For 25 years, Jon Kammerer has been on an evolving pursuit to design a comfortable guitar with superior tone and playability. His designs employ eye-catching body shapes and his new Tone Pod Series of interchangeable pickups lets the user tailor their sound.

The Tone Pod concept is a throwback to the late-’60s Ampeg “see-through” guitars created by Dan Armstrong. Kammerer’s version ships with two pickup sets chosen by the player; options include the Seymour Duncan Jazz neck and JB bridge, Vaughn Skow Massive Passive Hot Set, Skow 52 Velvet Tele Custom Coil-Tapped, Seymour Duncan 59 set, Kent Armstrong Custom Series Grinder Super High Output set, Skow Custom P-90s, and a Skow Filtertron Kammerer Custom. At customer request, pods can be matched to the body or fretboard.

The Scorpius Deluxe guitar is available as a solidbody or with chambers. It has a red heartwood top and a hard maple back. The C-shaped neck is bookmatched maple and has a compound-radius (12″-16″) ebony fretboard (with medium frets and mother-of-pearl markers), Gotoh bridge, locking tuners, and a Graph Tech nut. It’s incredibly comfortable to play, and our test model shipped with the Skow Filtertron Kammerer Custom and Duncan 59 and JB pickup sets. With the former installed and running through Fender and Marshall combos, it produced an airy resonance with woody overtones. The neck yielded effortless chording and easy access to higher frets. Overall, the guitar’s light weight, slim body, and smooth neck make it a serious performer’s axe.

The Tone Pods, of course, offer the ability to hear different pickups, and swapping them (done from the back) is a breeze. All options bring something unique, and it’s easy to dial up a tasty assortment of texture, sizzle, and density thanks to the differences in output, EQ, density, and tonal aesthetics. Specifically, the Duncan 59/JB set in the test guitar supplied chunkiness and muscle that stood obviously apart from the breeziness of the Skow Filtertrons.

In a live setting, the Scorpius Deluxe could make for a handy Swiss Army Knife of tones, but no matter how employed, it’s a solid platform on which players can create their own voice.

This article originally appeared in VG’s January 2023 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.