Jackson went and decided to create some sort of unique hybrid guitar. By hybrid, I mean that they're trying to combine a telecaster, strat and les paul all in one guitar. It's a really unique take on things, but there are other manufacturers that do this way better, specifically Tyler. The guitar features a spruce body with a figured maple top, a mahogany neck with an ebony fretboard, 22 frets with dot inlays, a hard tail bridge, special telecaster/strat/P90 pickup combination, one volume, two tones and a five way switch. UTILIZATION The top on this guitar was really stunning. It had that classic style look thanks to the stain on it, but you also had this 3D depth to it that really popped in person. It's hard to really see what it's like without being there in person. The ebony on this actually had some streaks in it, and I was surprised to see that from Jackson. Most of their ebony boards are jet black. Not all people know this, but there is ebony out there that's almost like maple in terms of color. It all depends on what type of ebony you get. Most people just buy the jet black ebony or get ebony and dye it jet black. The bridge on this was decent, but I wasn't a huge fan of the hard tail bridge. In fact, I think a tele style bridge would have been a lot cooler on this, and it would have made that tele pickup spank all that much more. SOUNDS The guitar had all Seymour Duncan pickups in it, and they sounded pretty cool for the most part. The bridge pickup was pretty much all that tele sound. It could do that spank without much of an issue, but I felt that it didn't have quite as much of that telecaster quality without the actual tele bridge. The middle pickup was actually a 59 Jr, and it didn't do the single coil sound that well as it was a humbucker. I wasn't a huge fan of this, really. The neck pickup got a really cool P90 sound, and I was able to bust out some sick blues riffs, but besides that, it seemed limited. OVERALL OPINION The guitar has lots of features and options, but I can't help but think that, given the price these things go for, you can get a guitar that is, in my opinion, much better. My favorite guitar that does this is a Tyler, and it's one hell of a guitar. In fact, it's one of the best guitars ever made, but we're not exactly comparing apples to oranges at the moment.
This guitar is even more rare than the normal Sweetone series that you see on eBay and the such. The thing that makes this different from the other model is that this one has a figured maple top on it instead of having the regular old solid finished look. The guitar features a spruce body with a maple top, a mahogany neck with an ebony fretboard, 22 frets with dot inlays, a hard tail bridge, two humbuckers, two volumes, one tone and a three way switch. UTILIZATION The flame top on this model was very nice. The sunburst finish on it helped really bring out the overall character of the flame, and the bookmatching was done nicely as well. The bridge on this isn't my favorite. I'm not really a hard tail fan to begin with, and this isn't one of the better hard tails out there, in my opinion. That said, it's also not one of the worst, either. The angle is nice enough to where it feels natural, like a Fender. I grew up on Fenders, so those extreme angles like Gibsons have can be a bit off putting to me at times. The fretwork was decent, but there were a few minor issues that I noticed with it. The nut was cut properly, so no issues there. SOUNDS The guitar had a JB in the neck and the bridge, and I'm not sure how good of a fit this was for this guitar. The JB in the bridge wasn't too bad, but it had some annoying midrange to it that I think was due to the wood combination in this guitar. The pickup itself is generally pretty good and works in most guitars. It can also do most styles out there from blues to brutal death metal, and while it wasn't exactly bad sounding, I just felt that there could have been a better pickup for the bridge in this. The JB in the neck was never one of my favorite neck pickups, and it can be a bit too hot and focused at times. That said, it does deliver a pretty cool, searing lead tone that you don't always hear from guitarists these days. The cleans weren't my favorite, though... OVERALL OPINION The guitar looks great, and these are pretty hard to find these days. You'll have to be surfing eBay for awhile to find one in good condition and at a good price. If you do happen to find one, I recommend you buy it as they're definitely worth it. The tone is unique, and the overall quality is pretty good, despite the flaws that I mentioned before hand in this review.
This is a guitar you don't see too often. A lot of these weren't made because they didn't sell as well as some of the flagship models that Jackson has, but they're pretty cool guitars if you're into that kind of thing. The guitar features a spruce body, a mahogany neck with an ebony fretboard, 22 frets with dot inlays, a hard tail bridge, two humbuckers, two volumes, one tone and a three way switch. UTILIZATION This is basically Jackson's answer to the Gibson/PRS market. The one thing you'll notice about this is that the scale length is different. It tends to give it a sweeter feel, I found. The guitar itself had a very good weight to it, and it was beautiful to look at. The bridge on this isn't exactly my favorite in the world, but it works fine for what it was meant to do. It wasn't cutting up my hand too bad like some tend to do. The frets on this were pretty good, although not perfect. I found a few minor flaws that today's USA series wouldn't have. The nut could also have been cut a bit better, but it's not a huge deal. It wasn't binding, so there wasn't a huge issue. SOUNDS The pickups in this were Seymour Duncan 59s. The 59 in the bridge is a very sweet bridge pickup. It has a hot PAF kind of sound. You can get that real "woody" or "wooly" or whatever sound quite nice. It's one of Duncan's most organic pickups, I've found. It tends to be suited more towards blues and rock than metal, but it can do metal. It's not quite as tight as the other bridge models that Duncan has, but it is a little thicker as a result. The 59 in the neck is one of my favorite neck pickups ever. It has the perfect amount of bass and treble to really sing. The mids are slightly pushed back but not so much that it leaves you lost in the mix. The highs give you enough cut to be heard through dense mixes, and the lows give it that real thick sound that works awesome for legato. OVERALL OPINION These are real cool alternatives to Les Paul and PRS style guitars. They're not quite the same, but they do offer something unique that other manufacturers weren't totally offering at the time. The unique construction and tone woods gave it some character that you don't normally get, and the guitar was high quality enough for the price that you didn't feel bad purchasing one of these.
