Jackson Soloist

These are really old Soloists in which they started customizing with different options in the 80s. These guitars varied a lot as to what they came with, so this might not apply to whichever guitar you're looking up. The guitar features an alder body with a neck-thru maple neck and ebony fretboard, 24 extra jumbo frets, sharkfin inlays, a kahler bridge, three single coils, a volume knob, a tone knob and three individual toggle switches.

UTILIZATION

This guitar has one major flaw in it, and it's the Kahler that was installed in it. Back in the old days, the Kahler was the new rival to the Floyd Rose. A lot of people switched to the Kahler because they wanted the extra stability after they broke a string. However, it feels absolutely awful compared to the original floyd. It just feels a lot more bizarre. On top of that, they don't sound nearly as good as a normal original floyd does. Aside from that, the guitar is pretty good with the usual wear and tear you'd see on an instrument of this era.

SOUNDS

The guitar had a Seymour Duncan JB junior in the bridge with a DiMarzio HS3 in the neck and middle. The JB Jr is a decent pickup, but I don't find them to be as good as the full sized models. They seem to be a bit brighter for whatever reason. It's almost like a JB lite. The HS3 in the neck and bridge are decent for certain things, but I always find them to be a bit underpowered for my liking. I tend to like more powerful neck pickups, so it's a bit of an issue whenever I go to play ultra low output pickups like these. Some people love them, though.

OVERALL OPINION

The guitar is decent, but the Kahler really ruins the thing for me. The SSS configuration is also a bit odd on these guitars, but it's not too bad. It's versatile, especially with the single coil sized humbucker in the bridge. I'd personally replace the pickups with something a little more to my liking, but this works for the time being.