By Matt McCracken
Contributions from Chris Barnes, Daryl Robertson
This Labor Day special edition is jam-packed full of savings from all the major sales this weekend
Jump To:
- Editor's picks
- Guitar sales to shop
- How we choose deals
- Why you can trust us
- Where to shop
- Deals to look for
Welcome to a bumper Labor Day edition of Deals of the Week. There's a huge amount of sales action this weekend to celebrate Labor Day, with pretty much every major retailer and many manufacturers offering some fantastic deals. We've got lots to get through this week, so let's get to it.
Sweetwater is offering up to 50% off gear for their Labor Day sale, with money off Revv guitar pedals, a huge $600 discount on select D'Angelico guitars, and some sweet savings on Blackstar guitar amps. You can also bag yourself some excellent deals on Behringer guitar pedals.
Guitar Center has a similar discount, with up to 50% off for their Labor Day deals. If you're looking to add to your pedalboard then there are over 150 effects pedals on sale, and up to 25% off shred-tastic guitars from Jackson and Schecter.
Musician's Friend is also offering huge savings of up to 50% off loads of gear. You can save up to $250 on electric guitars, and there are some massive savings on Universal Audio pedals available too, with up to 30% off.
Fender has upped the stakes with their Labor Day sale, offering guitarists up to 60% off guitars, pedals, and accessories. We had a look and spotted deals on select guitars from the American Professional II line, a nice discount on the Tone Master Pro, as well as some excellent deals on the wacky yet wonderful Squier Paranormal series.
Positive Grid has also got in on the action, serving up to 40% off smart guitar amps, gear, and more. They've got one of the cheapest prices we've seen on the Spark 40 in recent times, likely due to the release of the brand-new Spark 2, which is available in limited numbers with a $30 discount itself.
Over at Reverb, you can bag yourself up to 70% off a huge range of gear in their Labor Day deals. There's plenty of brand-new gear available here alongside their usual second-hand gear offerings, with big savings on Vox, Tanglewood, IK Multimedia, and D'Angelico.
Phew, that's it for this week! There are plenty of deals for you to sink your teeth into, so its well worth having a browse of everything and finding out who's got the best deal on the gear you want. If you want some inspiration, then we've handpicked some of our favorite deals to get you started below. Happy hunting, and catch you next week for more deals action.
Editor's picks
Blackstar ID:Core 20 V3: Was $209.99, now $89.99
At less than $100, this is a storming deal on the Blackstar ID:Core 20 V3. It's a super versatile amp that does clean and crunchy tones equally well, with six different amp tones to pick from. You also get a selection of modulation, reverb, and delay effects, and with a $120 discount at Sweetwater, it's sensational value for money.
Catalinbread Bitters: Was $209.99, now $178.49
Based on the classic Alesis Bitrman pedal, the Catalin Bread Bitters has a cheeky $31.50 discount at Guitar Center, making it great value for the explorative guitarist. It's a lo-fi effect generator that will mangle your guitar tone beyond recognition, but it can also do more subtle chorus, tremolo, phase, and flanger effects.
Fender Player Plus Meteora: $1049.99, $889.99
This stunning-looking offset has got a huge $150 discount in the Musician's Friend Labor Day sale, offering you fiery tones and an eye-catching look for less. As part of the Player Plus series its got some standout features like locking tuners, S-1 switching, and rolled fingerboard edges.
Positive Grid Spark 40: Was $299, now $244
With the recent announcement of the Spark 2, it was only a matter of time that the original amplifier would go on sale at some point. Over at the official Positive Grid shop you can bag yourself a nice $55 saving on the amp itself, and you can get a free travel bag worth $60 thrown into the mix too. That's a huge $115 saving in total, great value in anyone's book.
Darkglass Alpha-Omega 200: $399.99, now $199.99
For all the bassists out there, the Darkglass Alpha-Omega 200 has got a massive $200 discount over at Reverb. It's a versatile-sounding bass head with a fantastic distortion circuit built into it. It's nice and small too, making it great for gigging or as part of a travel rig.
Guitar sales to shop
- Amazon: Today's top guitar deals
- Andertons: Huge summer sale
- Fender Shop: Up to 60% off sale
- Gear 4 Music: Huge clearance deals
- Guitar Center: Up to 50% off gear
- IK Multimedia: Up to $100 off Tonex
- Musician's Friend: Up to 50% off
- Plugin Boutique: Save big on plugins
- PMT: Up to 60% off sale
- Positive Grid: Save on Spark
- Reverb: Up to 70% off deals
- Sweetwater: Up to 50% off sale
- Thomann: 70th anniversary sale
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
November has arrived and with it a flurry of early Black Friday deals have landed in our inboxes. We were expecting an influx but this year has already surpassed the expectations of the writing team here at Guitar World, with pretty much every retailer and many manufacturers either going all-in on their Black Friday sale or tempting us with some sweet early savings.
First up, Sweetwater's early Black Friday sale has landed offering massive savings of up to 70% off gear. Big hitters like Mesa/Boogie, Taylor Guitars, and Universal Audio all feature
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Matt McCracken
Junior Deals Writer
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.
With contributions from
- Chris Barnes
- Daryl RobertsonSenior Deals Writer
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