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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Besides great guitar playing, two things come to mind when Angus Young is mentioned: Gibson SGs and his iconic school uniform.

The Australian riff machine has stayed loyal to the Gibson double-cut across his career. He’s bought many, and played them all across his prolific career. But one holds dominion over all the rest.

“I’ve lost count of how many SGs I have,” Angus Young admitted to Guitar World in 2009. “But none of them match up to that one guitar.”

His late brother and rhythm master, Malcolm, favored a heavily modded 1963 Gretsch Firebird. Angus, by comparison, has never been able to look past his red 1968 SG. And it’s not for a lack of trying.

“I’ve tried getting copies of it, but no, they’re not even close,” he said. “You might get the feel, but you don’t get that same kind of sound out of it. I don’t know why. I wish I did.”

The '68 SG in question is one of Young's most iconic instruments. It was used for most major AC/DC recordings and taken across the globe on numerous world tours. It was also the source material for an Angus Young signature SG in 2009. Noted for its unusually slim neck, it became the bedrock of the AC/DC lead sound.

Young's 2009 GW interview charted the creation of their 15th studio album, Black Ice. Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden) was tasked with producing the 15-track barnstormer, and he wanted to change things up a little by prizing Young away from his tried-and-trusted workhorse.

“I’ve got a couple of other guitars that I use onstage and as spares,” Angus relayed at the time. “I’ve got an early Sixties black SG, and we’d try that one. I’ll try anything and, if it works, use it.”

So, what fans are hearing on Black Ice isn’t always that guitar – Young is happy to experiment.

“Another guitar that I’ve got, a ’68 SG, dates from the Highway to Hell days, and I’ve used it for backing tracks and stuff,” he continued. “It’s a factory reject, I think – it has the number ‘2’ on it. I got it for 70 or 75 bucks when I first came to America. It was quite beat up.”

The Aussies played their first US shows in July 1977, meaning the $75 price tag is roughly $650 in today’s money. That alone makes it sound like a steal, but given its provenance, it's probably added a couple of zeros by now.

Today, the SG is finding plenty of love in the hands of Derek Trucks, Samantha Fish, Grace Bowers, and Yungblud as new generations take to the iconic axe. That said, a new signature Angus Young SG from Gibson wouldn't go amiss...

In a 2020 interview with Bass Player, AC/DC low-end legend Cliff Williams explained how he got the AC/DC gig in 1977, and charted the gear that defined his sound.

What is it?

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

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

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

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

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

Specs

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

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

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

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

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

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

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

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★★

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

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

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

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

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

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

Verdict

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

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

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

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

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

Also try

There’s no official lower limit to how far a bass player can tune, but if you’ve reached drop F, you’ve probably gone far enough. This month, however, manufacturers have been doing their best to encourage us to venture further into the sonic abyss.

Highlights include Dingwall’s Amos Williams Signature Combustion, a BEAD-tuned four-string built for subterranean lows, and the Ron Petzke Cyclops Bass from Dunable Guitars. If you’ve ever thought your bass simply wasn’t capable of moving enough air, Dunable and Petzke would like a word.

Other artist-driven releases include Ashdown’s Combo of Doom, created with Black Sabbath legend Geezer Butler, La Bella’s Aston “Family Man” Barrett Signature strings, and JCA Audio’s Endless Bass plugin, which packs multiple amp tones, DI and sub channels and a parallel mixer into a single plugin.

With a host of new basses, strings, pedals and plugins designed to make your low-end even louder, here’s our pick of the biggest bass gear releases in July.

Dingwall Guitars Amos Williams Signature

Although most of us would sooner drop an SVT on our foot than venture into tunings as low as progressive metal band TesseracT, there can’t be many bass players who haven’t at least considered going lower.

TesseracT remain one of prog metal’s heaviest hitters, and anyone drawn to the low-end manoeuvres of bassist Amos Williams should take a serious look at his Signature Combustion from Dingwall Guitars.

The four-string version features Dingwall’s renowned 34.75–37-inch multi-scale design and comes factory-tuned to BEAD, offering plenty of extended low-end range straight out of the box.

There’s an environmental angle, too. In keeping with Williams’ commitment to reducing waste, each bass is constructed from carefully selected body offcuts that would otherwise be too small to build a complete instrument. The result is a sustainable approach that also means every bass is genuinely one of a kind.

Joe Calderone Audio & Toby Peterson-Stewart Endless Bass

Lauded as one of the modern-day heroes of the electric bass, Toby Peterson-Stewart has teamed up with Joe Calderone Audio to create Endless Bass, a custom plugin that’s designed to give you control over multiple amp tones, with a dedicated DI and sub channel, plus a full parallel mixer – all in one plugin.

“We made Endless Bass to provide the most complex bass tone, with the simplest workflow,” says Peterson-Stewart. “All modern bass tones are an amalgamation of different parallel channels that are combined together to make one big tone. So we decided to put it all into one plugin.”

The parallel mixer can be accessed from the plug-in’s Mix Page, with each channel featuring its own full parametric EQ. There’s also a Pre-FX page with fuzz and chorus, although crucially, these effects don’t affect the Sub channel.

The result is a streamlined multi-layered bass signal that would otherwise require several amp, effects and mixing chains, all from a single plugin.

Ashdown Geezer Butler Combo of Doom

Here’s one for the Sabbath fans – following Geezer Butler’s monstrous bass rig for Black Sabbath’s 2025 “Back to the Beginning” concert, Ashdown has unveiled the Combo of Doom – a UK-built 200-watt bass combo created in collaboration with the legendary bassist and limited to just 70 units worldwide.

The control panel features a five-band EQ, tube-emulated drive, Shape and Active/Passive switches, while an effects loop, Line In, balanced XLR DI, headphone output and optional footswitch provide plenty of flexibility for both stage and studio use.

Visually, it shares the same purple Tolex as Butler’s colossal Ashdown rig, but at just 10.5kg, and with a single 1x12-inch speaker, it’s a far more portable alternative – and a tempting proposition for Sabbath devotees and bassists alike.

Dunable Guitars Ron Petzke Cyclops Bass

If your idea of a sensible bass tuning ends somewhere around standard, look away now. Dunable Guitars has teamed up with Bongripper bassist Ron Petzke for a limited-edition USA Cyclops Bass built specifically for players who like their low-end to venture into truly ridiculous territory.

Designed with drop F in mind, the recipe is suitably stripped-back: a single D-Bird pickup, a charcoal finish and a hefty slab of swamp ash.

With its USA-built construction and limited-edition status, this latest model from Dunable looks less like a conventional bass and more like a dedicated piece of heavy-duty artillery for anyone who thinks drop G simply isn’t low enough.

La Bella Aston “Family Man” Barrett Signature Flatwound Bass Strings

La Bella reckons its 760FS Deep Talkin’ Bass flatwound strings played such an important role in Aston “Family Man” Barrett’s legendary tone that the company has developed a signature set in tribute to the late bassist.

"For decades, ‘Family Man’ relied on La Bella flatwound strings to deliver the deep and powerful tone that became the heartbeat of countless classic recordings,” say La Bella. “His basslines provided the foundation for some of the most influential music ever created, making La Bella strings an integral part of his unmistakable sound.”

The set uses .045, .065, .085 and .105 gauges, finished with distinctive red, gold and green silk ends – a nod to Barrett’s Jamaican roots and musical legacy.

Serek The Grand Batch #12

If you like your basses with a little more attitude than your average slab of mahogany, Serek’s latest limited-edition Grand should be firmly on your radar.

Batch #12 is the latest instalment in Serek’s semiannual series, and it arrives with a mahogany body finished in Wild Mountain Berry, accented with Cream stripes and topped with a custom-engraved “Four Thousand Holes” pickguard from Decoboom.

As with previous Grand models, Batch #12 features a TV Jones Thunder’Blade pickup and Serek’s “Skuzz Serkit” passive fuzz circuit. A roasted maple neck, Indian rosewood fingerboard and Hipshot hardware round out the spec.

Jad Freer Audio SARTO

We’re already partial to the Jad Freer Audio CAPO, and always pleased to see the Italian-based company release another of it’s studio-style preamp pedals. The SARTO is billed as a “channel strip in a small box” – a compact preamp/EQ pedal designed to bring clean-tone shaping to just about any instrument.

It’s based on the clean preamp circuit from the CAPO and is built around an ultra-high input impedance, making it particularly well suited to piezo-equipped instruments such as upright basses.

An extended EQ section and resonant high-pass filter give players plenty of control over the frequencies that can make or break a live or studio sound.

There’s also a balanced XLR output, making the SARTO a practical option for bass players who want to go straight to a desk or recording interface.

Winzz Guitars EBS714 & EBS715

Winzz Guitars is looking to bring neck-through construction and modern active electronics to a wider audience with its new EBS714 and EBS715 electric basses. Both combine an okoume body with a walnut top and sleek matte finish.

Winzz has fitted the pair with active dual-humbuckers and a three-band active EQ, giving players boost-and-cut control over the bass, middle and treble frequencies alongside a master volume.

Chrome hardware completes the package, but the real attraction is the combination of a 35-inch scale, neck-through construction and active dual-humbuckers.

Swiff Audio Maestro Series WT09B 5.8GHz Wireless System

If you’re tired of cables getting under your feet, Swiff Audio has another wireless option for your bass rig – and this one promises to keep things seriously stable.

The Maestro Series WT09B 5.8GHz Wireless Transceiver System arrives just two months after the 2.4GHz WT09A, upgrading to the less congested 5.8GHz frequency band for what Swiff describes as studio-grade tone and rock-solid wireless performance.

