A wild Strat appeared! Fender Japan has teamed up with Pokémon for two special pixel art guitars that tip their headstocks to the enduring franchise’s first two video games.

The Red Stratocaster and Green Telecaster both get snazzy semi-transparent pickguards (that glow in fluorescent colors depending on the angle, no less) to better show off the pixel art on the body. Honestly, it’s a really smart way to celebrate Pokémon’s 30th anniversary.

The art display includes everything from Pokémon and character sprites to a Poké Ball and a Game Boy Color. The pickguards also get pixelated edging, which is really nice.

Better still, both guitars get Poké Ball inlays on their fretboards (maple for the Tele, rosewood for the Strat). It really ties into the game exclusive concept that runs through the monster-catching franchise.

Both rock traditional single-coil electronic configurations, then... Oh? The pickups are evolving! Engaging the push/pull Volume knob injects an 8-bit sound sound into your playing. It’s wholly unnecessary, but also genius.

They both also get a unique Pocket Monsters 30th neck plate, complete with a little Pikachu sprite.

The timing of the launch is miraculous, too, coming just days after Ibanez partnered up with another long-standing Japanese anime and game franchise, Dragon Ball Z. It’s been a hell of a week of guitar playing nerds – this writer included.

What I will say is that it feels like Fender Japan has entered the design phase with a little more nuance and imagination. Still, it continues a run of interesting collabs from Fender, including a Game of Thrones guitar launched with a star-studded cast, a Monster Hunter tie-in, and even one with Godzilla.

Each guitar ships with a hard case, Pokémon guitar pick set, and certificate of authenticity.

But there is a slight, er, catch: the guitars are so limited, and are probably going to be so damn popular, that the guitars are only available by lottery.

Applications for the lottery sale will be accepted at the Pokémon Center Online, which you can visit for more info.

Matthieu Lucas, the founder of Parisian artist guitar boutique Matt’s Guitar Shop, has built quite a reputation for his Indiana Jones-esque approach to excavating long-lost guitars.

Earlier this year, Lucas unearthed Eric Clapton’s ‘Summersburst’ Les Paul after it had been lost for 60 years. Now, another legendary guitar is set to hit the showroom in Paris and stages worldwide – Pete Townshend’s 1969 Gibson SG Special.

The Cherry Red guitar with two P90 pickups is forever etched into rock history after it was smashed onstage at a particularly chaotic show at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, on June 7, 1970.

Binky Philips, a superfan who had already been to 16 Who shows, was sitting outside the venue for days, hoping to nab a ticket. Turns out, he ended up nabbing more than he initially bargained for.

“Pete Townshend was familiar with Binky's face from seeing him coming to the shows,” Lucas tells Guitar World in an exclusive interview.

“During the show, Pete was soloing and was so much in fusion with his guitar that he didn't see that he was closer than he expected to his Hiwatt amps. He touched the amps and went way off-tune during a cover of Shakin’ All Over, which, of course, made him angry. This resulted in Pete throwing the guitar on the floor.

“A tech tried to grab the SG quickly to give Pete his spare guitar, but Pete didn't want his tech to grab the guitar and walked in his direction like, ‘No! Don't take this away!’ He walked on the guitar by accident, and that's how the headstock cracked. Funnily enough, this guitar was not destroyed intentionally that day.

“Binky and Pete made eye contact when the SG's headstock got cracked. Pete looked at Binky and said, ‘You ready?!’ That was Binky's moment.”

Philips ended up catching the guitar on the night of his 17th Who concert. As a true superfan, Binky sought to fix the guitar, so he took it to Charles LoBue – a popular luthier who also worked for Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley at the time. He managed to salvage it by grafting a new piece of wood onto the headstock, making the guitar playable again.

Lo and behold, Philips kept it for 56 years – until Lucas got in touch with a private collector who happened to know the Who superfan.

Lucas explains, “That guitar was Binky's pride and joy – his connection to his guitar hero. Now, it's time to be played again and enjoyed by somebody else. While it's with us, it's gonna be played by every musician who wants to play this on stage.”

So how did Lucas know that the SG is the real deal? “Well, you can tell this is the very strap Pete used during that show, and the story is well-known if you are a Pete fan,” he replies.

“Pete and Binky also stayed in touch over the years, and Pete knows about this very guitar. There are pics of Pete playing this guitar, and it's been featured in many exhibitions in the US over the last 15 years or so.

“I can tell you one thing: this guitar sounds like him. I had the chance to play this guitar through one of Pete's original Hiwatts and cranked the volume up to 10; this was the sound, the dynamic was there, the magic was there… This is without a doubt the most iconic guitar associated with Pete.”

Lucas’ long-standing ethos is that legendary guitars aren’t museum pieces, but need to be played again. So if you happen to be in Paris and fancy playing Pete's guitar... well, the door's open.

“Everybody is welcome to come to the shop and play it,” he insists. “Craig Ross [Lenny Kravitz’s guitarist] was supposed to play it in Central Park in September, but Mother Nature had other plans, and the show was cancelled due to wind and rain. I’m sure Craig can’t wait to play that guitar.

“Also, any younger bands who are inspired by Pete should reach out to me. The guitar is legendary, but it has to be played!”

Earlier this year, Lucas took Guitar World beyond the veil of the collectible guitar market.

With the anticipation of Black Friday guitar deals in full swing, there’s a whole bunch of retailers starting their sales unseasonably early – great news if you can’t wait to steal a deal on some awesome guitar gear. Head over to Guitar Center now, and you'll find up to 30% off a massive range of big-name brands in the Pre-Black Friday Sale.

This epic early Black Friday offer includes up to 20% off guitars, 40% off select pedals and effects, and Guitar Center's lowest prices of the year on popular gear.

This deal lasts only until Wednesday, November 11th, so you’ve got a short time to grab something! That said, the sale will likely be replaced by the official Black Friday bargains soon after.

As you can imagine, this sale includes a wealth of discounted goodies. So, to make this a little easier, we've hand-selected a few of our favorites.

First up is the Epiphone Les Paul Custom Widow, down from $799 to $679. If you like your Les Pauls a little less traditional and a bit more ‘metal’, this amazing-looking Epiphone Les Paul Custom Widow might just take your fancy. It’s got a nice $120 sale discount and is exclusively available at Guitar Center, so you won’t find this finish anywhere else.

Dual ProBucker humbuckers deliver searing rock and metal tones, and it has CTS potentiometers like a more expensive Gibson model. Grover tuners and a Locktone tune-o-matic bridge make up a rock-solid hardware offering, making this a great guitar for gigging on a budget.

Next, I've found a generous $130 off the IK Multimedia ToneX. In our glowing review, we said, "There is no shortage of applications for the TONEX. It's a no-brainer for any player who wants to take a digital version of their rig to their gig in a compact, portable, and affordable format. But it's a similarly practical tool for the home or studio."

Lastly, I've spotted $100 off one of my favorite beginner acoustic guitars, the stunning D'Angelico Premier Gramercy CS. The D’Angelico Premier Gramercy is, undoubtedly, a fine guitar for the money. It is well-made, sounds great, and looks interesting. Some players may like the tone on the bright side, but it can't be denied that the Premier Gramercy offers outstanding value for players of all levels and is even better at only $299!

Now, there's a lot more on offer in this sale, so I highly recommend browsing the full offering. You have until November 11 to get involved.

Boss is expanding its celebrated Katana range of amp modelers with the Katana-25 – a compact practice amp that fills the last remaining gap in the Katana lineup.

The 25W combo is designed for home practice, and sits comfortably between the giggable 50W Katana-50 and the desktop Katana-Mini. It's an edition of the Katana platform many have been waiting for.

It has six amp characters and over 60 onboard effects, with Boss promising “studio-grade sounds” from its 8” speaker and open-back design.

Tube Logic tech is central to the Katana-25, promising authentic tube amp sound and dynamic responsiveness. Its speaker and the 25W reactive analog power section tag team for a “highly interactive playing experience” that belies its lack of tubes.

Of its amp sounds, one is tailored specifically for electro-acoustic instruments, while the others cover genres including pop, blues, country, rock and high-gain metal.

Its 60-plus effects library brings forth familiar Boss pedal magic, with the Katana-25 able to run five simultaneously. In-depth sound editing is available via the Boss Tone Studio app and software.

The amp ships with 20 pre-made presets and a further empty 10 slots for players to fill. There's also a tap tempo button for delays, and a built in tuner, to help make the amp suitable for practice.

Further still, a Power Control helps players enjoy the sound of a blaring amp at lower volumes, with full- and half-watt modes available. That helps keep relations sweet with housemates and neighbors alike.

Bluetooth connectivity makes it easier to jam along to songs, and sees the Katana-25 double up as a home audio speaker. A nifty Session feature takes this concept further, letting players browse and play YouTube content in the app, and set key frames within the videos that automatically signal tone changes.

So, if you want to play along to a track with clean guitars in the verses, and full on distortion in the choruses, the Session feature helps users focus on playing over tap dancing.

It’s also compatible with external (and sold separately) Boss switches, including the EV-1-WL Wireless Expression Pedal.

“With its friendly interface, versatile tones, and integrated practice tools, Katana-25 is an easy choice for players looking to explore their sound and discover their unique voice,” says Boss.

Priced at $199.99, the Katana-25 joins a family of amps that includes other solid practice tools like the Katana-50, Mini-X, and Katana-500 bass head.

See Boss for more.

Eastman Guitars’ director of Fretted Instruments, Pepijn ’t Hart, tells us more about the company, the Kauffmann series, and some of Eastman’s principal characters – and explains how a lot of the far-out design ideas come from chief designer Otto D’Ambrosio.

Can you fill the readers in on Albert Kauffmann and Otto D’Ambrosio – what’s their individual involvement?

Otto D’Ambrosio is our chief designer and the one who designed and builds the D’Ambrosio series guitars in our Los Angeles custom shop. The story is that we were reaching out to Albert Kauffmann as we had a D’Ambrosio guitar with a chip out of the lacquer – it was nitrocellulose – and we asked him if he could repair the chip.

His answer was, ‘I can’t make it better, but I’d love to make it worse.’ Famous words that led to a range of Eastman Kauffmann series guitars.

There are three body shapes, just like the D’Ambrosio and FullerTone ranges: SC (Single Cut), DC (Double Cut) and Offset, which is the Offset version of the SC. With Albert we wanted to create a real vintage vibe, based on this newly designed guitar.

Mainly due to his colours and his Time Travel treatment speciality, these guitars turned out better than we ever could have expected. It’s really special stuff.

Why the choice of Charlie Christian pickup? Of course it’s a unit we find on the original Gibson ES-150 and solidbodies used by players such as Danny Gatton, Julian Lage, Bill Frisell and, of course, John Lennon.

Well, it’s actually more because for each body shape we like to offer three pickup options. These are all Lollar pickups, and with the SC it’s these: SC Vintage, Lollar Royal T in the neck and Special T in the bridge; SC Classic [as reviewed this issue], Lollar Charlie Christian in the neck and Special T in the bridge; and SC Deluxe, Lollar Lollartron in the neck and Special T in the bridge.

The very first Fender prototypes and the short first run of actual guitars were pine, like the SC Classic. Was that the inspiration here, or was it for weight and sound?

Well, yes, it was for weight and sound but also because of the fact that the trees grow fast. So, to me, this is the ultimate wood for bolt-on guitars. It’s so resonant.

