Of all the electric guitar trends to have emerged over the past few years – from the proliferation of digital amp modelers to the rise of the rubber bridge guitar – one of the most notable is the soaring popularity of offset guitars in the progressive and heavy metal realms. After Jim Root recalibrated the Fender Jazzmaster for a game-changing signature guitar a few years ago, many of his peers have since followed suit. Mike Stringer, for example, recently worked with Jackson to transform the Charvel Surfcaster into an extended range metal machine .
Misha Mansoor is another big-name player who has put his own distinct, heavy-minded spin on Charvel’s long-lost offset template, having worked with the Jackson Custom Shop to produce a pair of heavy relic’d models earlier this year. These are but a few examples of metal players hopping on the high-performance offset trend in recent years, and in an upcoming interview with Guitar World , Mansoor offered his own two cents on why such guitars are experiencing a rapid renaissance. On the one hand, the Periphery virtuoso believes it could be a naturally occurring phenomenon that is a result of general movements in the vintage guitar market.
“I think these things move in cycles. Maybe it's a reflection of the vintage market,” he tells Guitar World . “Like, over the pandemic, prices of vintage Strats and Teles just went nuts.
“My business partner at Horizon Devices, Brian Gilmanov, used to trade a lot of vintages. He know.