“To be honest I didn’t know much about Peavey guitars before I went along to Music Maker to try out this one. I thought they were heavy metal guitars. I didn’t think they’d have anything like this, with such a warm tone. For a start it’s really beautiful. The thing that hit me first was the gold machine heads and the ebony fretboard with mother of pearl inlay. The one I played was a solid maple with a sunburst finish. Hard to describe it in comparison to other guitars but it stood out as very much its own creation, quite a curvy, sexy looking guitar…

Before I picked it up and played it, my thoughts were that it might be all show and no substance. But I was completely wrong. It was absolutely fantastic. I plugged it into a Marshall 2499 RV Vintage Modern 50 watt amp and it sounded stunning from the first note.
As far as playability is concerned, I found it a dream to come to grips with – especially if you’re playing blues or soul or southern rock. It’s proud to be an American guitar. The pitch and tuning was great all along the 24 frets. It has a double cutaway for easy access to the high frets.
You wouldn’t need to use any pedals at all with this – the pick-ups are so good. It starts out with a crystal clear tone, and then with the flick of a switch you can have that Jeff Buckley kind of reverb sound. Switch again and you can get a Jimi Hendrix ‘Red House’ kind of sound
I’ve always given my guitars names over the years and if I had to come up with one for this it’d be a Southern Belle with that charm – refined by day but no holds barred at night.
If you want to play thrash metal it’s probably not for you and I wouldn’t say the price tag is aimed at beginners. It would probably be a great gift for someone who is turning 30 or 40. I mainly play semi-acoustics on my new album and I have a few Fender electrics, but I could see myself going for something like this for my next one. It’s a really serious guitar for making serious music. Going back to the female analogy, this is not a cheap date – it’s one you’d want to marry.”

Padraig Rushe’s Grey World album is out now on Loud Child Records