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 knows vintage guitars inside out. I was like, ‘Alright, what's the guitar I could get, let's call it an inflation hedge?’ And he was like, ‘You should get a Jazzmaster.’
“He was showing me some stuff for six or seven or eight grand. I was like, ‘That's a lot of money. I don’t really want to spend that much on a Jazzmaster.’ It just didn't seem right. And then now, some of these are going for 15 to 20 grand. I should have listened to him.
“But it just seems like that was the next thing, because the Strats had already gone. And then he [said], ‘It'll probably be the Jaguars [next].’ So I think maybe it’s a reflection and an extension of that.”
Another, more straightforward theory that Mansoor offers concerns the fact that, at the end of the day, offsets just look cool. And who doesn’t love a cool-looking guitar?
“It's kind of trendy and it goes in cycles,” he goes on. “But as much as it may be a trend, I wouldn't get a guitar I don't like. I like the look of an offset.
“Maybe it's just something the whole community was feeling. It's like, alright, but you know, I've done my Strat, maybe I should have done a Tele – and maybe I will do a Tele – but you know what, I don't have is an offset.
“Maybe a lot of people are feeling the same way. They're like, ‘Yeah, [I’m] covered with Superstrats and Strats and whatnot, but I don't have an offset. And hey, now I'm seeing it in this light…’ [It’s a] very attractive offset, you know?
“People may do the same thing with the Les Paul, where they're just like, ‘Oh, yeah, I don't have a Les Paul. Maybe I should get a Les Paul,’ you know?
“So maybe it's a little bit of that. People hadn't been thinking about them, they see some pretty ones, and obviously start thinking about them. I'm sure that fad will fade a little bit, but I'll still love this guitar after that.”
Keep your eyes peeled on GuitarWorld.com for the full interview with Misha Mansoor, in which the Periphery guitarist takes a deep dive into his new Jackson Surfcasters – and teases a potential signature run.
