Welcome to Guitar World’s weekly gear round-up, your one-stop-shop for keeping up to date with what’s been happening in the big wide world of guitar gear over the past seven days.
From new electric guitars to amp modeler updates, the guitar industry is never short of fresh releases, and it can sometimes be hard to stay in the loop with every new launch.
To make things a little easier, we’ve put together an essential must-read guide that will cover the major releases, the boutique drops, and everything in between.
Latest Videos FromGuitar World
Below you’ll find my personal highlights from the week, along with plenty of honorable mentions for the new gear you might have missed. Agree with my picks? Have a highlight of your own? Let us know in the comments.
Boss Katana-25
There is a strong case to be made that the new Katana-25 combo amp is the most beginner-friendly amp Boss has made yet, and is maybe one of the best beginner amps on the market, period.
For one, it’s compact, with 25-watts of solid-state power driving a single 8” speaker, and the power can be switched down to a half-watt setting for cranking at modest volumes. It is everything you need from a bedroom practice amp.
It comes with six amp voices, one of which is dedicated to acoustic electric guitars. There are more than 60 Boss effects onboard, and 30 presets (out of the box it has 20 to get you started). There is a tap tempo for time-based effects.
There is all the digital functionality you could want, with the Boss Tone Studio app the place where deep edits can happen. You can even cue up a track from YouTube, play along and programme where you want the amp to change preset for you (say from crunch to lead, or clean to crunch) automatically.
The tones are convincing. This is the same Gen 3 Tube Logic tech that powers the larger amps in the Katana series. And it’s just $199. But for all that digital functionality, it’s still a simple control face, with everything you need available from that front panel.
See Boss for more.
Fender Kim Gordon Jazzmaster
Who knows what would have become of the Jazzmaster had Sonic Youth not come along to pluck it out of obscurity and turn it into the electric guitar of choice for alt-rock, indie and punk players who wanted something different, something offset and angular – and above all cheap.
Kim Gordon’s signature Jazzmaster reimagines the original. For a start, the notoriously arcane electronics have been stripped down and simplified. Here, we only have a three-way pickup selector toggle, volume and tone. And that oversized single-coil at the bridge has been swapped out for a Seymour Duncan JB humbucker (or a TB-4, trembucker to accommodate the wider strings spacing of the vibrato).
At the neck you’ve got the humbucker-sized Alnico V single-coil pickup. You have the floating vibrato with the Mustang saddles. And that’s it. With that black pickguard and the Olympic White finish, plus the matching painted headcap and witch hat controls, it’s one sweet Jazzmaster. The block inlays give it an upscale look, too.
Gordon says you don’t need a whole bunch of effects to get creative with it. Just plug it in and play.
“One thing that’s great about the Jazzmaster, if you have a guitar that sounds good by just plugging it into an amplifier, it doesn’t need effects,” she says. “That’s really satisfying…I just really like the sound…Electricity in the guitar is the gateway to losing yourself.”
Find out more at Fender.
Epiphone Prophecy
This is the week that Epiphone showed its teeth to unveil its most-metal metal guitar collection yet, as the Prophecy series gets a serious upgrade.
This is as advanced/high-performance as an Epiphone gets. We’re talking stainless steel jumbo frets, compound radius fingerboards, custom-voiced Fishman pickups, locking tuners, a quick and thing Hyperglide neck profile and there’s even a baritone Les Paul in the lineup too.
The Gibson DNA is there for all to see. There’s a whiff of the Custom Shop courtesy of the multi-ply body binding, the split-diamond headstock inlays and the mother-of-pearl block inlays on the fingerboards. And yet these are no purist retro-builds. Heck, they all have 25.5” scale lengths for a start (the baritone LP has 27”). The pickups will give you a high-output humbucker voicing, a PAF-alike vintage ‘bucker, and an “optimized single-coil” voicing.