The launch also comes with some serious player endorsements. Guitar virtuoso Bernth Brodträger and slap bass extraordinaire Charles Berthoud have both officially joined Swiff Audio as global brand ambassadors for the Maestro Series – suggesting the company is keen to position its latest wireless system as a serious tool for serious players.

BOSS CB-EB15 Bass Guitar Gig Bag

It may be BOSS’s first bass guitar gig bag, but the CB-EB15 looks like the company has done its homework – offering plenty of protection and practical touches for bassists who need to get their instrument from A to B in one piece.

The exterior is made from durable 600D polyester, with thick padding throughout and extra reinforcement to protect the strap button on the lower bout. A cushioned end guard features an adjustable fit, allowing the bag to accommodate basses of different shapes and sizes.

Inside, your bass gets a velvet-lined interior and two detachable neck supports with adjustable straps, while heavy-duty zippers add another layer of protection. There’s also a sizeable external front pocket for accessories, along with a padded carry handle and two padded backpack straps for even easier transport.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Visit Kramer for more.

What is it?

It's the nature of electric guitar and bass design – no matter how brilliant the blueprint is, once it reaches the market, there will almost always be a subset of owners who find joy in tweaking, adding or removing components, and stamping their own identity on it.

The Fender Jazz Bass is one of those instruments whose design was nearly perfect from the off, and remains so after almost seven decades, but there's now a sizeable market for Jazz-inspired bass guitars with the added power and flexibility of active electronics.

It helps that the Jazz is such a versatile platform to begin with; further enhanced, it really can end up being the clichéd “everything you ever need” bass – comfortable and stylish but traditional, and distinctive-sounding but with masses of flexibility.

Strangely, for a company that has made inroads into so many diffuse areas of the guitar and bass market, Ibanez had never hopped aboard.

The company's long-running Soundgear and BTB ranges, and the newer EHB headless models, cater particularly well for the rock and metal crowd; its Talman range adds a couple of quirky retro models. But in between, there's a long-standing gap; we’ve never seen an Ibanez take on the do-it-all ‘Super Jazz’. Until now

In 2026, we're seeing a whole new range of basses from the Japanese giant - the Mode, or MDM (Mode Modern) series. A clearly Fender-inspired outline, and all-important Jazz-sized single-coil pickups, but with the accoutrements of modern bass guitar.

The £999 entry to the range is the solid-coloured MDM1000, available with four, five or six strings, but here we have a four-string example of the next model up - this is the sunburst-finished, ash-bodied MDM1300.

Specs

• Price: $1,299 | £1,099 | €1,199
• Made: Indonesia
• Type: Four-string active bass guitar
• Body: Ash
• Neck: Roasted maple, MDM profile
• Fingerboard material/radius: Roasted maple, 12” radius
• Scale length: 34”/864mm
• Nut/width: Plastic, 38mm
• Frets: 24, medium, stainless steel
• Hardware: Ibanez Aero-light tuners, MR5S bridge, black
• String spacing at bridge: 19mm - adjustable at bridge
• Electrics: 2x Delta S4J pickups, Ibanez Sonitech S preamp, controls for Volume, Balance, Tone (push-pull for activating EQ), Bass, Mid, Treble, 3-way Mid selector switch, 2-way Hexa Mid selector switch on rear panel
• Weight: 9.3lb/4.2kg
• Options: MDM1000 range (from £999) with solid-colour finishes, available in 4, 5 or 6-string. MDM1305 5-string (£1,189). MDM1600 range (from £1,189) with exotic wood top, available in 4, 5 or 6-string.
• Left-handed options: N/A
• Finishes: Natural Stained Amber Burst
• Case: Ibanez gig bag included
• Contact: Ibanez

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

The body shape is instantly recognisable as Jazz-inspired, but with a deep treble-side cutaway for access to all 24 frets. The prominent grain of the ash, and the subtle burst finish, are very attractive; like the best of this style of instrument, its aesthetics would be just as suited for a soul/R&B band as for a metal project.

The build is fantastic overall; the hardware is tactile and high-quality, and the fit and finish is extremely well-executed, with no real flaws to mention anywhere – not necessarily a given with basses around this price.

The only sticking point with this review sample is the weight – at around 4.2 kg, it’s more than most will want for a four-string Jazz-style bass.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★★

I’ve heard Ibanez’s slim, narrow Soundgear neck profile described as being “like playing bass on ‘Easy’ mode” – and that statement came back to mind immediately when I began playing the MDM1300’s roasted maple neck.

It’s a Jazz-spec 38mm nut width, with a slim profile and a very smooth satin finish, and its easy playability is exactly what we’ve come to expect from an Ibanez bass – really superb.

There’s even a detachable finger ramp supplied; it’s as if the bass is egging you on to play faster and more technical fingerstyle passages.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Another feature of the Mode series is an exhaustive EQ section – not satisfied with the conventional Bass/Mid/Treble layout, Ibanez has added a three-way mini-switch to offer a choice of midrange frequencies.

Then, set into the rear cavity cover, a second DIP switch for Ibanez’s new Hexa Mid circuit, which shifts the mid response to a lower register – combined with the first switch, this is a total of six possible frequencies for the Mid knob to boost or cut.

If you’re dialing in a very precise tone, it’s great news; if you’re prone to option paralysis, it’ll confound you. But you can pull up on the passive tone control and bypass the whole lot.

After you’ve found your way around the smorgasbord of midrange possibilities, the Ibanez starts to deliver on its promise of versatility, taking everything my bass test rig could throw at it – from a clean, compressed Gallien-Krueger to a gritty Sansamp tone, a vintage Ampeg overdrive to a modern-day Darkglass roar.

The Sonitech S preamp is clean, articulate and, of course, has that incredibly powerful EQ; fingerstyle, slapped, or picked, every note comes out with abundant punch and clarity. It doesn't sound like a vintage Jazz Bass, but you could immediately slot it into a recorded or live mix as a polished, professional modern Jazz-style tone – which is more the point.

There’s also something to be said for how much better it’s possible to sound on an instrument that simply makes playing smoother.

Verdict

It’s strange that Ibanez has never entered the ‘Super Jazz’ space before but, on this evidence, the Mode series stands as one hell of a first effort.

This example is a heavyweight, but makes up for it with stunning playability and a preamp that offers a borderline-excessive amount of adjustment.

At its price, it’s very difficult to rival the degree of quality and versatility shown here – if a modernised Jazz Bass is what you’re after, you’d be doing yourself a real disservice by not auditioning the Mode series.

Guitar World verdict: Ibanez has come into the modern Jazz Bass-style market for the first time, and pulled it off with quite some aplomb. The Mode series is a class-leading package – an excellent, unique preamp, good looks and the kind of silky-smooth playability that Ibanez fans will know and love.

Also try

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Jonny Dibble

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• Ibanez Bass Workshop SRFF805 review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Head over to Harley Benton for more info.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What happened next?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pulling Rank

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Soldering On

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

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

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

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

Harnessing Up

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

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

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

Inside Track

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back In Control

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

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

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

What is it?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Specs

Dan O Cool

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

Dan O Mano

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

Build quality, playability and sounds

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★

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

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

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

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

Hands-on videos

R.J. Ronquillo

Danelectro vs Death Ray Cat

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What is it?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Specs

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

Build quality, playability and sounds

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

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

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

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

Hands-on videos

Cort

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See Fender Japan for more.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See Gretsch for more.

Graham Coxon has offered his thoughts on what his Blur bandmate Damon Albarn is like as a guitarist.

The Coxon and Albarn tandem is one of the most enduring songwriting partnerships to have come out of the Britpop scene, but that doesn’t stop Coxon from laying into his bandmate for not playing a “proper guitar”.

In Blur, they’ve crafted timeless anthems like Song 2 and Parklife, but speaking to Guitarist, Coxon has lifted the lid on the one side of Albarn’s guitar-playing tendencies that get under his skin.

“He’s got his own thing, like everyone has,” Coxon ventures when asked about Albarn's guitar style, somewhat diplomatically. Indeed, when asked about what he made of Albarn’s guitar talents, Coxon fires back, “This is a stitch-up...”

But the question was serious. There’s an argument to say his chops are underrated. Coxon’s on the fence.

“You know, he rushes it a bit with his strumming,” he details. “He does that nice, simple kind of Elizabeth Cotten picking thing. But he always plays those little Taylors. I’m always like, ‘Come on, play a proper guitar.’”

Coxon’s guitar arsenal is vast and varied, comprising everything from Telecasters and Gibson SGs, through to a Burns Sonic and Yamaha Revstar. Coxon feels his co-writer needs to sort his own arsenal out and get something he thinks is a bit more serious.

Coxon also defended his own playing style, adding: “Despite what people say about me – that I just want to be noisy – that’s not always the case. I’ve also got an appreciation for people like Larry Carlton. I love his playing on [Donald Fagen’s] New Frontier.

“It’s like Donald Fagen has gone: ‘All right man, you got one take – go!’ And you can hear that he’s feeling his way through the song. Melody, for me, is very important. I like the idea of having a conversation with the guitar.

“I don’t know all my scales; [if I did] then I wouldn’t play so many naughty notes that do something emotionally interesting.

Coxon has had to learn to escape Albarn’s shadow. Now he needs to convince his partner to ditch the Taylors.

The full interview can be found in the new issue of Guitarist, with print and digital copies available to order from Magazines Direct.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Charvel’s Guitar Repair

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Grover Jackson takes over

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Charvel after Grover Jackson

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

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

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

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

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

Charvel today

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

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

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

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

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

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

Guitar World video demo

What is it?

