Guitar World deals of the week: Save $200 on a USA Fender Tele Deluxe, grab a half-price EHX pedal, plus the lowdown on two massive guitar sales

Welcome back to Deals of the Week, your weekly digest of all the goings on when it comes to sales and savings in the world of guitar. Last week was a Labor Day blowout with a huge amount of deals but if anything, this week is even better for guitar players thanks to a couple of huge guitar-specific sales that have launched.

Labor Day may be over, but Sweetwater just launched a massive Guitar Month sale for September, making it the perfect place to pick up a bargain on guitar gear. There are big reductions on all kinds of guitars from Gibson to Strandberg, plus plenty of deals on pedals, amps, and a bunch of accessories if you want to stock up on essentials.

There's a similarly great guitar-centric sale over at Musician's Friend, where you can get your hands on up to 40% off gear in their Guitar Fest sale. With over 5,000 items on sale from all the big guitar brands out there, if you're after a new electric guitar or pedal then this is the place to go.

Fender's Labor Day sale is still going with up to 20% off American-made guitars, but I'm unsure how long it'll be around as we're well past Labor Day now. This means you can still get some awesome deals on American Professional II, American Acoustasonic, American Performer Timber, and some Limited Edition Squier guitars, but you might need to be quick to take advantage.

Guitar Center has followed up their Labor Day sale with a Studio Essentials one, offering up to 25% off recording gear. It features loads of studio monitors, audio interfaces, and MIDI controllers, so not ideal if you're looking for guitar-specific gear. That said, with so many guitarists recording at home nowadays it's definitely worth a browse if you want to start recording your guitar licks.

As always, I've picked out some of my favorite gear below for you, and this week is unusual in that I've had my hands on every single one of these bits of gear. Some of them are on my pedalboard as we speak, so I've got zero hesitation recommending them for you. Until next time, happy hunting!

My top deals

Deal of the Week

Save 55% ($156.10)

Electro-Harmonix Soul POG: was $286 now $129.90 at Reverb

Why I ❤️ this deal: It's a pedal I've had on my own 'board for six years now.

My deal of the week is on this Electro-Harmonix Soul POG, a pedal I use every time I gig. The reason I love it? It's two of EHX's most iconic pedals in a single stompbox. Considering a Nano POG by itself can go for over $200, getting one plus an EHX Soul Food for this price is an absolute steal. It's available over at Reverb, and is surprisingly flexible, with the ability to change the order of the pedals and insert pedals in between the two via the loop (I have a fuzz in mine), which means you can create some incredible sounds from Jack White-lead tones through to doom and stoner rock drones.

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Tried and Tested

Save 13% ($50)

Universal Audio UAFX Enigmatic 82 Overdrive Special: was $399 now $349 at Musician's Friend

I've reviewed a lot of pedals over the last year or so, but one that stood out to me was the Universal Audio UAFX Enigmatic 82 Overdrive Special. I think I summed it up pretty well in my review:

"Bluesy licks are the unsalted butter and brown sugar of the Enigmatic, delivering superb touch dynamics that are every bit as tasty as its colorway implied to me earlier on. The tone just begs for pentatonic licks, groovy riffs, and bends aplenty. Here, the ‘room’ knob really comes into its own, giving a real 3D sense of space to your playing with a gorgeous slapback reverb effect. It kept me playing for a long, long time."

"If you’re bored with classic Fender and Marshall amp emulations, the Universal Audio UAFX Enigmatic 82 Overdrive Special delivers an incredibly versatile platform for your amp tones. Far less inscrutable than you might think from the name alone, that signature silky smooth distortion and surprisingly great clean channel make it a brilliant choice for a variety of guitarists."

It's got a cool $50 off in the Musician's Friend Guitar Fest sale, perfect for guitar players who want to try something new with their amp tones.

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Last Chance

Save 11% ($200)

Fender American Professional II Telecaster Deluxe: was $1,899.99 now $1,699.99 at Fender

I was surprised to see Fender's Labor Day sale still going when I woke up this morning, which means this might be your last chance to grab this superb American Professional II Telecaster Deluxe at a discount. I'm a big fan of the OG Tele, but there's something to be said for the extra oomph the dual wide-range humbuckers offer on this guitar. The combination of the traditional Tele bridge configuration with the ability to tap the humbuckers via push-push switch means you can get those spanky single coil sounds alongside those searing humbucker tones.

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Bargain Buy

Save 17% ($30)

Victory Amplification V1 The Sheriff: was $179 now $149 at Sweetwater Sound

The Victory Amplification V1 The Sheriff is another pedal I've had on my pedalboard for a long time now, and it replaced the RAT and Tube Screamer combo I had for a long time. I love how versatile it is, working great for lighter styles with a gorgeous mid-gain sound for my rock and punky tones, as well as being able to dial up the gain when I play with heavier bands. It sounds incredible going into my Orange tube amp, and for me it's very underrated. A versatile overdrive pedal that's well worth the price at just $150 at Sweetwater.

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Recording Gear

Save 15% ($30)

Yamaha HS5: was $199.99 now $169.99 at Guitar Center

With more and more guitarists choosing to record at home, getting a decent pair of studio monitors is something that's higher up on wishlists than it's ever been before. The Yamaha HS5s have been in my home studio for the last 5 years, and I bought them because I wanted the most unforgiving set of monitors to hone my ear on, ones that wouldn't let me get away with putting out rubbish mixes. Needless to say, my mixing has improved tenfold in my time with them, and with a $30 discount on a single monitor, you'll be saving $60 with a pair, making them superb value at below $350 for a pair in the recording sale over at Guitar Center.

