Guitar World deals of the week: the Black Friday sales are live and kicking - get all the best deals of the week here
Check out the best of the early Black Friday deals from all corners of the web
With so many retailers launching early Black Friday sales and some even going all out with the full sale, this is amongst the earliest we've seen deals landing at this time of year. It's a great opportunity to get your hands on gear for less, particularly if you want to avoid the inevitable chaos that the Black Friday guitar deals will bring at the end of the month.
We've been keeping a close eye on all the action from across the web this week, and there are some stellar offers out there. Guitar Center has gone big and launched its full Black Friday sale early, offering guitar players up to 50% off a huge selection. Featuring some of their lowest prices of the year it's the first full sale to go live, so we expect the others won't be far behind.
Over at Sweetwater their early sale featuring up to 60% off continues. There are currently over 500 deals available and more are being added daily. Musician's Friend meanwhile continues to add deals weekly to its offering of up to 50% off gear, so if you check back on Monday you'll find more has been added.
For those based in the UK or Europe, you'll be pleased to be finally in on the Black Friday sales action after Thomann announced their early Cyberweek sale. Featuring some massive reductions of up to 70% off there are only a select few items available, but what's there is extremely high quality.
For all your used gear needs, head over to Reverb where you can grab yourself up to 80% off a wide range of second-hand gear. It's great for picking up older bits of equipment you can't find anywhere else, and there's plenty of brand-new gear available too.
Finally, there are two more sales available with Fender's early Black Friday sale featuring $200 off American Pro II, ToneMaster Pro, and American Acoustasonic. You can also get some discount smart amps with Positive Grid's Black November sale offering up to 50% off the majority of the Spark range as well as their BIAS amp modeling software.
Well after that we're positively exhausted with the amount of deals flying around, but of course, we'll be back next week to bring you the very best deals from all around the web.
Editor's picks
One of our favorite guitars we've reviewed this year, the PRS SE CE 24 has got over $100 off the price at Musician's Friend. It's a brilliantly versatile guitar that comes with that well-known PRS build quality and stunning good looks.
MXR pedals are criminally underrated in our opinion, and the M66S Classic Overdrive is one of our favorites. Already a cheap guitar pedal, with an extra $23 knocked off the price taking it down below the $50 mark, it's insane value for money.
The fabled tone of a Gibson Les Paul can be yours for a lot less over at Sweetwater. With a huge $600 discount, this stunning Cardinal Red Plain Top is just below the $2,000 mark, making it excellent value for money. Not only do you get the price reduction, but you'll also get two Maestro pedals completely free when you buy this amazing guitar.
Probably the first time we've seen this pedal discounted, the Boss SL-2 Slicer is a really unique effect that sits in a category all of its own. It's close to tremolo, but can do so much more than just that. It's got a nice $40 discount at Musician's Friend right now, a great choice if you like your effects a little more 'out there'.
In the grand scheme of things, this isn't a massive discount. But, we all need new strings at one point or another, so you might as well pick them up at a discount. A $3.20 reduction is actually 17% off the total price, and Elixirs last forever so you won't need to buy again in a hurry.
Guitar sales to shop
- Amazon: Guitar gear deals
- Andertons: Save on guitars
- Fender Play: 50% off annual
- Fender store: $200 off guitars
- Gear4Music: Clearance deals
- Guitar Center: Save up to 50%
- Guitar Tricks: One-year sub just $99
- IK Multimedia: $200 off Tonex Max
- Musician's Friend: Up to 50% off
- Plugin Boutique: Money off plugins
- Positive Grid: Save on Spark
- PMT: 2nd hand deals
- Reverb: Up to 80% off
- Sweetwater: Up to 60% off
- Thomann: Early Cyberweek sale
- Waves: $19.99 plugins
How we choose our deals of the week
Here at Guitar World, we are experts in our field, with many years of playing and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything guitar related, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products we recommend.
First and foremost, we are guitarists, and we want to match other players with the right products for them, at the best prices.
For us to recommend a deal it has to be a product we rate that’s a genuinely great price or part of a truly fantastic bundle. It’s also important that we only recommend retailers where you will have a positive shopping experience.
Why you can trust our choices
We spend a lot of our time scouring guitar retailers for fantastic deals on our favorite gear. Not only is it our job to research and recommend the best gear in our buyer’s guides, but we’re also dedicated to helping players get the best deals for the gear they need, too. After all, the only thing better than new gear day is a hearty discount.
We cover a lot of the big sales events throughout the year, including Memorial Day, Black Friday, 4th of July sales and Amazon Prime Day, and we have a good view on which products are likely to receive the biggest discounts and when, the prices they’ve been in the past and which deals are genuinely worth a look.
Where are the best places to shop?
Online shopping is definitely a lot easier and more secure than it used to be, and we like to recommend a small handful of online retailers who have a sterling reputation and offer fantastic benefits like fuss-free returns, great customer service and, in some cases, full checks and setup of guitars before they are dispatched. So, all the deals we’ll recommend on this page are from retailers that tick these boxes.
What sort of deals should I look for?
Great deals come in all shapes and sizes. There are a few key types to look out for:
- Single item - A single product with a great discount
- Site-wide discounts - A single discount percentage on a large range of products across a site
- Discount codes - Load your basket to a certain value and redeem a discount code for money off your basket contents
- Added value deals - These include multi-buy discounts, or additional products or software for free when you buy certain items
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Matt is a Junior Deals Writer here at Guitar World. He regularly tests and reviews music gear with a focus on guitars, amps, pedals, modelers, and pretty much anything else guitar-related. Matt worked in music retail for 5 years at Dawsons Music and Northwest Guitars and has written for various music sites including MusicRadar, Guitar Player, Guitar.com, Ultimate Guitar, and Thomann’s t.blog. A regularly gigging guitarist with over 20 years of experience playing live and writing and recording in bands, he's performed everything from jazz to djent, gigging all over the country in more dingy venues than you can shake a drop-tuned guitar at.
- Chris Barnes
- Daryl RobertsonSenior Deals Writer