Back in 2018, Ian Reddick unveiled the Mercury Modular Guitar, which could be broken down into numerous components and packed into a small suitcase for travel. Now he’s back with a pro guitar where you can swap out pickup blocks on-the-fly.
There are two main modular options for the Voyager guitar. First, you can reach around back and pull out a pickup block and pop in another. So, for example, you could be playing three single coil pickups and decide that you need humbucking tones. Not a problem, you just pull out the single coil module and replace it with the buckers in seconds. No tools required.
Each module rocks a 12-pin magnetic connector that plugs into the onboard electronics when the hardwood block is pushed into the gap between the hard-tail bridge and the top of the 22-fret, 25.5-inch scale maple neck with Mexican ebony fingerboard.
You may find that you also fancy a change of controls as you swap out pickup modules, and that’s possible too – though these units are secured in place with D-ring thumbscrews so it’s a little more fiddly. There are control blocks with 5-way blade switches or 3-position toggles, and different pot layouts.
The Voyager is up for pre-order now, and comes bundled with two pickup modules for a suggested retail price of US$2,199.99 – though there is an introductory off as of writing that could see early adopters snag one for $1,499.99. Wood options for the main contoured body include ash, walnut and cherry.