Eastman seems to have manufacturing facilities all over the place. Where exactly are the guitars made now?

Eastman builds guitars in China, where the majority of our instruments are built; in Pomona, California, where Otto’s workshop is located; and in Holland, where Albert Kauffmann and his team are building the Kauffmann series. Albert Kauffmann’s workshop is in the Eastman Europe headquarters in Mijdrecht in Holland.

Is there a reason the pickguard is set into the body? Or was it simply a nice thing to do – it certainly lets the neck sit lower into the body.

This is one of the brilliant things that Otto came up with. When Otto and I are designing the guitars, he does all the ‘out of this world’ stuff and this is a great example.

The Otto D’Ambrosio-designed FullerTone neck is wittily named, but it bears no relation to Fender’s bolt-on system.

And that’s why we won’t do a Fender-style neck joint. Otto’s neck is the evolution of what Leo brilliantly did – but adding more tone, more sustain and more stability. With 30 per cent more contact with the body it is, in a way, the first ‘long neck tenon bolt-on’, and it uses only two bolts. It’s one of the brilliant things of the FullerTone neck; it sits as smooth as can be.

It’s unusual to find a tilted-back (pitched) headstock on a bolt-on guitar…

Well, the unique FullerTone neck joint allows us to set the neck low in the body. So unlike most bolt-ons this allows us to add a slight back-pitch or tilt to give the correct string clearance over the body and pickups, and to the bridge.

When Otto and I are designing guitars we try to add as many beautiful elements as we can, without ever compromising the ergonomics or playability of the guitar. We use Gotoh tuners with the HAP-M mechanism, so we don’t need a string tree.

We’re presuming the colour of our review guitar is a nod to the debut album and Butterscotch Telecaster of a certain legendary artist?

The instrument you are reviewing is kindly supplied by Mak’s guitars in London. It’s a light relic, ‘Time Travel’, and the reason why we call the colour Asbury Butterscotch is indeed a hats-off to the colour of the Telecaster – actually, it was originally an Esquire – played by The Boss – Greetings From Asbury Park.

• Find out more at Eastman Guitars
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

What is it?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Specs

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

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

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

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

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

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

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★☆

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

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

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

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

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

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

Verdict

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

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

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

Also try

Hands-on videos

Epiphone

Andertons

Lonnie Mack’s guitar rig fetched over half a million dollars at a guitar auction that took place on October 15. The esteemed collection included Mack’s workhorse Flying V, dubbed “Number 7” because it was the seventh off the assembly line when Gibson first introduced the model.

The 1958 Flying V opened at $300,000 at Heritage Auctions’ Vintage Guitars and Musical Instruments Signature Auction. It ended up selling for $550,000, alongside his Magnatone Custom 440 combo amplifier and custom leather stage strap.

Just two days ago, Derek Trucks wielded the Flying V at a Tedeschi Trucks Band show at the Chicago Theatre. The new owner was revealed to be Bobby Tseitlin, the man behind Family Guitars – the “living, breathing guitar collection based in Chicago” with guitars that “continue to be played, heard, and experienced the way they were meant to be.”

Trucks laid down a blistering, improvisational solo that paid homage to Lonnie Mack’s unique style.

While Mack never quite became a household name, his ability to combine country- and blues-style fingerpicking influenced generations of players. This guitar is as influential as his playing, having featured on concert stages, television broadcasts, recording sessions, and album covers throughout his career.

The modifications to “Number 7” continue to add to its lore. Mack commissioned a guitar shop owner to add a Bigsby tremolo arm, which required a steel bar fitted between the Flying V’s two “wings” to brace the device.

He made such extensive use of it that guitarists began calling it a “whammy bar,” in reference to his debut single and album. As we all know, the nickname well and truly stuck.

And if that wasn’t enough, the guitar was also played through Stevie Ray Vaughan’s rig. The two guitarists ended up working together on 1985's Strike Like Lightning, Mack’s comeback record.

In addition to this historic Flying V, Trucks played another Tseitlin purchase earlier this year – Jerry Garcia’s iconic “Tiger” – just one day after it went under the hammer for an astounding $11.56 million.

“It’s super-unique. It weighs about 14lbs, which is about twice what my guitar weighs, but it’s super-articulate,” Trucks said in an interview with Howard Stern when talking about “Tiger”.

“There’s a unique sound. It was very Jerry Garcia-sounding – like, you play it, and you know it was his. It was a very 1980s instrument.”

Epiphone has launched the latest evolution of its Prophecy Series, unveiling what it calls some of the most advanced Epiphone guitars it has ever produced.

The company is debuting a wealth of new appointments here. We have the first-ever Epiphone Victory, the first Epiphone baritone Les Paul in more than two decades, a new HyperGlide neck profile, custom-voiced Fishman Fluence humbuckers, and more.

The series is “a ground-up reimagining of its most performance-focused electric guitars”, arriving after Epiphone's Futura Series also brought big changes to its builds. This continues that hot streak.

Comprising a Prophecy Victory FR, 27” Les Paul Baritone, 25.5” Les Paul, SG, and Flying V, each model gets a thermally aged, graphite-reinforced one-piece maple neck with that fast-playing HyperGlide profile.

“Richard Akers [Senior Product Development Engineer] and I really wanted to create the most comfortable and fastest-playing guitar neck we've ever offered, and HyperGlide is the result,” Aljon Go, Epiphone’s Product Development Manager, explains to Guitar World.

“The profile is based on a performance-oriented D shape and features a satin finish on the back, so it feels incredibly smooth and effortless when you play,” Go adds.

The neck profile is paired with a bound, 10”-14” radius ebony fretboard, 24 stainless steel frets, and to prove these guitars aren’t living in the past, they’re equipped with Fishman Fluence humbuckers.

But these aren’t your standard Fluence ‘buckers – these are custom-voiced and developed exclusively for the series. A three-voice system promises to provide modern, high-output active humbucker tones, vintage-inspired PAF flavors, and single-coils in one set.

Notably, they’re mounted using DAPS (Dual-Axis Pickup Stabilization), which is a proprietary, body-anchored system. The idea is that it keeps the pickups parallel to the strings while allowing players to make precise height adjustments. The design also eliminates conventional pickup mounting rings for a sleeker look.

“For us, it wasn't about creating pickups that only do one thing well,” Go says. “We wanted a pickup system that lets players move between styles and applications without compromise.”

Elsewhere, there are highly figured flame maple veneers, Grover tuners, and some model-specific bridge options. The Victory rocks a Floyd Rose 1000 series tremolo, while the others offer a through-body, Frequensator-inspired tailpiece design and a LockTone Modern bridge.

There are a range of finishes available, including Orchid Bloom Satin, Obsidian Storm Satin, Crimson Fog Satin, Forest Phantom Satin, and Aqua Smoke Satin.

“The Prophecy Series is built for players who expect more from their instruments,” says Aljon Go, Product Development Manager at Epiphone. “We’ve built a lineup that's fast, versatile, reliable, and built for today's players.”

It’s certainly a bold rebuild. The arrival of the Les Paul Baritone alone is cause for celebration. Fans have been asking for one for years.

“A lot of what we do starts with listening to players,” notes Lewis McKinney III, Marketing Manager at Epiphone. “The baritone Les Paul is something we’ve heard requested repeatedly. We’re excited that players who've been asking for its return can finally get their hands on one. It's been over twenty years.”

Priced around $1,499 each, the refresh should see the guitars competing with other big-brand metal guitars in a market currently dominated by the likes of Ibanez and Jackson. And maybe convert a few players in the process...

See Epiphone for more.

Positive Grid has given its flagship FRFR speaker a reboot with the Spark CAB 2 – which potentially resolves the only drawback of the original.

On paper, the powered Full Range, Flat Response speaker – designed to amplify digital amp modelers without extra coloration – still serves up 140 watts of power, offering “ample headroom and room-filling sound”.

So, what’s new? Well, the lightweight cab has had its acoustics completely retuned for better detail and clarity, while the low-end has been tightened so it can handle extended-range guitars and bass with ease. The cab’s conversion stage and gain staging have also been revised for a cleaner sound.

It’s a major upgrade. In our review of the original, the only thing the Spark CAB lost marks on was the fact it was a little bass-heavy. With a new setup and a refashioned character, this could go a long way to addressing that.

At its heart is a 10” woofer and two 1” tweeters. Connectivity-wise, it has been designed with nearly every type of Spark offering in mind – from the excellent new Spark Pedal to the portable Spark Edge – via dedicated Spark inputs.

There are also combo XLR/TRS inputs and a balanced XLR output, ensuring the party isn’t Spark exclusive. The XLR output can also feed into a PA, and independent volume controls allow player and audience levels to be individually set.

Naturally, there’s a USB-C port, which is handy not just for updates, but it can also power a player’s Spark. DC output is there for powering the Spark 40 and Spark 2.

The Positive Grid Spark CAB 2 is available in Black and Pearl colorways, priced at $399 apiece.

Check out Positive Grid for more.

Sonic Youth bassist-turned-rule-ignoring guitarist Kim Gordon has been honored with a stunning new signature Fender Jazzmaster.

After 20 years in the highly experimental band, Gordon has since enjoyed a fruitful solo career, cementing herself as a standout innovator in the alt-rock scene. More often than not, she’s done it with a Jazzmaster in her hand.

Here, she’s opted for an Olympic White alder body and modern C-profile maple neck for a blend of classic tonewoods and contemporary playability. Its 22-fret rosewood fingerboard is crafted with a 9.5” radius, rolled edges and block pearloid inlays, and plenty of firepower with its pickups.

You'll find a Seymour Duncan JB TB-4 humbucker in the bridge, complete with zebra-style bobbins, and a chiming Player Series Alnico V P-90 pickup in the neck. It’s clear Gordon wants to cover all bases here.

Hardware specs include a Jazzmaster bridge with floating tremolo further bolstered by Mustang saddles, which will please offset fans.

As a fierce Jazzmaster loyalist, multiple Grammy nominee, and an adored, rule-breaking musician, a Kim Gordon Jazzmaster makes for a formidable addition to Fender's artist lineup.

“Kim has always used the guitar as a tool for exploration rather than following convention, and that spirit is at the heart of this Jazzmaster,” believes Fender Chief Product Officer, Justin Norvell.

“Her impact reaches far beyond any one genre, with a creative practice that has shaped music, art and culture. We wanted to capture that sense of individuality and experimentation while staying true to the character and feel of the Jazzmaster.”

Despite a 20-year stay in Sonic Youth, Gordon never saw herself as a bassist, and tells Fender she fell in love with the guitar as a tool for weird noise-making. “Something about playing dissonant music becomes so freeing,” she says.

In a more recent interview with Guitar World, Gordon teased the development of her signature Jazzmaster, saying, “My amazing guitar tech, Salar Rajabnik, he helped me through the process and did a lot of research. The signature model took a really long time. We finally got Fender to use Seymour Duncan pickups.”

The limited edition Fender Kim Gordon Jazzmaster is available for $1,099.99/£1,449/€1,699.

Visit Fender for more.

It’s been a busy few weeks for Fender, having reunited with Mark Hoppus for a quirky new signature bass and unveiled the next-generation American Professional range.

JHS Pedals founder has built some crazy pedals, often based on classic or cult favorite designs. The infamous Flerb setting of the EHX Holy Grail has been one that fans have been dying for him to turn his hands to, and now he’s done just that… almost.

