NAMM 2023: Dean reveals Kerry King’s latest lux signature, the USA Custom Shop Overlord – and it is heaving with top-notch components and clever circuitry

NAMM 2023: Dean USA’s Custom Shop has been busy in the metal mines crafting a new signature guitar for thrash legend Kerry King. The Overlord is the brand’s second collaboration with the Slayer guitarist and features a wealth of high-end components and custom appointments. 

The electric guitar build is based around a viciously carved mahogany body and maple top, complete with set-thru neck of three-piece maple. It has a 24 3/4” scale-length, C-shaped neck profile that has been developed to King’s personal specifications.

On it you’ll find an ebony fingerboard, 24 jumbo frets and LED fret markers, which offer a little light in the darkness. The fretboard is also inlaid with custom pearl inlays, featuring the Slayer crucifix logo.

The custom features don’t end with the carves and decoration, though. The electronics on the Overlord are also pretty unique, with an idiosyncratic pairing of a Sustainiac neck pickup and, at the bridge, an EMG 81, paired with a PA2 preamp booster.

Many guitarists will be familiar with concept of the Sustainiac – a pickup system that uses a toggle switch to kick in near-infinite sustain. However, the PA2 Booster is less well known. An EMG invention, the PA2 adds a tiny preamp to the circuit (concealed underneath a toggleswitch) that adds up to 20dB of boost to the signal. 

This means the Overlord features no fewer than four toggle switches – two for the Sustainiac, one for the PA2 and the fourth being a relatively simple three-position pickup selector. These are augmented by single volume and tone pots.

On the hardware front, King has spec’d his own Kahler KFK Tremolo system, which makes sense given it’s his signature model (yes, people have signature tremolos nowadays), and there are Grover 18:1 ratio locking tuners. It even comes loaded with King’s signature Dunlop string set.

The price for all this high-end hijink-ery is $6,499 and that includes a hardcase, which is probably a good thing, because those spikes would be murder on your gigbag.

For more information on the USA Custom Shop Kerry King Signature Overlord, head to Dean.