Published: June 03, 2006 11:40 pm      

New Peavey HP receives Platinum Award for Quality & Design

Guitar World magazine awarded the new Peavey HP Special USA guitar with the Platinum Award for Quality & Design, its highest honor for musical products, in its August 2006 issue.

Reviewer Eric Kirkland hailed the HP Special CT as a “true high-end guitar (with) one of the world’s most advanced and playable asymmetrical guitar necks, custom-wound direct-mounted humbuckers and a flawless Floyd-style tremolo. I can’t give the HP Special CT a more enthusiastic endorsement.

“I was so intrigued and excited by how the HP Special CT played and sounded that I ‘tested’ it for five hours straight, right out of the box,” wrote Kirkland. “At the heart of (this) guitar is the most comfortable neck I’ve ever played — you’d expect no less from the company that brought CNC technology to musical instruments.”

Kirkland also praised the guitar’s custom-wound Peavey humbucking pickups, which are equipped with coil taps controlled by push/pull pots on the volume and tone controls, as well as its “exemplary hardware and setup” that includes the patent-pending LokBlok — a sliding brass device that sets the tremolo in the fully-float position or secures it in the down-only position.

“I was able to create punchy, thrilling and screaming modern high-gain tones,” he said, “(and) hear those exhilarating harmonics fly off the fretboard. After days and days of horse whinnies, dive bombs and primal screams, the HP Special CT remained in tune.”

Peavey HP Special guitars are crafted from basswood with a sculpted neck joint for unlimited access to the oil-finished, graphite-reinforced, asymmetrical birdseye maple neck. HP Special guitars also include Floyd Rose®-licensed, double locking tremolo; precision Schaller® tuning keys; a three-way pickup selector; and transparent and solid finish options. Rosewood and ebony fretboard options are available in the Peavey Custom Shop (call 866-443-2333).

“HP guitars encompass everything I’ve learned during my many years of designing and making guitars,” said founder and sole company owner Hartley Peavey. “We build each HP Series guitar on that solid foundation, using the finest woods, hardware and pickups for brilliant tone and a distinctive, unmistakable appearance.”

Peavey revolutionized guitar making in the 1970s with its T-60 — the first guitar made using CNC computer-controlled machinery. The T-60 bridged the gap between the vintage and modern eras in guitars, and nearly three decades later the musical instrument and sound equipment giant’s guitar manufacturing innovations have become industry standards.