According to company founder Josh Scott, the JHS Pedals comments sections, its Discord channel and email boxes are all unanimous in their requests: “Josh,” they say, “build us a Flerb.”

But here, Scott doesn’t want to be a copyist, so he’s made the JHS Pedals Pherb instead – a “dark, moody lo-fi reverb”.

The term Flerb is an amalgamation of flanger and reverb, which is what you get with that quirky Holy Grail setting. But Scott has gone slightly off-piste, this time combining phaser and flanger.

Impressively, the whole pedal was turned around in 35 hours, making it the quickest pedal to go from dream to reality in JHS history. Its very simple-but-effective core is largely to thank for that.

Of its three controls, Mix dials in the amount of phaser and reverb (which are tied to the same dial), Speed is for just the phaser alone, and Length controls reverb decay and pre-delay.

There’s also a Break mode, which, JHS says, “takes the whole signal – reverb, phaser and your dry guitar – and destroys it.”

In literal terms, it adds a bit crusher with analog-style clipping before it hits the twin effects. To our ears, it produces an altogether more mangled sound, ideal for those wanting to sprinkle a little more chaos and carnage into the mix.

Finally, there are two other key perks. With the Break switch turned off the phaser can actually be turned off completely via the Speed switch, and turning the Mix dial down and engaging the Break mode finds the bit crusher operating solo.

“You asked us for Flerb, says Josh Scott. “You're getting Pherb.”

Honestly, it seems a really cool compromise, and puts a nice spin on an effect that has, over the years, become half-adored, and half-meme. Scott is on the latter side.

“Flanger inside of a reverb just makes my skin itch,” he notes. “Phaser inside of a reverb however, is a different story, and that's the one nobody ever built. So I'm giving you the thing that should have been and never was.

“The reverb is dark, moody and lo-fi on purpose,” he adds. “Not a plate. Not a hall. It's chorused and chunky, and at longer decay times it slightly pulses.

“The phaser is a four-stage vintage style phase shifter (think MXR Phase 90) with the feedback left off and the notch sweeps moved up through the frequency spectrum, so they stay out of the way of the reverb's low mids.”

The JHS Pedals Pherb can be yours today for $99.99.

See JHS Pedals for more.

Scott, meanwhile, is sticking some weird and wonderful items from his personal gear collection onto Reverb, after cramming two of its best-loved overdrive pedals into one ultimate stompbox.

Ibanez has teamed up with long-running anime series Dragon Ball Z for a nerd-friendly collection of guitars, a Tube Screamer and accessories.

The martial arts fantasy show ran for seven years and 291 episodes between 1989 and 1996, and has been dubbed in 81 countries across the globe, cementing it as a huge part of Japan’s media heritage.

Ibanez, then, is celebrating its shared Japanese heritage with a surprise collaboration that has some notable players fawning.

The collection comprises two electric guitars – an eye-catching RG with a Son Goku motif, and a Super Saiyan Son Goku-inspired S-type – a Vegeta-emblazoned bass, and a classic Tube Screamer TS808 that gets a more subtle Dragonball theming.

The RG gets a bold, bright orange colorway and is spec'd with a gold Edge Tremolo and Gotoh tuners, a Super Wizard Neck for rapid fire shredding, and a HSH pickup configuration.

There’s a lovely Son Goku design on its black pickguard, and it ships in a hardcase filled with other goodies, including a strap, badges, and a certificate of authenticity.

Elsewhere, the S-Type features full body artwork inspired by Son Goku’s awakening to Super Saiyan, and is simply spec'd with a single humbucker featuring a dragon etching and a T106 hardtail bridge.

But the bass is arguably the prettiest of the trio. It too is geared for easy playing with a single humbucker, slim neck, and a B10 bridge.

Beyond that, there’s a concert-sized ukulele with father and son Goku and Gohan artwork, a piccolo guitar (there simply had to be, given there’s a character of the same name), a soft gig bag, guitar strap, and picks set.

There’s a bunch of t-shirts available, too, but this writer’s dreams of a Freezer-coded seven-string have sadly been dashed.

Yet the pick of the punch might just be the Tube Screamer, which rebrands itself with the Dragon Ball Z font, gets a single-star Dragon Ball led light, and some snazzy side decals. Stevie Ray Vaughan would have lost his mind.

It’s a shrewd move from Ibanez, too, given the huge crossover between the two worlds. The comments on its Instagram posts announcing the collection proves that.

Modenr fusion virtuosos Manuel Gardner Fernanes and Andrew Baena have both expressed their sheer excitement for the tie-in, with Clayton King gushing that “the DBZ RG550 is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.” Jack Gardiner is even considering switching to bass given his love of Vegeta.

And in true Dragon Ball Z fashion, the announcement ends on a cliffhanger. We’ll have to wait a little longer to learn more, with the collection set to roll out to distributors in 2027.

There will be plenty hoping for some more high-end offerings with stage-ready specs though, we’re sure.

File it under pleasantly unexpected collabs, which have been a theme in recent months, with PRS parking up with Land Rover, Fender getting swish with British designer Paul Smith, and, perhaps most shockingly, Joe Bonamassa and a digital amp.

Fender has denied rumors of layoffs in its California factory after speculation emerged online over the weekend.

Earlier this month Fender issued a WARN Act notice for the ‘temporary closure’ of its manufacturing facility at 311 Cessna Circle, Corona.

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act is a federal labor law that is used to give employees advance warning before a plant closure or mass layoff.

The Fender WARN was issued to 533 employees on October 15, and confirmed a temporary closure would be put into effect on December 14, 2026.

Owing to the nature of WARN notices, its issuance has prompted rumors that Fender was planning for mass layoffs. Now Fender has denied that is the case and maintains it is part of the company’s annual temporary closure plans over the holiday period.

“The notice relates to Fender’s standard holiday inventory quiet weeks, scheduled for December 14 through December 31,” a Fender representative told Guitar World.

“During this period, employees may have the option to work. The notice is simply intended to provide employees with advance visibility so they can plan accordingly.

“There are no layoffs associated with these quiet weeks, and employees will return in the new year.”

Confusion appears to have emerged over the use of a WARN Notice to announce a temporary closure over the holiday period. Online commenters noted that similar notices had not been issued by Fender in previous years.

To that end, Fender says the use of a WARN is reflective of a new formalized approach to notify employees of holiday closures, as opposed to any intentions regarding layoffs.

“Our year-end shutdowns are part of our normal annual operations and are not a new practice,” Fender continues. “As part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen internal processes and improve transparency, we have taken an evolved and more proactive approach to formal notifications this year.

“There has been no fundamental change in our annual operating practices.”

Essentially, Fender maintains that, while the notification method is different, the overall outcome is the same.

End of year company shutdowns are commonplace. In manufacturing facilities, it allows for widespread maintenance, re-tooling of machinery, and inventory audits.

Of course, Fender’s legal activity has been placed under particular scrutiny this year, after it hit 60 firms – PRS, Yamaha, Thomann, and Amazon among them – with cease and desist letters, in a bid to secure control of the rights of the Stratocaster body shape.

Corporate strategy aside, Fender has had a busy October, launching the overhauled American Professional range – which marked the first step towards resetting the Fender electric guitar lineups.

The results are in from the Rick Nielsen guitar auction, and in a surprise to no-one, his five-neck Hamer fetched the highest price.

The Cheap Trick guitarist and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has never been tame when it comes to his taste in guitars. That meant the auction block was treated to some highly unusual builds, after he decided it was time to clean up shop.

The Hamer, which was originally intended to have a whopping six necks, almost doubled its pre-auction estimate of $175,000, selling for $313,600.

Featuring 12-string, fretless, and Strat and Les Paul Junior-styled necks, the guitar has understandably become a totem of Nielsen’s musical legacy – even if he once told Guitar Player the finished product was actually quite conservative.

Speaking previously to Guitar World, the auction appraiser, Mike Adams, said the five-neck wasn’t originally going to be sold off.

“It took a lot of negotiation to include it,” he said. “But we really felt that we needed that crown jewel.”

Another Hamer, a stage-played 1975 Explorer-styled model, featuring a 1970s Gibson humbucker in the neck and a DiMarzio in the bridge, sold for $256,000.

His One on One Hamer, a 1982 model built for the record of the same name, fetched $44,800, edging out his 2007 Checkerboard Hamer, which went for $38,400 for the final place on the podium.

Elsewhere, the 1958 Gibson Custom Shop Explorer which he wielded during his 2016 induction into the Hall of Fame sold for $22,400. It fell just short of the $25,600 his Sunburst Les Paul XPL achieved, making it the most expensive Gibson in his collection.

Other notable picks include $16,00 for a 1966 Telecaster, $12,800 for a 1959 Gretsch Duo Jet, and the S-type Hamer Nielsen played in Cheap Tricks Never Had A Lot To Lose music video. In the clip, he puts his arm through the large circular hole in its body and spins it around because... well, this is Rick Nielsen.

His First Act Custom Shop “Mega Knob” guitar, however, which has six lipstick pickups and 12 control knobs, didn't fetch a mega price. Still, it surpassed its $6,000, going for $8,960.

His 1980 Gibson V2 Flying V, which features upside down love heart-shaped pickups, was bang on its estimate, selling for $7,680.

The auction took place at Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum at the Historic Nashville Municipal Auditorium, with a portion of the money raised going to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The hospital is dedicated to helping children with cancer, and conducting research which has led to life-saving breakthroughs.

Head over to Julien's Auctions to browse the final lot.

In the autumn of 1987 George Michael’s first solo album was ready for release and a video shoot was scheduled to promote the single Faith. Breaking away from Wham!’s wholesome boy band image and reinventing himself as a solo artist meant that George needed a new look.

By the late ’80s, New Wave and the New Romantics had come and gone, and the damply dark joys of Twin Peaks had yet to usher in the grunge era.

Whimsical Levi’s adverts and blockbuster movies like Back To The Future typified the airbrushed and colour-saturated 1950s nostalgia then pervading popular culture. George’s plans to revamp his image with torn stonewashed jeans, a black leather biker jacket, aviator shades and a Wurlitzer jukebox made sense – but one vital ingredient was missing.

Shortly before the video shoot George was exploring the Melrose district of Los Angeles when he wandered into a pawn shop and noticed a Gretsch Synchromatic archtop hanging on the wall.

Although best known as a singer and songwriter, George could play guitar and bass, but he really bought the Gretsch because he knew it would look perfect in the video.

Sync’ing Up

Gretsch launched its line of Synchromatic models around 1939, highlighting “seven points of supremacy”, but Synchromatics never achieved the same kudos as Gibsons, Epiphones, Strombergs or D’Angelicos. All across the range the styling was eye-catching, with a 17-inch wide body, cat’s eye soundholes and a distinctive floating bridge with ‘stairstep’ extensions.

The Synchromatic models also had an asymmetrical neck profile and a 26-inch scale length. The four iterations to choose from were the 400, 300, 200 and bottom of the range 160. George’s Synchromatic is a Model 160 with pearl block inlays on a Brazilian rosewood fretboard, with single-ply celluloid binding and chrome-plated hardware.

