PG Editors, Our Reader of the Month & Justin Osborne Show Their Weirdest Guitars
SUSTO's Justin Osborne joins Premier Guitar editors and our reader of the month in discussing oddball guitars and current musical obsessions.
Question: What's the weirdest-shaped guitar you own and how did you acquire it?
Justin Osborne – SUSTO
Photo by Dries Vandenberg
A: The weirdest-shaped guitar I own is by far my '80s Kramer Voyager. I never play it live, but it was actually one of the first guitars I ever bought way back in my early teens. I was at an antique shop with my mom and the guitar was there for only $75. I borrowed the money from my parents to buy it and had a lot of fun with it, mostly just playing in my room. My friend has been borrowing it indefinitely, but I still count it as a part of my guitar collection and will always remember it as my first electric guitar.
Current obsession:
My current musical obsession is Strand of Oaks' new album In Heaven. I've been a fan for a while now, and just love how Tim Showalter creates such a specific sonic landscape on his albums. This new one is a banger!
Strand of Oaks - Galacticana (Official Acoustic Video)
Strand of Oaks - Galacticana (Official Acoustic Video)Stream / Purchase: https://orcd.co/inheavenFollow Strand of Oaks:Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/...Sam Crowley – Reader of the Month
A: My Telecasket, which I built. White Zombie is one of my favorite bands of all time and has been since high school. I loved Sean Yseult's coffin basses from the moment I saw them and always thought if I could have a custom guitar, it would be a coffin. Fast forward 25+ years, as I was playing in my horror-rock band, the Electric Dead, it was time to finally do it. My father, who is a cabinet maker, and I built it together over the course of a few weeks.
Telecasket
The string-through body is a big slab of pine, and the binding/center stripe are walnut. My favorite guitarist is Billy Gibbons, so I had to put a Pearly Gates in there. His style also influenced the choice of no neck pickup and just a volume knob. Super simple. This being our first guitar project, we didn't want to tackle the neck, so I ordered that from Solo Music here in Ontario. I replaced the nut on that with a TUSQ nut and gave it a satin finish. The guitar is amazingly resonant, sounds absolutely huge, and the audience loves it!
Current obsession:
Photo by Blain Clausen
Always Billy Gibbons. To me, he's just the coolest guitar player ever!
Billy Gibbons X-Rays His Hands?! | The Big 5
The ZZ Top legend on what makes his “Pearly Gates” Les Paul so special, why he recently had his hands x-rayed, and the “slithering” slide guitarist whose wor...Shawn Hammond – Chief Content Officer
A: Unfortunately, I can't find a pic of the cherry-finished Gibson '67 Flying V reissue I had to sell in a pinch a decade and a half ago, but I really miss it—it had neato-sounding, splittable Duncan Seth Lover pickups.
The weirdest profiles in my collection now would be my old Schecter Ultra III (which has a TV Jones Magna'Tron in the bridge position) or my Mosrite-inspired Eastwood Sidejack Baritone DLX (with Curtis Novak JM-WR pickups).
Current obsession:
Of late, I've really been lusting after a DynaSonic-outfitted Gretsch Jet.
Ted Drozdowski – Senior Editor
Photo by John Thomas Collins
A: If you're an old Delta blues guitarist, you might have started on a 1-string like my diddley bow (below). It's got slices of pipe for the bridge and nut, an old banjo tuner, a galvanized-pot body with a genuine plywood top, and an old tobacco barn stave for the neck.
It was a gift from my friend Mike Mitchell, an artist in East Nashville, and I put in a Mexico-made Tele pickup, so it sounds nasty. It's a big hit at shows and sounds super-gnarly through a Marshall.
Current obsession:
Maybe a new combo for my stereo amp setup, or a damn cool small head? And to keep on keepin' on.
- Weirdest Guitars: Rig Rundown Best-Ofs - Premier Guitar ›
- Weird Guitars: Vintage Freak Show - Premier Guitar ›
- Why Do So Many Posers Play “Offset” Guitars? - Premier Guitar ›
It’s almost over, but there’s still time to win! Enter Stompboxtober Day 30 for your shot at today’s pedal from SoloDallas!
