Sweetwater Black Friday deals 2025: last chance to bag up to 80% off guitar gear

The Squier Hello Kitty Stratocaster is a cult classic that has become a genuine favorite among all manner of players for its bold looks and stripped-back spec. Used prices went through the roof a few years ago, but move quickly and you can snap one up for under $400 at Sweetwater.

This MIA Telecaster features a unique spruce body, which is a rarity amongst Fender guitars. The bright and responsive tone of spruce is a perfect match for that classic Telecaster twang, and it's a really cool, fresh take on the tried-and-tested Tele formula. With a massive $320 reduction in the Sweetwater early Black Friday sale, it's the perfect way to pick up a guitar different from all the rest for much less.

The Positive Grid Spark Mini has been my favorite practice amp for a long time now, thanks to its blend of fantastic tones, excellent volume, yet surprisingly small form factor. With a $50 reduction at Sweetwater, taking it just south of $200, it's awesome value for money, and in my opinion, the perfect practice amp.

Walrus Audio may have recently updated its Mako Series, but make no mistake: the original pedals are still serious bits of kit. For Black Friday Sweetwater has slashed $200 off the MKI R1 Reverb, M1 Modulation and D1 Delay pedals, all of which received glowing reviews from Guitar World. Each pedal offers a host of effects types and loads of tone-tweaking tools. Some of the newer MKII pedals have also been discounted, with price reductions of up to $90

Grohl’s Gibson has become iconic, and now with the Epiphone replica, you can bag that famous Foos sound at a fraction of the cost. Loaded with Gibson USA pickups, with a Burstbucker 2 in the neck position and Burstbucker 3 in the bridge, there is no better way to nail this famous Grohl tone. Save £300 at Sweetwater.

I’m gonna let you in on a secret: the FOD Drive is just a rebadged Dookie Drive – ya know, the pedal that captures Billie Joe Armstrong’s sought-after modded Marshall Plexi crunch from the Green Day album of the same name. Which makes this $99 deal an absolute bargain. A blend knob goes between two different amp characters, allowing you to fine-tune your gain, while a three-way scoop switch gets those mids dialed in juuuust right. Get it! Now!

With a lightweight alder body, maple neck, Alnico V pickups and a coil-split humbucker, this guitar delivers everything in one attractive, tonally versatile package which is ideal for learners. It’s available in a load of colours, but we love this Sonic Blue finish. Read our full 5-star review.

Jimi’s original started life with a sunburst finish before he sprayed it black and hand-painted the ‘Love Drops’ design himself. That brings us neatly to the Epiphone Inspired By Gibson Custom Jimi Hendrix Love Drops Flying V. For us, we think the Love Drops is a great statement guitar. It looks fantastic, plays well, and sounds superb, particularly in the neck position.

A full-hollow maple body and Broad’Tron BT-3S humbuckers (with coil-split) give warm jazz tones, bright rock chording and classy sustain, perfect for beginners who want something soulful and versatile. Read our full 4.5-star review.

If there is one thing working in a guitar store has taught me, it’s that metal heads love to save money. With $216 off this SE Custom 24 Floyd guitar at Sweetwater, you can dive bomb between chugging riffs to your heart's content, made even sweeter thanks to a generous discount. Stand out from the crowd with the stunning Charcoal Cherry Burst finish.

There are loads of PRS guitars on sale at the moment, but one of my top picks is this PRS SE Special Semi-Hollow. It's got a huge $230 reduction at Sweetwater, taking it well below a grand, and it's one of the most versatile guitars I've played this year. This comes courtesy of the lineup of three pickups, with dual humbuckers and a Narrowfield DD “S” pickup in between the two. Add in the ability to coil tap the pickups and you've a ridiculous array of tones to choose from, alongside PRS' trademark build quality.

Not a fan of flashy flame tops? Well, this might just be the LP of your dreams. This Gibson Les Paul Standard ’60s boasts the classic design that’s kept this solidbody electric guitar relevant for decades, but ditches the flames for an understated Sparkling Burgundy plain top. Save a whopping $600 at Sweetwater.

Double-cut guitars more your speed? Well, the Gretsch G5422TG Electromatic is a great option. Boasting a set of vintage-voiced Gretsch FT-5E Filter'Tron humbucking pickups and Bigsby B60, this guitar nails that classic Gretsch twang and then some.

The 110ce is a dreadnought acoustic-electric with a solid Sitka spruce top and layered sapele back and sides. Our review praised its excellent fit and finish and its naturally balanced tonality throughout, delivering serious performance well below $1K. It also packs Taylor’s Expression System 2 pickup. For our money, this is the best pound-for-pound acoustic in the price bracket. Read our full 4.5 star review.

If you’re seeking big, powerful tones for every shade of quiet and loud strumming, then the J-200 is one of the greatest acoustic guitars there is. It’s super dynamic, so you can play with loads of expression, and it responds really nicely to your picking attack. Save $300 at Sweetwater.  