Gretsch made the Model 160 in two batches with the first running between 1939 and 1943, and the second from 1947 to 1951. The second-generation 160s had a flat-sided headstock shape, rather than the earlier ‘lightbulb’ profile, and gold hardware. Although we can’t pinpoint the exact year, we can say that George’s Gretsch came from the first run.

Put To The Sword

In October 2026 George’s Gretsch is due to be auctioned by Sworders as part of Faith & Fame: A Personal George Michael Collection. Chairman and head of Art & Antiques, Guy Schooling, describes how Sworders became involved:

“The vendors had contacted a leading London auction room and spoken to them about the guitar,” he says, “but when a serial number couldn’t be found, they said they weren’t interested. [Our contact] went to meet the vendors and when she saw the guitar she was completely blown away and asked if we could help.”

George had gifted the Gretsch to his personal assistant, Siobhan Bailey, who worked with him for over 20 years and who died suddenly from natural causes in 2014.

Guy explains how the Gretsch ended up looking a bit sorry for itself: “Following [Siobhan’s] untimely and unfortunate death, [her partner] was quite traumatised and he put the guitar and all the memorabilia that comprises our forthcoming sale into his garage. [He was later] persuaded that these things couldn’t stay in the garage forever because they would have deteriorated.”

It is known that George owned at least two other Gretsch Synchromatic models, and they were used as stage props when he played live. We asked Guy how Sworders was able to establish that this guitar is the actual one featured in the Faith video.

“The vendors had always believed it to be the instrument that was in the video. The fact that it had belonged to Siobhan was a great starting point. We then looked at the condition and idiosyncrasies of this guitar and they exactly match those in the video.

“Some of the plastic trim around the body was missing in the video and is still missing. We were also able to match up marks and cracks in the body, and that’s why it was so important not to over-restore the guitar.

“It’s taken about three years to get to this point,” Guy adds, “but there’s no question in our mind that it’s the actual guitar, and since George’s family agrees, it won’t ever be contested. You could say it is now a popular music icon, and because George’s leather jacket sold earlier this year for £176,400, our auction estimate is £60,000 to £120,000.”

• This guitar is set to be auctioned on 29 October as part of Faith & Fame: A Personal George Michael Collection at Sworders London
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.
  

When you’re starting your guitar or bass playing journey, making sure you choose the right instrument is the most important first step to take. Especially when you’re on a budget, picking out a guitar that will help you learn your first riffs and licks – and not one that will put you off playing for good – is a delicate juggling act.

And it can be overwhelming, given the multitude of options on the market. There are so many shapes, sizes, scale lengths and specs to choose from. How do you know what’s right for you?

If you’re a beginner guitarist or bassist, or looking to help a friend or family member get started, Ibanez’s GIO Series has all bases covered.

Offering Ibanez quality and playability in a more affordable package, the GIO RG electrics start from just £229 and offer a range of colors, aesthetics and setups.

The GIO RG guitars offer a more metal-friendly body shape that will make upper fret access a breeze, with comfortable maple necks for navigating up and down the fretboard.

There are dual humbuckers and HSH options on tap, as well as hardtail and tremolo models, catering to both sets of players who prioritise tuning stability, and those wanting to experiment with a whammy bar.

Classic Ibanez appointments such as Sharktooth inlays are also available, as are a range of finishes and top woods. Flamed and quilted maple, as well as Poplar Burl, are joined by standard tops that come in Deep Dusk Burst Flat, Walnut Flat, Aqua Burst and more.

The GIO RG bass range follows the same precedent, starting from just £209. Each and every RG GIO instrument undergoes a rigorous QC process so players know the guitar is going to arrive in great condition and ready to play.

To find out more, head over to Ibanez.

Back in April, it was announced that Traffic founder Dave Mason – the man who famously penned late-’60s classics like Hole in My Shoe, Feelin’ Alright? and Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush – had passed away at age 79.

There was, however, a lot more to his career than his work in Traffic, given his collaborations with some of the biggest names in business, from Paul McCartney and George Harrison to Eric Clapton and David Crosby.

He was with Jimi Hendrix, Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell at Olympic Studios in London on January 21, 1968, for example, and ended up playing 12-string on All Along the Watchtower, as well as providing backing vocals for Crosstown Traffic at another session for the trio’s third and final studio album, Electric Ladyland.

A few months later he was in the same studio adding shehnai and percussion to Rolling Stones hit Street Fighting Man. He even had Michael Jackson guest on his 1980 solo track Save Me and became an official member of Fleetwood Mac for a brief spell in the ’90s.

Then there’s his work as a guitar builder, having co-founded RKS Guitars in 2004 with industrial designer Ravi Sawhney to focus on electric guitars made out of sustainable materials. The modular designs feature a neck-through wooden core integrated with conductive metal ribs and interchangeable body shells made from Tenite, a cellulose-based plastic, to reduce tonewood by 66 to 80 percent.

The company won awards for its cutting-edge designs, living up to its promise of reducing deforestation while also increasing personalization, with Bloomberg Businessweek hailing their work as “the most radical change in electric guitars in almost 50 years.”

These instruments ended up in the hands of household names like Keith Richards, who once referred to his guitar as “a fucking impressive device,” as well as Mick Jagger, Ron Wood, Don Felder, Johnny Depp and more.

In this interview, Mason’s business partner, Ravi Sawhney, pays homage to a man whose list of achievements cannot be overstated.

You worked very closely with Dave. He must have had no shortage of stories.

He collaborated with so many notable musicians and was so respected by those around him. There were so many stories. He and Jimi used to hold court every Sunday at an Indian restaurant in London. Whoever was in town would show up. It didn’t matter who you were – every Sunday you could go hang out with them. Sometimes the Beatles would turn up, sometimes Led Zeppelin, sometimes Clapton.

What did he tell you about playing 12-string on All Along the Watchtower?

I’ve heard different versions, but from what Dave told me, there was a party being thrown by a friend who had an advance copy of Bob Dylan’s John Wesley Harding album. Jimi was there, and when he heard All Along the Watchtower, he flipped, saying, “Come on, Dave, let’s go record this!” They went to the studio not long after.

It was all spontaneous. Dave played 12-string and Jimi and the band did their parts, but that’s why Dave continued to perform that song live. He and Jimi were joined at the hip. They were together every day, which is why he was at all of Jimi’s recording sessions whether he was playing or not.

You must have been excited to start a guitar brand with him in 2004.

Dave is the only musician I know who did something beyond his music in this way. All the credit to Les Paul and Paul Reed Smith, but they were never inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for creating songs that got played all over the world, or got to work with Jimi or George Harrison.

Dave actually taught George slide and, in return, George taught Dave sitar, which you can hear on some Traffic recordings. He was a big part of music history. He didn’t have to do this company with me. He just wanted to carry on innovating.

What was he like to work with?

He was a big personality in music, but with design there was no ego, just pure focus. We had this philosophy of bringing everyone in. It didn’t matter where the great ideas came from. He’d come into the office three times a week to make sure everything was on track. If anything was wrong he’d point it out.

Even if we told him our machines were technically perfect, he’d know when a neck was a 10 thousandth of an inch too thick – the size of three hairs stacked on top of each other! I correlated that to surgical levels of precision.

After years of prototyping, we evolved a novelty guitar into a real player’s guitar. At NAMM, musicians working for other brands would come over to our booth on their breaks. Coming up with our own sustainable line of open-ended hollow-body instruments was a huge boost to Dave’s career.

What’s the future looking like for RKS Guitars?

RKS is still in production on a custom basis. When I closed the factory because I couldn’t run all the different businesses, a gentleman named Paul Janowski took it over and built his own factory where he makes custom versions. Guitars aren’t just about what you hear; it’s about what the resonance makes you feel. Carlos Santana speaks a lot about this, saying how music changes your vibrations on a molecular level.

We reinvented the guitar and got our patents. We wanted to make every musician more than they were before they picked up our guitar. That’s how you know you’ve delivered something. These guitars double Dave’s legacy. His music will live on and on, but people will be creating new songs and changing the world with these guitars forever.

• Find out more at RKS Designs.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

What is it?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Specs

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

Build quality, usability and sounds

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

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

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

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

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

Hands-on videos

Fender

Sweetwater

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

What is it?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Specs

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

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

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

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

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

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

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

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

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Verdict

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

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

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

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

Also try

Hands-on videos

Cort

John Nathan Cordy

Guitar Max

What is it?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Specs

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

Build quality, usability and sounds

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

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

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

Hands-on videos

Gretsch

Empire Music

三木楽器 / MIKIGAKKI 公式チャンネル

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

What is there to say about Gibson? In the sphere of guitar manufacturing it’s matched only by Fender in ubiquity, innovation, and sheer impact.

The Les Paul, the SG, the Flying V, the Explorer, the ES-335... if you were to look up a generic image of a guitar, chances are pretty damn high it’d be one of those – the Stratocaster is all that can compete with them for that title, really.

Gibsons have been played by anybody and everybody. If you’re here, you know plenty of the names, plenty of the records and songs each model is synonymous with, and some of the more legendary examples of each model...

The company’s history, however, is full of twists and turns – iconic now, some of the above models were flops upon their release, while others fell out of favor (and production) for periods. Some of the maker’s biggest inventions, meanwhile, came from unlikely places and people.

So, how well do you know this most storied of guitar brands? The legendary guitarists who played those models, the forward-thinking engineers who designed them, and the features that helped make them synonymous with the instrument itself?

Test your knowledge in our quiz below.

• Reading on Apple News? Head to the quiz on GuitarWorld.com.

When I think of pioneers in guitar design – true heavyweights like Leo Fender, Ned Steinberger and others – it’s no stretch to say that Andy Powers will likely be regarded in much the same way as those legends.

Not only has he made great strides for Taylor Guitars in building musically appealing acoustics, but his forward-thinking innovations like V-Class bracing, Action Control Necks and the use of urban-harvested tonewoods, among other imaginative details, only reinforce the fact that he’s relentlessly tenacious in his passion for improving the instrument.

Now, Powers has turned his sights on building his very own electric guitar model, something he’s been mulling over for some time. “It’s kind of like writing songs,” he says.

“You put all those things on your mental bookshelf. Once in a while, you take those thoughts down, blow the dust off and examine them a little bit. I have all the pieces I need mechanically, and I’m feeling the right kind of aesthetic inspiration right now. I’m going to put all these pieces together.”

But don’t call it a side hustle; Powers is still manning the helm at Taylor. By forming his own company – Powers Electric – a brand completely separate from Taylor, Powers has made his passion project a reality. And by doing so, he has poured all his childhood inspirations into a completely original electric guitar design that embodies Southern California nostalgia and culture. In essence, Powers’ A-Type guitar offers a fresh perspective, one that hits closer to home.

“The world of acoustic guitars is a fairly traditional mindset,” he says. “Most of the time, you’re celebrating beautiful wood and subtle finishes. I love that world – I spend most of my life in it – but I wanted this guitar to live somewhere different.”

At what point did you decide to design your own electric guitar?

I’ve built a lot of electric guitars for different players over the years, and having worked on a lot of them, you kind of absorb what these guitars do and their quirks. You can exaggerate and learn how to tweak them, modify them, refine them, all that. So I thought, wouldn’t it be kind of fun to build a guitar that I wish I had had?

One day I was talking about that with Kurt Listug [co-founder of Taylor], and he said, “Why don’t you just build a guitar you want?” All right, that sounds like fun. I went home and started drawing and putting all these different kinds of things that I had thought about for the last 30 years into this guitar that I wanted.

