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tjon901 « Japanese Jackson »
Published on 01/24/12 at 09:55Caparison is an interesting guitar company out of Japan. Nowadays its basically 1 guy in a garage but a few years ago they were pretty big and pretty popular on both sides of the ocean. A lot of their designs are based on old Jackson Stars designs out of Japan. They took these designs and modernized them a bit. This is their HSS Dellinger model. The guitar has a mahogany body with an oil finish. The neck is maple with bolt on construction. The fretboard is ebony with 24 jumbo frets. The inlays are the cool Caparison clock inlays. The dials on the clock are pointing to the time corresponding with what fret it is at. The pickups in this example were slightly changed. Not many people like the Caparison no name pickups. This example had a hot rails in the neck and a trembucker JB in the bridge both from Seymour Duncan. The middle pickup was stock. The bridge is a Schaller Floyd Rose one of the best non original Floyds on the market.
UTILIZATION
Overall the guitar feels like an older Jackson. The neck is nice and thin with a D shape. The fretboard itself has a compound radius like a Jackson. The radius goes from about 12 to 16. Down at the low end of the neck the fretboard is a bit rounded so you can play chords comfortably. Near the neck joint it is flatter so you can get a lower faster action for leads. The oiled finish on the body is super smooth and feels good against your body. The bridge isnt flush mounted like a lot of guitars nowadays. It is slightly raised like an old Charvel which helps give it more of the old school feel. It also gives you more room to diving and such with the bridge.
SOUNDS
This guitar has a lot of natural tone. With the mahogany body and the oil finish there is nothing holding back this guitar from resonating freely with a thick tone. I cant say anything about the stock pickups because they are long gone in this model. The Trembucker and the Hotrails do a good job in this guitar. The Hotrails Gives you a neck humbucker sound in an HSS guitar. The tone is hot and smooth and works well for lead playing and cleans. There is not much single coil spank but if you are putting a humbucker in the neck thats not what you are looking for. The Trembucker JB in the bridge is a good all around pickup. It is the JB that is spaced for a Floyd Rose. It is interesting that pickup makers make different spaced pickups because the differences are so small they pretty much have no effect on tone. It just looks better when the strings line up with the pole pieces. The JB suits the style of guitar this is. It works well with mahogany and it gives you a sharp 80s sound with lots of cutting mids.
OVERALL OPINION
These guitars are becoming rarer and rarer since the company seems to be dying nowadays. They are not putting out near the amount of guitars they use to. With ESP and Jackson around lots of their endorsers have left for more productive companies. If you can find one of these and get a good deal on it good for you but I wouldnt fret over not being able to find one of these guitars. They are not that much better than an ESP or an Jackson or even a Prestige Ibanez to warrant looking forever and paying twice as much for one. For a few years these guitars were the hottest thing around but that heat seems to have died off.
UTILIZATION
Overall the guitar feels like an older Jackson. The neck is nice and thin with a D shape. The fretboard itself has a compound radius like a Jackson. The radius goes from about 12 to 16. Down at the low end of the neck the fretboard is a bit rounded so you can play chords comfortably. Near the neck joint it is flatter so you can get a lower faster action for leads. The oiled finish on the body is super smooth and feels good against your body. The bridge isnt flush mounted like a lot of guitars nowadays. It is slightly raised like an old Charvel which helps give it more of the old school feel. It also gives you more room to diving and such with the bridge.
SOUNDS
This guitar has a lot of natural tone. With the mahogany body and the oil finish there is nothing holding back this guitar from resonating freely with a thick tone. I cant say anything about the stock pickups because they are long gone in this model. The Trembucker and the Hotrails do a good job in this guitar. The Hotrails Gives you a neck humbucker sound in an HSS guitar. The tone is hot and smooth and works well for lead playing and cleans. There is not much single coil spank but if you are putting a humbucker in the neck thats not what you are looking for. The Trembucker JB in the bridge is a good all around pickup. It is the JB that is spaced for a Floyd Rose. It is interesting that pickup makers make different spaced pickups because the differences are so small they pretty much have no effect on tone. It just looks better when the strings line up with the pole pieces. The JB suits the style of guitar this is. It works well with mahogany and it gives you a sharp 80s sound with lots of cutting mids.
OVERALL OPINION
These guitars are becoming rarer and rarer since the company seems to be dying nowadays. They are not putting out near the amount of guitars they use to. With ESP and Jackson around lots of their endorsers have left for more productive companies. If you can find one of these and get a good deal on it good for you but I wouldnt fret over not being able to find one of these guitars. They are not that much better than an ESP or an Jackson or even a Prestige Ibanez to warrant looking forever and paying twice as much for one. For a few years these guitars were the hottest thing around but that heat seems to have died off.