SeriesJackson Concept

The JDR-94 is a unique guitar that you don't see much of. You can sometimes find these stored away in the backs of pawn shops, and it's a bit sad to see them back there considering they can be some real decent players. The guitar features a basswood body, a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, 24 extra jumbo frets with dot inlays, a hard tail bridge, HSH configuration, one volume, one tone and a five way switch. UTILIZATION The guitar had a neck joint gap, but it was nothing too big. Some of these can have big gaps, but most guitars out there have SOME sort of gap, so it's nothing to get too anal about. The bad points about this guitar are the pickups and bridge. The bridge on this is a licensed floyd that really doesn't hold up once you start doing heavy dive bombing year after year. The baseplate seems to be weaker than the original floyd rose, hence the issues that can sometimes occur. The rest of the guitar is pretty much good. Weight wise, it was a nice medium 7 lb guitar, it had some solid fretwork and seemed to play quite nice once it was set up. I needed to oil the fretboard and shine up the frets to get this thing to really play the way it should. SOUNDS Somebody installed a Seymour Duncan Jazz in the neck and a Distortion in the bridge. The Seymour Duncan Distortion is a high output bridge pickup that works great for metal. Think of the JB, but now add a huge ceramic magnet into it. For those who don't know how magnets affect the overall sound, it basically make it tighter and helped beef it up, along with making it a bit sharper at times. The pickup worked decently in basswood, but I find it works best in either mahogany or even alder at times. The middle pickup was stock, and it didn't really sound that great. It also didn't deliver a great clean. The Jazz in the neck is awesome for cleans and decent for leads. It's a bit hi-fi for me at times for leads, but it's still a cool pickup. OVERALL OPINION If you can find one of these at a good price, I recommend you pick it up. They're very solid guitars. With a few modifications, you can have a real player for just a few hundred bucks, and it'll rival quite a few guitars out there. Just be sure you actually like basswood bodies before rushing out to your local pawn shop to try to find one of these.

The JDX-94 was always this kind of odd guitar that I never truly got along with. It's a fairly unique Jackson at some points, and on the other hand, it's right where Jackson usually deals their cards in other points. The guitar features a basswood body, a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, 24 extra jumbo frets with dot inlays, a unique hard tail bridge, HSS configuration, one volume, one tone and a five way switch. UTILIZATION The one thing worth noting is that this bridge is odd. It's like a telecaster bridge at times. It has this metal base plate that comes over the humbucker, and it mounts in there. It creates a unique tone, but I'll get to that point later. The guitar had decent fretwork, but there were a few high and low frets on this. It would cause the guitar to fret out with lower action no matter how the truss rod was actually set. The ends of the frets weren't bad, so no issues there. The nut needed to be redone as the last person seems to have gouged it in some way. Not sure how they managed to do that, but regardless, it needed a new nut. The rest of the guitar was typical Jackson, including the very subtle neck joint gap that you can usually find. SOUNDS This is where the guitar is the most bizarre. You have a basswood body but a telecaster style bridge. The bridge made the bridge pickup sound really...twangy almost. To hear that kind of twang come from a humbucker in the bridge was just a bit unique and frankly, off putting. I'm more of a metal guy, and while I dig the hell out of teles, I don't really like to mix the two unless I'm doing something a bit different. This guitar definitely succeeded at the different part. The pickups in this are just standard off the shelf crappy stock pickups that Jackson loves to throw in their lower end guitars, and while they can deliver decent cleans, I'm not a fan of how they sound as a whole. OVERALL OPINION The guitar needs a pickup swap, and you have to be sure you like this kind of bridge. Being a floyd guy, it wasn't really my thing. This could be exactly what you're looking for, however, and if you think this is something you'd enjoy, check it out. They're decent guitars for the money, but they can be a real pain to find at times.

I acquire this at Big Rock in hull, est yorkshire, england. It cost me £279. I love the pickups, and the tone and action are spot on, I also like the floyd rose trem. There is nothing to dislike about the unit....ok...perhaps the bridge humbucker can be a bit weedy at times. It is japanes made, only 600 were made world wide and the build quality is excellent. This is an excellent guitar for metal and rock. It is a high ed guitar at an affordable price and I'm sure will grow in value and quality in the years you own it. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com