Guitar World deals of the week: get $500 off a Guild hollowbody, save big on Positive Grid smart amps, plus a half-price EHX fuzz pedal

(Image credit: Future)

Welcome back to another edition of deals of the week, your one-stop shop for the biggest savings on the best guitar gear. It’s August, which means we’re entering the back-to-school phase of the deals calendar, and I’ve already started to see the green shoots of fresh sales emerging.

First to land the back-to-school deals is Positive Grid, which has got big savings on their full range of smart amps. I had a quick look earlier and spotted savings on my perennial favorite PG amps with the Spark 2 and Spark Mini both seeing decent money off.

Fender also has some back-to-school savings available, although it’s not quite an outright sale, and I did have to go digging. It includes the American Ultra Luxe series that has been discounted for a little while now, a range of guitar parts, and I spied a couple of Paramount acoustic guitars with some nice reductions.

Guitar Center’s Endless Electrics sale is still going strong, but your time is limited now, with it set to end on August 6th. With up to 25% off guitars from Fender, Gretsch, Epiphone, and more, plus some select deals on amps and effects, it’s the best place for a deal for most guitarists at the moment.

Sweetwater’s Live Sound sale ends on August 4th, so if you’re looking for PA mixers, speakers, microphones, or any other gear to kit out your rehearsal space, it’s your last chance to save up to 50%.

If you’re happy shopping used, then Reverb’s Best of Used sale is the place to go, with up to 20% off preloved gear. With everything from a vintage 1970s CE-1 to B-stock and open box pedals from MXR, and even some brand new gear, it’s a great way to grab gear that might be discontinued at regular stores, or bag something used for even less.

That’s your lot for this week, a reasonable offering, I would say. I’m expecting more back-to-school sales to launch soon, which aren’t typically great for things like electric guitars and pedals, but could definitely offer up some tantalising deals on acoustic guitars and accessories. As usual, I’ve put some of my favorite deals of the week below for you. Until next time, happy hunting!

Editor’s picksGuitar sales to shopAmazon: Save big on accessoriesFender store: Back to school savingsGuitar Center: Up to 25% off electricsGuitar Tricks: 1 month for $1IK Multimedia: Save on softwareMusician’s Friend: Up to 20% off FenderPlugin Boutique: Big money off pluginsReverb: Up to 25% off usedSweetwater: Last chance live sound dealsThomann: The hottest dealsTrueFire: Save 60% on all-accessWaves: Buy two plugins, get one freeHow we choose our deals of the weekHere 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 choicesWe 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 discountSite-wide discounts – A single discount percentage on a large range of products across a siteDiscount codes – Load your basket to a certain value and redeem a discount code for money off your basket contentsAdded 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.