The range includes the Flying V, Les Paul and SG, plus a Floyd Rose-equipped Victory double-cut, the Les Paul Baritone, and wait? Where’s the Explorer? That’s the only question we have TBH, but maybe that will come in the spring. You can’t have the most metal Epiphones ever without the most metal model, right?
Anyway, these look the part. Check them out at Epiphone.
Also Launched This Week
JHS Pedals Pherb
Hands up who loves the Flerb setting from Electro-Harmonix’s Holy Grail reverb pedal? JHS Pedals supremo Josh Scott does not have his hand up right now, but he does know how many of you love it, because you keep on asking him to make a Flerb.
Well, he wasn’t going to do that. He just does not like the sound of flanger inside a reverb. But a phaser? Yes, that works, and so he’s added it to the $99 3 Series, and you can stop bugging him about it.
See more at JHS Pedals.
Dr. No Blameshifter
This is the third collab between Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen and Dr. No Effects, and it’s all kinds of gruesome. The idea behind it was an inside joke, that what if they had a pedal that could route a mistake to someone else’s amp. Hence the name of the pedal, and the severed finger.
But the actual Blameshifter is really a top-quality buffer and routing box. You plug your guitar in, there’s an “ultra-transparent” buffer, then four outputs for switching between complex amp setups. Each is handmade and signed by Van Leeuwen.
See more at Dr. No Effects.
Fender x Pokémon Stratocaster and Telecaster
There are some guitars that you would need to win the lottery to own, a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard, a 1962 Strat, something vintage and rare like that. But the Pokémon Telecaster and Stratocaster is LITERALLY a guitar you need to win a lottery to win. That’s how rare they are.
Furthermore, it’s a Fender Japan deal. But these are very cool, a red and green Telecaster and Strat, something something something to do with Pokémon which is – I admit – not of my jurisdiction, but they do have this push-pull on the volume knob that activates an 8-bit effect that is truly a tantalizing prospect.
For more: Pokémon
Ibanez x Dragonball Z
Another Japanese pop-cultural tie-in, this time between Ibanez and Dragon Ball Z, and it includes guitar picks, guitar cases, straps, T-shirts and a ukulele, but most importantly a unique Tube Screamer TS808, a stunning MIJ RG, plus graphic finish electric guitars and basses that will be rolled out across 2027. That little green box will sure be collectible. But that RG looks incredible.
For more: Dragon Ball
Neighborhood Circuits Porter headphone amp
The Porter is a pocket-sized headphone amp that has an all-analogue design, is intended for use with your pedals, and just needs a little financial push to meet its crowd-funding target of $10,000.
Described as “a tool, not a toy,” Porter has a simple design; one knob, it clips to your strap. There’s a line in to play along with external audio and a USB to charge it.
For more: Crowd Supply
Model 1: The Full Modular Guitar
One of the things we all love about electric guitar – and especially the bolt-on – is that there is a sense of modularity about it. You can swap out the neck, change the hardware, retrofit new pickups. The Model 1, however, takes this idea its logical conclusion.
It’s only at Kickstarter stage but it promises a super-lightweight build (1.6kg), “no wood, no truss rod” and no headstock ‘cos headstocks are for dorks, and it has this triple-voiced pickup.
For more: Kickstarter
EarthQuaker Devices Plumes Jr. and Blumes Jr. MOSFET Mod
Jamie Stillman has taken two EQD stalwarts and shrunk them down into mini pedal format, and then modded them with an extra Mosfet stage accessed via a toggle switch. That’s three clipping options, one mini pedal, and here for a limited time only.
For more: EarthQuaker Devices
Positive Grid Spark CAB 2
You don’t have to own a Spark to get the most out of Positive Grid’s refreshed FRFR speaker. When it comes down to it, this 140-watt beast is brand-agnostic. But it will help you expand your Spark rig for the stage, and can provide power – and volume – for your Spark amp and pedal family.
For more: Positive Grid
