Are the Smashing Pumpkins secretly road-testing new Yamaha prototypes?

Since their reformation, the Smashing Pumpkins have been pursuing some major gear switch-ups, with Billy Corgan signing up for a Reverend signature model and employing Line 6’s Helix, and now it seems James Iha and Jeff Schroeder are road-testing an all-new Yamaha electric guitar design.

In a recent Instagram post, the Pumpkins shared a shot of Iha performing live, showcasing the guitarist playing an electric nobody can quite pinpoint.

Conjecture indicates it’s built by Yamaha, based on the band’s existing connections (every current SP member’s rig features an item of gear from Yamaha or Line 6), with a body shape similar to Mike Stern’s signature Pacifica, albeit with a lower horn closer to a Reverend design.

Fellow guitarist Jeff Schroeder has also been spotted playing the same shape; his is kitted out with a single-coil-sized rail humbucker in the neck and humbucker in the bridge, as well as a tremolo and Jaguar-style switch on the upper horn (presumably a coil-split).

Iha, meanwhile, has his model in both black and white finishes, equipped with dual humbuckers and a hardtail bridge.

The guitar’s tweaked headstock seems to pay tribute to Yamaha’s very first guitars, the SG-2/3, while each model features its own cartoonish design up top.

We’re digging the stripped-back, workhorse look of this design - although, of course, the sound of each model will vary depending on the finish, according to Billy Corgan…

We’ll bring you more info from Yamaha as soon as we have it.