Growing up watching MTV in the 2000s, the deluge of mega-hit singles from Green Day's American Idiot was inescapable.

The world was enthralled by the songwriting, attitude and visuals of the title cut, Holiday, Wake Me Up When September Ends and the epic Jesus of Suburbia – but don't forget the magnificent guitar sound too.

Of course, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong had years of form in that department already – the band's 1994 breakthrough album Dookie is also well-known for its tone; that sound has been replicated for several successful runs of MXR's Dookie Drive.

There's a common thread, and it's a pair of Marshall amplifiers - two Super Lead reissues which Armstrong acquired around the Dookie era and then had modified. These have formed the backbone of Armstrong's tight, percussive, snarling tone ever since; over Green Day's long, highly successful career, then, these two Marshalls have left a sizeable footprint on rock history.

Now, the British brand has chosen to commemorate Armstrong with a hand-wired signature amp, based on those long-serving Super Leads with their so-called ‘Dookie mods’.

Marshall's model code for the 100-watt Super Lead is 1959 (nothing to do with the year; a common misconception) - so this amp becomes the 1959BJA.

Specs

• Price: $3,999 | £3,099 | €3,699
• Type: Valve-powered amp head
• Origin: UK
• Output: 100 watts RMS
• Speaker: None
• Channels: 1
• Controls: Presence, Bass, Middle, Treble, Master, Gain
• Connectivity: Front panel 2x ¼” instrument inputs - Low and High gain. Rear panel 2x ¼” speaker outputs (selectable impedance, 16, 8 or 4 ohm)
• Footswitch: None
• Weight: 20.1 kg / 44.3 lbs
• Dimensions: W 741mm x H 294mm x D 210mm
• Contact: Marshall

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

As expected, given its price and top-rung status, the head is put together with care and precision, in the factory that’s been turning out these big old amps for generations. It's a hand-wired, British-built Marshall; the componentry, assembly and finishing is all tried-and-tested.

The front panel has ‘Master’ and ‘Gain’ screen-printed in the style of a label-maker, a fun little touch that calls to mind modified amps of yesteryear. In the top corner, there's a commemorative plate in Marshall's trademark brass, bearing the model name, the ‘Dookie’ logo, and Armstrong's signature. It's a nice addition that stamps some artist personality onto the amp, without being overbearing.

Like other Super Lead models, though, the head shell's corners are unprotected. That's an oversight in terms of durability - it might not be such a worry on a normal, more functional-looking black Marshall, but do you want that tasty blue Tolex getting scuffed and torn?

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★☆☆

The construction is gloriously traditional, then, but so is the form factor - and that's not without its old-fashioned flaws. There's one central handle on top, and the amp’s substantial weight is unevenly-biased; it's tilting uncomfortably against you all the time you're carrying it. Practical it ain't - but once it's sitting on a cab, the BJA looks cool enough to forgive it for the backache… almost.

The front panel, meanwhile, offers some clues to the amp's character before you even switch on. For a kick-off, we've two inputs, not the Super Lead's usual four - just Low and High, for different gain stages. Importantly, there are also controls for Gain and Master Volume. These functions point not towards the Super Lead, but the later JCM 800 model. Interesting.

As for the rear panel - well, there are the speaker outputs, impedance and mains voltage selectors, as well as a nice silk-screen of Armstrong's signature, but not much else in the way of features. In particular, the lack of an effects loop seems a notable oversight; anyone using effects will have to do so through the amp input, which severely restricts functionality for delay or reverb pedals in particular.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★★

I tested the BJA through an industry-standard Marshall 1960A cab, with my humbucker-equipped Les Paul (the ideal pairing for most Marshalls) and my prized 1962 SG/Les Paul Junior. Armstrong has been relying on Juniors for many years, so this is surely the most appropriate guitar to start with.

The Low input first, with Gain and EQ controls around 12 o'clock. It's a bright, punchy and ringing clean tone; classic Marshall. Winding the Gain up, I ducked the Bass down to keep the low-end tight. The BJA began exhibiting those classic ‘Plexi’ overdrive characteristics we've heard on countless recordings.

The Master volume allows this to happen at *slightly* more sensible levels but, make no mistake, this amp is ridiculously, devastatingly, extravagantly loud. From my rehearsal room, I caused numerous earthquakes throughout Bedfordshire with the knob at a mere 10 o'clock. I once measured a dimed Marshall DSL100 at 124dB, and I've no doubt the BJA would top that. Earplugs are non-negotiable.

That's to say nothing of the High input. With the Gain only around 10 o'clock and the Master towards noon, there's already a hell of a lot of gain, the P-90 in my Junior tipping into feedback without any encouragement - but those ‘Dookie’ mods pay dividends, as this is the sound in every Green Day fan's head. Fat, and full of midrange punch, but with superb definition in the high-end.

At the upper reaches of the Gain knob, it's far beyond Green Day - well into classic metal territory with a Les Paul, for example. As the controls suggest, the BJA does operate much like a JCM 800, and has easily as much gain available, but the voicing is still Super Lead through and through. In a word? Magnificent.

Verdict

Artist signature Marshall amps don't come along all that often and, however good they are, they tend to be hard to get hold of - often amounting to little more than catnip for collectors, buying them to speculate while the general public gets barely a sniff. That may well prove to be the case here too - but does this amp deserve better?

Yes, it's far too loud for almost any situation short of Green Day’s stadium tours. Yes, it’s highly impractical and inflexible, lacking any modern conveniences whatsoever; forget power scaling or reactive load, it doesn't even have an effects loop. The most modern feature is the master volume.

If it were a series production amp, this would certainly be a limiting factor in its appeal, but the market for this hand-wired status symbol likely won’t care. And if you do happen to get into a room with one, and a decent guitar, you tend to forget about all that as it pulverises your brain and eardrums – into Brain Stew, if you will.

This review might be academic for many, who wouldn’t have any use for such an amp even if it were attainable. Imagine if it were a readily-available 20-watt Studio model with the same voicing, though. We can but dream.

Guitar World verdict: The Marshall 1959BJA is the first artist-signature Marshall amp in over a decade, and it might remain out of the grasp of many - but the modified Super Lead tone, in a format that apes the master-volume JCM 800, is truly a magnificent playing experience. Try it, if you can.

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The introduction of relic stickers has reignited the debate on faux-damaged instruments. But why do some players find the concept of relics so, ahem, distressing? Answering that very question – through the medium of a snarky sort-of-interview – it’s this week’s Fret Buzz.

I'm new to relicing. Give me the elevator pitch?

Box-fresh, squeaky-clean, unblemished, and virginal are fine for a Jonas Brother. But what if your guitar could imply you’ve spent the past decade gigging a Deep South dive bar, swatting Hell’s Angels during set breaks, with a wildcat stripper named Candy stubbing Lucky Strikes on your scratchplate after your nightly lovemaking?

Yes. I want people to have that impression of me.

Trouble is, that kind of lifestyle wears you down. Alcoholism. Gonorrhoea. Country ’n’ western. Hence the rise of guitar relicing: an entire art and science dedicated to making your Tele look like Keith Richards’ kneecaps.

How did relicing start, anyway?

Back in the ’80s, repair men realized that putting fresh parts on vintage guitars was like jamming Simon Cowell’s veneers into the mouth of a mummified corpse from a Mesolithic peat bog. The industry sprang up from that first soiled hardware.

I'm sorry, but how is relicing different to vandalism?

Think of it more as willing sadomasochism. These days, guitarists will pay a premium for a good thrashing from a middle-aged carpenter named Kenny.

Hey, whatever your kink. Is there a relicing godfather I should know about?

Most people would cite Tom Murphy, boss and namesake of Gibson’s Murphy Lab. This man is the opposite of a plastic surgeon. An hour on his workbench would turn Harry Styles into Willie Nelson.

Is the Murphy Lab an actual laboratory?

More like a state-of-the-art torture chamber. They’ve got revolutionary lacquer formulations. Cutting-edge cooling chambers. Thermally aged soundboards. But Tom and the team get medieval too, using car keys and railroad spikes. The results are stunning – but controversial.

What's the problem?

There's a school of thought that players should earn their scrapes and dings. Take Rory Gallagher’s ’61 Strat...

Oh yeah. That thing looks like it spent the weekend on Miami Beach with no sunscreen.

That’s a good, honest flaying, right there. No cooling chambers in 1970s Ireland.

So this is about authenticity?

Yeah. It’s like if you found out Harry Potter’s scar wasn’t from battling Voldemort but done under anesthetic on Harley Street. Or that Henry Rollins’ Search & Destroy tattoo was actually one of those stick ’n’ peel jobs your mom applies with a wet sponge.

How about the defense for relicing?

As Murphy reminded Guitar World last year, relicing is more than skin-deep, with the Lab’s fretboard-rolling process giving the feel of a played-in classic. It’s also a feasible way to take a ‘vintage’ instrument out on the road. As for the looks, the only thing that's aged better is Michelle Pfeiffer.

Maybe it's time for an older model. How much is a Murphy Lab guitar?

Prices start around $5,600 for a 1957 Goldtop Reissue (Ultra Light Aged).

Christ! What’s next? Pay someone to scratch my car, smash my windows, and defecate on my lawn?!

Well, maybe you’d prefer those relic stickers we mentioned (yours for $6.20).

No. That's the most pathetic thing I've ever heard of.

Fine. Then go at it with a cheese grater. Start holding band practice in a sauna. Or simply pop your Strat in the Stones’ dressing room – three hours should take your finish from Olympic White to Cancerous Lung.

