Jackson

I've had my Jackson infinity pro for many years, the Japanese craftsmanship is as good as anyone's (and better than most). The action can go as low as you want (not withstanding exessive wear) and has a very comfortable neck profile with good access to the upper register. There's nothing remarkable about the tonal range given the materials and pups it comes with - but neither did my 74 LP standard which I discarded for the Jackson. This is a great looking instrument - many of the comments I've received were about how nice, and classy it looks - but each to his own, these guitars are pretty rare and getting a 92 issue with matching paintwork finish and abalone inlays is getting more difficult (and expensive). Playability - this guitar is a fast-playing dream, and for me a finger picking nightmare - like all floating bridges with a low setup, but horses for courses, it's a great instrument to do classic rock and whizz around on - and I'd reccomend it to anyone that way inclined.

I'm always using TH2 program via computer. (and for monitoring, I use an old East German amplifier, called 'Regent') this is how it sounds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMzim3Iqy_4 I got it with hard case! Not bad, for the price :-) + the shape is very comfortable!! Mainly in sitting position, better than any guitar! Neck is perfect for me, with scarf joint, of course Very good tuners! (jackson) High output jackson PU-s Made in Indonesia, not in China as nowdays so workmanship is reliable - all the volume and tone pots were noisy when I turned them, so it must be changed

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Jackson Randy Rhoads made in the USA (Ontario, California) The RR2 was a standard series produced in 1996 and 1997, like the SL2 and the DR2 (that I also reviewed). These three series were the cheaper USA versions of the RR1, SL2H and DK1. Only a few colors were available (mostly gloss black, red metallic, gun metal grey and black metallic). Specs: - Bolt-on quartersawn maple neck with scarf joint. Gunstock oil finish. - A thick ebony fingerboard with no inlays (but there are side markers of course!). - Scale 25'' 1/2 with 22 jumbo frets. - 2-piece poplar body, in gun metal grey finish, standard headstock, "Jackson made in USA" decal. - All chrome hardware with  Jackson JT500LP locking tremolo. - One master volume knob and a 3 way toggle switch. - Stock pickups were Kent Armstrong JJB two double-0 in bridge and neck in JP-11 (specially made for Jackson) - Cool details, all the backplates are made of brushed alloy, no cheapo plastics like the MIJ. No frills at all here, to keep the price rather low: no MOP inlays, no bindings, no MOP logo. But the essence of any good USA Jackson is present: excellent woods, good finish, no flaws and a great player! Only regret, since it was among the cheapest US models, the tremolo is a good JT580LP, not an excellent Original Floyd Rose. I actually replaced the JT580LP with a good OFR without problem, just removed the japanese trem, slapped the OFR in, restrung and tuned the harmonics, nothing more. So easy! And much crispier with an OFR! Still, the perceived quality is far from the Japanese models, it's a real US guitar. UTILIZATION The neck is fairly wide and flat, the same as the DK-1's. Not an awful Ibanez ruler. The feel of the oiled neck is just great! It is immediately comfortable. The absence of fingerboard inlays is definitely not a problem, you get used to it very quickly. And it gives the guitar a killer look! The action is definitely no fret buzz though, the Floyd is recessed in a very deep route, and stays in tune. Access to the upper frets is good too, thanks to the heel contour, the neck plate is slanted to help reaching the upper frets. Better than what Jackson do with their Japanese models. The weight is ok, much heavier than any basswood stuff, still it can be compared to the weight of an alder guitar. It won't break your back! Unplugged, the sound is wide and rich. Great news! The V-shape really surprised me. This is my first scratched RR, I've always had superstrats and Les Pauls. I've tried a few RR in shops, but I could not make a real