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Gear Awards

This $500 solidbody may look like a no-frills machine, but it’s a rock-solid player with features that elevate it above most guitars in its price category.

A flat-out bargain. Great vibrato system. Excellent fretwork. Fast playability.

Some midrange clutter in the output at wide-open volumes.

$499

PRS SE CE 24 Standard Satin
prsguitars.com

4.5
4.5
5
5

PRS makes some of the best affordable electric guitars in the world. They also have a talent for making those instruments look expensive. They achieve this trick thanks to quality control standards and practices that better most companies at the accessible end of the price spectrum. But PRS also built their reputation on immaculately crafted and very exclusive guitars. And once that association is burned into the collective consciousness of the guitar playing public—and you figure out a way to cop high-end design cues in down-market versions—well, you can make an inexpensive guitar seem very expensive, indeed.

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Steve Albini in the control room at his Electrical Audio studio in Chicago.

Photo by Kevin Tiongson

Words of wisdom from the legendary engineer, proprietor of Chicago’s Electrical Audio, World Series of Poker champion, and, in the band Shellac, the compass for brutal guitar aesthetics.

“All day every day, we’re grinding it out,” says engineer Steve Albini of his team at Electrical Audio, the Chicago studio he built and has run since 1997. “We’re constantly in session, constantly under fire.”

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Great tones in all settings. Practical design, High quality.

Recombined tones may not be better than the originals to some ears.

$199

Keeley Noble Screamer
robertkeeley.com

4.5
5
5
4.5

Robert Keeley marries the best of two beloved green machines in one smart box.

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This downsized version of Marshall’s first amp still spans a sweet range of British and American tones and packs a punch—even in its 5-watt mode.

A well-designed, ruggedly built, and downsized update of the classic JTM45 platform. Suited for contemporary club and studio needs. Five-watt mode sounds excellent. Spans classic Brit and American tones.

Expensive for a 20-watt PCB-based combo.

$1,949


Marshall JTM Studio ST20C
marshall.com

4.5
4.5
5
4

Marshall ventured ably into smaller and quieter realms with 2018’s Studio Series, which reduced the plexi, JCM, and Jubilee platforms down to a much more manageable 20 watts. The JTM45 is the latest Marshall legend to undergo the shrink treatment—yielding the Studio JTM ST20C, a 20-watt, 1x12 combo that harnesses big-bottle, 5881 output tube power in an amp suited for modestly sized clubs and studios.

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There’s much more to this analog phaser than outlaw country swirl.

An inexpensive, rangy phaser with fun, interactive, and easy-to-use controls

Some whistle-like overtones in treble-heavy peaks

$129

Fender Waylon Jennings Phaser, $129 street

fender.com

4.5
4.5
4.5
4.5

When I was a kid, my mom got a cassette of Waylon Jennings’ Greatest Hits, which went into heavy rotation in her Cutlass Supreme’s tape deck. Much was striking about that introduction to Waylon Jennings—not least that voice and the frank, plain-spoken narration. Just as arresting, though, were the swirling guitar sounds that popped up on “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” and “Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love).” They didn’t sound like the Buck Owens or Patti Page I would hear on oldies stations, or, for that matter, George Harrison’s version of Don Rich’s “Act Naturally” lead. In fact, as a Beatles obsessive, “Luckenbach, Texas” struck me as bearing a certain resemblance to the arpeggios in “Dear Prudence.” Those phaser sounds helped make me a Waylon fan for life. So, I’m tickled to see Fender honor the effect that opened up one very strange corner of my musical mind with the release of the Waylon Jennings Phaser.

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