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.
Yamaha Matteo Mancuso Signature Revstar RS20MM
We have long been of the opinion that the Yamaha Revstar is one of the most underrated electric guitars on the market, and have found ourselves asking the question: just what would it take for people to give this superlative design its due? When will we see it as a modern classic of guitar design?
Perhaps Sicilian fusion-guitar maestro Matteo Mancuso is the answer – or at least part of it. His signature RS20MM demonstrates how the Revstar can be dressed up to look all bougie when the occasion demands.
It certainly looks the part with that Vintage Sunburst finish, gold hardware and cream pickguard referencing golden-era guitar design. And yet it is very much a guitar of now.
It’s based on the custom Revstar that Mancuso has been using to bend the conventions of guitar virtuosity out of shape, and comes fitted with a pair of DiMarzio PAF 36th Anniversary humbuckers. Mancuso recently told Guitar World he was surrounded by electric guitars growing up.
“I think we have almost 50 electric guitars at home, so I had plenty of choices when I was a little kid especially,” he said.
There were Strats, Les Pauls, all that kind of stuff, and yet he chooses to play a Revstar – quod erat demonstrandum!
Check it out at Yamaha.
Jackson Pro Series Phil Collen PC1-E
For years, people would grab Phil Collen and bend his ear about how expensive his signature Jackson PC1 was. This Californian S-style was as hot a hard rock and metal guitar you could get, and as pricy. It was like the Starship Enterprise of guitars, equipped with all kinds of clever custom features to cover all kinds of tones.
Well maybe Collen can now go down to the shops to grab a pint of milk and the latest issue of Guitar World in peace. Because this Ensenada-made beauty has all the pro-level Def Leppard sounds at a fraction of the price.
It has the active Sustainer at the neck position, plus Collen’s signature DiMarzio Sugar Chakra stacked bucker in the middle, with the high-output X2N ’bucker at the bridge – and you can split ’em. And there’s a switch for sustaining the fundamental note or the harmonic. And there’s a Floyd Rose 1000 Series double-locking vibrato. And Luminlay side markers. And…
Well, and there’s a lot going on for a $2,199. C’mon, it’s even got a heavily distressed nitro finish and gold hardware.
Boss EX-4 Effects Expander
Sometimes the very size of a multi-effects pedal puts you off. It’s too big, as in, it won’t fit on that pedalboard that you paid good money for (not to mentioned sweated bullets on wiring up and getting all neat and tidy).
Or it’s too small, to the point of putting it on your ’board feels like strapping an iPod Mini to the nose of a Boeing 747, and you don't have the connections to do what you really want to with it.
The EX-4 has a certain Goldilocks appeal on that front, and it’s stacked with sensible features – 120 Boss effects, 256 presets, some neat workflow features for accelerated tone design, and it has a cornucopia of inputs and outputs to for mono/stereo, effects loop, MIDI control, external expression pedal, and so on. All of which is designed to get more out of your existing ’board. To expand your effects, so to speak.
ALSO LAUNCHED THIS WEEK...
PRS Guitars John Mayer Silver Sky Defender Collection
Here’s some brand synergy for you. PRS Guitars and John Mayer team up with, wait for it, Land Rover Jaguar for a limited edition run of the Silver Sky refinished in solid-color finishes that come straight out of the paint room at the Defender factory, as in the four-wheel drive off-road SUVs that Mayer so loves.
There are US-made Core models and there are SE models, the latter featuring black pickguards and knobs for the first time, the former featuring painted headstocks.
Shut up and take our money! Hey, these days a Silver Sky’s probably cheaper than filling the tank of a Defender.
We spoke to John Mayer, who gave us the skinny on why this particular collab is so important to him.
Strandberg Boden Essential Tremolo
Well, yes, here’s a product roll-out that makes perfect sense and is a guaranteed unit-shifter for the great headless disruptors in the guitar market, adding the new Arc TILT tremolo to its affordable line. These retail at – what? – $1,099, and that isn’t bad at all. Nice finish options, too.
For more: Strandberg
Fender Silent System
Can the Fender Silent System put an end to single-coil hum? Well, Fender is banking on it, giving it a soft-launch across a limited edition run of American Professional Classic Stratocasters and Telecasters, and the good news about this is that it’s a passive, unobtrusive gizmo that sits under the pickguard – and, says the Big F, it has no affect on tone.
