GW’s Paul Riario and Alan Chaput dive into ESP's LTD Arrow-1000FR, Kramer’s Pacer Classic and PRS’ S2 Custom 24-08 and SE Standard 24-08 guitars
It might only be the middle of winter, but 2022 is already heating up with plenty of awesome guitars, amps and accessories. To see just how hot it is, we welcome you to Guitar World’s New Year New Gear guide,
In this third installment, Guitar World’s Paul Riario and Alan Chaput select a slew of super six-strings that are guaranteed to get 2022 off to a red-hot and rockin’ start.
Paul and Alan kick things off with ESP's new LTD Arrow-1000FR, a sharp-shooting six-string that hits its mark every time.
(Image credit: ESP)
The newest member of the LTD Arrow family sports neck-thru construction, a mahogany body, a three-piece maple neck and a Macassar ebony fingerboard with triangular white pearloid inlays and stainless-steel frets. There’s also apair of direct-mount Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker active pickups (alnico in the neck and ceramic in the bridge) and a push-pull control to select voicings.
Other features include a Floyd Rose 1000SE bridge with stainless steel screws and precise Grover tuners, and the guitar is finished with a quilted maple top in Charcoal Sunburst Satin.
Next up is Kramer’s Pacer Classic, which puts a new spin on a timeless design. Part of Kramer’s Original Collection, the Pacer Classic is a no-nonsense speed demon, boasting a double-cutaway alder body and 25.5-inch maple scale neck with a Kramer K-Speed SlimTaper C profile and 22 medium jumbo frets.
(Image credit: Kramer)
Pickups are a pair of double white open-coil Alnico Classic 5 humbuckers, each with its own volume control and a master tone knob, and there’s also a Licensed Floyd Rose tremolo and R2 Locking Nut, Die Cast tuners and chrome hardware, as well as a choice of Radio Blue Metallic, Scarlet Red Metallic or Purple Passion Metallic gloss finishes.
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The result is a guitar that will speed you back to the glory days of glam metal, but with the playability, precision and primo tone options only offered by modern Kramer design.
The 24-08 system pairs a volume, tone, and three-way toggle pickup switch with two mini-toggle coil-split switches for humbucking and true single-coil tones in one instrument, allowing players the ability to remove one of the coils from each humbucker’s circuit, leaving the second coil fully active with the flick of a switch.
According to Paul Reed Smith himself, “It’s not so easy to get eight musical, usable pickup settings in one guitar, but there is something special in this system that stands out. Being able to go from full humbuckers to the crisp clarity of single coils and having all the in between sounds brings a lot to these instruments.”
To find out more about PRS’ S2 Custom 24-08 and SE Standard 24-08 models and all this amazing gear, check out the video above.
Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.
