Welcome to Guitar World’s weekly gear round-up, your one-stop-shop for keeping up to date with what’s been happening in the big wide world of guitar gear over the past seven days.
From new electric guitars to amp modeler updates, the guitar industry is never short of fresh releases, and it can sometimes be hard to stay in the loop with every new launch.
To make things a little easier, we’ve put together an essential must-read guide that will cover the major releases, the boutique drops, and everything in between.
Below you'll find my personal highlights from the week, along with plenty of honorable mentions for the new gear you might have missed. Agree with my picks? Have a highlight of your own? Let us know in the comments.
PRS Dany Villareal Astryx Limited Edition
Dany Villareal of The Warning’s first-ever signature guitar is something a little special – and one for the PRS collectors out there, with the Maryland high-end electric guitar brand only making 200 of them.
Still, you will have little trouble picking out the the Astryx on the wall of your local guitar store. Its Ocaso (Sunset) finish is a purple-red-orange-amber burst of color, like a toucan’s beak digging into a packet of Takis Fuego.
Fundamentally, it’s a Custom 24, so you have the DMO (“Dynamic Musical Open”) humbuckers, the Gen III tremolo unit, the mahogany and figured maple build, Pattern Thin mahogany neck and 25” scale – and the PRS Phase III tuners.
But the Astryx’s 24-fret fingerboard is ebony, not rosewood, and those don’t look like bird inlays to us.
Villareal says it feels like an extension of her body.
“Ever since I tried my first PRS guitar, it’s been an inseparable relationship. With PRS, I feel powerful and confident – and that’s a feeling that once you find, you don’t want to let go of,” she says. “It has such a beautiful sustain, which I really like.
“The neck also feels so comfortable, and it’s not that heavy. As the only guitar player in the band, I love how my PRS takes up a lot of space sonically. It did wonders for our three-piece band.”
Each instrument comes with a signed backplate and a thought in the back of our minds that the higher-uppers at PRS Guitars should send an email to their colleagues at Cor-Tek, in Indonesia, to float the idea of an SE version sometime in the near future. That finish – bright, yes – is a keeper.
Friedman Jose 20 head and combo
If you consider that a Marshall amp modded by the late great amp guru Jose Arredondo is what most tonehounds would consider a holy grail proposition – and good luck finding one on the used market – then what can we say about the Jose 20 Series from Friedman Amplification?
Dave Friedman, in collaboration with Marisol Arredondo, Jose’s daughter, has just put that tone inside a 20-watt all-tube head and a combo amp, too. Now, some might hold out for his 100-watt Arredondo tribute amp. But these are more compact, much more affordable, and for most players, more amp than you could ever need.
Hot-rodded Marshall-style sounds are its stock in trade, and there are all kinds of little features to get that sound.
Arredondo helped start the arms race for more gain, and these Jose 20 amps offer a 3-way gain styling switch, a Plexi/Drive switch for a “true additional gain stage,” a Fat switch for adding low-end oomph, and the channels are internally bridged with dual volume controls for each to mix and match those Bright and Normal channel voicings.
There’s a master volume, series effects loop, and, it promises the same dynamics and super-juicy harmonic overdrive sound as the original amps that had the likes of George Lynch, Mick Mars, James Hetfield, Steve Vai and more seeking out this maverick guru’s services.
Sleep Token's blockbuster signature collab with Jackson and Charvel
Sleep Token’s first-ever signature collaboration did not disappoint, and certainly not if you were looking for something completely different from a metal guitar – or your taste in five-string bass guitars has grown, shall we say, exotic.
Jackson and guitarist IV dreamt up a novel take on the baritone guitar, an octave-down 30” scale behemoth single cut. Guitar World’s review of the Pro Plus Series Signature Sleep Token IV Monarkh SC is overwhelmingly positive.
There are aspects of this design that are quite stunning, and daring, too. It’s very much 21st-century metal guitar – EverTune bridge, multi-voiced Fishman pickups, and a pale moon ebony fingerboard that looks like it was carved from some ancient tree from the prelapsarian era. It might put your bass player out of a job, too.
