The life of a Sweetwater Sales Engineer can be a rough one. Every day, we learn about the most exclusive gear months before we’re allowed to share the details with our faithful customers — until a product launches, we’re not even allowed to acknowledge that it exists! We must guard this information carefully until a product hits the web. At least, most of the time!
But we’ll let you in on a little-known Sweetwater secret: just because an instrument isn’t listed on our website doesn’t mean you can’t buy it. However, you’re going to need a little insider help. Let’s say you see a shiny new guitar on Instagram, or perhaps rumors about a highly limited signature model are building up across other social media outlets. What do you do? You could wait until the official launch, but that path can easily lead to an empty guitar stand and a broken heart.
The most prudent course of action is to give your Sweetwater Sale Engineer a call — they may be the only person around who can help you swipe that ultra-limited-edition axe from the jaws of defeat. The worst we can do is say “No,” and even if it’s too early for a pre-order, we have very, very good memories regarding our loyal customers.
But what good is an argument without evidence? Guitars speak louder than words, anyway. So, here are four dream guitars that our Sweetwater Sales Engineers helped customers capture long before they even hit the Sweetwater site!
- Gibson Custom Collector’s Edition 1958 Korina Explorer
- PRS Private Stock Super Eagle II John Mayer Signature
- Fender Custom Shop Limited Edition George Harrison Rocky Stratocaster
- Gibson Custom Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Custom
Gibson Custom Collector’s Edition 1958 Korina Explorer
So, your dream guitar is an original Gibson Explorer? That’s a tough one. Even if a model was to pop up on Sweetwater’s Gear Exchange, only around 50 of these were ever made, and their value tends to clock in at the cost of a mid-priced suburban home. Unless your name is Rick Nielsen (of Cheap Trick), we sincerely wish you luck.
But there’s good news for Explorer fans everywhere! Gibson recognized the positively lopsided level of supply and demand for old-school Explorers, which drove the company to embark on perhaps the most ambitious project in its century-old history — a total piece-by-piece replication of the 1958 Gibson Explorer.
These guitars were so immaculately replicated that if you sent one back in time, then even Ted McCarty would have likely been fooled. Yes — all the classic, late ’50s Explorer specs are here, including the iconic korina body/neck and Brazilian rosewood fingerboard. But if you’re after a full spec sheet, then you’d be just as well-served glancing through a 1958 Gibson catalog as you would by checking Sweetwater’s product page.
Only 19 Explorers were made in 1958, and Gibson went to great lengths to track down prime examples as models for their 6-string cloning project. Every inch of a true-blue ’58 Explorer was 3D-imaged (even the case!) to ensure complete accuracy, and it was all finished off with period-correct case candy and a tasteful, light-relic finish from the masters in Gibson’s Murphy Lab.
How many did they make? Well, the run was nothing short of being accurately vintage. Nineteen models were made in total — identical to the original ’58 launch. Sweetwater received but a single guitar, and just as soon as we learned about the series (and months before the official launch), one Sweetwater Sales Engineer helped fulfill a very lucky customer’s dream of owning a 1958 Gibson Explorer.
PRS Private Stock Super Eagle II John Mayer Signature
We’ve all heard about the unprecedented success of John Mayer and Paul Reed Smith’s Silver Sky models, but this was by no means the first collaboration between the two guitar titans.
A few years prior, PRS released an extremely limited run of Private Stock Super Eagle guitars with highly customized specs that were especially suited for Mayer’s long-standing gigs with the band Dead & Company. The instrument included a slightly diminished 25.375-inch scale length, a Hemp Green finish, a JCF preamp system, a trio of custom-voiced PRS pickups, and the world’s finest tonewoods from the PRS wood library. Did we mention that it also featured a custom seal in the F-hole signed by Mayer himself? That’s undoubtedly going to drive up demand.
And here’s the thing about PRS Private Stock demand: it’s very high, with or without John Mayer. Frankly, these are some of the finest electric guitars made on the planet today, and when you combine that with Mayer’s signature and an incredibly limited run of 100 instruments, you’re going to need a rather strong relationship with your Sweetwater Sales Engineer even to try to catch a guitar as sought-after as this.
Like the other guitars on this list, the PRS Private Stock Super Eagle II John Mayer Signature sold out well before its official launch date, with zero marketing on the Sweetwater website. Only 50 instruments made it into the US, and only two of them entered through our doors. Thanks to our Sweetwater Sales Engineers, two lucky Sweetwater customers now own one of the most exclusive signature instruments in the history of PRS — a feat that would have been impossible if they had waited for the official launch date.
