Earlier this year Waggoner moved on from PRS and developed a signature guitar with Ibanez—the PWM100 Paul Waggoner signature model that has a Wizard III neck and comes with Mojotone PW Hornet signature pickups. Waggoner describes the sig axe: “It’s like the S-series guitars Ibanez has been putting out for years, but a little thicker than a stock S-guitar. It has a super lightweight swamp ash body. It’s a pretty bright-sounding wood. I designed some pickups with Mojotone that we’re calling the PW Hornets. They highlight the brightness of the guitar without overdoing it. The bridge pickup has a ceramic magnet that gives me that punch I need for the high gain stuff. The neck pickup is a totally opposite approach: It has an alnico magnet and a friendlier sound. The guitar will come stock with those pickups. They sound good in other guitars, too—we put them in mahogany guitars, and they sounded great. It just so happens that when we were trying to dial them in, we were using my swamp ash Ibanez as the reference. It’s a very bright-sounding guitar, and you can’t just throw any pickups in there. Mojotone did a good job of dialing in the perfect balance.”
Rig Rundown: Between the Buried and Me [2015]
The prog-metal juggernauts discuss how their signature axes cranked through Axe-Fx units create their brutal live tone.
By Perry BeanAug 26, 2015
Perry Bean
Perry Bean cut his teeth touring and playing in punk rock and hardcore bands, before he got his start in film. He worked his way up from lowly production assistant to become a producer, art director, and most recently, a music video director nominated for ACM, CMT, and CMA awards. Being Premier Guitar's Chief Videographer was a perfect fit for him, combining his two favorite things—guitars and cameras. Perry doesn't have free time, but his massive dog Beef pays his rent by being Perry's intern.