Most people would say guys like Leo Fender got it right the first time. But here you are building a new guitar from the ground up. When I play it, it seems you’ve got it right the first time.

I appreciate that. It is a challenge because in some ways, you’re right; the forefathers of the electric guitar got it right the first time.

And that’s very hard to do. Did you begin by studying those classic guitar designs and factor in what had already been done?

Let’s imagine if I had been alive back then, living in Southern California. If I’d been around at the dawn of electric-guitar development, what would I have made? So you go through this kind of mental exercise and go, “What would that be like?”

There are no parts catalogs to buy stuff from. And you don’t know about what has already been done, right? So, you’re going to have to make it entirely new. You’ll have to make every part. That could be an intimidating thing, or – for someone like me – I find that idea incredibly attractive, and I get to make every part exactly the way I want it.

I love woodworking, metalworking, engineering and understanding exactly how every piece functions. How to make it, how to shape it, how to hold it, what I should make it from. I came at the design from that angle.

Once you decided to build everything yourself, where did the design actually begin?

I made the first one in my home shop. A friend of mine saw it and liked it. Another friend said, “Can I have one?” Before I knew it, I realized I was going to need some help. Every line was considered.

You’ve got to have curves that look good, feel good, sit right on you and look good under different paint colors. People would discover that it sits perfectly on your lap, and it balances when you hang it by a strap. It’s easy to get around on. That’s what I wanted. Something that felt intuitive.

The guitar is a hollowbody. Why did you decide to design it like that?

I’ve always loved hollowbody guitars. I love the way resonant chambers behave, the light weight and the way the instrument feels alive in your hands. What I don’t love is uncontrollable feedback; rather than accepting that as the tradeoff, I wanted to figure out how to keep the responsiveness of a hollow guitar while eliminating the feedback that causes it to take off onstage.

The body became an engineering exercise. Instead of treating the top and back as two separate vibrating surfaces, I designed them to work together. The sound posts couple the top and back so they move as one structure instead of pumping against each other.

That lets the guitar retain the liveliness of a hollow body while dramatically reducing feedback. Everything comes back to how the guitar manages vibration. Every piece affects the next, and every decision is about directing energy where you want it to go instead of letting it get away from you.

The neck joint is unlike anything we’ve seen before. How did you come up with it?

Every neck joint has strengths and compromises. I’ve built bolt-on, set-neck and neck-through guitars, and each transfers energy differently. I wasn’t interested in repeating any of those designs. I wanted the neck and body to become one mechanical structure.

The joint is essentially a horizontally oriented dovetail that locks itself together as it’s assembled. The geometry pulls the joint tighter as it seats, automatically aligning the neck while creating an incredibly rigid connection.

The glue isn’t doing the work – the geometry is. That idea of coupling became one of the guiding principles throughout the guitar. The better the two parts work together mechanically, the more efficiently they transfer string energy, and the more musical the instrument becomes.

Some companies focus on the shape of the headstock. You’re more concerned with its function.

Most people think about the scale length between the nut and bridge, but the string continues vibrating beyond both of those points. The short section behind the nut has a tremendous influence on how the neck resonates and how the guitar feels. I positioned each tuner according to the string length I wanted behind the nut.

Once the tuner locations were correct, the headstock shape simply grew around them. The headstock and fingerboard function as one continuous structure. Even before the strings go on, you can tap the neck, and it rings like a marimba bar.

You landed between the traditional Fender and Gibson scale lengths, settling on a 24⅞-inch scale length. Why?

I wasn’t trying to land on one or the other. I wanted a scale length that felt natural, where the strings stayed articulate without becoming stiff and where bending notes still felt easy and expressive.

Twenty-four and seven-eighths inches turned out to be that sweet spot. It’s familiar enough that players immediately feel comfortable, but it’s different enough to give the guitar its own personality.

Tell me about the pickups.

I spent a lot of time designing the guitar as an acoustic instrument first – as a string-holder. The first question was, “How do you make a string vibrate predictably, dynamically and musically? Well, don’t ruin it with a pickup.” That led me to experiment with neodymium magnets.

They’re normally considered too strong and bright for guitar pickups, but by combining neodymium with aluminum, I could diffuse the magnetic field instead of concentrating it. You hear more of the string’s natural harmonic content without damping it, and the design creates an almost perfect Faraday cage that dramatically reduces noise.

From there, I could shape the pickup’s voice rather than simply increasing output. One of my favorite things is that people describe these pickups with words that don’t usually belong together. They’ll say they’re “warm and clear.” The low notes stay articulate, but they’re cushioned by warmth instead of becoming harsh.

What about the tremolo design?

I’ve always admired how pedal steel guitars keep chords in tune with themselves as they’re bent. Traditional vibrato systems don’t really do that because every string changes pitch by a slightly different amount. There have been some brilliant attempts to solve the problem, but I decided I didn’t need perfection.

If I could make it 90 percent right instead of chasing 100 percent, I could build something much simpler and more musical. After working through the math of string tension and scale length, I designed a cam mechanism that lets each string travel a different distance while keeping the pitches relatively even. I also built in a positive zero point, so every time you release the arm, it returns to concert pitch.

Where did the guitar’s visual identity come from?

Designers have their own vocabulary, just like musicians do. Mine was shaped by growing up in Southern California around hot rods, surfboards, skateboards, custom paint and all the different ways people personalized what they built.

That’s why you’ll find bold, solid colors and finishes inspired more by automotive design than traditional guitar making. Once you start exploring automotive paint, you realize there aren’t just a handful of colors – there are thousands. That world is endlessly inspiring, and I wanted to build a guitar that could wear those ideas naturally.

The knobs come directly from my love of surfing. They’re made from surfboard resin. Originally, I used hardened resin that dripped onto the shop floor while boards were being glassed. You’d machine and polish it, and suddenly something that was basically trash became beautiful. I loved that because it reminded me of an old hot-rod tradition when cars were painted by hand; layers of overspray would build up inside paint booths.

Eventually, people started digging those colorful fordite layers out of the trash and turning them into shift knobs and dashboard pieces. Surfboard resin felt like the equivalent – something discarded becoming something worth keeping. Those little details matter because they connect the guitar to the culture that inspired it.

What do you hope players will discover when they pick up this A-Type?

If I ask someone what a Stratocaster sounds like, you probably don’t describe the guitar – you start naming players. Jimi Hendrix. Buddy Guy. Stevie Ray Vaughan. The instrument becomes part of each player’s voice. That’s exactly what excites me about this guitar. Even with the first dozen instruments, it was amazing to hear how differently musicians interpreted it.

One of the things I’ve appreciated most recently is hearing a player get one of these guitars and then, within hours or a day, they say, “This is what I want to walk on stage with. This is what I want to play.” So, all right, you found something you loved in this. I can think of nothing better than that.

• For more information, see Powers Electric.
• “Could this be one of the most unique and musically inspiring electric guitars we’ve ever encountered?” Powers Electric A-Type review
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

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.

PRS Tekton

PRS has always had a stake in the heavy music game, but never like this. The PRS Tekton family – a new range of super-engineered metal guitars – reframes the brand in a completely new light.

It could be the firm’s most significant launch since the Silver Sky arrived back in 2018. The four new Tektons are designed exclusively for the most accomplished modern technicians, and geared for prog and shred players through a spec sheet that drags PRS into a completely new market.

Seemingly building on the precedent set by Herman Li’s Chleo model, the Tektons feature ultra-thin bodies and necks, radical body sculpting and contours, stainless steel frets, uber-flat fretboards, and

But it was the new Stylus humbuckers that intrigued me most about the Tekton drop. They offer flatter output with a more moderate tonal character in order to get the most out of digital gear. Think ‘quasi-FRFR pickups’ that will give your digital rig room to breathe. It’s a novel concept, and not one we’ve ever seen from a mainstream brand before.

Safe to say it’s a big drop. So much so that we at Guitar World HQ put our heads together to discuss what it could mean for the guitar world at large…

• PRS Tekton T review
• PRS Tekton SVN review

Fender x Mark Hoppus Stoned Fruit Jaguar Bass

Mark Hoppus has been a staunch Fender fan since he made the switch from Ernie Ball back in blink-182’s early days. As such, he’s got a fair few bass guitars in his collection worthy of a signature recreation.

This week, he launched his second Fender Jaguar Bass model, this time based on his “Stoned Fruit” model. The custom four-string, which features artwork from Ohio-based artist ‘Burrito Breath’ – as well as an exclusive Guava Green – has been Hoppus’ go-to stage bass for a while now.

It’s been given a limited edition recreation that will only be available for 182 hours. It comes with a sticker set for those wanting to cover up that Guava Green colorway a la Hoppus’ original, as well as the hybrid spec sheet that was found on his first Jag Bass from 2023. That means reverse-mounted split-coil P Bass pickups, a Jazz Bass neck, and a Jag Bass body.

We caught up with Hoppus this week to chat about his latest bass – as well as blink-182’s next album.

Fender x Paul Smith Telecaster

Fender sees the PRS John Mayer Defender Silver Sky and raises it the, er, Paul Smith Telecaster? Honestly, we’d like to think these are all just coincidences but we just don’t know anymore.

Anyway, the Paul Smith Telecaster has been designed in collaboration with the British fashion house – not Paul Reed Smith, the guitar maker – to celebrate the pair’s joint 80th birthdays. We’d be interested to know how long this one has been in the works, but as you can imagine commenters online are having a field day with this.

Not only do you now have a Silver Sky that has ‘Fender’ on it, you also have a Telecaster inscribed with ‘Paul Smith’. Cool me a naive fool, but I simply can’t convince myself that these are all planned trolls. Whatever the case, this is a pretty cool Telecaster...

Also Launched This Week

Ovation Viper

The cult Ovation Viper that was once played by Jeff Buckley is back after nearly 50 years. A very lovely single-cut that deserves more love. Unfortunately it’s only limited-edition…

For more: Ovation

Gibson x Tom Petty Flying V

Gibson has celebrated 50 years of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with a collection of five Flying Vs, each with its own distinct colorway.

For more: Gibson

Emerald Guitars X20

A new generation of Emerald guitars is here after the Irish carbon fiber guitar giant discontinued its entire range to make way for its latest X20 evolution.

For more: Emerald Guitars

Ernie Ball Music Man Family Reserve John Petrucci Majesty

John Petrucci’s signature Majesty guitar has been given three new colorways – Chocolate Grizzle, Blonde Roast, and Lost in Space – as it unveils the ultra-exclusive Ball Family Reserve 2026 collection.

For more: Ernie Ball Music Man

DiMarzio The Chopper / The Cruiser

New noise-cancelling Telecaster pickups from DiMarzio. They combine neodymium magnets and twin-blade hum-cancelling coils to offer higher output, faster transients, and a lower noise floor than traditional T-style pickups.

For more: DiMarzio

Crazy Tube Circuits Rapture

Crazy Tube Circuits has lifted the drive section of its fan favorite Triptychon for a standalone stompbox at the request of players, promising amp-like gain with natural compression and harmonic richness.

For more: Crazy Tube Circuits

What is it?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Specs

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

Performance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Verdict

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

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

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

Also try

Hands-on videos

Shure

Pete Thorn

Fender has been selling a $32 Telecaster-shaped chopping board for a while now, but what would it sound like if you added strings and pickups?