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

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

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

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

Slimline Tonic

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

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

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

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

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

Less Les

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cherry On Top

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sideways Glance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• See Godin for more info.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wilco's Jeff Tweedy took the production reins for Transmitter, the latest LP by Max Clarke – better known by his stage name, Cut Worms.

It’s a decision that goes against the Brooklyn, New York-based indie pop songwriter’s usual DIY intuition.

During the process, Clarke learned to make the most of it: to let someone else put their fingerprints all over his ideas while also immersing himself in Tweedy’s extensive and almost definitely expensive guitar collection.

“Historically, I’ve white-knuckled it through other people’s playing,” he tells Guitar World. “I did it all myself a lot of the time. I had a stranglehold on the thing. This time, I trusted that somebody else could bring something to the music that I couldn’t.”

It’s helpful, too, when relinquishing a little control, that his producer came with a wealth of gear.

“Tweedy wasn’t precious about his expensive guitars,” he nods. “They are meant to be played.”

But there was one Clarke was too terrified to get close to.

“If you wanted to use an instrument, you just picked it up and used it,” he says. “At one point, when we were sitting there in the control room area, I reached for an acoustic guitar to idly play or strum. Jeff’s like, ‘That’s the most expensive guitar in this building… Just so you know.’

“I didn’t ask how much it was,” he adds. “I was just like, ‘Get it away from me.’ It’s good to know that Tweedy’s on-stage, chill dad persona translates to the studio.”

Gentle demeanor or not, the fear of scaring an instrument worth an eye-watering amount was enough to stop him tinkering. Luckily, he didn’t need to. There was plenty more on offer.

“He had 15 original Rickenbackers from the ’60s,” he says. “Even though there was all this really cool old gear and things that could be in museums, Jeff wasn’t precious about any of it.”

The 10-track album was released in March and clearly benefits from Tweedy’s excess of six-strings.

Clarke’s full interview features in the new issue of Guitar World, which sees David Bowie gracing the cover. His former foils have given new interviews about what it was like to work for the chameleonic hitmaker.

Print and digital copies can be ordered from Magazines Direct.

What is it?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Guitar World demo video

Specs

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

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★★

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Verdict

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

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

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

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

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

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• Best Stratocasters: The best Strats for every budget and playing style

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Are there more Century Collection models coming down the line?

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

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

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

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

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

What is it?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Specs

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

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

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

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

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

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

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

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

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★☆

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆½

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Verdict

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thomann has been approached for comment.

You can read Fender’s full statement below:

Fender's statement in full

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

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

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

This matter is different.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What is it?

A few years ago, Fender upended its range hierarchy and discontinued its long-serving Mexican-built Classic range of electric guitars and basses, replacing it with the Vintera line.

The new name carries a similar ethos – vintage-inspired specs, without American reissue prices. To its credit, Fender didn't simply stop there.

The subsequent Vintera II refresh saw numerous spec upgrades, plus new models and finishes. Now, in 2026, we're starting to see the introduction of the Vintera III range, with yet further updates.

I use the word ‘updates’ somewhat loosely, though, as these are still vintage-inspired instruments; the old-school specs and finishes are really the point. But, of course, Fender's long history provides a seemingly never-ending stream of models and era-specific features, ripe for reissue.

Here, then, is the Vintera III Late ‘60s Precision Bass, and its name states a clear goal - to capture the vibe of Fender's early ‘CBS’ period, after that giant American broadcasting corporation bought the company in 1965.

Many changes were made to Fender's range, not all of them for the better, but the distinctive style of the era is now highly sought-after.

Specs

• Launch price: $1,249 | £1,099 | €1,229currency retail prices
• Made: Mexico
• Type: Four-string electric bass
• Body: Alder
• Neck: Maple, ‘Late ‘60s C’ shape
• Fingerboard material/radius: Round-laminated rosewood, 7.25”
• Scale length: 34”/864mm
• Nut/width: Bone, 41.3mm
• Frets: 20, vintage tall
• Hardware: Vintage style ‘Lollipop’ tuners, vintage style 4-saddle bridge with threaded steel saddles
• String spacing at bridge: 19mm
• Electrics: 1x Late 60s split-coil pickup, volume, tone
• Weight: 7.9lb/3.6kg
• Left-handed options: N/A
• Finishes: Black with matching headstock and rosewood fretboard (as reviewed), Firemist Gold with rosewood fretboard, Lake Placid Blue with maple fretboard, 3-Color Sunburst with maple fretboard
• Case: Fender Deluxe gig bag, included
• Contact: Fender

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

Fender hasn't put a specific year on it, as it always has on the upmarket American Vintage lines; presumably, such year-specific features are hard to achieve at this significantly lower price point.

It's arguable that, because the ‘60s Precision aesthetic is so enduringly popular, that this latest take looks like many of Fender's other P-Bass models - especially if you unscrew the plastic tug bar on the scratchplate.

Luckily, this black example benefits from a matching headstock - a rare and desirable custom feature on original ‘60s Fenders, and undoubtedly one that does some heavy lifting aesthetically.

A downside, on our review sample, is that the Fender logo has noticeable rough edges from application - not something you'd be especially pleased about on a £300 instrument, leave alone one retailing for £1,099.

Other than this cosmetic issue, however, the build quality is excellent – the neck pocket is tight and the whole instrument resonates strongly.

The maple neck is finished in a vintage-looking amber tint, and crowned with a lovely, super-dark, round-laminated rosewood fretboard. The radius is an old-school 7.25”, with narrow and tall frets.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★☆

The alder body is a comfortable weight, and the neck's ‘Late ‘60s C’ shape is superb, the usual P-Bass nut width creating enough substance, but the profile slim enough to be comfortable for those with smaller hands. The steep fretboard radius and the slightly sticky-feeling gloss finish might not appeal to all, however.

Out of the box, the action is fairly high; I choose to drop the bridge saddles for an easier playing experience. Just as well the truss rod doesn't need adjusting – it's one of the old-school style with a screw head located at the neck heel, meaning the whole neck might need to come off.

Once the saddles are lowered a little, the playability improves; much easier to enjoy the comfortable neck profile, and the familiar feel of a classic P-Bass.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

I plug into my usual Line 6 HX Stomp test rig, and dial up a couple of favourite presets for vintage-style bass tones – an Ampeg B-15, an Acoustic 360 and a gritty Ampeg SVT for some higher-gain exploration.

The beauty of an old-school Precision Bass is that there's basically no learning curve. You can plug it straight in, with both controls on full, and it immediately sounds like… an old-school Precision Bass.

There's that thick low-midrange boom, and the growl of the upper mids (emphasised here by the fairly new strings). Fender's Late ‘60s split-coil pickup provides a full-bodied bass and low-mid response that would undoubtedly work a treat with some flat-wound strings.

Conversely, the high frequencies are a little more subdued than you'll find in some other P-Basses; it's far from woolly, but it's certainly a little more polite than my own go-to Precision-style bass.

If you're routinely playing more modern rock styles, then, you might consider a hotter or brighter pickup but, for the era-specific sound that Fender is invoking here, it's ideal.

Verdict

The Vintera III Late ‘60s Precision Bass, then, does what it says on the tin. It's a fine-playing and good-sounding P-Bass with a subtle vintage vibe.

To play more to its strengths as a retro instrument, you might consider a different finish (there's a gorgeous, and very ‘60s, Firemist Gold available, for example); even with the matching headstock, this black example just blends a little too readily into the sizeable crowd of other black P-Basses.

That's a bit of a shame, as the whole point of a vintage reissue is to evoke a specific era; a brief that this bass otherwise confidently hits.

Guitar World verdict: The new Vintera III range brings with it another fine 60s-style P-Bass, offering excellent old-school tone and playability. Choose your finish carefully for the right amount of retro charm - but beyond that, it's difficult to go too far wrong here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See Gotta Have Rock and Roll for more.

What is it?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Specs

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

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★☆

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★★

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Verdict

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See Kiesel for more.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See Gibson for more.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yamaha has been approached for comment.

What is it?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Specs

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

Build quality, usability and sounds

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

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

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

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

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

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

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I've been writing and editing news stories for guitarworld.com for nine years now. If I had a dollar for every one I've written or seen about one band, artist or another who's had their guitar or another part of their rig smashed, lost, or otherwise mishandled while in air transit, I'd be able to comfortably retire (I'm 31).

Ask GA-20 what happened to one of their guitar cases in a TSA inspection, or Vernon Reid about what TSA did to his pedalboard. Ask Emily Wolfe about what happened to one of her Epiphone signature models on a flight to Las Vegas, or Madi Diaz about the fate of her beloved Martin (that was in a heavy-duty case with a “Fragile” sticker) while on a Delta flight. And just a few months ago, there was that viral video of a baggage handler carelessly throwing guitars on the ground at LAX.

As we all know, unless you exclusively fly by private jet (cheers to you, I guess), airport baggage and security rules and procedures change seemingly by day, and are enforced on a depends-on-which-side-of-the-bed-someone-woke-up-on basis. So, touring musicians, has your gear ever fallen victim to the pitfalls of air transit?

We want to hear about the gear that went on the wrong connecting flight and was halfway across the world when you need it (or disappeared entirely en route, never to be seen again), broken guitars, upturned pedalboards... and anything and everything in between.

Let us know your stories in the comments below.

What is it?

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

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

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

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

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

Specs

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

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

The Wes Borland King V comes in a generously proportioned soft-shell gig bag, and pulling it out, it feels pretty heavy, but a trip to the scales reveals a weight of just 3.3kg. It’s a long guitar, though, and the weight is distributed weirdly due to the shape, which makes it feel a lot more hefty than the kilograms show on the scale.

