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Hello, and 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.
Last week was an absolutely avalanche of new gear, but things have been comparatively quiet over the past seven days. That's not to say there haven't been a few eye-catching drops and unexpected drops, though. Remember to vote for your favorite new release in the poll below...
Epiphone Inspired By Gibson Custom Alex Lifeson 1976 ES-355 Reissue
Just because we knew that this was coming didn’t make it any less exciting. Here it is, by many people’s lights, the ultimate Rush guitar, aka ‘Whitey,’ and it has been given the Inspired By Gibson Custom treatment.
That means Gibson USA T-Type pickups, CTS pots, gold hardware (a Maestro Vibrola and harmonica-style bridge FTW) and you have a serious, giggable electric that might just help you nail that solo to Limelight.
This is a relatively affordable replica of the ES-335 that has been an ever-present on Rush recordings since Lifeson got it.
“The ES-355 has always been a really special guitar for me – it’s got this incredible balance of elegance and power,” says Lifeson. “What I love about this Epiphone ‘Whitey’ recreation is how faithfully it captures that original spirit while still feeling fresh and alive in your hands.
“It’s a guitar that invites you to explore, to take chances, and to find your own voice. I’m genuinely thrilled that players everywhere will have the chance to experience it and make it part of their own musical journey.”
Gibson Victory Floyd Rose
By popular demand, Gibson refreshes its shreddable double-cut with a Floyd Rose double-locking vibrato, and that feels like the logical evolution of a model that made a spectacular comeback in 2024, was a real hit for Nashville-based brand, and proved what we have known all along: that the SlimTaper is one of the original high-profile neck shapes. Seriously, it’s always been quick.
Also, the translucent finish options on these are pretty neat, teasing out the details in those AA figured maple tops. Iguana Burst is obviously the best, c’mon, but Deep Ocean Burst and and Translucent Ebony Burst don’t suck.
Elsewhere, you’ve got 80s Tribute humbuckers, a 24-fret compound radius ebony fingerboard, and an asymmetrical body shape that’s a whole new look for Gibson.
Charvel American Neo-Classic San Dimas Style 1
This is big. Charvel returns to California for an all-new made-in-America series that offers an upscale, serious-and-pro player S-style that’s steeped in the traditions of the brand. You can get them with a hardtail or with a Floyd.
The finishes are classic Charvel; Robin’s Egg Blue, Ivory Blitz, Gloss Black and Racing Red for the Floyd models, Gloss Black, Racing Red, Velvet Midnight and Ivory Blitz on the hardtails.
You’ll find them with a Seymour Duncan JB humbucker at the bridge, a Seymour Duncan ’59 at the neck, and no one is complaining about those pickup choices. Certainly not the irrepressible Dweezil Zappa, who was drafted to demo these in a skate park.
PRS SE Rock Lady
“Developing a guitar with a fictional artist is not something we do every day,” said Jack Higginbotham, COO at PRS, when the limited run SE Rock Lady launched, but then we live in extraordinary times, and this is an extraordinary project.
The SE Rock Lady is inspired by the electric guitar played by Lilisa Suzunomiya, aka Lily, from the hit anime Rock is a Lady’s Modesty. It’s finished with a Pink Pearl top over a natural stain body, with purple pickup bobbins, and is a hybrid between Paul’s Guitar and the Custom 24-08 made for KANAMI of BAND-MAID. And appropriately Kanami wrote the theme song to the anime.
This, admittedly, is a lot to take in. But with TCI pickups, mini-toggles for single-coil sounds, signature details including a lily engraving on the truss-rod cover, PRS birds on the fingerboard, it’s simply a damn fine looking PRS and another showcase for the exemplary work Cor-Tek does on making the SE line in partnership with the brand.
Ed Sheeran x Orange Outlowd ES amps
Ed Sheeran made headline news on June 5 when he went back to his roots and went busking on the streets of Ipswich, England, jamming for hundreds of onlookers with music teacher Lianne Kaye (who had cut her holiday in Spain short for the gig not knowing until the last minute that she’d be playing with Sheeran.
He was launching a grassroots campaign with Orange – Outlowd: Play It Home – which hopes to promote up-and-coming musicians across the world and the venues that support them. But he was also introducing the world to “the ultimate busking amp” – the Outlowd ES60 that he co-developed with Orange Amps.
It’s one of three signature amps in a collection that includes a super-portable 3-watt acoustic guitar amp, and a mighty 100-watter – all three are designed to his specifications, featuring slanted angled cabinets, and offer a suite of player-friendly features.