Well, there’s no need to wonder any longer as YouTuber Not a Luthier has had that exact thought, and put his skills to the test.

Crafted from 100% bamboo, Fender says the chopping board is “perfect for any Fender fan to get their chops together,” but Not a Luthier says “the craftsmanship is absolute trash.” He doesn’t start the project with high hopes.

At 20mm deep, the chopping board makes a Thinline Tele look fat, but it does look to be pretty much to scale, size-wise. Still, Not a Luthier notes that it will require a shallower-than-usual neck route, as well as shorter screws.

To bring the idea to life, he prizes the neck from a guitar he made out of a drum cymbal – “it wasn’t a failure, wasn’t a success,” he says – and swaps out a traditional three-way switch for an on/off switch from a Fender Mustang.

Given how thin the body is, a custom-made acrylic base was made to sit beneath the six-saddle bridge. This also helped the bridge pickup set at a nice height. An old black pickguard he found lying around provided the finishing touch.

Despite fears it might “explode” from the string tension, the guitar holds up well, and the bamboo actually makes for a rather fetching aesthetic. Granted, Guitar World has come across better-sounding instruments, but it exceeds expectations all the same.

“It sounds like a Telecaster,” Not a Luthier says. “It’s not exactly cutting-edge, but you probably wouldn’t notice this if it was hanging on a wall.”

For more guitars made out of things that guitars really shouldn’t be made out of, see Burls Art’s aquarium axe, newspaper shredder, and back-breaking copper beast.

What is it?

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

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

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

Specs

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

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★★

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

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

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★½

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The point is, everything is covered.

Verdict

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

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

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

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

Also try

Hands-on videos

Boss

Pete Thorn

Thomann

Ritchie Kotzen is teasing an all-new signature Stratocaster. After fans had to wait years for the global rollout of his main guitar, it seems this new model will follow in its wake pretty soon.

It was way back in the mid-’90s when Kotzen, who had stints in Poison and Mr Big, first worked with Fender, releasing a signature Strat and Tele as Japan exclusive models. The Strat was only made available to the rest of the world last summer, so perhaps Fender is now making up for lost time.

And it could be Kotzen’s best signature yet. The stunning blue Strat looks to have a flame maple top, maple fingerboard and gold hardware – it’s a real looker.

“For everyone who’s been asking about my blue Strat, 2027 might bring some exciting news,” he says via an Instagram post. “And while we’re at it, don’t be surprised if you see me back on a few stages next year. Stay tuned…”

It’s a double whammy tease, then. Kotzen has spent a chunk of 2025 and ‘26 touring with Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith, in support of their second collaborative album together.

Speaking about the Strat, which he says is Baby Blue in color, Kotzen told Guitar World that it was a special one-off build, complete with DiMarzio pickups. It doesn’t look like it will be a one-off for much longer.

“They used a really nice piece of maple for the neck,” he says. “It almost looks like birdseye and it’s not quite as chunky as the Telecaster [the other guitar he took on the road for the Smith/Kotzen shows].”

A few commenters on his Instagram post also like the guitar’s colorway to his eyes – maybe that was intentional.

Elsewhere, Kotzen has revealed the one factor that stopped him from joining Nine Inch Nails – a decision Trent Reznor didn’t enjoy making – while Smith has outlined the key differences and similarities between their playing approaches that make their surprise collaboration a success.

Fender is getting on the action as Stage Tour, the spiritual successor to Guitar Hero, readies its release.

The upcoming rhythm based game, widely seen as a follow-up to the game that got a generation of players into the instrument, was announced back in February. A big part of that launch was that it had Gibson’s backing, via a Kramer controller.

Fender is looking to go one better, having teamed up with controller creator Drakong to develop the highly-customizable and tapping-friendly InfinaKore Telecaster.

The “totally modular controller” features custom switches and “super-smooth, fast fret buttons”.

Specifically, Drakong says its Kailh Choc Switches boast a shorter travel distance and a low-profile design that makes it more effortless to play along with Stage Tour’s mega playlist of songs.

“Rapid tapping won’t make the keys get stuck, and lighter actuation forces require less strain during long, high-speed playing sessions,” Drakong explains. “They’re also hot-swappable, so pop them in and out at your leisure.”

Additional buttons further down the fingerboard allow players to tap along to tracks, rather than the usual strumming option, better catering to player preferences – and bringing two-hand tapping to the game for the first time.

The headstock, buttons, strum bar, and whammy heads are all swappable, and the buttons themselves can be remapped, too. There’s also nothing stopping people 3D printing different body shapes to swap out the Tele silhouette in favor of an existing or wholly original body shape.

Plus, when it’s not being used, the controller folds in half for smart storage.

It is priced at $129.99 and compatible with a range of consoles: PC, Steam Deck, Legion Go, ROG Ally, iOS, Android, Switch 1, Switch 2, PS5, PS4, PS3, XBOX One, and XBOX Series X/S.

Those who pre-order the controller will get low-profile Kailh Choc switches and a guitar pick strum bar as a bonus. Pre-orders are available now, with the controllers shipping in time for Stage Tour’s launch on December 10.

See Drakong for more.

Rick Nielsen’s life’s work might be the Cheap Trick catalog. But after that, it’s surely his guitar collection.

The Rockford, IL icon has acquired what is widely regarded as one of the world’s finest guitar hauls and dotted along the shelves are some of the rarest and most prized instruments ever produced.

Among them lie a 1958 Korina Flying V and three Gibson Explorers from the same year (a sizeable chunk of the 19 that were ever produced), plus, of course, his iconic custom Hamers, boutique builds and vintage oddities.

It’s huge news that, for the first time, some of this 500-odd collection is being released for public sale via Julien’s Auctions.

There can be few greater moments in the life of a guitar obsessive and Cheap Trick fan than the chance to spend five days browsing the racks of Rick Nielsen’s astonishing guitar collection, and for Julien’s appraiser and guitar tech Mike Adams that dream came true.

Now, ahead of the sale’s conclusion on October 24, Adams gives us a first-hand account of that process, the hidden gems he uncovered, and what it was like spending time with Nielsen, amid a week in his guitar nirvana.

Just a guy

I first heard about this being a possibility almost exactly a year ago. I really love Cheap Trick. That was one of the earliest guitar things I hooked on to as a kid, so it was really exciting.

Walking up to Rick’s house the first time was different than I thought it would be. His home is big and lovely, but it’s not a mansion, like with so many other people that I’ve interfaced with over the years. It’s a home – it feels like a lived-in space.

The guy who takes care of Rick’s instruments, Mike Graham, was such a welcoming presence. We went down in the basement, where Rick keeps his guitars, and got to work. About an hour later I heard a voice calling from upstairs: “Who’s in my basement?” And it was Rick!

He came down, like, “What are you doing here? You robbing me?” I said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” And he cracked some joke about how it wasn’t a pleasure for him, and then he scooted away.

Over the five days, he came and checked on me, hung out, told me stories. It was an experience. Rick felt larger than life, a celebrity – he was wearing the checkerboard – but he was just a guy.

Of course, the 500 guitars were a big giveaway that I was in the presence of someone who was impossibly famous. But I’ve been to people’s leopard print-covered mansions and they’ve handed me bottles of water and said, “That bottle costs $20.” Rick’s not like that at all.

Like most auctions, we weren’t sure what Rick wanted to actually let go of, but we needed to take stock of what was actually there. If we could get 100, we’d have been over the moon; 70 would be great. In the end I think I tagged 470 items, and we got 69.

I only had five days to get through everything, but I did open every single case. It was frantic. It was only enough time for me to identify what the thing was, assess its condition and get serial numbers.

Hamer time

I got to see a lot of classic instruments. I’ll try to stick to things we actually have in the auction, but in his basement were some things we didn’t get, like his ’58 Flying V. It’s always exciting to see one of the few in the world. It was beautiful. That was a great guitar.

Of the things we did take, the Hamers were the most exciting out of that whole bunch. When I opened the case of Hamer #0004 – his famous, ambered-over Explorer-shaped Hamer – that was a moment.

At this point, as a tech and working at Julien’s, I’ve seen just about everything, so it’s really difficult to get me to feel reverent, but that is a guitar I one hundred percent associate with Rick. I remember looking at photos of him when I was just starting out on guitar and how powerful that image is: him, cap with the brim flipped up, and he’s got this gigantic pointy guitar. It gave me a lot of hope.

Opening the case and seeing it in person was really incredible for me. I can’t even tell you how excited I was to pick that up and feel the neck. Hamers of that era had skinny nut widths. I think the nut width on that was 1.56”, so perfect for me.

Another favorite was the yellow Hamer [double-cut] that has “You know you like it” on the fretboard and his face on the back of it. There are tons of photos of him using that during his famous stage trick where he puts three or five guitars on at a time, so that thing is riddled with dings and scars.

Give me five

We didn’t get the five-neck Hamer until much later. It took a lot of negotiation to include it, but we really felt that we needed that crown jewel. And a five-neck was the only way to go. It’s something that catches the eye of the regular, non-guitar person.

Indeed, it catches the eyes, captures the imagination, hurts the back and strains the forearms, but it’s one of three that Rick has ever had. I would think it’s the most famous one.

One of the [necks] is a mando-cello, there’s a 12-string. That was an interesting one to get on the bench – just physically getting it up there on the bench. I posted a picture of it on Instagram and people have been joking, “You’re going to need a bigger bench!” and that’s completely accurate.

I had to use two neck rests on it and I wish I’d had more. I think Rick is maybe the only person who can make that thing work the way it’s supposed to, because my arms aren’t long enough. There’s no way I can reach that fifth neck!

When I’m working on single consigner auctions, if you get enough guitars, you get a sense of how they were played. You start recognizing where wear is going to be. Rick, with his stage antics, there’s pick wear of course and there’s dings in the finish from his bracelets that he wears.

Like the 2002 “Lana” Les Paul R8. He didn’t remember playing that one on stage, but I found dings in the finish above the bridge from one of his bracelets. That led me on a search, and it took hours, to find a few concert clips where I could actually see the flame in the top – and then I found it.

Pinball wizard

One of the biggest surprises was his First Act. There was a run in the 2000s where First Act was making custom guitars for everybody and I was surprised to see that Rick had gotten a weird bowtie shape build. It’s the First Act Betty Mega Knob – a black guitar with pink binding and six lipstick pickups!

As soon as I got my hands on it, I said, “Yep, that’s Rick.” It’s got six pairs of knobs on it. It’s crazy. You plug it in and then you try to make music. God help you if you need to turn down.

I’m gonna regret this, but for underrated gems, it’s Lot 86: the 1983 Kurt Hendrick Catalyst in pink. I have long been an admirer of Kurt Hendrick’s work. He built for a relatively short period in the ’80s and he made these beautiful body shapes.

There’s something about that guitar. He’s a part of it and he built guitars that got in the hands of Billy Gibbons and all that. As soon as I opened that case, I basically held up a skull and soliloquized. I was so moved by it. It sounded amazing. Someday I hope to own another, but that one is not coming home with me at this point!

The goofiest guitar in the auction – and I say goofy with pure respect – is the 2020 Biasibetti Flippercaster, Lot 257.

It’s made of actual play surfaces from pinball machines. It does light up. And it has one strap button that is the plunger from a pinball machine. It was really fun to work on that one.

