Today in guitar: Martin and Shawn Mendes's new signature acoustics, and Epiphone's Eric Church Hummingbird Dark

Martin Guitar and Shawn Mendes announced two new 000-body signature acoustics today: the limited-edition 000-28 Shawn Mendes, capped at 88 guitars worldwide, and the Road Series 000-10E Shawn Mendes, an FSC-certified model with built-in electronics (Premier Guitar). Both trace back to a vintage 1920s Martin that Mendes found in a Brooklyn guitar shop, and both follow his first Martin signature, 2022's 000JR-10E. Neither new model's price was disclosed at launch.

Every Martin the company ships, these two guitars included, leaves the factory strung with genuine Martin strings rather than a third-party brand, typically its Authentic Acoustic Lifespan 2.0 phosphor bronze line. Our recommended replacement in the same gauge and alloy family is Martin's Authentic Acoustic SP phosphor bronze. Full lineup details, the vintage guitar behind the design, and the string story are in today's breakout.

Epiphone's other big launch this week was Eric Church's Hummingbird Dark, a $799 square-shouldered acoustic-electric bringing his higher-tier Gibson signature down to an Epiphone price point, unveiled July 8 (Gibson). It ships alongside two JYPSI whiskeys finished with toasted maple tonewood offcuts left over from Gibson guitar production, an odd but genuine pairing. Gibson's own spec sheet lists the guitar's factory string gauge as .012 to .053, no brand named; the exact-gauge catalog match is D'Addario's EJ16 Phosphor Bronze Light. Full breakdown, including the whiskey collaboration and the complete spec sheet, in today's second breakout.

Kiesel Guitars introduced a new body shape called the Antares on July 8, an angular design available in 6, 7, and 8-string configurations starting at $1,699 (Premier Guitar). Kiesel VP Jeff Kiesel calls it the aggressive counterpart to the company's 2015 Aries line (Gear Gods). Like every Kiesel, it's a custom-shop build with no factory string spec, so the strings are entirely up to the buyer, and the scale length you pick (25.5 to 27 inches, depending on string count) quietly decides how heavy a gauge you'll want. Full breakdown, including what to string each configuration with, in today's third breakout.

Beyond those three stories, we checked Premier Guitar, Guitar World, MusicRadar, and the Ernie Ball, D'Addario, GHS, and Dunlop newsrooms for anything else genuinely new. A handful of stories looked promising in search results, an Iron Maiden North American tour announcement, an Ed Sheeran and Orange Amps collaboration, a Jim Root x Dunlop signature-string story, but each turned out to be either weeks-to-months old or already covered on an earlier roundup once we opened the actual article pages and checked the publish dates. Nothing else cleared our bar for today.