The Positive Grid Spark Mini has been my favorite practice amp for a long time now, thanks to its blend of fantastic tones, excellent volume, yet surprisingly small form factor. With a $50 reduction at Sweetwater, taking it just south of $200, it's awesome value for money, and in my opinion, the perfect practice amp.

Tech 21 is clearing out its SansAmp Character Plus range: four compact pedals that act as Guitar DIs, preamp and multi-effects in one. Your options include the Fender-ish Screaming Blonde, Gilmour-targeted English Muffy, Hendrixian Fuzzy Brit and Beatles-friendly Mop Top Liverpool. As a backup to stow in your gigbag, these are a fine investment – especially at 60% off.

Combining two of Fender's most famous effects in spring reverb and tremolo, this pedal is perfect for anyone who loves those classic effects built into Fender amps. It's got a massive $98 discount at Sweetwater right now, perfect if you want to pick up some iconic effects for less.

Walrus Audio may have recently updated its Mako Series, but make no mistake: the original pedals are still serious bits of kit. For Black Friday Sweetwater has slashed $200 off the MKI R1 Reverb, M1 Modulation and D1 Delay pedals, all of which received glowing reviews from Guitar World. Each pedal offers a host of effects types and loads of tone-tweaking tools. Some of the newer MKII pedals have also been discounted, with price reductions of up to $90

The Quad Cortex has become an essential unit for us at Guitar World, serving as our go-to for recording audio for our gear demo videos.

In our review, we said, "The Nano Cortex might not be perfect, but with the help of a breezy app, an expansive new update, and some world-class features, it very nearly is. As a compact amp modeler/cab simulator/capture device, this is perhaps the best option out there, screen or no screen."

Bundled with an expression pedal, you can save $40 at Sweetwater.
Read more: Neural DSP Nano Cortex review

HX Effects is ideal for guitarists who love Line 6’s stellar Helix effects but want something with a smaller footprint that can operate with the ease of a traditional stomp box pedalboard. 

Read more: Line 6 HX Effects review

At just $99, the Pigtronix Constellator is a brilliant deal at Sweetwater thanks to a huge $80 reduction in their Beat the Holiday Rush sale. It's an analog delay pedal that delivers a luscious warm wash that belies its budget price point. It's a seriously underrated bit of gear, and we love the modulated tones it can deliver, as well as the mini size that means it's easily able to fit onto any 'board.

If you're into your shoegaze tones, this Catalinbread Soft Focus Ghost is a great buy with 15% off at Sweetwater. It combines their Soft Focus reverb pedal based on the Yamaha FX500 patch of the same name and adds in a phase shifter, which results in some incredible, otherworldly guitar tones. It's really easy to use and as well as the classic Slowdive sounds it has plenty of tones that go beyond ambient.

The JHS Hard Drive has been reduced by $50 during this Sweetwater sale and is perfect for children of the ’90s. From Dimebag Darrell scooped-mids tight riffs to classic Green Day and early Foo Fighters Marshall tones, the Hard Drive (available in either black or tan) is an in-your-face, punchy distortion pedal. This is one of JHS’s first completely unique circuits, and picking it up for $50 less than usual is incredibly tempting. Read our full 4.5-star review.

If you’re looking for the biggest discount, you’ve found it. With $113 off the ticket price, the Color Box V2 offers you the best savings at Sweetwater. Luckily for us, it’s a superb pedal too. It is a multifaceted pedal, but its prime use is as a fully analog vintage preamp with oozing overdrive. It’s not hyperbole when I say the Color Box has been used every time my band and I visited our studio to record. This current offer is on the 10th anniversary model, a great chance to pick up something more limited.

Fun fact: Boss literally invented the pedal tuner in 1998. Before that, nobody had a tuner on their pedalboard. Isn’t that nuts? All of which is to say that you can trust the TU-3 Chromatic Tuner to keep you in tune. Glare-free display, multiple tuning modes and rock-solid Boss build quality for $79. Let’s go.

I’m gonna let you in on a secret: the FOD Drive is just a rebadged Dookie Drive – ya know, the pedal that captures Billie Joe Armstrong’s sought-after modded Marshall Plexi crunch from the Green Day album of the same name. Which makes this $99 deal an absolute bargain. A blend knob goes between two different amp characters, allowing you to fine-tune your gain, while a three-way scoop switch gets those mids dialed in juuuust right. Get it! Now!

Remember when the internet went bananas for the DigiTech Bad Monkey? Wampler did, and then made the Triumph – a drive pedal that JHS head honcho Josh Scott called “better than the Bad Monkey”. If all of that means absolutely nothing to you, let me just say that the Triumph is a superb Tube Screamer-derived drive with extra flexibility, via a three-band EQ and a Smooth/Punch switch for classic and modern tones. For Cyber Monday, it’s under $85. Now that’s bananas.

