Hello, and welcome to Guitar World’s sparkly new 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 abreast of every new launch that may be of interest to you.
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.
And there are plenty of essentials to get through this week. From next-gen touchscreen-equipped combos that usher in a new era of desktop modeling amps to a contender for the best new electric of 2025, you can all of that – and more – below.
PRS SE NF 53
When PRS launched the NF 53 alongside a Myles Kennedy signature that had been teased for months in advance back in 2023, everyone had the same question: when can we expect an SE version?
The original landed in just shy of the $3k mark, which meant that many of those who fancied experiencing Paul Reed Smith's refined reimagining of a classic T-type template were ultimately priced out of a move.
Fortunately, the SE variant is under the $1,000 mark – a quite miraculous price point, considering just how much of the original's flair the firm has managed to retain here. It received glowing reviews when Guitar World put it through its paces, and it's already being considered as potentially the best new sub-$1k electric guitar of 2025.
For more: PRS
Blackstar ID:X
Blackstar isn't pulling its punches, nor is it shying away from making a scene, with the ID:X – a next-gen modeling amp that debuts all-new innovations in a bid to topple of Boss Katana and Positive Grid at the top of the modeling amp market.
In The Room tech promises a deeper and dynamic tone, while CabRig IR functionality, Infinite Shape Feature, and a bevy of connectivity options hope to make the ID:X a real contender in the game and go "head-to-head with the current market leader". Boss and Positive Grid will be looking over their shoulder...
For more: Blackstar
Gibson Les Paul Music City Special
Anyone have 'The Return of the Gibson Marauder' on their bingo card for this week? Nope, neither did we, yet here we have it... well, sort of. The Music City Special Les Paul celebrates 50 years of Gibson making guitars in Nashville, Tennessee, and revives not one, but two, obscure builds.
The first is, of course, the Marauder – a build from the 1970s known for its contoured single-cut body shape and Flying V-style headstock, which found favor with Paul Stanley and Adam Jones. The other is, er the Music City from 2013, which arrived, departed, then was never seen of again.
So, basically, it's a Marauder in all but name, but for our two cents, it's better than the original.
For more: Gibson
Mooer F15i
It's official: we've reached the point where guitar amps are now coming factory fitted with touchscreens. This day was always going to come, owing to the digitization and Apple-ification of certain corners of the gear industry, but thankfully it doesn't look anything like a novelty gimmick on the Mooer F15i.
If anything, the F15i looks (and sounds, we might add) like a genuinely impressive desktop modeling amp, with Bluetooth connectivity for music streaming, a companion iAmp app for tone tweaking, and USB-C for audio recording. The juries out on whether it truly is capable of setting a new benchmark for desktop amps, but it's a valiant effort from Mooer.
For more: Mooer
Ernie Ball Music Man Pino Palladino StingRay
One of the finest living bass players of our time, Pino Palladino, has been rightly honored by Ernie Ball Music Man with a trio of signature bass guitars. The John Mayer, Jeff Beck, Adele and David Gilmour collaborator bought his first fretless StingRay in 1981 while on tour with Jools Holland (after a quick chat with his disgruntled tour manage) and never looked back.
"That bass changed my life," says Palladino, who used the StingRay almost exclusively for everything he recorded up until 1996. An Icon Series model recreates his beloved 1979 model to a T – scrapes 'n' all – while the two Artist Series versions offer standard fretted and fretless versions, just to cover all the (ahem) bases.
For more: Ernie Ball Music Man
Jackson Misha Mansoor Juggernaut
We still don't have the Jackson Surfcaster Misha Mansoor signature guitar that we're all waiting for, but a new Pro Plus Series Juggernaut HT7 is probably the next best thing. It's built to be a prog metal machine of the highest order, and with that additional seventh string, it's even more versatile than before.
Please, please, Jackson... release the Surfcaster next!
For more: Jackson
EVH Hypersonic FR
Everyone's jumping on the FRFR hype train, it seems. Fender launched the Tone Master FR-12, IK Multimedia debuted the TONEX Cab, HeadRush has a few under its belt, and now EVH – which doesn't have an amp modeler to its name – has joined the queue with the Hypersonic FRFR range.
EVH is a hard rock amp specialist, of course, but an FRFR speaker is an interesting move to make. Since EVH is owned by Fender, the company is seemingly well-catered for in that department, especially since it has the Tone Master Pro to its name. Indeed, the marketing around the Hypersonic pits it as an ideal candidate for the Tone Master Pro (presumably for the EVH amp models).
The messaging is clear: Fender wants the FRFR market for itself, and the Hypersonic could help them get it.
For more: EVH
Martin Chris Martin IV 70th Birthday 000-18 and D-18
Martin's Chris Martin IV is celebrating his 70th birthday, so the firm is marking the occasion with two celebratory six-strings: a D-18 and a 000-18. Both are top of the range replicas of vintage Martins, and pay homage to the acoustics that were made in 1955 – both Martin's birth year, and the year in which dreadnoughts an 000 models started to take over the music scene.
Like most Martin celebratory releases, these limited-edition models will cost you a pretty penny: $4,699 apiece, to be precise.
For more: Martin
Groundhog Audio OnePedal
Let's face it, tone-hunting can be an exhausting (and expensive) endeavour. Sure, guitarists are well-advised to make the most of the gear they have, and buying the exact same setup as your favorite guitarist will not guarantee you their sound (tone is in the hands, people), but that still doesn't stop many of us buying pedals and expanding our 'boards to craft a tone that can match our favorite records. I'm speaking from experience. I forked out for a Boss CE-2W after listening to Sob Rock.
But Groundhog Audio, an ambitious start-up, is hoping to make all that a thing of the past with the OnePedal – a new box that syncs to your music library and uses AI to emulate any guitar tone it gets fed.
It's still in the production phase, and a Kickstarter is about to be launched, but the concept is an interesting one, and if the tech matches the ambition... well, it could be one helluva pedal.
Of course, it won't appeal to those who trawl through pedals in order replicate a particular tone for the sheer love of the game, but for convenience purposes – function guitarists, perhaps – it has potential.
For more: Groundhog Audio
Death By Audio x Levitation Psychedelic Lightmare
What needs to be said about a pedal called 'Psychedelic Lightmare'? Well, firstly that it sounds as unhinged as its name suggests. A collaboration between Death By Audio and the Levitation festival, the Psychedelic Lightmare is a "swirling portal" or reverb, tremolo and pitch manipulation that responds to light itself.
It's a nifty tone-tweaking parameter, though not one that's as tameable as your average control knob. In the dark, the Warp Sensor stretches and slows. In the light, it speeds up, warps, and evolves on the fly. Only 333 will be made.
For more: Death By Audio
