular models to a glow-up.

The guitar brand was at the height of its powers during the 1980s shred scene, with Eddie Van Halen, Mick Mars, and Richie Sambora among the advocates of the shred-friendly axes. Its fortunes nosedived the following decade, with Gibson buying it out of bankruptcy in 1997 as it bid to restore the Kramer brand.

Half a century, then, is a major milestone, and all the big hitters are here to celebrate, and caked in a 2026 exclusive Anniversary Gold finish for good measure. Each model – taking in the 84, SM-1 HH, NightSwan, Baretta, Pacer Carrera, and Volante – features a Floyd Rose 1000 Series vibrato and black hardware.

The 84 is an alder body, bestowed with forearm and belly contours and deep double cutaways for oodles of upper-fret access. It's paired with a satin-finished bolt-on K-Speed SlimTaper maple neck with a walnut skunk stripe. That, in turn, is capped with a maple fretboard and 22 jumbo frets.

A single Kramer Eruption PRO humbucker benefits from a push/pull series/parallel switch via the Volume knob. It is priced at $999.

The SM-1HH, meanwhile, doubles its money with two Eruption PRO Humbuckers wired in with premium CTS pots and boasting Volume and Tone controls. In contrast, the series/parallel control is moved to a dedicated mini toggle.

Also featuring a full-length mahogany neck with mahogany body wings, the gilded shredder has the same fast-playing profile as the 84, but swaps in a 12” radius ebony fretboard. It’s well-specced, but also refreshingly no-nonsense for $1,199.

As for the NightSwan, the revival of a late-’80s gem packs its two Eruption Pro humbuckers closely together and benefits from a lightweight alder body with comfy contours. Its Slim-Taper maple neck, complete with a black Kramer four-bolt plate, features a 22-fret ebony fingerboard and the model’s iconic offset “Ping-Pong” inlays.

See, too, its reverse Explorer headstock and a retro-styled Volume knob that, again, has a push/pull series/parallel control, all for $999.

The headline with Baretta, which was EVH’s Kramer of choice, is its offset and uncovered single Eruption Pro humbucker, which nods to its lineage with zebra bobbins and more streamlined controls.

It sports a double-cutaway maple body, satin-finished, three-piece maple neck with ebony fretboard, and a Kramer Thin profile. There’s absolutely no fat on this 25.5” scale six-string, and it sits at the lower end of the price scale at $999.

The Pacer Carrera, meanwhile, is a more traditional Super Strat, with twin Eruption PRO buckers, expanded Master and Volume controls, and a sleek, inlay-free ebony fingerboard. Its contour-strewn body is made of maple and has a bolt-on Kramer Slim-profile maple neck, all for $1,199.

It’s no surprise that the Volante HHFR, which roughly translates to “flying” in Italian, features a lightweight alder body and is designed for lightning-fast play.

It’s a three-piece, thermally aged maple neck with a satin finish that bolts on using five ferrules for enhanced stability and should help nicely with arpeggio practice. And, more still, its KeyLock system, engineered by Senior Product Development Engineer Richard Akers, is said to eliminate neck-pocket movement and improve tone transfer.

Its ebony fingerboard is built with a 10-14” compound radius and has 24 frets and small diamond inlays. It also steps away from the rest, bucker-wise, with a Kramer USA Neptune humbucker for a wide palette, especially when paired with its five-way switch. Each position is said to be hum-canceling and uniquely voiced, hence the slightly larger $1,299 pirce tag.

“Performance has always been at the core of what Kramer stands for, and that spirit is deeply personal to me,” says Aljon Go, Product Manager at Kramer. “Every detail of this series reflects the uncompromising quality, precision craftsmanship, and player-first design that define Kramer at its best.”

Gibson has taken the Kramer essence and dialed it up to 11 here.

See Kramer for more.

And in more recent news, Gibson President and CEO Cesar Gueikian has announced that he intends to step down from those executive roles.

If you’ve been waiting for the perfect moment to score a new electric guitar, there’s no better time than right now, because the Prime Day guitar deals are almost over, and the best deals are about to disappear. Amazon’s annual sale has delivered some of the deepest discounts we’ve seen all year on guitars from top brands, plus amps, pedals, and essential accessories. But the clock is ticking, today is the final day of Prime Day 2026, and many of these offers will be gone by midnight.

