Marshall, Pac-Man and the Return of the “Why Does This Exist?” Guitar Gear Debate
This week’s podcast basically became an accidental deep dive into the weird state of modern guitar gear.
We started with the new Hendrix Marshall stack, got completely distracted by a Pac-Man Telecaster, and somewhere along the way questioned whether Jimi Hendrix has now become less of a musician and more of an endlessly renewable licensing agreement.
So, pretty normal guitar discourse really.
The Purple Hendrix Marshall Is Either Amazing or Completely Ridiculous
The biggest talking point this week was the new Marshall Hendrix anniversary half stack — a hand-wired Plexi-style monster covered in this wild purple splatter finish that genuinely looks like somebody let Grimace design a vintage amp.
And honestly?
We kinda liked it, eventually...
It’s got that very specific “stoner doom band rehearsing in a lock-up” aesthetic where you can practically hear someone playing one sustained note through a fuzz pedal for 12 straight minutes.
Spec-wise, it’s exactly what you’d expect:
- 100 watts
- No master volume
- Four-input Plexi layout
- Hendrix Fuzz Face included
- Loud enough to legally qualify as weather
Which immediately sparked the eternal question:
Who is this actually for anymore?
Another Hendrix amp.
Another Hendrix fuzz.
Another Hendrix commemorative thing.
At this point it genuinely feels like guitar companies have discovered a sort of infinite Hendrix content generator.
And to be clear, Hendrix absolutely deserves celebrating forever.
But there is a point where it starts to feel less like tribute gear and more like somebody at a board meeting saying:
“The Hendrix estate isn’t going to pay itself.”
The funniest part is that if Marshall had released this exact same amp without the Hendrix branding and just called it something absurd like:
“The Doom Wizard”
…people probably still would’ve loved it.
Including us.
Because underneath all the branding, it’s still an extremely cool-looking Marshall.
The Pac-Man Telecaster Is Peak 2026 Guitar Marketing
Then came the Pac-Man Telecaster.
A sentence I never thought I would be saying...
Fender has apparently decided that what guitarists have been desperately waiting for all these years is a Telecaster covered in Pac-Man graphics.
Ghosts.
Maze artwork.
Pellets.
The whole thing.
And we spent a genuinely long amount of time trying to work out what the connection between Pac-Man and guitars actually is.
Because usually with crossover gear there’s at least some vague thematic excuse.
But this really does just feel like:
“People recognise both of these brands, so technically this is content.”
The weird part is we probably would’ve respected it more if they’d gone fully unhinged with it.
Give it a built-in 8-bit fuzz.
Make the guitar sound like an 80s arcade machine, why not throw in one of those little emulators and actually have it play Pac-Man too.
At least then the guitar would feel connected to the idea beyond simply having Pac-Man printed on it.
It was so confusing that the more we spoke about it, the madder Alex got.
If you'd like to hear the full episode, head on down to YouTube and check it out. Give us a like too, it all helps.
https://youtu.be/x7GcLd65P6o