Will it make the Gen 4 Noiseless Strat pickups obsolete? Maybe not. But it looks like a clever piece of tech that could be a big hit.
Epiphone Inspired by Gibson Custom Eric Clapton 1964 ES-335
Some Clapton fans go gaga for the Fool. Others faint at the mention of Blackie, or indeed umm and ahh reverentially about his Martin acoustics. But his 1964 ES-335, that’s got to be up there in the all-time great Clapton guitars.
It’s the one had throughout his Yardbirds and Bluesbreakers days but kind of ignored it – at least in public – until Cream’s farewell shows in ’68.
Anyway, long story short, Epiphone is releasing an Inspired By Gibson Custom replica of it in 2027, and debuting it at the Gibson stall during this weekend’s Crossroads Guitar Festival in Austin, TX.
Gibson Gustavo Cerati ES-335
Okay, you’ll have to wait until next summer for Clapton’s 335, and by then we might all be living underground like John Connor, taking up arms against ChatGPT and Claude with nothing to eat but Twinkies and sunflower seeds.
But right this minute you can get this stunner, a limited edition (only 60, available from the Gibson Garage Miami) tribute to the late Soda Stereo frontman Gustavo Cerati, based on his original 1965 model. Look at that double-guard. It’s a honey, the Murphy Lab doing Murphy Lab things.
Vox AC Mini
It is a rite of passage for guitar players. Plugging into an AC30 and then finding out just how brutally loud that is, as in, maybe too loud for the home unless you live with the Waltons.
And the AC15 can be a brute, too! Excellent for the stage. Kitchen practice? No. Enter, the AC Mini, all that Vox diamond-grilled mojo at 10 solid-state watts for $99.
For more: Vox Amps
Polyend Loop
You would need to be big into looping to splurge $599 on one but then Polyend isn’t aiming this at players who’d happily through their set with a Ditto on their ’board.
This has unlimited overdubbing, is not just for guitar, and capable of recording loops line inputs and dynamic mic sources, too, and it has an onboard drum machine – a serious one, at that, allowing you to create rhythms using the array of buttons.
For more: Polyend
Guild Starfire 2026 lineup
It is officially a good time to be in the market for a semi-hollow, with Guild just adding 17 Starfires to its Newark St. range. There are so many options – double-cut, single-cut, Custom and so forth. There’s even a bass. The finishes are great as ever, the prices reasonable. You’re looking at change from a grand.
For more: Guild
JAM Pedals Wahcko MK2
Six selectable frequency ranges, fully adjustable, the wah pedal used by the likes of Nile Rodgers and Mateus returns, upgraded, looking cool, with a custom-made inductor inspired by those you’d find in vintage Vox wahs.
For more: Jam Pedals
Fortin 3.33 Frederick Thordendal Signature Dual Boost
There are boost pedals and then there are boost pedals custom made by a high-gain tube amp specialist for one of metal guitar’s true visionaries.
This is a dual-channel monster that has all the sounds of its predecessor, plus a few new tricks from Mike Fortin’s magic bag, such as amp-switching direct from the pedal. It’s also got an onboard Zuul noise gate. You know what it’s for.
For more: Fortin Amps
Two Notes Captor X Pro
It might not be the most photogenic thing you’ll see on the exhibition floor at this year’s Guitar Summit, in Mannheim, Germany, but the Captor X Pro, the latest flagship digital load box from Two Notes, might be the one we’ll still be talking about in years to come.
Developed in partnership with Ampete Engineering, it promises players “total backline authority” with switchable Reactive and Resistive load voicing and a heap of studio-quality features that are endlessly configurable to your setup.
For more: Two Notes Audio Engineering
ENGL Powercube 200 and Savage 30
Here’s another interesting piece of kit for your pedalboard: a 200-watt Class D power amp pedal that promises clean headroom for driving guitar cabinets, FRFR speakers and PA systems.
It has a four-ohm minimum speaker output and a balanced XLR output with ground lift. ENGL has had a busy week. It also launched the Savage 30, a two-channel 30-watt tube head that has an onboard noise gate and everything a rock and metal player might want from a moderately powered amp. There’s onboard power scaling and EL34s under the hood.
For more: ENGL
- What's your favorite new gear release of the week? Let us know in the comments below.