opinion. Now it's done! It is a rather well balanced guitar played standing up, though it seems the guitar has a tendency to flip... weird, you gotta get used to it. Sitting is just as easy, by placing the V on your thigh. Well, the big downside is the top pointy wing which can bang against a wall, furniture or your band mates while rehearsing ... I'm definitely not used to a guitar with these long wings!!! On top of that, it's so big the flight case is just über huge... (be careful if you ship it, it will cost more since it is 'oversized'). SOUNDS At first sight, when you see a RR, you immediately guess it was not built to play cheesy easy listening or bluesgrass. Do not expect extreme versatility. Or you need to go to the shrink!!! my current rig is simple right now: axe - lotsa pedals - Engl Powerball + V30 loaded cab axe - lotsa pedals - Engl Powerball + Palmer PGA04 - Mix - computer - headphones axe - Pod XT Live - Mix -computer - headphones I was amazed by the Kent Armstrong pickups I knew absolutely not how they'd sound. I read a review on Harmony-Central. The guy said they sounded like the DiMarzio PAF Pro ... we should not have the same ears, at least with the bridge pickup(JB-0). This pickup has a copious output level (at least 400 mV). Not as pleasant in clean where I always have to redo my settings, otherwise it crunches immediately. Yet it is the setting I use with axes in EMG 81, DiMarzio Super Distortion and Duncan Distortion ... Awww. It is not as extreme a DM X2N and / or Bill Lawrence 5800XL, but it sends a damn high output. In clean, the JB-0 is too powerful for me, but it does not have too much horrible trebles. You really have to play with the volume knob and have a very respectful picking in clean :o) The neck pickup is less extreme. It has something of an EMG 60/DM DP160 'Norton': fairly clean (not an avalanche of almost uncontrollable lows), not too warm (not like a Gibson Burstbucker or a EMG 85. No, not all EMG are ' cold '!). In crunch, it begins to be tasty, especially the JP-11 neck, provided, again, you don't want to sound too fat / too round. Really impressive, this compromise nice little warmth/ accuracy of a passive pickup. The JB-0 is very honest, a bit of a rage, it's not narrow sounding. Like a Gibson 500T that would have learned to be precise and to temper its enthusiasm in the lows, a DM Super Distortion which would have more character. In high gain , as guessed, miss RR2 is at ease! Sharp palm mutes, singing leads whatever the pickup selected. She has quite a good potential for a 'cheapo US guitar' ! Again, after reading the review from HC, I thought I would immediately pull the pickups out for my basic EMG setup...(yes, I bought it without trying it, since RR2s are definitely not easy to find in the area). The Kent Armstrong do the job! OVERALL OPINION I bought her one month ago, so this review will certainly change later on. So far, I play her a lot. The overall quality, the quality of woods (at least for the quarter sawn maple neck and the fantastic ebony fingerboard), poplar body (which does not screw the sound at all and seems to age well , as my RR2 was built 9 years ago!), everything is at the same level of qualityas the standard USA Jacksons. It's definitely not a MIJ RR3. Hardware remains a little cheap for my taste, which will be replaced by black Schaller parts and an Original Floyd Rose very soon. I don't like the chrome hardware on this guitar, plain black will give this RR2 a way better look. I am far from being unhappy with my purchase, in the end. It is still an excellent base, really worth the buck, that you can modify later on with better hardware if you're an eternal greedy and unsatisfied chap. Like me :o). It is not a refined RR1 or KV2 (let alone a fantastic XTRR or Y2KV) , no neckthrough no mother of pearl inlays, no bindings, basic hardware like the Japanese models, but the price is far from being the same. I forgot: due to its shape, you'll have to have a special guitar stand like the cool Ultimate Genesis, not too expensive and very useful. Jackson Power!!!!! Added 23/12/2005: I eventually sold her, but not before she got full black hardware and an OFR.