A dream come true

Meeting Rick was a dream come true in a way. I always bring a guitar with me when I travel because I have to play, but at the end of the week, we had this moment at his kitchen table where Rick was like, “Hey, what do you have in that case? Is that one of mine? Are you trying to steal from me?”

And I was like, “No, Rick. I have mine!” I pulled out the Holoflake Jazzmaster that I built in 2023 from Guitar Mill parts, and Rick played my guitar for a while, which was really special for me.

Then he handed it back and asked if I knew how to play any of his songs, and I was like, “I do!” And so I played the solo of I Want You to Want Me. He went, “My God, you remembered! You nailed it note-for-note!” But he had a note for me, which was that I was playing too clean. “You gotta dirty it up!”

Unbeknownst to me, Lou Robinson, the supervisor of my department, snuck some video of it, so I have this lovely keepsake of Rick Nielsen complimenting me, but also reminding me that “rock ’n’ roll is a little sloppy.”

• Head to Julien’s Auctions to view all the lots in The Rick Nielsen Collection. The auction takes place at 10.00am CDT in Nashville on October 24, 2026.

What is it?

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

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

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

Specs

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

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★☆

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

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

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

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

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

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

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

Verdict

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

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

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

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

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

Also try

Hands-on videos

Guitar World

PMTV

PopMusicPlay

Ola Strandberg helped lead the charge of the headless guitar revolution, but now he’s got another fight on his hands: to change the public’s perception of these guitars.

Owing to their ergonomics, Strandbergs – and all other headless builds – cater to a distinct corner of the guitar world. They are a favorite among progressive metal players, shunned by those of a less-heavy persuasion.

Strandberg wants players of all genres to reap the benefits of headless guitars, but their image doesn’t always gel with, say, blues or indie rock. And for players brave enough to go headless in more traditional settings, there’s a hesitance to play them in public.

The tide is changing – Jacob Collier has a signature headless, for instance – but Strandberg is under no illusion that the odds are stacked against him

At Guitar Summit 2025, Strandberg told Guitar World that this was “the last barrier we have to tear down”. So, at this year’s event, we asked him how things are going, one year on – and how a new headstock-equipped Strandberg could help his case.

“Honestly, this concept will probably be more metal,” Strandberg reflects of the headless DNA. “But I am consciously working on how to bridge that gap. Just bringing a headstock to the instrument, the aesthetics of it changes so it’s more acceptable.

“We hear too often from players that say, ‘I always play my Strandberg at home, but for this particular gig, I can’t do headless on stage.’ We hear that too much.”

Those comments don’t just come from punters. They also come from pro players – sometimes even those working with other guitar companies.

Strandberg continues, “Even professional guitarists with signature models with other brands, they’ll play at home on their Strandberg, then get on stage with their signature guitar.

“To an extent I get it. The guitar is like your identity. You’ve got to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and go, ‘That’s cool.’ Until these become that thing, then people will still say, ‘I’m in this tribute band, I need a conventional guitar.’”

Ola will be hoping his headstock guitar, which is being designed with a mystery pro player, can tempt players over to Strandberg’s side and expand the brand’s appeal. Whether the public perception of headless guitars will soften remains to be seen.

Head over to the Guitar World YouTube channel to watch the full interview with Ola Strandberg.

What is it?

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

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

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

And that headstock is something else.

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

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

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

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

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

Specs

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

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★★

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway, on with the show...

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★☆

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★★

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Verdict

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

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

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

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

Also try

Hands-on videos

Fender

John Nathan Cordy

• Best Squier guitars 2026: the ultimate guide with real player recommendations

Fender and Mark Hoppus have rekindled their partnership to recreate the blink-182 hero’s Stoned Fruit Jaguar Bass – but it will only be available for a very short period of time.

Hoppus has been a Fender loyalist since making the switch from Ernie Ball back in blink’s early days. Their latest signature guitar back in 2023 was an amalgamation of Fender’s Jaguar, Precision and Jazz Bass designs.

Now, that same bass has returned in the model-exclusive Guava Green colorway that can be seen on Hoppus’ current main stage bass. It also comes with Hoppus’ distinct Stoned Fruit artwork by way of a decal sticker collection.

The artwork, designed by Ohio-based artist ‘Burrito Breath’ – real name Phil Guy – is a distinctive feature of Hoppus’ OG model. These stickers let players “put their own spin on the instrument”.

Along with that colorway and matching headstock, the Stoned Fruit Jaguar Bass follows the precedent set by the earlier 3-Color Sunburst and Sea Foam Green models.

It has those reverse-mounted Seymour Duncan SPB-3 Quarter Pounder split-coil Precision Bass pickups, and the Jazz Bass-inspired Custom C maple neck. There’s also a HiMass Vintage bridge, and a custom Mark Hoppus neck plate with his Octopus logo.

Another curio can be found on the headstock: the model is simply labelled “Fender Jag”, rather than “Fender Jaguar”.

“I always called it a Jag, and Fender just put it on the headstock like that,” Hoppus tells Guitar World in a new interview about his latest signature. “I think it's cool because the shorthand made it from our parlance onto the headstock itself.”

Hoppus has been loyal to the Jag for some time. As he explains in his Guitar World interview, he landed on the offset after much experimentation.

“When I first started playing, the P-Bass was the bass that I always wanted,” he remembers. “That was my dream bass guitar. Then [producer] Jerry Finn and I started tinkering with that, and we moved to a Jazz Bass body with a P-Bass neck, and then I moved to a Jag body with a Jazz neck and Jaguar neck.

“I just like the angle on it. And when I started playing Jag basses, it just seemed like they had a little more midrange cut-through, which is what I'm always striving for in blink.”

Speaking about his affinity for hybrid Fenders, Hoppus told Guitar World back in 2023 that he landed on the Jazz Bass neck by accident.

“One of my basses got built with a thinner neck, and I liked the way it felt and played,” he noted. “Playing a standard P-Bass neck is like playing a baseball bat to me now. Still love them, but the Jazz neck is where I am today.”

Hoppus has a number of customized basses in his collection that’d be ripe for a reissue. But the Stoned Fruit model seemed perfect for this project.

He says, “When the idea to put the stickers on came around, I just thought it was a genius idea that people could customize it themselves.

“It could be something similar to the one that I have, they could just leave it off or put one or two stickers on. It seemed like a whole project rather than just a single bass in a certain color.”

“Mark has always had a very clear point of view about what he wants from an instrument,” Fender’s Chief Product Officer, Justin Norvell, says. “We wanted to recreate the instrument he actually plays while giving fans the opportunity to put their own stamp on it.”

The Mark Hoppus Stoned Fruit Jaguar Bass will only be available to order for 182 hours (geddit?) starting from today for $1,499, exclusively from Fender.com.

Guitar World’s full interview with Mark Hoppus will be published this week.

The internet is abuzz following the arrival of the PRS Tekton range – a new purpose-built metal guitar line that’s ushered in a new era for the brand.

PRS already has a stake in heavier waters, but the Tekton initiative marks a direction shift. The four flagship models are spec’d for a very particular style of guitar playing, designed exclusively for technical players of the highest caliber.

This new family could therefore make for serious competition against the market’s big guns. It might also represent the arrival of a new type of metal guitar.

Given it’s perhaps the biggest PRS launch since the Silver Sky, we asked the nearest handful of GW staffers for their reactions to the new lineup. Here’s what they had to say…

• PRS Tekton T review
• PRS Tekton SVN review

Stuart Williams – Deputy Reviews Editor

A strange phenomenon occurs with time. While the old clichés of Blues Dentists, Yacht Rock Lawyers and, er…Mixolydian Architects may follow PRS forever, there's another, parallel persona to the brand. Silverchair's Daniel Johns, Incubus' Mike Einziger, Wes Borland, and, of corse, Creed/Alter Bridge gunslinger Mark Tremonti are just a few players who planted a heavier flag in the ground for PRS.

Opeth, Mark Holcomb of Periphery, Karnivool's Drew Goddard and DragonForce shredder/end-of-level Guitar Hero boss Herman Li have continued that precedent.

I got to try the Tekton T briefly during the filming of Guitar World's video, and while I'm far from the technically adept target audience, it left me with an overall feeling of 'evolution'.

The PRS DNA is strong, particularly at first glance. There's the mirror-buffed nitro over a heavily-figured top, and the more subtle familiarities such as the Phase III locking tuners and two-point tremolo. But wait! No birds? No rare-breed shellfish? Nope. Instead, it's a streamlined, dare I say tasteful, design across the 'board.

Picking it up is where that body shape turns from a two-dimensional ‘It’s a PRS’ on paper, to a 3D ‘It's a PRS, but not like any other I’ve held.’ I'd sum it up by saying ‘svelte’.

At the shallowest points the carve feels thin and manoeuvrable, and the merging of the offset Vela and traditional Custom designs makes for something that is unmistakably a PRS, while feeling fresh and new.

Progression aimed at progressive players. Now for the shocker. Fans of those bands I mentioned earlier are themselves of dentist-ing, lawyer-ing and architect-ing age. So no, PRS probably won’t shake the preconceptions, but your dentist might well be a better sweep-picker than you’ve given them credit for.

Matt Owen – News Editor

Well, here’s something quite novel: a humbucker that’s been designed with modelers in mind. Are Full Range, Flat Response pickups now a thing? Perhaps ‘FRFR humbucker’ undersells the new Stylus pups somewhat. They still have their own character, but this is the first time we’ve seen a mainstream builder design a humbucker that’s engineered to get the most out of amp modelers and digital rigs.

PRS has a penchant for going above and beyond with its guitar designs, so it’s no real surprise that the firm has managed to develop something new in the pickup department. But I personally didn’t see this one coming.

They have a flatter output than most humbuckers, voiced for articulation and dynamic response while keeping some character to cater more to digital gear. So, like how an FRFR speaker won’t color your modeler tones, the Stylus pickups will supposedly give your digital rigs more room to shine through.

What does this say about PRS and the gear world at large? Well, it proves there are still areas to explore at a time when the playing field in the digital world has never been more level. Will other big brands and pickup makers take note and start dabbling in modeler-minded humbuckers? Time will tell.

Matt Parker – Deputy Editor

Am I the only one that was a little underwhelmed when I first saw these? I heard rumors of PRS making a big pitch for the modern metal market and I was excited to see what would happen when PRS’ talented luthiers were let off the leash with this kind of brief. After all, the prog and metal landscape is one where people won’t blink at a headless design, or one of Abasi Concepts’ UFOs.

Perhaps I should have known better, but to me, the Tektons seem to me less like a tectonic shift, and more like another honed and scraped, detail-orientated evolution of an already successful formula. That approach has obviously proven very effective for PRS, and there’s a significant risk with big swings, but a guy can dream.

I haven’t tried them yet (my colleagues who have got hands-on say they are stellar players) but aesthetics do count. So, if you’ve always wanted a sportier PRS that flips the birds, well, you’re in luck. But if you want to see what PRS can do when it takes off the tie at the office party – well, you might be waiting a moment longer.

Michael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief

I always thought PRS was relatively well-positioned as a brand for heavier players, but the Tekton lineup takes its ergonomic cues from guitars that are far removed from the Ted McCarty lineage. Those back carves are closer to Ibanez and Ernie Ball Music Man than they are Gibson Les Paul. And ultimately, those are the players PRS will be targeting here.

