Today in guitar: John Mayer's string-gauge philosophy resurfaces, Kirk Hammett's $87,500 guilt trip, and Guild brings back the S-300

The best guitar-strings story this week is not a launch, it is an argument worth settling. Guitar World published a piece on July 3 built around a John Mayer quote from a 2010 interview: "the argument about string gauges is about the silliest thing a guitarist can engage in" (Guitar World). We want to be upfront that the quote itself is fifteen years old. What is new is Guitar World running it back this week, and it is a genuinely useful excuse to line Mayer's own gauge choice up against three other guitarists with three very different answers to the same question.

Mayer's signature Ernie Ball Silver Slinky runs .0105 to .047, deliberately moderate. Stevie Ray Vaughan played a custom .013 to .058 GHS set tuned down to Eb. B.B. King and Billy Gibbons went the other direction entirely, choosing extra-light gauges built around easy bending rather than raw tone. All four are legitimate answers.

We go deep on all four gauges, why Mayer thinks SRV's tone gets credited to the wrong thing, and what it means for your own strings, in today's breakout on the string-gauge debate.

Metallica's Kirk Hammett, promoting his book The Collection at a Dublin event, revisited a story about buying a 1957 Gibson Les Paul once owned by Journey's Neal Schon, one of his own guitar heroes (Guitar World). Hammett picked it up at a 2021 auction, held during the depths of the pandemic, for around $87,500, roughly half what he believed it was worth. He felt bad enough about the price that he called Schon directly and offered to give the guitar back. Schon told him to keep it: "No, man, you keep it. You buy it; you keep it."

The 2021 sale has been described since as a rough one for Schon, who sold 112 guitars that day and saw several undersell, even as his "Don't Stop Believin'" Les Paul later fetched $250,000 and then $254,000 at a second sale in March. Hammett's own strings, for the record, are a custom hybrid, not a boxed set: the .010, .013, and .017 plain strings from Ernie Ball Regular Slinky RPS 2241 (Amazon), paired with the .028, .038, and .048 wound strings from Power Slinky RPS 2242 (Amazon), both built with reinforced plain strings for extra tuning stability under his live attack. Full rig on our Kirk Hammett profile.

Guild Guitars reissued its 1977 offset-body S-300 this week as the S-300 Deluxe, now in Neptune Blue Metallic and Vintage Sterling Metallic finishes at $799.99 MSRP each (Premier Guitar). The recipe is faithful to the original: a contoured mahogany body and set neck, HB-2+ humbuckers with Alnico V magnets and a phase switch, and Grover G2 open-gear tuners.

There is no string angle to force here, and we will not invent one. Guild has not announced a factory string spec for the reissue. What is worth a beginner's attention is simpler: a nearly 50-year-old design with a genuinely unusual offset shape is back in production at a sub-$800 price point, which is a real entry point into a guitar that used to only turn up used and collectable.

C. F. Martin & Co. announced the HD-28 Semiquincentennial on July 2, a limited run of 250 guitars marking America's 250th anniversary (Martin). It sits on the standard HD-28 dreadnought platform, the same model Martin introduced in 1976 for the Bicentennial and which turns 50 this year. Solid East Indian rosewood back and sides, herringbone top trim, and Golden Era scalloped bracing all carry over unchanged. What's new is the material story: wood from a 600-year-old Basking Ridge, New Jersey white oak, a tree local lore ties to George Washington, worked into the endpiece, heelcap, and a Liberty Bell headplate inlay, alongside custom Revolutionary-era artwork by longtime Martin collaborator Robert Goetzl.

The string tie-in here is real, not forced. Every HD-28 Semiquincentennial ships strung with Martin Authentic Acoustic Lifespan 2.0 strings in 92/8 phosphor bronze, Martin's treated, longer-life coating built on the same alloy as its standard Authentic Acoustic SP line. We haven't reviewed that exact coated SKU yet, so we won't pretend we have. What we can point you to is the uncoated MA540 Authentic Acoustic SP (Amazon), the same .012 to .054 Light gauge and 92/8 phosphor bronze wrap Martin uses to factory-string most of its own dreadnoughts, coating aside. Weighing coated against uncoated for your own acoustic? Our coated vs. uncoated breakdown covers the tradeoff in full.

The HD-28 Semiquincentennial is available now through authorized Martin dealers. Martin hasn't published pricing in its announcement, so we aren't guessing a number here.