Fender Custom Shop Limited Edition George Harrison Rocky Stratocaster
The Fender Custom Shop Limited Edition George Harrison Rocky Stratocaster is a painstaking replication of Harrison’s very first Strat: a 1961 Sonic Blue model that began its life chiming out the legendary “Ticket to Ride” and remained with Harrison all the way up until he passed.
But wait — didn’t we say his Strat was Sonic Blue? As any amateur Beatles historian knows, the Liverpool lads were renowned for their clean-cut, straitlaced nature back in the late ’60s. It’s safe to assume that on a quiet night of sober contemplation, Harrison perhaps had a bit too much Earl Grey, and, in his tea-addled haze, decided to fingerpaint his favorite Strat with DayGlo paint.
Orange, green, yellow, and red — Harrison coated almost every inch of his Strat in a psychedelic popsicle swirl. He then finished the guitar with a couple of references to his most treasured rock ‘n’ roll heroes, a Hindu “Om” symbol, and a frightening-looking fellow on the headstock. Complete at last, Harrison’s formerly nameless ’61 Strat was reborn as “Rocky.”
The Fender Custom Shop Limited Edition George Harrison Rocky Stratocaster replicated every last detail of Harrison’s customized finish — down to the decaying “Grimwoods” sticker on the back of the headstock and the splashed paint near the tremolo-bar hole. It’s truly a museum piece, with a museum-grade scarcity to match — only 100 models were produced worldwide, and Sweetwater was given a single guitar.
Put the phrases “limited edition” and “The Beatles” together, and you essentially have a recipe for unlimited demand. Maybe a customer found out about it early, or perhaps a Sweetwater Sales Engineer happened to have an especially good rapport with a die-hard devotee of the quiet Beatle. Whatever happened, Rocky was “Long, Long, Long” gone before the instrument ever hit the Sweetwater site.
Gibson Custom Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Custom
If you’re a Sweetwater customer and an Adam Jones fanatic, then we feel for you. From the Epiphone-exclusive Adam Jones Art Collection models to the limited-edition Gibson Custom Shop re-creations, just about anything related to Jones’s iconic ’79 Silverburst Les Paul disappears from the Sweetwater warehouse faster than you can say “Schism.”
However, the most sought-after model to grace the Sweetwater campus was certainly the Gibson Custom Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Custom. From the mirror-equipped headstock to the raw maple stripe on the back of the neck, this guitar is a perfect replication of the instrument found all over the band Tool’s most classic songs. Gibson Custom crafted 79 of these guitars for the worldwide market, and each one boasted Jones’s handwritten signature on the back of the headstock, along with a number designation.
Now, here’s where things get interesting. Compared to the other instruments on this list, we received a veritable surplus of these models — well, four in total. Nevertheless, our Sweetwater Sales Engineers must have a particularly tight relationship with the world’s most steadfast Adam Jones adherents because all four models were spoken for before we could even get them into the system.
Capture the Guitar of Your Dreams
We have a confession to make: Sweetwater wants to sell you guitars. Yes — it may come as a shock, but we see the relationship between our Sweetwater Sales Engineers and our customers as a win-win situation for both sides. However, we don’t just want to sell you any old guitar. We’re all musicians, too, with dream instruments of our own; we truly want to ensure that you get the right guitar, whether it’s a gigging workhorse or a $10,000 custom creation.
Plus, calling your Sweetwater Sales Engineer to reel in an early order isn’t strictly just for the world’s most extravagant 6-string creations. Plenty of other readily accessible guitars sell out just as fast as their one-of-a-kind siblings, such as the Gibson Rick Beato Les Paul Special Double Cut electric guitar or the Epiphone Adam Jones Les Paul Custom Art Collection electric guitar.
Even if your tastes run a bit tamer, chatting it up with your Sweetwater Sales Engineer and telling them what you’re interested in all but guarantees you’re first in line for the freshest new models — as soon as the advertisement embargo lifts, anyway. So, go on! If you’ve heard even the faintest whispers about an upcoming model, then call your Sweetwater Sales Engineer at (800) 222-4700. The best-case scenario is that you get first dibs on the guitar of your dreams, and the worst-case scenario is that you get the most educated gear advice in the entire music industry.