Looking Back On 2023’s Reviews & Gear Stories

You’ll soon have your fill of guitar and pedal rankings, but what about the other gear we covered?

With our best-of lists for guitars and pedals just around the corner, it’s starting to feel like the end of the year. And that makes sense, because it’s pumpkin spice latte season around where I live. I myself am patiently waiting for peppermint mocha latte season instead.

But what’s really important is not sugary coffees, it’s guitar accessories and gear. While we don’t typically review enough amps, pickups, or other gear to justify their own categorical rankings, I thought it would be nice to revisit all the non-pedals and non-guitars that I covered in 2023.

Some of this gear appeared on Ultimate-Guitar, some here on Guitars For Idiots, but all of it received hands-on reviews and demos from me in the past 10 months or so.

Pickup Adventures

This year I got my hands on three different pickup sets to mess around with.

Most recently I installed and demo’d this loaded pickguard from Awesome-Guitars here on Guitars For Idiots. While it’s a cool idea, and one that’s pretty well executed overall, the 68-way switching is just so freaking far over the top. I’m not sure it’s really necessary for anyone to have this. However, the pickups did not sound bad at all, though I think the wiring could have used another once over as there was a ton of buzz. Not a bad product, but I’m not going to pretend it’s life changing.

One of the more fun projects I did with pickups this year was over on Ultimate-Guitar. A while back, TV Jones had been nice enough to send me some pickups to test out. One of them is still waiting to be installed in a fun, Tele/LP project we’ll do in 2024. However, the bridge Filter’Tron Classic they sent went into my mangled and modified Les Paul Special. Dubbed the “Gretsch Paul Junior”, this LP had all the guts and hardware ripped out after multiple headstock breaks and letdowns with Gibson’s QC.

Now, it sports a single Filter’Tron in the bridge that sounds brilliant. Plus a Bigsby tailpiece, some new stickers, and wiring harness from Gunstreet Wiring. I cannot recommend the Gunstreet/TV Jones combo enough. Do yourself a favor and check them out.

Last but certainly not least, I had another excellent experience with a 920D Custom loaded pickguard. This time, they unveiled their own line of pickups, sending over the Cool Kids PAF-style humbuckers for my Tele Deluxe partscaster. As always, the quality is off the charts and the ease of installing is a big reason why I love these 920D pickguards. A ton of their pre-wired stuff is available on Sweetwater nowadays.

Amp Epiphany

One of the biggest game changers for me of 2023 was my introduction to the Line6 Catalyst. This amp has become my only real standalone amplifier, as my beloved Vox has been put in the closet (but not sold, don’t worry). I use this every week for band practices and will be using this for all my upcoming gigs with the band. The Catalyst is brilliant, especially on the “chime” mode that is very Vox-like. It also takes pedals brilliantly, and can be played at 0.5, 50, or 100 watts making it stage AND bedroom friendly. Grab your own at Sweetwater.

Wireless and Wired Guitar Experiences

Lastly, we take a trip down the underappreciated aisle that houses guitar cables and wireless connectivity. The forgotten link that holds our guitars, pedalboards, and amps all together in one signal path, it’s important to have quality connections you can trust.

Runway Audio’s cables have been getting a lot of use from me since I did a bit of a cable comparison. I’m not gonna say that I hear a major difference, but they are 10000% more durable and have been taking a beating at band practice without any issues all year. I recommend grabbing your own.

Lekato also reached out to me and asked me to check out their wireless WS100 system. I’ve given it a bit of a run with the band, and it sounds fine, completely serviceable. There’s certainly a slight drop in high end when I used these compared to my trusted cables from Runway or 920D. I still have the Lekato system around and use it time to time, but we’ll really see how it does when my amp is cranked to high volumes in a live setting. That may recover some high end and make this a big winner for stage movement. However, it is affordable and the Lekato WS100 is still worth a shot.

Overall, 2023 had some big changes to my rig, like the Vox-killing Catalyst combo amp and the Gretsch Paul Junior that has finally made me love that old Gibson guitar. Runway Audio’s cables have also been a nice addition, and Lekato’s wireless system is going to hopefully get some more playing time as I play more gigs to fully decide its fate.

Hopefully 2024 will also hold a ton of new guitar projects, partscasters, amplifier reviews, and other quality of life investigations. We’re prepping our Guitars For Idiots complete pedal rankings for 2023, and will have them out soon! The guitar review ranking list won’t be far behind either, though I’m just waiting for the last review unit of the year to arrive. What kind of gear do you want to see us cover in 2024? Let me know below!

Big Thanks To My 2023 Partners

Now’s also a great time to shoutout some staples of my 2023 reviews. The RWM Guitar’s doublecut Tele has served me great for almost every single pedal demo I’ve done. Likewise, my custom Morifone Spada has been brilliant for recording both original music and various cable comparisons, pedal demos for UG, and even has made a few appearances with my band. Almost every single amp sound you’ve heard for demos was the Universal Audio Dream ’65 and Ruby Top Boost amp and cab sims in stereo.