Jackson Dinky Reverse, made in the USA (Ontario, California), standard series that was built only for 2 years, in 1996-97. Specs: - Bolt-on quartersawn maple neck with scarf joint. Gunstock oil finish. - A thick ebony fingerboard with no inlays (but there are side markers of course!). - Scale 25'' 1/2 with 22 jumbo frets. - 2-piece poplar body, in gloss black finish, reverse headstock, "Jackson made in USA" decal. - All chrome hardware with  Jackson JT500LP locking tremolo. - One master volume knob, one master tone knob, and a 3 way toggle switch. - I equipped her with EMGs (81 85) with metal chrome rings (original pickups were Duncan Screaming Demon B and Jazz N). - Cool details, all the backplates are made of brushed alloy, no cheapo plastics like the MIJ. No frills at all here, to keep the price rather low: no MOP inlays, no bindings, no MOP logo. But the essence of any good USA Jackson is present: excellent woods, good finish, no flaws and a great player! Only regret, since it was among the cheapest US models, the tremolo is a good JT580LP, not an excellent Original Floyd Rose. I actually replaced the JT580LP with a good OFR without problem, just removed the japanese trem, slapped the OFR in, restrung and tuned the harmonics, nothing more. So easy! And much crispier with an OFR! A classy, yet very sober look. Still, the perceived quality is far from the Japanese models, it's a real US guitar. UTILIZATION The neck is fairly wide and flat, the same as the DK-1's. Not an awful Ibanez ruler. The feel of the oiled neck is just great! It is immediately comfortable. The absence of fingerboard inlays is definitely not a problem, you get used to it very quickly. And it gives the guitar a killer look! The action is definitely no fret buzz though, the Floyd is recessed in a very deep route, and stays in tune. Access to the upper frets is good too, thanks to the heel contour, the neck plate is slanted to help reaching the upper frets. Better than what Jackson do with their Japanese models. The weight is ok, much heavier than any basswood stuff, still it can be compared to the weight of an alder guitar. It won't break your back! Unplugged, the sound is wide and rich. Great news! Added 28/06/2004: I'm getting bored with Floyd Rose equipped guitars. You can't drop tune on the fly, changing strings is long, double bend are terrible, etc. Pity for it's a great axe, highly addictive! The finish is definitely good, no flaws whatsoever, the neck is incredible, smooth, fast, the thick ebony board is pure black, no discoloration, awwww this guitar is a gem. SOUNDS I have no clue how the stock Duncan Screaming Demon B and Jazz N sound: the previous owner replaced them with DiMarzio Evolution bridge and a Fred in neck. I did not keep this DiMarzio setup anyway, the Evo is just NOT what I like (stupidely bland with too many trebles), and if the Fred is superb in bridge, it was not very convincing in neck. But with da EMGs ! Despite the EMGs, she remains quite versatile! Ok, don't expect stuff she CAN'T do, like Telecaster or P90 sounds. When you buy a Dinky, you don't expect to play in a jazz band... get a SweeTone instead! Still the clean with the 81 is not the warmest (bear in mind it's a ceramic pickup, not an AlNiCo one!), still you can use it for funk, bluesy stuff, rock. It's not outstanding, but the 81 can make it do. The 85 has more warmth, a rounder sound, still it does not go muddy. Cool even in jazzy stuff. In crunch, the 85 goes well beyond what I expected, he really has his little characters, and can cry a blues! Yes! The 81 is fine in crunch too. But yep, this setup is definitely good for high gain! In good old metal, it's a gem! The EMG 81, always sharp, even on massive palm mutes, a tad aggressive, never muddy, and harmonics come out easily! Ditto for the 85's harmonics is also remains sharp and accurate, and very singing! It's really a typical Jackson rather aggressive when you want it, a sharp sound, in your face, with that magic Jackson feel. It sounds like a dream with my Triaxis / G Major / 2: 90. I still can't believe how good they mix so well together! Added 28/06/2004: farewell Mesa, back to Engl, with a PowerBall and a 4x12 cab with V30 speakers. Wow there again, It's just purely addictive! Pure Jackson, actually. It has a grain of its own and really recognizable! Sharp without being too aggressive, big but not fat, geeezzzzzzzzzz! OVERALL OPINION Rather hard to find (2 years of production only), she's is beautiful, classy, easy to play, while remaining simple and what a  sound! No regrets, except for da Floyd (though it stays in tune hey). I kinda fell in love with her! Muhahahaha! Added 28/06/2004: I felt like selling her, not because it's a bad guitar, but because of the tremolo, I do not play her as often as I should. At one stage, I preferred my SLSMG, because this latter had a hardtail. But as soon as I plugged the DR2 again, I decided to keep her as long as I could, there's love in the air, Jackson Power!!!  Added 24/12/2005: money talked and I've had to sell her, since I was bored with tremolos and thought she had to go. Doh! I really miss her! One day, I'll get another DR2, ooooh yes, one day, I'll get another DR2

