RIP Custom Guitars partners with Municipal Waste's Ryan Waste for the none-more-pointy MW-AX

RIP Custom Guitars Ryan Waste MW-AX
(Image credit: RIP Custom Guitars)

Utah builder RIP Custom Guitars has paired with Ryan Waste – guitarist of Virginia speed metal outfit Municipal Waste – for a brand-new signature guitar, the MW-AX.

Straight off the bat, that MW-logo body shape is about as brutal as it comes, but diving deeper into the spec sheet, we see that what's under the hood is equally metal-ready.

A single Seymour Duncan JB Trembucker heads up the guitar's tonal appointments, and is controlled via a singular on/off killswitch. In the words of RIP, “this AX has everything you need and nothing you don’t.”

RIP Custom Guitars Ryan Waste MW-AX

(Image credit: RIP Custom Guitars)

A Kahler 2300 tremolo system with a locking nut is paired with Gotoh machine head for maximum tuning stability, so divebombs and trem-heavy solos should come as a breeze.

Construction-wise, the MW-AX features a premium-selected mahogany body and set neck with a 24-jumbo-fret, 12”-16” compound radius ebony fingerboard. It's visually completed by either a Black and Silver or Gunmetal and Slime finish, pearloid diamond inlays and Municipal Waste's logo inlayed on the 12th fret.

“This signature guitar has been a long time in the making, evolving over 13 years since its first incarnation,” says Ryan Waste. “As a left-handed player, my choice of instruments has been limited my entire life, so when the opportunity arose to make a custom guitar, I seized it. 

“There are elements of the last four MW guitars that have become essential to my playing. For the first time, thanks to the expertise of Rob Gray at RIP Custom Guitars, we’ve been able to roll them all into one signature model. He’s allowed me to be more involved in the overall design, and I know for a fact that we’ve created the ultimate instrument in the MW-AX.”

Available in both left- and right-handed configurations, the MW-AX is available now for pre-order for $1,699.99. For more information, head to RIP Custom Guitars.

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Sam Roche

Sam was Staff Writer at GuitarWorld.com from 2019 to 2023, and also created content for Total Guitar, Guitarist and Guitar Player. He has well over 15 years of guitar playing under his belt, as well as a degree in Music Technology (Mixing and Mastering). He's a metalhead through and through, but has a thorough appreciation for all genres of music. In his spare time, Sam creates point-of-view guitar lesson videos on YouTube under the name Sightline Guitar.