Performing a close inspection of the guitar, the paint is very nicely applied for the most part. I spot a few minuscule wobbles where the gloss black meets the white bevel, and there’s a slight detour for the white binding near the Floyd Rose locking nut. These are only really visible with my nose against the guitar, and certainly don’t detract from the overall look of it.

A bit more noticeable are the upside-down pearloid shark fin inlays, some of which look distinctly more yellow than the others. This isn’t so visible looking at the guitar head-on, but I certainly notice it when sitting with the guitar in my lap. There’s also a fleck of black caught in the inlay of the one marking the third fret. Again, these aren’t huge flaws, but with the price of the guitar, I’d expect a little better.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★☆

Sitting down to play the Wes Borland V, it’s well out of tune, so I have to unlock the nut and play a bit of see-saw, getting the guitar close to perfect tuning while keeping the bridge flat. It’s not ideal, but it’s a necessary evil of locking tremolos. The bridge ends up ever so slightly unparallel to the body, but I’ll have to make do with the time allotted. As a natural aside to the guitar’s shape and aforementioned weight distribution, playing sitting down isn’t really an option, even with a guitar strap on it, so I decide to stand instead.

With these hurdles jumped, my initial play reveals that the neck is really nicely done, with a smooth feel across the bound edges and jumbo frets. Jackson doesn’t list the profile of the neck, but it feels ‘D’-shaped to my hand and more in line with the guitar acrobatics of shred guitars than the more experimental nature of Borland’s own playing.

The large size of the frets offers an excellent playing platform, whether I’m churning power chords with a slight bend a la Break Stuff, nailing the chorus riff from Stuck, or laying into the locking tremolo with the main motif from Hot Dog. Wes’ own playing might not be the most technically demanding in terms of pure chops, but his guitar certainly holds up to the less usual demands he makes of his instruments.

Naturally, there’s a bit of a shift in the tuning when I do things like pushing the bar to the body of the guitar or trying some Dimebag harmonic screams. Still, it puts up with extreme use very well, with only cursory retuning via the mini tuners of the Floyd Rose necessary. For your day-to-day flutters and smaller dives, the tremolo holds without having to retune any more than I usually would with a locking system.

Getting into some more traditional playing, it’s easy to fly around the fretboard with some legato licks, and it’s definitely got plenty of that Jackson shred DNA. Bending against the jumbo frets feels lovely; there’s no scratchiness here, and alternate-picked scale runs and three-note-per-string legato licks are easily achieved. It could be better, though. The factory setup is a pretty high at 2mm clearance from the low E string on the 12th fret when I press down at the 1st. That said, it’s already lightning quick as it is, so things can only get faster with a good setup.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

Interestingly, this guitar comes tuned in standard, presumably to make it more accessible. Wes himself uses C# standard on a lot of his songs, drop-B on others, and, of course, his weird intervals on that unique four-string guitar. Thankfully, I have an excellent pitch shifter available via my Neural DSP plugin collection, so I can play the songs as they should be.

The Seymour Duncan Invader is, as expected, a perfect match for high gain. Playing through the Gojira plugin with the amp sim based on the blue channel of the 5150 engaged, it’s incredibly articulate when I chug powerchords. The low end is controlled, the midrange punchy, and there’a lovely smooth sound to the high end. It’s an awesome-sounding pickup. Adding in a helping of reverb and delay, leads hit with plenty of cut and bags of sustain, although it’s not quite as compressed and never-ending as what you’d get from an active humbucker.

It’s interesting because I initially thought I’d find it limiting, but the organic nature of a passive pickup makes it much more versatile than an active equivalent, as I found with the Jackson Christian Andreu model I reviewed recently. Changing to a Fender-inspired amp model, it’s surprising how nice the cleans can get once I roll back the volume knob significantly to stop it hitting the front of the amp so hard. I do lose a bit of high-end due to the lack of a treble bleed circuit, but with the cutting nature of the high-output humbucker, it ends up being a net positive.

To try and keep some of the high end, I trim the input of my audio interface so that I can utilize the humbucker with the volume knob fully turned. Wes himself uses a Roland JC-120 for his cleans, a guitar amp which is known for its very high clean headroom. With the right gain staging, it means this guitar can deliver ambient and experimental cleans just as well as the heavy riffs.

This isn’t that surprising considering that moving from a heavily effected clean tone to a chunky riffing sound is a signature of Wes’ own playing. Trying some more measured stuff like arpeggiated chords and triads higher up the neck, I'm surprised at how organic the humbucker sounds despite the high output, with a lovely clarity and great note separation.

Verdict

Jackson is really on a roll with their signature guitars at the moment, and the Jackson Wes Borland King V is another success in my opinion. It’s well put together, can handle pretty much any playing style, and despite its simple layout, it’s deceptively versatile. I can see it finding fans beyond just those who worship at the temple of Wes.

I prefer the more organic feel and tone of a passive pickup here, so if you like that super controlled metal tone you get with an active pickup, this might not be the guitar for you. There were also a couple of occasions where I found myself wishing for a neck pickup, but for the most part, the single Seymour Duncan offers plenty of versatility for a variety of guitar tones.

Make no mistake, though, this is a guitar for live playing. V-shaped guitars are, at best, inconvenient for playing sat down at home, and this one is no different. The awkward weight distribution and shape make it cumbersome to wield in tight spaces, but there’s no denying that it feels and looks great when played standing up on a guitar strap.

Guitar World verdict: For anyone who knows their chocolate starfish from their hot dog flavored water, there aren’t all that many surprises with the Jackson Pro Series Signature Wes Borland King V. It can handle the heavy stuff just as well as clean tones, and it’s capable of plenty of guitar acrobatics via the locking tremolo. Putting aside the maladroit nature of V-shaped guitars, this is a riffing machine that can be used equally well for metal guitar playing or the more experimental tones Borland is famous for.

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Hands-on videos

Jackson

Dagan Wilkin

Ninecore Neil

What is it?

Smaller amps seem to rule the roost these days – definitely in the electric guitar world but also when it comes to acoustic guitar amps too. With acoustic guitars, however, if you’re using an amp it probably means you’re actually going to perform for some kind of audience beyond your bedroom.

Busking is still the most common way people get into performing live with an acoustic, but busking’s close cousins (as activities) are performing in small bars and coffee shops or quick rehearsals in your kitchen or lounge.

Those kinds of scenarios seem to be the target of the latest amp from Orange – better known for its rip-snorting tube amps – though the announcement that it is a collab project with Ed Sheeran was certainly a bit of a surprise. So what do we get?

The Outlowd ES60, whose portmanteau name hints at Sheeran’s other big partnership with Lowden guitars, is a 60-watt combo that can be powered by mains supply or the internal Li-ion rechargeable battery.

This is an upgrade over the numerous AA-size batteries required by busking-ready rivals such as the Boss Street Cube II – though let it be said, the Boss puts out only 10 watts and is considerably cheaper than the ES60, so you’d rightfully expect the Orange to have a beefier solution to al fresco power built in.

A compact, lightweight combo at just over 7kg and only around 28cm high and 30cm deep, it meets its first brief of being the kind of thing you could carry on a bus or on the subway – and it’s padded, quality gigbag with shoulder strap hints at serious have-guitar-will-travel ambitions.

In the US, this model is available exclusively through Guitar Center and Musician's Friend.

The ES60 is a dual-channel design, with one channel clearly intended to plug your guitar into and featuring a high headroom preamp based on that of the Orange Acoustic Pedal. This guitar channel features volume, Treble control, a flexible Mids EQ section with dedicated controls for adjusting ‘Q’ and the centre frequency of the mids, plus Bass and a hall-type Reverb.

Over on the second channel there’s a combination jack/XLR input for a vocal mic or alternate sound source, 48v phantom power switch for use with mics that need it, a high-pass filter switch to take the woof out of vocals, plus an EQ, Volume and, here, a plate-style reverb that’s meant to be optimized for vocals, a Mids EQ section similar to that of Channel One – though minus the ‘Q’ control – and a channel level control labelled Gain rather than Volume.

Round the back we’ve got an XLR line out, so the amp can run straight into a powerful PA rig while giving you local control over EQ and so on, a Ground Lift button, plus an FX loop if you want to expand the tonal palette and sonic capabilities of the combo.

In short, the ES60 sets its sights on enabling serious performance rather than casual, hobbyist play – which may justify, to some degree, its slightly austere lack of extra onboard effects that rivals often offer.

Moving back up to the top panel there’s a button for pairing the combo with Bluetooth devices for music playback – useful when rehearsing songs and, of course, if your performance makes use of backing tracks – plus 1/8-inch headphone and line-in sockets if you need them.

Specs

• Launch price: $699 (exclusively via Guitar Center and Musician's Friend) | £499 | €599
• Type: 60-watt RMS solid state acoustic combo
• Origin: China
• Output: 60 Watts RMS
• Speaker: 8-inch Voice Of The World ‘Whizzer’ speaker
• Channels: TwoControls: Ch 1: Volume, Treble, Middle, Q, Mid-Freq, Bass, Reverb; Ch 2: +48v Phantom Power Switch, HPF Switch, Gain, Treble, Middle, Mid-Freq, Bass, Reverb; Master: Volume
• Connectivity: 1/4" jack Input, Combi XLR /1/4"Jack Input, Balanced Line Out (XLR). Effects Loop 1/4" Send & Return, Aux Input 3.5mm Jack, 3.5mm Headphone Output
• Footswitch: NoWeight: 16.18 lb / 7.34 kgDimensions: 355 x 280 x 295mm / 14 x 11 x 11.6”
• Contact: Orange Amplification

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

The ES60’s angled cab feels chunky and robust. Impressively, it’s made from 15mm birch plywood rather than MDF or similar, underscoring the combo’s roadworthy credentials. The control knobs and switching feel positive and avoid flimsiness.