This particular model of Jackson King V is the highest end model you're going to find from Jackson's production line. Mine was built in March 2009 and is the Snow White model. This line of Jackson is built in the USA and seems very well crafted. It features an alder body, maple neck with ebony fretboard, 24 frets, MOP (mother of pearl) inlays, an Original Floyd Rose tremolo, and two Seymour Duncan humbuckers (A Jazz model in the neck and a JB model in the bridge.) It has two separate volume controls (one per pickup), a single tone control, and a 3 way selector switch. It's a pretty basic setup, but it works well enough. A major caveat I have with this control layout is that it's very cluttered and difficult to reach. Pickup switch flicks ala Yngwie are all but impossible because the bridge volume control is in the way, and you can't get to the neck pickup volume easily and quickly because again, the bridge pickup volume is blocking it. It's a leftover from the Dave Mustaine era of Jackson King V's and you would think that they'd change it... but it hasn't happened yet. Oh well, it's not a major thing, but it's definitely something you have to get used to if you like to switch pickups or adjust your volume/tone controls often. UTILIZATION Being that this guitar is an extremely pointy and large Flying V, I cannot say that it's ergonomic in any sense. It's a fairly reasonable weight (lighter than my Les Paul, heavier than most of the superstrats I've had), and it seems to balance fairly well when you're using a strap, but it's large and cumbersome to move around with because of the large and unwieldy points. The upper fret access is not nearly as good as I would expect from a neck through body Flying V (no cutaways to get around). The neck joins the body at about the 19th fret, so the last 5 frets can be a bit of a chore to get around. Also, the heel itself seems to be a bit clunky for a neck through design... so I was less than impressed there. As far as the the tones go... the biggest downfall that this guitar has is its lack of versatility tone wise. I was able to get a killer thrash metal or modern shred tone right away. However, when I tried to dial back the gain and play some more classic seventies and eighties riff rock, it was just not happening. I found this odd, because I previously had an alder bodied Charvel with a Duncan JB and a Floyd that I loved the tone off... this guitar just didn't have what I expected. I enjoyed playing Megadeth and such for a week, but once that wore off, I went back to my Les Paul and this went back into the case. Basically, it's easy to dial in metal tones, but if you want to play cleans/mid gain/rock type stuff, it's not the best guitar for that. Though, quite honestly, with a shape like this, I wasn't expecting anything super versatile. However, I hoped it would at least be able to do riff rock (Van Halen, Dokken, Loudness, early Yngwie, etc) but it just wasn't happening. SOUNDS When I got the guitar, I was using an Orange Rockerverb 50 Mark I head. I've since exchanged that out for a Mesa Boogie Mark Five. I was not overly impressed with the tones from either amp unless I was playing thrash metal type stuff (which isn't all that often.) The cleans were generally very flat and uninspiring, and since the pickups weren't wired for split coils or coil tapping, you basically had the sound of either humbucker or both together. Personally I don't much care for the sound of humbuckers played clean unless I'm playing jazzy stuff, so I really can't say the clean tones were or are currently impressive. (Ironically, this guitar has a Seymour Duncan "Jazz" in the neck position.) The mid gain tones were pretty much the same as the cleans... just very flat and neutral. A coil split might have made those tones a little livelier, but without having one in the guitar I can't judge how that would sound. Quite honestly, given the market of this guitar I'm not shocked at any of this, but it's still depressing that a $2,200 guitar really only does one or two sounds well, especially when the specs look so good on paper. The higher gain tones were great, classic Jackson thrash metal fare, but really, that was to be expected. The JB was very tight and articulate, perfect for those staccato metal riffs. The Jazz was very smooth and great for those Marty Friedman esque lead tones. But in retrospect, I should have assumed that a guitar like this was really designed for one set of tones (look at the shape for crying out loud!) OVERALL OPINION All in all, I definitely felt that this guitar was a very narrow focused instrument, really only looking and sounding good for one style of music (thrash metal). I will say that the guitar is very well crafted and displays no obvious construction flaws, but I just can't get into the vibe of the guitar. It was cool initially, but after the honeymoon was over I realized that it just wasn't my type of guitar. I'm not a very big guy so the guitar came pretty close to dwarfing me most of the time. I found it difficult to sit down with as well because the ends were so pointed. The tones as well were cool for metal stuff, but since I don't play that type of music on a regular basis anymore, it just acted as a lesser competitor to my Les Paul, and because I don't care for its rock tones, it just doesn't get played. As a result, I do plan to sell it and move on. USA Jacksons are a lot like Orange amps in my opinion... they're very expensive and you don't get a whole lot for your dollar in most cases. For $2,200 CAD brand new, this guitar is very limited in what it can do musically. However, if you want a killer metal machine without going Custom Shop... you can't go wrong.