The Schaffer Replica: Storm
The Schaffer Replica Storm is an all-analog combination of Optical Limiter+Harmonic Clipping Circuit+EQ Expansion+Boost+Line Buffer derived from a 70s wireless unit AC/DC and others used as an effect. Over 50 pros use this unique device to achieve percussive attack, copious harmonics and singing sustain.
A 1000-watt speaker cabinet crafted for musicians who demand power and precision. Sunn Amps intends to reinvent the standard 4x12 configuration with the introduction of this new cabinet.
The Sunn Amps DoomBox is built to accommodate both guitar and bass, offering an impressive 1000-watt handling capacity—making it the first commercially available 4x12 cabinet with such high power handling. With four specially designed 12” drivers rated at 250 watts each, this cabinet provides clean, unrestrained sound levels that can maintain power integrity across all frequencies, ideal for high-volume performances.
Inspired and developed using feedback from artists and bands who rely on the depth of lower tunings and high volume genres, the DoomBox was engineered to meet the unique demands of professional musicians looking for a robust, high-efficiency cab that can translate the raw power of their sound without compromise.
Premium Craftsmanship and Materials
The Doom Box cabinet is crafted from solid finger-jointed Baltic Birch plywood, ensuring both durability and tonal clarity. Each cabinet is constructed by hand in the U.S.A. using original 1930s machinery, the DoomBox reflects Sunn’s historic commitment to quality, contrasting with some of the mass-produced, MDF-based cabinets on the market today. The cabinet’s aluminum basket, ferrite magnet, and custom Sunn weave Tolex with a custom grill design complete its professional-grade build.
Technical Specifications:
• Power Handling: 1000W
• Inputs: 1 x ¼”
• Impedance: 8 Ohm
• Drivers: 4 x Sunn 12S250
• Construction: Marine Grade Baltic Birch
• Dimensions: 29.25” X 30” X 14”
• Weight: 107 lbs
• Price: $2399.00
With clear low-end punch, even sound response, and ample air movement, the Doom Box ensures that every note reaches the audience with clarity and power. This cabinet is a game-changer for musicians who need high-performance, road-ready equipment that enhances their unique sound.
Does the guitar’s design encourage sonic exploration more than sight reading?
A popular song between 1910 and 1920 would usually sell millions of copies of sheet music annually. The world population was roughly 25 percent of what it is today, so imagine those sales would be four or five times larger in an alternate-reality 2024. My father is 88, but even with his generation, friends and family would routinely gather around a piano and play and sing their way through a stack of songbooks. (This still happens at my dad’s house every time I’m there.)
Back in their day, recordings of music were a way to promote sheet music. Labels released recordings only after sheet-music sales slowed down on a particular song. That means that until recently, a large section of society not only knew how to read music well, but they did it often—not as often as we stare at our phones, but it was a primary part of home entertainment. By today’s standards, written music feels like a dead language. Music is probably the most common language on Earth, yet I bet it has the highest illiteracy rate.
Developed specifically for Tyler Bryant, the Black Magick Reverb TB is the high-power version of Supro's flagship 1x12 combo amplifier.
At the heart of this all-tube amp is a matched pair of military-grade Sovtek 5881 power tubes configured to deliver 35-Watts of pure Class A power. In addition to the upgraded power section, the Black Magick Reverb TB also features a “bright cap” modification on Channel 1, providing extra sparkle and added versatility when blended with the original Black Magick preamp on Channel 2.
The two complementary channels are summed in parallel and fed into a 2-band EQ followed by tube-driven spring reverb and tremolo effects plus a master volume to tame the output as needed. This unique, signature variant of the Black Magick Reverb is dressed in elegant Black Scandia tolex and comes loaded with a custom-built Supro BD12 speaker made by Celestion.
Price: $1,699.