Tthe Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 4th Gen delivers a great balance of features, performance, and software offering. Its low-latency performance is simply phenomenal, and you can get it to go below 5ms on Mac, which is incredibly low considering the price. It’s great on Windows too, with one of the most robust drivers I’ve ever encountered. Add in some cool features like clip safe and auto gain modes alongside significant improvements in AD/DA conversion, and there’s a good reason it sits in the top picks of my guide. With a nice $30 off over at Sweetwater, it’s the ultimate interface for the vast majority of music makers out there.

If you want something a little more ‘pro’, the Universal Audio Apollo Twin X is the step up you’ve been looking for. I use its bigger brother, the X4, as my daily in my home studio, and when I was reviewing the Twin X I really loved the analogue style workflow it encourages you to take on. By harnessing the DSP power within the interface itself, you can offload processing from your computer to the interface itself, allowing you to place plugins on the input path like you would in a proper studio. It’s got a huge $200 discount at Sweetwater right now, so if you’re ready to step up to the big leagues, then this is the interface for you.

Sweetwater Boss Katana sale: Save up to $150
Sweetwater is getting ahead of the game with their early Black Friday sale. You can save up to $150 on select amps in the Katana range, including slightly smaller savings on the new Gen 3 models. With money off amplifiers for both guitarists and bassists, there hasn’t been a better time to snag a bargain on the world’s best-selling amplifier range. Stock will likely be limited and we don’t see these prices sticking around for long.

A great amp for vintage-style guitar tones, the British-made Victory Amps The Deputy is the signature model of Peter 'Danish Pete' Honore of Andertons YouTube channel fame. It's got a massive $220 discount at the moment, making it a great option for a tube head that delivers a highly responsive and dynamic tone.

The Peavey Classic 20 is one of the best value tube amps on the market, but the latest iteration packs in a ton of connectivity and handy features like power attenuation and USB/XLR outputs. Now you can scoop it up over at Sweetwater – and shave $100 off the usual price.

One of JHS' most popular pedals has a massive 20% discount in the Sweetwater sale, unlocking transparent overdrive tones for less. With a $49.75 discount taking the price down below the $150 mark, it's the perfect way to add clarity and articulation to your tones without spending loads.

At just below half-price, this is easily one of the best pedal deals we've seen this Black Friday. The Walrus Audio Mako Series R1 is a highly-rated reverb pedal that features 6 different algorithms and plenty of ways to tweak them to your liking.

Neural DSP Quad Cortex: free gig case and IR pack
Neural DSP's Quad Cortex is still held up as one of the market's gold standard multi-effects modelers. Now, you can snap it up with a gig case worth $120 – perfect for gigging guitarists – and a free Eminence IR pack, which will help make those ampless signal chains sound even better.

The fabled tone of a Gibson Les Paul can be yours for a lot less over at Sweetwater. With a huge $600 discount, this stunning Cardinal Red Plain Top is just below the $2,000 mark, making it excellent value for money. Not only do you get the price reduction, but you'll also get two Maestro pedals completely free when you buy this amazing guitar.

If you're looking to splurge on an acoustic we can't think of many that are better, or bigger, than the Guild F-55E. It's got a hefty $1,000 discount at Sweetwater, making it an incredible deal on a premium instrument. In our recent Guild F-55E review, we praised it for its loud and well-balanced tone, slim neck with fantastic playing feel, and outstanding build quality.

With a generous $300 discount, the Pro-Mod So-Cal Style 1 HSS FR M in Gloss Black is a must-see this Black Friday. A speed-carved neck makes it a shredder’s dream, while its Seymour Duncan pickups deliver a perfect balance of high-output gain and clean, spanky tones. The TB-6 humbucker excels at crunch, and the SSL single-coils are fantastic for bluesy leads and crisp cleans.

Get One, Gift One: Get a Taylor BT-1 for only $99
At participating retailers, if you buy a 300 or 400 series Taylor you can get an additional Baby Taylor for $99, a GS Mini for $199, or an Academy model from $299. Taylor is running this promotion until January 6th, so if you have been after a new acoustic, this is a wonderful chance to get an additional model to use yourself or a gift for someone special.

A brilliant choice for beginners, the Sterling by Music Man Cutlass has got a super $150 discount at Sweetwater, taking the price down below the $200 mark. Beautifully put together, the HSS pickup configuration makes it ultra-flexible tonally, giving you plenty of humbucker heft for harder styles with single coils for extra versatility.

Boasting the biggest discount of the bunch, this Pro-Mod San Dimas has a whopping saving. Designed for speed, it features a slick speed neck, hot Seymour Duncan pickups, a compound-radius fingerboard, and a Floyd Rose tremolo for ultimate playability. The versatile HSS configuration makes it a jack of all trades, while the dazzling Aqua Flake finish ensures it stands out both on stage and in your collection.

Walrus Audio’s Mako Series pedals are the brand’s own answer to an ever-expanding suite of pro-level effects in the boutique pedal industry. With rugged design, dual footswitches and incredible versatility, these devices are a credit to any pedalboard – and, for Black Friday, two of them are half price at Sweetwater. You can grab a pro-grade delay or reverb pedal for $175 off list price apiece.