These are the bottom of the barrel Jacksons and are only meant for those who are looking for an extremely cheap guitar. They're marketed towards those who are just starting out and are not really recommended to anybody else due to the body wood that they use. The guitar features an Indian Cedro body, a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, 24 extra jumbo frets, sharkfin inlays, a two point vibrato bridge, two humbucker configuration, one volume, one tone and a three way switch. UTILIZATION This is a cheap guitar, and you can tell right away. First off, there is a huge neck joint gap on this. When I say huge, I mean huge. The frets on this were cut sharp, and they weren't nearly as polished as they should have been. When you move your hand up and down the neck, it would really grab into my palm and be real annoying. The frets themselves weren't level, and there were dead spots once you started putting the action below medium and started bending. The bridge on this is real cheap and doesn't stay in tune. The nut itself wasn't cut properly, and it created additional tuning instability. SOUNDS I should first state that this guitar didn't sound very resonant unplugged. It was very dead sounding from the beginning, and I can guarantee these awful stock pickups weren't doing it any favors. The bridge pickup was so bright and harsh that I had to turn down the tone knob, and I never do that. It sounded so synthetic that it was ridiculous. The neck pickup was also harsh and didn't have any clarity at all. Leads were very hard for me to play on this, and the guitar just didn't resonate one bit. I wouldn't even recommend replacing the pickups in this because I doubt it would do anything positive for the overall sound given how dead the body was. OVERALL OPINION If you want a good, cheap, beginner strat, look into the LTD line up or something. These guitars just aren't that good, and they are too inconsistent to really even consider. Too many issues prevent me from recommending this guitar, but the unfortunate truth of the matter is...I've actually played worse.

Jackson is working on making a bit of a comeback on the medium priced guitars lately. The new X series is a throwback to the old school X series they used to have, but these seem to be a bit higher quality from what I've seen. The guitar features a basswood body, a neck-thru maple neck design with a rosewood fretboard, 22 frets with sharkfin inlays, a licensed floyd rose bridge, two EMG pickups (81/85), one volume, one tone and a three way switch. UTILIZATION The guitar itself was put together quite nicely. There are no issues with the neck joint thanks to it being a neck-thru design. The fretwork on this was pretty good, too. The frets were fairly level, and the ends were beveled enough to where it doesn't slice your hand when you move it up and down the neck to various different fretting positions. No need to worry about the nut being cut properly because it has a locking nut. The floyd on this is decent, but there are better floyds out there, in my opinion. It's not the worst, but I wouldn't say it's the best, either. Fluttering was a little stiff, and the way the arm secured seemed to be sloppy thanks to the tolerances. The rest of the guitar was put together quite well. SOUNDS The guitar had EMGs installed in it stock, and that's probably its biggest selling point. EMGs alone are worth a good chunk of change, so these real pickups are definitely a selling point. Anybody who has played EMGs before already knows how they are, what they excel at, etc. These are no different, even with the basswood wings. The 81 is super tight and compressed. It can deliver some crushing metal tones with ease, but the cleans suck, and it can be a bit sterile at times. For recording, it's one of the best pickups in the world. The 85 is super fat and compressed. It does awesome fat, smooth leads. Perfect for legato and sweeps. The cleans are a bit bland, but it's not too bad. For genres other than metal, they're probably not the best pickups. OVERALL OPINION These are pretty solid guitars, and if you're looking for a good quality V without breaking the bank, this could very well be the guitar you're looking for. The guitar is pretty good stock, and aside from a setup, not much else would be needed. I'm interested in seeing how much these'll go for on eBay.

