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The Year in Gear 2018

Step inside Premier Guitar’s magical, miraculous time machine and revisit the gear that stood head and shoulders above the rest as Premier Gear Award winners in 2018.

Pigtronix Mothership 2

With its P-Funk associations, the name Mothership is appropriate for this analog guitar-synth pedal. Its punchy lead lines and humungous bass tones are perfect for funky groove parts, and though its synth colors are seldom pretty or dreamy, you could take these tones in atmospheric directions using downstream reverb, delay, and modulation pedals. Far closer to Bernie Worrell than to Brian Eno, this small pedal is full of big sounds.

$249 street
pigtronix.com

Click here to read the full review

The author found this one-of-a-kind tremolo/vibrato/sound-altering modulation box at Quattro Music Company in Thomas, West Virginia.

Producer and roots-guitar veteran Michael Dinallo pens his unabashed love letter to tremolo, with fond recollections of vintage Fender and Gibson amps, Dunlop’s TS-1, and a one-of-a-kind mystery modulator.

Tremolo is my favorite effect to modulate a guitar’s sound (and I love vibrato, too). I love it so much that it’s part of the moniker of the production team I had with the late Ducky Carlisle—the Tremolo Twins—as well as our Trem-Tone Records label. You might recognize Ducky from his many engineering credits, including Buddy Guy, or our work together on albums like Stax veteran Eddie Floyd’s heralded Eddie Loves You So, from 2008.

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Sterling By Music Man & Ernie Ball | NAMM 2025
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Axis, Cutlass, Sting Rays, oh my! There were all those and more new stylings at the Sterling by Music Man & Ernie Ball both this year as we got a tour of all their affordable options that are out or will be coming out in 2025. We saw new stylings on signature sweets for James Valentine, Steve Lukather, Ryan "Fluff" Bruce, Pete Wentz, Tosin Abasi, Jason Richardson and more!

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PRS Guitars Standard 24 Satin Demo | NAMM 2025
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The PRS Standard is one of the two models that started PRS Guitars back in 1985. It has been out of the line up for more than ten years and coming back for the 40th Anniversary.

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He’s never stopped developing, and we’re covering our favorite highlights of McLaughlin’s career: his acoustic (and later electric) take on Indian music with Shakti, his more traditional jazz projects, and much more.

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