You don't have to join jazz band to enjoy Sweetwater’s awesome back to school deals

Full band set up with guitars, drums, microphone, and PA system
(Image credit: Squier/Yamaha/Ludwig/Mackie/Sennheiser/On-Stage)

Whether it’s your young ones heading back to school or you’re venturing off to college yourself, it’s always an expensive time of the year preparing for the next stage of learning. As an aspiring musician, equipment is already expensive, so you’ll definitely want to check out the Sweetwater back to school sale to pick up some bargain gear.

With huge discounts on guitar and bass bundles, as well as loads of great orchestral instruments and accessories, it’s the perfect way to pick up great music gear for less. Even if you’re not attending school or college, there are still some fantastic savings to be made on electric guitars, bass guitars, drum kits, PA systems, keyboards, and much more - so well worth exploring regardless of your status in academia. 

We’ve had a look at some of the deals on offer and there are some select deals available for guitar players. The awesome Squier Starcaster is available for $369, coming in a bundle with a Fender gig bag, Fender clip-on guitar tuner, and Fender picks too. Bought separately this bundle would cost you $407.43, giving you a saving of $38.43 on a guitar and all the essential accessories. The Candy Apple Red version with maple fretboard is an absolute stunner and it plays beautifully too!

If you’re looking to play keys or get into music production, then the Korg Nautilus 88 Music Workstation has a massive $400 discount, bringing it down to just $2,399.99. We gave it four and a half stars out of five in our review, citing its inspiring key bed and a huge range of sounds that make it a proper instrument for musicians who want to gig regularly.

There are also some excellent bundle savings on PA systems, with the Mackie Thump GO with two Sennheiser e825-S dynamic microphones at just $699.99 when bought together. That’s a saving of $49.78 when bought separately, giving you a fully working PA for much less than the usual price. The Mackie Thump GO features in our best portable PA systems guide, where we praised it for its light weight and ability to work on battery power, perfect for the practice room. 

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Matt McCracken
Junior Deals Writer

Matt is a Junior Deals Writer here at MusicRadar. He regularly tests and reviews music gear with a focus on audio interfaces, studio headphones, studio monitors, and pretty much anything else home recording-related. Matt worked in music retail for 5 years at Dawsons Music and Northwest Guitars and has written for various music sites including Guitar World, Guitar Player, Guitar.com, Ultimate Guitar, and Thomann’s t.blog.  A regularly gigging guitarist with over 20 years of experience playing live and producing bands, he's performed everything from jazz to djent, gigging all over the UK in more dingy venues than you can shake a drop-tuned guitar at.