But not if your bassist’s name is III. Maybe this is why the the Charvel Sleep Token III Signature Pro-Mod San Dimas Bass V is such a gnarly affair – with the multi-voiced Fishmans, powerful active EQ, a 34.4” to 35” multi-scale design and so on. It’s a whole lotta modern bass.
The aesthetics might be a bit much for some players, but for Sleep Token fans, for players seeking out a state-of-the-art high-performance platform for low-end audio adventurism, this is where it's at.
ALSO LAUNCHED THIS WEEK
Neural DSP CorOS 4.1.0 update for Quad Cortex and Quad Cortex Mini
This is the way of it now. Some of our biggest gear releases come via update, downloadable over wi-fi, and this week Neural DSP delivered big-style for its Quad Cortex and Quad Cortex Mini users, bringing more Virtual Devices to the party, expanding plugin compatibility and transforming workflow.
The new Device Presets feature could be a game-changer for QC players putting together tones. And it's a free update.
For more: Neural DSP
Harley Benton SC-Special Hybrid
These $195 single-cuts are quite possibly the coolest beginner electric guitars on the market. Plain-color tops, glued-in necks, the P-90/humbucker pickup configuration and rosewood fingerboards. Super-budget rock 'n' roll machines.
For more: Harley Benton
Hotone Pulze Jr.
Is it possible to get more amp for $300 than with the Hotone Pulze Jr.? That's what we've been asking ourselves ever since they dropped. You'll find all mod cons here – amp models, effects, Bluetooth and of course AI.
What Hotone has done is just gone full AI, offering AI-powered tone creation and track separation. Could be a great practice option.
For more: Hotone
EMG Tom Morello
Tom Morello and the active pickup specialist EMG have teamed up for a signature pickup set plucked straight from his "Arm the Homeless" guitar, which means an 85 humbucker at the bridge, and the EMG H single-coil pickup at the neck. And for all you long-time EMG fans, note that these have the old-school logo.
For more: EMG Pickups
Gibson Victory Baritone
Gibson’s first baritone guitar in over a decade comes strapped with an all-new pickup, the ELEV8 humbucker. These are an Alnico VIII design. Can you believe that? (Alnico has had more instalments than the Friday the 13th franchise).
These are a fascinating proposition – proof positive that the Victory has finally arrived as a mainstay of the lineup?
For more: Gibson
Fender George Harrison Bass VI
The Electric VI has always been an enigma. Setting aside the taxonomical quandary of whether to call it a guitar or a bass, the spec itself, and where this offset design sits in Fender history makes it a fascinating instrument, so difficult to pigeonhole.
This meticulous Custom Shop replica of George Harrison’s 1967 model adds layers to that story. It’s a stunning instrument, and, wowzers! It is expensive, too. But watch the demo video above for some great Fender trivia, and one great-sounding guitar – sorry, bass… Bass guitar. Whatever.
For more: Fender
Marshall 60th Anniversary Hendrix Collection
Marshall continues its 60th Anniversary Hendrix celebrations by adding a special edition Studio Vintage JMH half-stack to the collection, refreshing it in cosmic purple-and-black swirl, with a purple LED power lamp FTW, and that "third eye" badge is pretty cool too. If the hand-wired anniversary Hendrix Plexi was Too Much Amp, this 20-watter, switchable to five, might just be the ticket.
For more: Marshall
JHS Pedals Andy Timmons
JHS Pedals shrinks down the Andy Timmons signature amp-in-a-box drive pedal into a smaller housing but still keeps the same tones you know and love. Our heaving pedalboards thank you, Josh Scott. Keep up the good work, sir!
For more: JHS Pedal
Ernie Ball introduces three new string gauges – meet Silky Slinky, Nova Slinky and Titan Slinky
Sometimes options can be a pain in the backside. Restaurant menus need not be so long that you could read Ulysses in the time it takes to get to the sides. Movies, music, TV... streaming is a hellscape.
But with electric guitar strings it’s different. Even in our age of abundance we still find ourselves mixing and matching sets, which is why the good folks at Ernie Ball keep on expanding the Slinky series with more gauge combinations, launching the new Silky Slinky (9.5-48), Nova Slinky (11-54) and Titan Slinky (11-56).
For more: Ernie Ball