The fact the Bluetooth pairing button is metal not plastic is a nice touch, too. The chunky top-mounted handle is more than tough enough to lug the amp about on, given its light weight.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★½

In terms of usability, the feature set on both channels is relatively straightforward though there are some quirks.

The Mid-freq and Q controls work as a double act in terms of tailoring the amplified voice of the guitar but do feel very slightly vague in operation – the Q effect certainly isn’t dramatic, though you could argue that allowing the player to apply gentle tweaking to the mids to match personal taste is completely valid and maybe more practical in the real world than making those controls overpowered.

If they’d called the two controls ‘sweetness’ and ‘focus’ it might make more intuitive sense as a subtle but audible rounding, opening or tightening of the mids is really what’s going on here. It grew on me the more I used it.

The Treble control really could have more authority, though - while I like the woody, warm voice of the amp, it would be nice to have just a little more crystalline edge on tap here to provide clarity and snap.

Bluetooth pairing is easy and intuitive and the Reverb couldn’t be simpler with just one Hall-type reverb on offer on the guitar channel, though the upper limit of the ‘verb is tastefully atmospheric rather than cavernous.

With rivals such as the aforementioned Boss Street Cube II or the Laney A-Fresco 2 offering additional effects such as chorus and more, you will either view the ES60s feature set as admirably straightforward with little to confuse you during performance – or a bit sparsely equipped.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Plugging in my Beard Decophonic Southside with magnetic LR Baggs M1 soundhole pickup and my Martin Custom 000-14 (with an unknown but good-sounding under-saddle piezo system fitted by a previous owner), the roundness and warmth of the ES60’s sound is genuinely flattering and easy on the ear.

I may instinctively want a little more treble to be available but there are no unpleasant or unsatisfying sounds here, especially with the wiggle room for fine adjustment offered by the Mids controls – if Sheeran’s part in the project was to help dial in a very pleasant, usable overall sound, I’d say he did a great job.

The mic channel was similarly warm, supple of tone and usable with my test Shure SM57 and the few frills on offer didn’t hinder me from thinking the combo is a very capable tool for street performance and playing small venues.

Verdict

The ES60 is a purposeful and roadworthy acoustic / street performance tool that has a really attractive sound. It feels curiously over-specced in some areas and under-specced in others.

And, let it be said, it does face some keen competition at this price and below and you can’t help but wonder how much that famous moniker alone is adding to the hangtag price.

But if you view it as a piece of no-nonsense, capable kit with an emphasis on core quality rather than a showy spec sheet bursting with gimmicks it makes solid sense.

Guitar World verdict: This punchy little amp is a more serious tool than it might seem at first glance – just make sure you are happy to embrace its high core quality and simple but purposeful, performance-focused feature set.

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Orange and Ed Sheeran

Thomann

Guitar Center

• ​​Best acoustic guitar amps 2026: let your acoustic tone shine

Babicz and Gotoh, two huge names in guitar hardware, have pooled together their genius to deliver a new take on the electric guitar tremolo.

The FCH510G is a new guitar tremolo bridge system that Frankenstein’s the patented Babicz Contact Hardware saddles with Gotoh’s 510 six-pivot-point system.

In other words, it merges two key bridge innovations for a new trem that promises “exceptional tuning stability, tonal enhancement, and unmatched playability.”

It’s very much a best-of-both-worlds scenario, with the two competitors working together to advance trem technology. Here, Gotoh’s tremolo block bolsters sustain and resonance, while its clean design makes it a fitting upgrade to a wide range of guitars.

Add in Babicz’s Full Contact design – which replaces traditional two-point saddle height adjustment with a cam-based mechanism to maintain complete contact with the bridge plate – and it looks like a very interesting prospect.

The Full Contact design also means that energy transfer from strings to the body is maximized. This adds to the trem’s sustain for “fuller note bloom, and more consistent resonance across all strings”.

Additionally, the stable saddle design is in place to eliminate unwanted movement, which tightens the low-end and improves note definition across the fretboard, with string height adjustment that is both easy and precise. And there’s a whammy bar, too, which is always a plus.

The FCH510G is available now for $349.

See Full Contact Hardware for more.

What is it?

The original intention behind the Les Paul Special, in its 1955 launch, was to create a guitar that would offer players something between the more affordable Les Paul Junior and the flagship Les Paul Standard. Nowadays, however, in the collective consciousness of the guitar community, it is much more than just a stripped-down version of a Les Paul, but is instead a bona fide option in its own right.

Like most modern line-ups, Gibson’s catalogue is much more complicated than it was back then, featuring a huge selection of models to satisfy a range of preferences. To this end, we have seen a few different iterations of the Les Paul Special.

This particular model sticks with the original single-cutaway, slab mahogany body, bound fretboard, and dual pickup setup, which defined the Special as being a bridge between the Junior and Standard, but with two key differences: it's equipped with Mini Humbuckers, and is available as a Gibson Exclusive via its website/Garage stores.

In short, a Mini Humbucker is a humbucking pickup the size of a P90. Still hum-cancelling, the Mini Humbucker is considered to be a little brighter and more open-sounding than a normal humbucker.

When it comes to the Les Paul Special, one of the trademarks of the well-loved formula is its two P90’s. So, replacing them with Mini Humbuckers is definitely an interesting choice. But who knows, after playing this, we may be wondering why we don’t see them on more guitars…

Specs

• Launch price: $1,799 | £1,549 | €1,799
• Made: USA
• Type: Six-string electric guitar
• Body: Mahogany
• Neck: Mahogany, ‘50s Vintage
• Fingerboard: Rosewood, 12” radius
• Scale length: 628.65mm/24.75”
• Nut/width: Graph Tech, 43.05mm/1.7”
• Frets: 22, medium jumbo
• Hardware: Vintage Deluxe tuners, Wraparound bridge
• String spacing at bridge: 10mm
• Electrics: 2 Mini Humbucker pickups, 3-way switch, 2 volume, 2 tone
• Weight: 7.9lb/3.6kg
• Case: Gibson hardshell case
• Contact: Gibson

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

The simple design of the Les Paul Special means that there isn’t much that can go wrong. Starting at the top, we have Gibson Deluxe tuners that resist turning enough to feel premium, as do the volume and tone knobs. Additionally, the bound fretboard is a nice addition that lends credence to the guitar's status as a quality instrument.

A slab mahogany body saves some cash in that it lacks the carved maple top of a Les Paul, and further savings are made in a body that is not bound.

If I’m honest, the Tobacco Burst finish is a little boring, at least in my opinion. It allows some of the grain from the mahogany to show through, but it's not that striking a look with the dark colors.

This is down to personal preference, though, as I am sure there are those out there who will appreciate the understated aesthetic.

Out of the box, the setup leaves a bit to be desired, as the action was unbalanced. Medium-high on the low E at 1.75mm and medium-low on the high E at 1.25mm. Having adjusted it, it’s now comfortably in medium-low territory with the low E down to 1.50.

That imbalance seemed to cause some tuning issues, too, but after making the adjustment, the guitar is much more stable. Another easy fix is the dry fretboard, which is a little unpleasant out of the box.

The things that aren’t so easy to fix, however, are as they should be. For example, nicely finished frets, a tight neck pocket, no imperfections in the finish, and stable tuning. All in all, a well-built guitar, with just a little setup required.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

As someone who spends a lot of time gigging a Stratocaster or a Telecaster with a 25.5” scale length, it's always a joy to pick up a Gibson with the shorter 24.75” scale length and the reduced string tension that results from it.

The strings are easy to manipulate, with bends and vibrato feeling effortless under the fingers. This is helped along by the nicely finished medium jumbo frets, creating a smooth feel, and their height offering the fingers plenty of purchase on those strings.

The 12” radius is a sweet spot for a lot of people, with enough curve to allow those open chords to be played with ease, whilst being flat enough for some flashier lines without feeling too shreddy.

And so, I find myself playing through legato lines relatively effortlessly, and easily fretting those cowboy chords down the bottom of the neck. It’s not a guitar aimed at Steve Vai levels of flashy, but perfect for those rootsy, classic rock solos.

Adding to this is the Vintage ‘50s neck profile. It fills the hand whilst stopping short of ‘baseball bat’ territory, and you won't find any carved heel joints here either. So again, not for the shredders, but a good fit for those who like a more vintage feel.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Plugging into my Hot Rod Deluxe IV with the Special, what immediately jumps out is that the clarity on a clean tone is heavenly.

The Mini Humbuckers have a tight bass and low-mid response, meaning all those fancy chord extensions cut through nicely, but not in a way that is offensive. This makes the neck pickup and the relative roundness it brings perfect for choppy, funky rhythms. Who needs a Stratocaster, eh? (Kidding, I love my Strat).

The bridge is, comparatively, a little too brash for most clean sounds, but both pickups together in that middle position present an almost acoustic-like quality, lending itself to some open chord strumming and country-esque picking.

Using the Carbon side of my Browne Amplification Ethane pedal for some edge-of-breakup tones, those tight low mids again pay dividends, allowing for a light drive full of all the detail and overtones you could ask for.

When using gain, rolling back on the volume control yields a glassy clean which is very dynamic under the fingers, returning to breakup as you dig in.

The joys of a two-tone, two-volume setup mean that one pickup can be set to a rolled-back clean, while the other is giving its full output to utilize that drive, making for a versatile guitar that can induce significant and quick changes to tone just by switching the pickup.