We’ve scoured Amazon and other major retailers to bring you the ultimate roundup of electric guitar deals you can grab before they vanish. Whether you’re a beginner eyeing your first instrument or an experienced player in search of a killer upgrade, these deals cover every budget and style.

Don’t miss out, these are the last hours to save big. For the very latest updates and lightning-fast deal alerts as they drop, be sure to check out our Prime Day guitar deals live blog, where we’re tracking every price cut and must-have offer in real time.

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Matthieu Lucas, from the Parisian guitar emporium Matt’s Guitar Shop, has unearthed a few musical gems during his lifetime. But, perhaps his proudest moment happened very recently, when he brought Eric Clapton’s influential ‘Summersburst’ – which has been hidden away from public view for nearly 60 years – to the public.

Eric Clapton’s fabled 1960 Les Paul Standard – his ‘Beano’ ’Burst – was snatched from a church hall in Brondesbury, London, at the height of his mid-’60s Bluesbreakers fame. He also happened to be just starting rehearsals with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker on a certain project called Cream. After the robbery, Clapton hastily bought another ’60 Les Paul from future Police guitarist Andy Summers for £300.

This guitar would shape Clapton’s next era – including, most pivotally, his work on Cream’s debut album, the game-changing Fresh Cream. Somewhere in between his trips across the Atlantic, though, the Les Paul would suffer the second of two serious neck breaks. While it was given a “creative” headstock replacement at Dan Armstrong’s repair shop, Clapton seemed unhappy with the result and left the guitar at the shop after refusing to pay the bill.

After changing hands more than a few times, fast-forward to 2026, when the guitar somehow found its way to Paris and into Lucas’ hands via renowned guitar collector Perry Margouleff.

“I knew about it for years,” Lucas says in the latest issue of Guitarist. “I couldn’t tell anyone about it because that’s not how Perry is working – he wants his guitars to be top secret, if I can say.

“But then I decided to make it public for several reasons, because my theory is that guitars like this should be played, should be shared with people. I think it doesn't even belong to me, or whoever is going to buy the guitar – it belongs to, I would almost say, humanity because that guitar is a major piece of the ’60s and British music, and a major piece of guitar history, so my feeling is that all those guitars need to be shared and played.”

At some point, Lucas stepped in and told Margouleff, “‘I want to buy this piece, but in my opinion it’s just a shame that it stays off the internet because I think it’s a different time now and everybody should know what happened to this guitar,’ because nobody knew where it was, basically.”

Lucas says that when he first met Margouleff around 13 years ago, the veteran collector took him under his wing and showed him a lot of his star-owned guitars. However, the future owner of Matt’s Guitar Shop wasn’t in a position to purchase Clapton’s guitar – that is, until 12 years later.

“It took a bit of time, but we arranged a deal a few weeks ago, and then I went to New York City and picked up the guitar myself.”

Having played Clapton’s “The Fool” SG, his 335, and other Cream-era instruments, Lucas has a few thoughts on how this Les Paul compares.

“It’s funny, because all of them [have notably slim necks], except the 335, which has more like a ’64 neck but still a very thin neck. So I think Clapton really loved a very thin neck on guitars, you know? This guitar is quite the same: it has one of the thinnest necks on a ’60 I’ve ever played.”

Lucas notes that it was probably made in the latter part of 1960 “because of that ‘tomato soup’ finish and other details,” while, structurally speaking, “it’s super easy to play and super fast because of that thin neck.” He goes on to point out that “the neck pickup is one of the creamiest neck pickups that I’ve tried.

“It’s not like a woody sound, it’s very creamy, very dense. It makes total sense when you put the guitar into a Marshall, and you put the tone at zero – you get exactly the Spoonful sound.

And the one thing that still blows his mind? “When you play the guitar, it’s incredible because that’s the record, you know? It already sounds like the record.”

For the full story and more about Eric Clapton’s iconic guitars, pick up issue 539 of Guitarist from Magazines Direct.