Whether the price point will be too much to stomach is another question. I wonder if, like the Silver Sky, a more affordable model could be what pushes these into mainstream popularity. An S2 model at half the price could seriously shake up the market. Just sayin’…

Fender Japan has unveiled a fashion-forward collab as both Fender and Paul Smith (no, not Paul Reed Smith, the guitar maker) celebrate 80 years of business in 2026.

16 pieces make up this new collection, which has been designed in partnership with British fashion house Paul Smith. It's headlined by a Made in Japan Paul Smith Telecaster (¥440,000, approx. $2,783), which is joined by accessories and fashion pieces.

The collaboration “connects the spirit of rock ’n’ roll with the heritage of London’s historic Wardour Street record shops”. Notably, the Tele gets a specially modified neck and bridge pickups to mark the occasion.

What makes them unique here isn’t exactly clear, but what is obvious is that this isn’t a tie-in focused solely on aesthetics.

Its wider make-up will be familiar to Fender fans, pairing an alder body with a maple neck – this time with a modern C-profile – and rosewood fingerboard.

There's also a vintage-style three-saddle Telecaster bridge, locking tuners and a custom neck plate. A vibrant Paul Smith-designed striped colorway really makes it pop.

As Fender notes, “Music and fashion have always moved together, with artists and musical movements shaping how generations dress and express themselves and shape culture.”

Elsewhere in the collection, there’s a striped strap, a guitar pick tin featuring 12 heavy-gauge string whackers, and tie-die T-shirts inspired by historic music festivals.

The “Meet at the Tree”, meanwhile, incorporates Paul Smith’s favorite tree – found in his hometown of Nottingham, England – injects a personal touch to the collab, and symbolizes the community aspect of festivals.

“Fender and Paul Smith have both built their legacies around originality and giving people the tools to express themselves,” says Fender CEO Bud Cole.

“Music has always been central to Paul’s creative life, and his relationships with artists and musicians have influenced his work for decades. At its heart, it’s a celebration of individuality, creativity and craftsmanship – and giving people something they can make their own.”

See Fender Japan for more.

It follows other curious collabs with Game of Thrones, Hello Kitty, everyone’s favorite city-crushing beast, Godzilla, and more recently, George Harrison’s Dark Horse Records.

What is it?

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

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

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

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

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

Specs

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

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

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

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

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

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★½

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

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

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

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

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

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

Verdict

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

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

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

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

Also try

Hands-on videos

EarthQuaker Devices

Empire Music

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

Ovation is marking its 60th anniversary by reviving one of its most unique electric guitar designs, the Viper.

It was a concept that found a fan in Jeff Buckley. Now it’s been brought into the present day.

Over the years, while guitar recipes have remained broadly conservative, there have been those who have vied to reinvent the wheel.

Ovation, spearheaded by aerospace engineer Charles Kaman, was one of them, first producing an acoustic with a roundback body, before creating a battle axe-shaped guitar that Ace Frehley used across Kiss’ debut album in 1974.

The Viper was first released in the mid-’70s and now returns in two distinct versions, both of which are limited to 60 pieces, for obvious birthday-related reasons.

The new design “captures the spirit of the original”, and has a lightweight, ergonomically-minded body at its core, with plenty of modern specs to boot.

Tonewoods and hardware specs differ between the models. The Viper IV-DTD-G features a basswood body with a maple veneer and a Babicz Fixed Six hardtail bridge. The Viper IV-1-G, on the other hand, features an alder body and a Babicz FCH-2 Point tremolo.

US-made Lace Sensor Hot Gold Dually humbuckers are bolstered with push-pull coil splits.

They’re both 25.5” scale, and have bolt-on maple becks with Java rosewood fingerboards. Those, in turn, are capped with 24 frets and have Black Tusq nuts, with oil-sealed Ovation tuners on their headstocks.

“Ovation has always been at its strongest when we dared to be different,” says Ovation’s Product Manager, Thomas Neuhierl. “For our 60th birthday, we are bringing that courage back to the stage.”

Colorway options are locked. The IV-DTD-G features a Blue Burst, while its snakey sibling is finished in a more natural-looking Honey Burst.

The two new Ovation Viper models – the Viper IV-DTD-G and Viper IV-1-G – come with a gig bag and cost €1,194 apiece (approx. $1,122).

See Ovation for more.

This Jazz Bass was made in February 1964 and it features a Tangerine Sparkle metal flake finish sunburst with a matching headstock. Besides that, it has a maple neck, an alder body, a green nitrate pickguard and a nicely figured rosewood fretboard with clay knots. In other words, all the earlier desirable pre-CBS features are included, plus a one-of-a-kind finish.

It has a very thin ‘A’ neck, and everything on the inside is perfect. We had to do a refret when we got it because it did not play particularly well with the frets that were on there. They were not the originals, so we redid it properly and it plays wonderfully now. In fact, I would say it’s one of the best basses of any kind we’ve ever had in the shop – and whenever a really good bassist comes in, it’s the one we give [customers] for testing bass amplifiers.

The neck plays really evenly all the way down, and there are some particularly good pickups on this one. They’re very well balanced and they have a true ring to them. The neck pickup cover is a vintage-style replacement, but when I find an original, I’ll put it on.

I don’t really have much history on this bass. I didn’t get it from anybody famous and I acquired it when stuff like this was very inexpensive. I bought it out on the West Coast from a friend of mine maybe 15 years ago and it came in its original white case.

The playability is amazing. I mean, sometimes you just know when an instrument is ‘The One’ the second you pick it up. You can often tell from the weight or the balance, and every aspect of this bass has that quality. Judging by the condition of the paintwork, whoever owned it obviously felt the same way because it has been played and played and played. The finish is especially worn on the back and a lot of wood has been exposed.

Popular folklore says that Fender used hot-rod and car body shops for sparkle finishes, and I’m sure they did. I think Fender just asked sprayers for a rate for painting bodies and if one said they’d be able to do it for $20 and somebody else was $18, they would give the job to the cheaper guy.

Fender was using a Binks Model 7 spray gun with a suction cup, but the pressure was insufficient to pull up larger metal flakes. The hot-rod shops used gravity-fed paint guns and Fender didn’t get those until 1966.

If forced to guess, I would say Dennis Swiden sprayed this finish because he had access to paint with very heavy and large metal flakes and he also owned the specialist equipment needed to spray it. Dennis did spray cars, but he was more of a furniture painter who worked out of his parents’ shop.

He was friends with some people at Fender and he used to come to the factory – often parking in George Fullerton’s spot – and load up the trunk of his car with bodies.

After he had sprayed them with sparkle finishes, Dennis would then bring the bodies back to Fender for assembly. Dennis’s style was different and he had a very definite way of doing things that became very popular among surf-rockers and Bakersfield country players.

The sunburst on the headstock is particularly unusual, and that provides another clue that this is a Dennis paint job. I had an Aqua Mist Jazzmaster from ’59 that had a matching headstock just like it but in aqua and green. Back then, Dennis was the only one who was doing anything like that because matching headstocks weren’t even a thing on Fenders until early 1962. The headstocks on this bass and the Jazzmaster were painted in exactly the same way.

In pictures it looks like there’s a grey primer coat, but it’s actually silver metallic. The middle is gold, but I have a feeling it could have been silver and turned gold as the clear lacquer aged. And the sunburst was created with red sprayed around the edges.

The red could have been transparent or metallic and it looks amazing. Either way, I’ve never seen anything quite like that. I’ve kept this bass for a long time and I’m probably asking too much for it. Maybe I’ll come down eventually, but it’s the only one there is, so I’m not rushing to sell it.

• 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.

PRS has made a major play in the metal guitar market by introducing the Tekton lineup.

Dubbed “a whole new family of guitars”, the Tektons fill a gap in the PRS catalog and look to go toe to toe with the heavyweights of the metal guitar world.

The Maryland brand is no stranger to heavy music. Mark Tremonti, Mark Holcomb, and Herman Li are all PRS artists who have signature guitars designed for hard rock, metal and shred.

Some of the specs rolled out here will be familiar, too. Floyd Rose tremolos and seven-string configurations are available in the PRS lineup.

But PRS says the Tekton family has been purpose-built from the ground-up to meet a very specific design brief: to be the most modern spec’d electric guitars they can be, “designed for the most technical of modern players”.

The company has therefore pulled no punches: radical body carves, ultra-thin neck profiles, longer scale lengths, and all-new Stylus pickups engineered to get the most out of digital rigs.

Four Tektons are available: the OG hardtail, ‘T’ two-point tremolo, “Floyd” Floyd Rose trem, and “SVN” seven-string. Each features a new Tekton body silhouette that is a halfway house between the Custom 24 and Vela designs.

But while the shape itself might not be too radical, PRS has compensated for that with the contouring. The belly carve is huge, and the neck heel is heavily sculpted. It is the thinnest body PRS has ever designed.

Elsewhere, the bolt-on maple necks – also the thinnest that PRS has ever made in standard production – feature a 16” radius ebony fingerboard with stainless steel frets. 16” is a new one for PRS, and this is the first time the company has used stainless steel frets, too.

Notably, the Tektons feature the same string spacing found on John Mayer’s Silver Sky and Mark Lettieri’s Fiore. Slightly wider than usual PRS guitars, it’s said to be better for sweeps, arpeggios and precise pick attack.

The Bird inlays have also been ditched for offset dots and Luminlay side dots. The necks feature hormigo strength rods for stability and resonance, taking cues from the carbon fiber rods found in Li’s Chleo signature.

As for tonewoods, the Tekton “Floyd” has an all-alder body, while the others have mahogany backs with highly flamed mango tops.

PRS has also debuted its new Stylus humbuckers. Complete with coil-splitting, they feature alnico 5 magnets and are voiced for “clarity, articulation and character”.

They promise to deliver “aggressive tones without sacrificing note definition”, and that improved definition is said to be present whether playing through an amp or a modern modeling rig.

Interestingly, they offer a flatter output than most humbuckers in a bid to cater to digital gear. Given that much of modern metal music is recorded using digital modelers, it makes sense, but this might be the first time we’ve seen a mainstream brand build a pickup with modelers in mind.

The flatter output offers some of its own character, but the aim of the game here is to keep your amp and modeler tones fully intact.

“These pickups are exceedingly well-judged – crisp, clear delivery that lets your carefully dialed tones shine through,” Guitar World's review of the Tekton T notes.

“The output doesn’t overpower a clean signal, and helps to keep higher gain tight and defined, with great string separation.”

It’s a big move from PRS. For a firm largely associated with classic builds, the Tektons represent a radical lane change.

“This is not just introducing a new model. We are planting a flag for a whole new family of guitars,” PRS Director of Sales Jim Cullen says. “Since day one, PRS has been built around a combination of player feedback and our experience as guitar makers.

“Listening to musicians while continually refining our craft has helped us create instruments that serve as tools for a wide range of players. Over the years, we have heard a growing call for more modern spec’d PRS guitars. The Tekton is our answer to that call.”

Price-wise, the Tekton and Tekton T will list for $2,899, while the Floyd and SVN variants will be priced at $2,999.

Read our full review of the Tekton T and Tekton SVN models, and head over to PRS Guitars to find out more.

What is it?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Specs

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

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★★

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

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

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

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

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

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

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

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

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

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

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★★

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

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

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

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

Verdict

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

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

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

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

Also try