The ES3 is the one you take anywhere and use as a practice solution. It’s easy to use, has just three knobs, and there’s reverb. The ES60, the one Sheeran played on the streets, is the 60-watter for all venues, and it comes with an all-important input for a vocal mic.
The ES100 is a beast, with an effects loop, the vocal mic input, and a 12” Celestion speaker. The Outlowd Ed Sheeran collection is available exclusively through Guitar Center in the US, at all good Orange dealers worldwide.
“Playing music is a really fun thing to do and it should always be fun. It should feel like an escape,” said Sheeran. ‘Now I’m in my 30s, I just want to do things that I enjoy and get excited by. With this collaboration, it was like, would I use this? Is this something that I need in my life as a musician? And the answer was yes.”
Blackstar x TONE3000 bring NAM to Beam Solo headphone amp
It is a feature of the sweeping digitalization of guitar amps and associated technologies that what is available on one platform is soon exported and made available on another, and so, Blackstar, having teamed up with TONE3000 to bring its Neural Amp Models to the Beam Mini, is now offering these NAM captures – literally, hundreds of thousands of amps and effects sounds – for its Beam Solo headphone amp.
Could this give the Beam Solo the edge in the battle for your silent practice time? Just don’t spend all your time scrolling.
Mad Professor Super Black Mini Preamp pedal
Just as you’re thinking to yourself, ‘Haven’t I seen this before?’ those thoughts will soon be supplanted by, ‘Haven’t I heard this before?’ Because the Super Black Mini Preamp is concerned with recreating some of the most iconic tones of all time, those of the ‘60s Black Panel Fender amp.
Not all of us have the opportunity to crank up a Deluxe Reverb or even a Princeton in a domestic setting. But this compact stompbox is an analog replication of this style of amp’s entire signal path – and you can deploy it in various ways.
Stick it in front of your amp as an overdrive/tone shaper, in the effects loop as a full-on preamp, or with a cabinet. It has comprehensive EQing, a compression switch and a bass cut switch too.
EHX Pico Shimmer
The Pico Shimmer is a tiny mini pedal offering “Cosmic Reverb” from a trio of far-out algorithms. This is EHX leveraging the power of its DSP to give us more from a small pedalboard footprint.
Just tap the Scene button on the top of the pedal to choose from Intergalactic, Off-World, and Etherdust modes. Intergalactic is a shimmer reverb with synthesis engine doing some world to help those reverb tails waft off into orbit.
Off-World is described as “mellow” and far-out – think old dusty synths, modulation on delay, funny smelling cigarettes and strange men in roll necks engaged in the business of soundscaping and krautrock meditation…
And then there’s the on-trend Etherdust for all that lo-fi glitchiness, “stutters ranging from short granular sparkles to distinct glitch echoes”.
Weird, small, brilliant, respectful of pedalboard space…
D'Addario Backline Climate-Controlled Gig Bags
If Gallup were to poll the nation’s guitars to discover the one thing that they hate the most, sure some might say putting lit cigarettes on the strings is a drag, and they’re not too big on you playing them without your shoes and socks on. But unquestionably, they’d say they hate weather – any kind of weather and especially changes in weather.
Hot days, cold days, humid days, rain. They hate it. And that’s why D’Addario’s climate-controlled gig bag range could be a real sleeper hit this year. First off, they’re waterproof. They’re built tough. They have a nice plus interior that feels nice. But they’ve also got this.
Enter the Humidipak Climate-Control Neck Cradle, which is a patent-pending design that features a two-way humidity control. Maybe you could keep your cigars in its detachable (and lockable) accessory bag. Just don’t wedge them on your headstock. Guitars hate that.
Mooer Audio GE100 Pro
Mooer Audio’s AI-equipped multi-effects and amp modeler might have “Pro” in its designation but it is designed for beginners, and has everything you need to put a sound together. The headline item is the AI, Mooer Audio’s proprietary StemLab tech that lets you design tones by AI prompts.
This, of course, is all the rage. But let’s not forget the other features. The GE100 Pro allows players to really take ownership over the design of their signal chain, and you can get as complex as you like. It comes with more than 240 effects, amp models and various utilities, has 150 presets, an integrated expression pedal, and supports MNRS 2.0, NAM files and third-party IRs.
There’s an onboard guitar tuner, an 80-second looper, Bluetooth, drum machine, metronome, RGB lighting and there’s a lithium-ion version that doesn’t even need to be plugged into the wall. And you can pick one up for under 100 bucks.