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 DX was an interesting series that Jackson had going on for awhile. They looked great, but the wood choices were kinda iffy. Then again, at the time, it was standard fair for what was coming out overseas. The guitar has the following specs: Basswood body with a figured veneer top Maple bolt-on neck Rosewood fretboard with 24 jumbo frets HSH configuration No binding Jackson licensed floyd rose Dot inlays Five way switch Master volume and master tone knobs UTILIZATION The guitar looks great, but considering it's one of those photoflame/veneer guitars, it should look great. The finish on this was good, but there were a few nicks. Considering that it was a used guitar, that's not really too surprising. The frets on this were pretty decent, albeit the ends could probably have used a bit more attention. The floyd on this thing is trash. I recommend replacing that with something like the original floyd rose. They tend to feel better and sound better too. Some claim this isn't true, but I'm a firm believe that the higher quality trems sound better. Also make sure to check for neck joint gaps as they can potentially hard tone as well. SOUNDS The stock pickups in this were your average Japanese stock pickups. The bridge lacked that note clarity and separation that the higher quality pickups tend to have. The basswood also wasn't helping it with these stock pickups as basswood tends to be a very picky wood. It's very middy and somewhat neutral/dark sounding, so a lot of pickups meant for alder or mahogany tend to sound very odd in them. The neck pickup got some decent clean tones, but I disliked the lead tone. I recommend replacing these with DiMarzios as they have some great models that work nicely with basswood. I can't comment on the middle pickup as I never use it. OVERALL OPINION These can be a bit hard to find today, but if you want a good gigging guitar, these can be a very good choice. They're fairly cheap on the used market, and with a good pickup swap. I also recommend replacing the floyd with an original floyd rose to help in terms of tuning stability and overall tone.

Body: mahogany with carved top Neck: neck thru body mahogany with scarf joint headstock Tuning machines: sealed die-cast tuners Fingerboard: ebony Frets: 24 jumbo frets Bridge pickup: EMG-81 Neck pickup: EMG-85 Controls: master volume, master tone Bridge: JT390 adjustable with strings-thru-body3- position blade pickups switching:Position 1 Bridge pickup Position 2 Middle pickup Position 3 Neck pickup Hardware: black MOTO piranha tooth position inlays Ivoroid binding on neck and headstock I bought my slsmg off ebay for about $500.00 it was the best purchase I have ever made Im going to keep this guitar forever. The neck through body,emgs,and the string through construction all come together for awesome sustain.The neck is very comfortable and thin so it is ideal for a lead guitarist and there is easy access to the upper frets.Also the guitars name Super Light Soloist is true this guitar unlike guitars like les puals is very light and puts little to no strain on your shoulder when playing standing up.And this guitar is great for alternate tunings because of it not having a floyd rose that constantly needs to be adjusted. The volume nob gets in the way of my hand sometimes. I havn't had any problems at all with the construction or quality other than the volume nob but its not a very big problem.construction and quality ***** The bottom line is this is a fantastic guitar and I woud reccommend to anyone. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

The new Jackson X series is Giving players neck through construction for bolt on prices. These guitars are made overseas but have the same kind of construction that you would get on a USA model. This is one of the X series Soloist guitars. The Soloist is one of Jacksons most popular models so having a budget Soloist option with neck through construction should be a great seller for them. This is the natural model that has a flame maple veeneer on the basswood body. The neck is maple with neck through construction. The fretboard is rosewood with a compound radius design. It was a Floyd Rose style tremolo and a locking nut. The pickups in this guitar make it one of the better models in the X Series. This guitar comes with fully active EMG's. It has the EMG 81 and the EMG 85. Other X Series models have passive EMG's so you have to look out which model you are picking up. The controls are simple with a volume and tone with a 3 way blade switch. UTILIZATION With the neck through construction you get all the feel as