As the gain is pushed further, some may start to miss the low-mid bark that adds some smoothness to the sound. This is the case for me, and for that type of tone, I would sooner reach for my Les Paul Classic and its Burstbucker 61T and Burstbucker 61R pickups with the extra lower mid when compared to the Mini Humbuckers.

That’s not to say the Mini Humbuckers don’t have a place in the land of higher gain. It’s a cutting sound that will get you heard in the mix and is pleasing in its own way, particularly on the neck pickup, where its tight nature keeps the cello-like sound associated with neck humbuckers from collapsing in on itself.

So the gain-y tones may not be for everyone, but on the strength of the clean and lightly driven sounds alone, I would challenge anyone not to be won over by the Mini Humbucker.

Verdict

The bones of the Gibson Les Paul Special are of simple materials constructed in a straightforward, minimal-frills manner.

What makes this particular iteration interesting is the inclusion of Mini Humbuckers in the place of the usual P90s. It’s interesting because it's not the norm, but maybe it should be.

They provide something that differs from full-sized humbuckers without expanding on single-coil or P90 territory, offering stellar cleans and breakup tones thanks to a tight low end and airy highs.

It’s a valid alternative to the P90-driven Les Paul Special, and would bring something different to most collections. Perhaps we should all have a Mini-Humbucker-loaded guitar in our arsenal.

Guitar World verdict: We’ve all seen a Les Paul Special before, but this is a little different. Trading those P90’s for Mini Humbuckers results in tones that excel in clean and lightly driven contexts, although they may prove a little divisive when used in higher gain settings. It’s a simple, well-built guitar that competently shows off the joys of a Mini Humbucker. Worth a try for anyone looking for an alternative version of a Les Paul to add to their collection.

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Gibson

The Guitaristas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See Gibson for more.

When a session guitarist’s vintage Gretsch was lost by FedEx, “guitar Batman” Johnny Marr came in to save the day to help discover it over 1,000 miles away.

Ella Feingold, who has worked with Bruno Mars and auditioned for Prince, bought a 1960s Gretsch 6105 online, only for it to disappear just minutes from her doorstep on delivery day.

It was only after Marr intervened that the guitar was found in the strangest of places.

“So, I got some tea,” Feingold says in an Instagram post. “For those that don’t know, about two weeks ago, FedEx lost my guitar. I got this vintage 1960s Gretsch, and it was supposed to show up in my house, but it just completely disappeared.

“It was scanned on the truck; it was like 30 minutes away from my house. Then nothing.”

Feingold reached out to FedEx, only to find herself contending with “useless” AI chatbots. The situation needed a hero – and it was Johnny Marr who sprang to action.

“My friend Johnny Marr put a post on his Twitter about what had happened, and today I got hit up by a guitar store in Memphis, Tennessee,” Feingold continues. “And they’re like, ‘Hey, a random Gretsch guitar that just showed up at our store. We don’t know where it came from, but we saw Johnny Marr's post, and we’re wondering if it’s possible that this is your guitar.’”

Pictures quickly confirmed it: FedEx had missed the delivery location by several states. It’s hardly ‘deliver to a neighbor’, is it?

“Don’t ask me how a guitar that was coming to Western Massachusetts somehow ends up in Memphis, Tennessee, of all places,” Feingold says, a look of bemusement on her face. “I mean, I have to thank Johnny Marr, who’s like guitar Batman, for finding it.

It’s not the only lost guitar to have made a miraculous recovery in recent weeks. A few days ago, Eric Clapton’s obscure Summersburst Les Paul re-emerged after six decades. Before that, Misha Mansoor recalled how he was reunited with his original signature Jackson in a surprising way.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Moving from small to large guitars, the J-200 is undoubtedly one of the most iconic flat-tops Gibson has produced. It was originally rosewood-bodied but famously changed to maple back and sides for most of its production life. Why the switch?

I don’t have the ‘why’ very well sorted out, other than I know that at least one maple-bodied J-200 was made pre-war. I think, again, there were lots of experiments happening. I also think World War II definitely played a part in that evolution – that’s why we have the pre-war style in our line-up, which is rosewood-bodied, but also the post-war model, which is maple.

In terms of how the model itself came about, we were talking before about the rim shapes [that Gibson had originally devised for archtops]. So you have archtops getting larger and larger at the same time that flat-tops are getting larger and larger. Basically, once you had the L-5 archtop, that rim shape was available to use in a flat-top.

A lot of people think it was a case of, ‘Well, the singing cowboys [a genre of Western-inspired popular music popularised by Gene Autry and others] needed bigger guitars to go on the horses.’ Well, yeah, they definitely wanted that. But it was definitely the available rim shape influencing the guitar design more than it was the singing cowboys requesting it.

So I think the ability to try something was, again, the determining factor in how the model was created. You know, if we went through our ledgers and logbooks, we’d probably see some of the very first entries, certainly in 1938 and I think at least one in 1937. At that time, it was not described as a J-200, or anything like that; it was called an ‘Advanced’ body shape flat-top guitar or ‘Experimental’.

So usually there was a customer on the other side of that, whether it was a custom order, or they had an artist in mind, or it was borne of a dealer discussion, or they wanted to experiment with it, and then they wanted to pre-sell it. Because in that time, post-Depression, that was the other side of experimentation – they weren’t going to waste materials.

Again, the proportions evolved. The very first J-200s were 12-fret models and had the bridge placement in the centre of the body. And, unfortunately, on that big, giant body, a 12-fret is a little less [than ideally proportioned]. They sound amazing, but I think it was the right move to go to 14 frets with that big jumbo body. So that’s another evolution point of that model.

How did the J-200’s beautiful ‘moustache’ bridge design first evolve?

We have the original blueprints for the moustache bridge – there were a few different designs – but [country singer] Ray Whitley personally influenced that bridge. So there was definitely an artist element there where he had custom-ordered a smaller-body guitar that actually we own now.

You may have seen it at Carter Vintage years ago, it’s a really cool guitar. Then the next one that he ordered was on that big, giant [J-200 size] platform.

He got that first customer-order, small-body guitar, and then for a second guitar, he was like, “Can you do it with this [bridge]?” And so that wasn’t the very first SJ-200, but it was among the first three and that was really the one that set the stage – plus, Ray Whitley was the biggest singing cowboy of the day.

The original bridge design for the J-200, with its delicate pattern of interlacing curves, looks really ornate. How was it made, back in the day?

Today, obviously, we can scan an original and CNC it, but I would have to think that it was all hand-shaped. I mean, even a rectangle bridge was hand-shaped back then. It probably was a template and it was cut out and then it was hand-shaped.

The apertures in the original J-200 bridge were later replaced by a ‘solid’ design with pearl inlays. Why did that come about?

That occurred much later, into the 1960s, and definitely aligned with Ted McCarty’s exit.

Then, under Norlin ownership, those principles that were kind of in the ether as soon as Ted McCarty left in 1966 – simplification of processes and whatnot – those changes were well intentioned and some of those guitars are fantastic.

But I think that is one thing that you see in that period: those really time-consuming processes were sacrificed in order to get the guitar complete sooner because there was a huge order book. I mean, this is like during The Beatles era, so the people wanted guitars.

People often assume that the mid-60s shift away from the more labour-intensive aspects of production – which occurred at Fender, Gibson and other major makers – was about maximising profit. But they forget that demand went wild for guitars in the 60s and firms couldn’t make guitars fast enough to keep up.

Nobody wants back-orders. If you build up a year of back-orders… you’re hearing about it from all of your dealers and customers constantly. We’ve been there, in modern history, and you definitely want to find a way to fulfill those orders.

But cutting corners was not really the mentality – it was more like, “Let’s find processes that are maybe needless and just aesthetic-based.” I would say that was probably one consideration.

There’s probably also someone there like [Gibson president from 1968] Stan Rendell who’d argue there was more surface area to glue the bridge on [with the later, solid J-200 bridges].

The round-shouldered dreadnought shape is indelibly associated with the J-45. How did it evolve?

Again, it was directly influenced by archtop shapes. Certainly the Sears catalogue archtops [made for the giant US mail order goods company and its compendious catalogue] were a little bit different to other Gibson shapes on purpose, but those shapes lent themselves perfectly to flat‑top guitars.

At the same time, historically, Ditson was ordering similar shapes through Martin, so there was something about the slope-shoulder shape that was considered intriguing and interesting at that point in time. But, fortunately for Gibson, it was the brand that made it famous.

Gibson’s Dove and Hummingbird acoustics, with their ornately decorated pickguards, are among its best-loved acoustic designs. How did they come about?

There was a gentleman called Hartford Snider who was a pattern-maker at Gibson but also a keen birdwatcher, and eventually his [interest in sketching birds] came to the attention of Ted McCarty and John Huis, who was Ted McCarty’s right-hand man, and they said, “Well, hey, you know you’re making these patterns, but we can see you’re sketching all these birds and stuff. Why don’t you make a pickguard design?”

So the very first one was the Hummingbird, and the next one was the Dove, and then came the Excellente, in the same year as the Dove, which had an eagle on a pickguard.

He created all those pickguard designs, and I think the success of the Hummingbird in 1960 allowed Gibson to go back to the well and introduce a couple of more bird pickguards. Which was kind of a wild idea in 1960 – to call a guitar a Hummingbird. Back then, it was as wild as calling your band The Beatles, because in that era band names were usually something very conventional like ‘Marty and the something-or-others’.