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Guitar sales to shop

Each week I search all the major retailers and manufacturers for the very best sales for guitar players. Here's a list of what's available and where this week.

• Amazon: Money off accessories
• Fender store: Up to 20% off
• Gear4Music: Clearance deals
• Guitar Center: Save on studio gear
• Guitar Tricks: 1 month just $1
• IK Multimedia: $200 off Tonex Max
• Musician's Friend: Up to 40% off
• Plugin Boutique: Money off plugins
• Positive Grid: Save on Spark
• Reverb: Up to 60% off sale
• Sweetwater: Guitar Month sale
• Thomann: Hot deals on gear
• TrueFire: Save 60% on lessons
• Waves: Buy two get one free

Upcoming sales

If you're not ready to shop just yet but are looking to save some cash for an upcoming sale, I've got the insider knowledge on which sales are coming up soon. Here's what you should be saving your money for:

• Amazon Prime Day 2 - while the exact date hasn't been announced just yet, Amazon typically has another Prime Day sale before the biggest sales of the year arrive during Black Friday. Last year, it was called Prime Big Deals Days and was a great place to grab savings on smaller items like strings, capos, picks, etc. Expect this sale to arrive in October.
• Black Friday 2025 - The biggest sale of the year will be here soon, falling on the last weekend of November. This year, the timing means that lots of people will be getting paid on Black Friday itself, which could make it the biggest one yet. It also means that there won't be many days between Black Friday and Christmas as there has been previously, making it essential to get your orders in early! We'll be keeping track of all the best deals on our Black Friday guitar deals page.

Top products

Part of my job is looking after all the buying guides here at Guitar World, which gives me a unique oversight as to which products are hot right now. Every week I look at what's getting the most clicks from our buying guides and list the top five products for you here.

Our clever widget sorts them by price and automatically picks up if there's a discount at a particular retailer, doing a lot of the hard work for me! If you're looking to see what other guitarists are interested in and get the cheapest possible price, then this is the place to start your search.

Why trust me?

You may be wondering, why should I trust what this random dude on the internet says? Well, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Matt McCracken and I've been playing guitar for well over twenty years. In that time I've gigged all over the UK, recorded in professional studios, bought and sold countless guitars, amps, and pedals, spent 5 years working in music retail for Dawsons Music and Northwest Guitars, and now I handle all things gear for Guitar World.

I am a guitar player first and foremost, and the reason I do this job is that I genuinely love all things gear. When I'm not working my day job, you'll find me in the rehearsal room with my band, helming the desk at my local studio working with other musicians, or writing new songs and testing gear in my home studio.

The main focus of my job is to test and research gear for our buying guides and reviews here, whether it's demoing the latest pedal release with my band, diving into the technical side of audio interfaces, or putting guitar cables head-to-head in group tests to determine which is the best. It gives me a great overview on what gear is out there right now, and unlike a lot of content you find online, I've actually had my hands on the gear I write about.

I'm also responsible for finding the best possible deals on gear for our readers, covering all the major sales events of the year like Memorial Day, Prime Day, Labor Day, and of course, the Black Friday guitar deals. I track prices of all the most popular gear throughout the year, so I know straight away whether or not a saving is the real deal or a dishonest retailer trying to pull the wool over your eyes.

How I choose deals

To determine whether or not a deal is worthy of inclusion in deals of the week it has to pass a few different hurdles. I'll ask myself the following questions about any deal before I decide whether or not to include it:

- Is the product genuinely good value for money?
- Is the discount amount real or has the RRP been inflated?
- Would guitarists benefit from having this particular piece of gear in their rig?
- If I've not had hands on experience with the gear, do I have a recommendation from a fellow staff member or musician?

I have various tools I can use to check prices if I've not been tracking it, like camelcamelcamel which can track the price of a product on Amazon. Generally because I'm looking at this stuff every week, I already have a good overview of what the product should cost.

Shopping tips

1. Consider your music goals - What do you want to achieve with your music over the next 12 months or so? Do you want to gig more? Learn a new instrument? Or finally, record your songs? Now could be the time to invest in gear that helps you fulfil your musical aspirations.

2. Create a wishlist early - The most sensible way to take advantage of any gear deals is to know in advance what you’re looking for. This will make searching much easier, rather than having to trawl through loads of deals you don’t want to find the ones you do, or pondering things you don't need. To help you create your dream shopping list, take the time to explore our expert and up-to-date buying guides and reviews.

3. Work out what you actually need - Check out your favourite brands, see what you need and will genuinely use - don’t waste your cash and fill your basket with stuff that will never truly see any action.

4. Streamline your current gear - Something else you should consider ahead of time is whether you have enough space in your collection for new gear. Could you offload some gear you don't use to make room and generate funds for some new gear?

5. Sign up to mailing lists - In addition to bookmarking this page, we'd recommend signing up to mailing lists of your favourite retailers now to get the jump on the best deals when they do come around.

Over to you

Spotted a deal that I missed? Drop me a line in the comments below and if it's still live I'll drop the best ones deal into next week's Deals of the Week.