if this was a USA made SL2 or something. With the neck through construction you get a super smooth feeling all the way up to the 24th fret. There is no big heel to get in your way or anything. With the compound radius fretboard you get a comfortable playability on both ends of the neck. Near the body the radius is flatter at about 16 inches. This means that you can get a lower action up there for faster playing and easier bends. Down near the headstock the radius is about 12 inches so it is a bit rounder so you can play chords more comfortably. SOUNDS This guitar is one of the better X Series models because it comes with fully active EMG pickups, pickups you would find in guitars costing 3x as much. Because it comes with these active EMG's the basswood body is less noticable. EMG's are not very wood sensitive so essentially you are getting the same tone that you would get if you had a Custom Shop SL2 with EMG's. This guitar has the classic EMG 81/85 setup. The 81 is in the bridge. It has a high end razor sharp kind of sound. The 85 is a more versatile pickup but it is not as hardcore as the 81. The 85 has a warmer tone. It doesnt have as much high end. It has a smoother sound which is better for leads and better for clean tones. OVERALL OPINION This is one of the better models in the X series as ive said. it comes with active pickups while other models in the X series come with EMG-HZ pickups which are not on the same level. If you are looking for a guitar with a good metal sound the active pickups are what you want. In this guitar with the active pickups you do not notice the cheaper tonewoods in the guitar. The construction is top notch and the same style as what you would get on a USA model. Jackson is doing a good thing with these X series guitars.

The Jackson X series is a new line of guitar from Jackson that take a lot of the construction features of their high end guitars and puts them on lower end guitars so more people can afford them. A lot of their models are neck through which you do not see much on guitars of this price. The guitar I am reviewing is an SLX but it does not look like the one in the picture. It is the natural version which surprisingly comes with a different set of pickups. The natural version has a natural finish to it so you can clearly see the basswood body attached to the maple neck. The guitar is neck through so the basswood body is just wings on the neck. The neck has a 24 fret compound radius rosewood fretboard. There is a locking nut for the Floyd Rose. The pickups are different on the Natural model. This model comes with passive EMG pickups. The control layout is typical with a volume and tone with a 3 way switch. UTILIZATION This guitar plays a lot like a high end Jackson. The neck through construction means that there is no neck joint to get in the way. It is smooth all the way up the 24 frets. The compound radius fretboard means you get a comfortable action all the way up the neck as well. On the higher frets the radius is flatter so you can get a lower action for your leads and on the lower frets the radius is more round so you can play chords more comfortably. The Floyd Rose was okay. Its not an original Floyd Rose but it is good enough if you dont plan on standing on it. SOUNDS Jacksons do not normally have basswood bodies so the tone is a bit different on this than other Jacksons. I cant think of many other guitars that have basswood bodies with neck through maple necks. At least the wood combination looks good with the natural finish. The passive EMG pickups are not the greatest. They are pretty fizzy and thin. I would most likely swap these out if this was my guitar. If you are a beginner and still have a low end amp then these pickups will work just fine for you. Some X models come with real active EMG's and some do not. I would make that a priority in picking a guitar from this line over looks and shape. Getting one of the X series guitars that come with real EMG's can save you a lot of money in the future and they are not that much more expensive than the other models. OVERALL OPINION I like the X series on the surface. The guitars are very well priced. You can get this model for 600 bucks. I just wish there was more consistantcy through the line. The green finished version of this guitar comes with Duncan Design pickups while the natural finished on comes with passive EMG's. And there is another soloist in the X series that comes with active EMG's. It is quite confusing. If you dont mine the passive EMG's and are looking for a cool looking soloist that doesnt cost and arm and a leg the SLX natural Soloist is a pretty cool guitar.