And in the same way, guitar names were not typically words like ‘Hummingbird’, you know? So it was just such a cool move. And, again, it was testament to Ted McCarty and his team to empower the workforce and empower the talented folks within it, and they struck gold.

After 1957, Gibson also owned the Epiphone brand – and some great Epi flat-tops were produced, too. How did the Epiphone and Gibson flat-top ranges compare?

Now we’re getting to the fun stuff [laughs]. I love Epiphone history. Some of my absolute favourite flat-tops ever are really early wartime Epiphone flat-tops, like the FT-79, so before it was ever a Texan FT-110, which was a beautiful figured maple back-and-sides [design]. And those were dreadnought styles, so they were very early, late-30s Epiphone dreadnoughts. They are super-cool instruments.

But when Gibson purchased Epiphone in 1957, one of the first moves from Ted McCarty at the time was assembling a team – and we actually have the notes from the meeting – to create a whole unique line of instruments for Epiphone because they had all these parts, but they didn’t want to do the same thing [as Gibson models]. So they wanted to have this melding of Gibson forms and Epiphone parts to create a line of instruments.

One unique instrument to come about was, again, a dreadnought – a square-shoulder dreadnought – so that debuted with Epiphone as the Frontier, a continuation of the FT-110… The 1958 Frontier comes about immediately.

Ernest Tubb then popularised it and a lot of those Nashville and Bakersfield country artists were playing Epiphones, which is really a testament to a guy named Ward Arbanas really pushing the line at the time and helping to sell it.

Those acoustic guitars – those Epiphone flat-top guitars – were managed like a unique product line because they were in different stores from Gibson. That was the whole strategy. It’s like, if you put Gibson in the mom and pop store across the street from the other brand, then you’re not going to be competing for the same hook share in the store. So that was the thinking.

Other really cool models then developed. Another awesome square-shoulder dread was the Excellente, one of my absolute favourites. Again, that was kind of a collaboration between Andy Nelson, who was a salesman for Gibson and some artists. It was adopted by many artists, including Ernest Tubb. It was cool to see that Epiphone had its moment in the sun, especially in the 60s, with really influential folk and country players.

What lessons from Gibson’s acoustic heritage does Gibson take most to heart today, 100 years on?

How we think about innovation today is similar to how we developed the line over 100 years, but it’s become refined [to an understanding] that the success of those guitars in our past are what makes us great today. And that’s kind of true on the electric side as well.

We know we don’t need to try to reinvent the wheel, but we are still focused on using those familiar shapes and the same iconic sounds that you’ve heard in records for the last 100 years, and improving them aesthetically, ergonomically and sonically: so basically working with those parameters of the shape and the basic principles of creating a great acoustic guitar, X-bracing, forward-shifted bracing and so on.

And you could be experimenting with new materials, but if you’re keeping to those platforms and shapes and paying tribute to the originals in your experimentations, you’re usually on the right track to finding something cool.

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Eric Clapton’s long-lost Les Paul is back after six decades in the wilderness. But which iconic guitars are still missing in action, and why haven’t our heroes heard of padlocks? Drilling into that very subject, via the medium of a conversation with, er, ourselves… It’s Fret Buzz.

I keep hearing about Eric Clapton’s Summersburst. Has the veteran British bluesman brought out a new Snapple flavor?

That would be amazing. But no. The Summersburst is the 1960 Les Paul bought by Clapton from The Police’s Andy Summers and played on Cream’s 1966 debut album. It’s been missing for [checks watch] 60 years. But it just resurfaced in a Paris guitar shop.

Where’s it been all this time?

Hanging out with the absinthe fairy and cancan dancers at Moulin Rouge? For a long time, its last-known location was Dan Armstrong’s repair shop in New York, where Clapton was apparently unhappy with the neck fix, refused the bill, and ditched the guitar. Now it’s been revealed that it had been kept under the watchful eye of collector, Perry Margouleff.

How does Clapton feel about its resurfacing?

Publicly, he doesn’t seem that bothered. After all, the guy’s already auctioned his guitar collection. Maybe it’s like when you’ve tidied the shed and your neighbor suddenly returns that rusty lawnmower you’d forgotten about. Or your idiot kid comes home from college and starts yelling on Fortnite. And besides, his Beano is still missing.

Well, it’s only a comic book. Just buy another one. It costs, what, $4?

No, we mean the 1960 Les Paul that Clapton played on the Bluesbreakers’ fabled ‘Beano’ album of 1966. That one was swiped from a church hall in the same period.

Any leads?

Joe Bonamassa insists that Beano “is in a collection on the East Coast. It still exists. I haven’t seen it, but I have it on good authority from people who have.”

How do you smuggle a guitar out of a dressing room anyway?

We can only assume, in harem pants. But it happens more than you’d think. Keith Richards had nine guitars stolen from the Stones’ Côte d'Azur mansion during the recording of 1972’s Exile On Main St.

Nine! But surely Keith in that early-’70s period was alert and vigilant, and would have fitted out Villa Nellcôte with burglar alarms or at least completed the relevant contents insurance forms?

Erm, you might want to read his memoirs. Anyway, one of Keith’s Les Pauls turned up last year at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Looking pretty rough after all these years, I’d imagine.

There was deep weathering after decades of abuse. As for the guitar – that looked pretty good!

At least Michael Angelo Batio’s four-neck Quad couldn’t feasibly be stolen.

Actually, it was, in El Paso, by a particularly ballsy thief who presumably told security he was holding an enormous pair of garden shears. Only the top two necks were ever recovered, which is still more than any reasonable person needs.

So stolen guitars do come back?

If you wait long enough, it seems, the universe will provide. In 2024, Paul McCartney was reunited with the legendary 1961 Höfner bass stolen 52 years earlier. And no doubt did a cheery thumbs-up for the cameras.

So what you’re saying is: ‘guitars are like homing pigeons’?

Even better. Because they don’t crap on your shoulder when you’re busking.

Jim Root’s signature Fender Telecaster is back with a stunning new Shoreline Gold finish.

Root’s signature single-cut is up there with the most beloved Telecasters ever created. First launched in 2010, it flipped the traditional Tele on its head, streamlining the design into a no-nonsense metal machine.

Up until that point, Telecasters weren’t generally associated with heavy metal. Nor had the standard blueprint been radically changed. Nevertheless, Root put his own stamp on the Tele, and it quickly won over a legion of fans.

John Mayer called what “every Tele should look like in this day and age”, saying, “It’s smart. It’s awake. It’s doing something completely new.”

It was even included in Guitar World’s roundup of the greatest guitar gear of the 21st century.

Now, the Root Telecaster has returned, this time with a swanky Shoreline Gold colorway. It’s a very tasty cosmetic overhaul indeed, which otherwise retains the specs of the original.

That means a mahogany body, 12”-radius ebony fingerboard, and six-saddle hardtail bridge, as well as a pair of EMG 60 and 81 active humbuckers wired to a single volume control and three-way blade switch.

There’s also black hardware, 22 jumbo frets, and a one-ply black pickguard to go with the Shoreline Gold finish. It is, in essence, another Root classic – but with a gold finish.

“Fender guitars have been a cornerstone of my rig since the earliest days of Slipknot and continue to be today,” Root says of his new-look signature. “Seeing my signature model in Shoreline Gold gives it a completely fresh character.

“It’s the same guitar I’ve relied on for more than two decades, but this new finish makes it feel exciting all over again.”

Speaking to Guitar World last year, Root recalled the creation of his flagship Tele, and discussed how his radical reimaging updated a Fender mainstay for the 21st century.

“I think Fender, at the time, needed something to, not erase the stigma of being an iconic, older company, but bring them into more modern times,” he said. “It made sense, and Fender was down. I got lucky. The stars aligned!”

The Shoreline Gold Jim Root Telecaster is available now for $2,099.

Visit Fender for more info.

Relic’d guitars have seen a huge rise in popularity in recent years. So, when Chibson USA joked about relic decal stickers as a budget-friendly hack, Dame Guitars took matters into its own hands.

Everyone from Charvel to Solar has jumped on the trend in recent years, as more and more players crave road worn-looking electric guitars straight off the shelf. Elsewhere, Gibson’s Murphy Lab has been making new guitars look like vintage gems in genius ways, and the Fender Custom Shop has seen a surge in relic’d requests.

And so, in true Chibson USA fashion, the meme machine made a spoof social media post about the relic decal sticker concept. A good chuckle was had by all, except by Korean-based Dame Guitars, which took it upon itself to bring the idea to life.

Under its post announcing the decals, Chibson commented, “When we came up with this idea, it was only supposed to be a joke.”

They look surprisingly effective. The stickers – which make it look like the wood beneath a guitar’s finish has been exposed – are certainly giving the S-type seen in the video a little more character.

Applied around the edges of the body, they look effective on screen, and their imperfect shapes mean that application should be a doddle; you don’t need precision.

Speaking to Guitar World about the the rising popularity of relic'g guitars last year, Fender Masterbuilders Andy Hicks and Austin MacNutt dismissed the naysayers who believe players must earn their relics, detailing that a growing number of players simply want brand-new, old-looking axes.

Originally, though, relic’ing work was a little less scientific and a little more... well, brutal. Adrian Belew famously went to savage lengths to relic his Strat in the late 1970s – making it one of the first purposefully relic’d guitars ever.

These stickers might not be for everyone, and they're sure to attract some doubters, but there's no denying they look like a harmless relicing ‘mod’ for those who don’t want to beat up their beloved guitars, or spend a few grand on a pre-worn instrument. Better still, they're completely reversible.

The decals are priced at 9,500 won, which is approximately $6.20.

Keep your eyes on Dame Gutiars for more.