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Hatsubai « Great graphic on this »
Published on 10/02/11 at 15:27This is the standard guitar that Jackson has released for who knows how long. This particular guitar is one of the few that actually has an air brushed graphic on it to help make it stand out a bit more from the pack. It's a bit more "metal" than some of the other ones. The guitar features an alder body with a maple neck-thru design, an ebony fretboard with 24 extra jumbo frets, sharkfin inlays, an original floyd rose, HSS configuration, one volume, one tone and a five way switch.
UTILIZATION
The guitar had a really nice weight to it. It wasn't too heavy, and it balanced nicely. The access to the higher frets is awesome thanks to it being a neck-thru design. I was able to get to the 24th fret without any issues at all. The fretwork on this was top notch, too. The frets were properly leveled, and the neck was perfectly straight. I got some real sick action with this, and it was a real blast to play. The floyd on this is an original floyd rose, and that happens to be one of my favorite floyds ever made. It just feels right to me for whatever reason. The flutter is one of the best in the industry, too.
SOUNDS
The guitar had a fairly bright and bitey sound to it, and a lot of this is thanks to the body wood combination. The guitar had a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge and Classic Stack singles in the neck/middle position. The JB in the bridge was great at being able to do any style you can think of. Despite this looking fairly menacing, this guitar can do anything from blues to death metal, assuming you have the right amp. That said, the JB in this was a bit bright, and I would probably swap it out with something else to help make the guitar thicker. The Classic Stack pickups are pretty cool in the neck and middle positions. I was able to get some really nice clean tones and decent lead tones with these. However, I would have preferred a Hot Rails in the neck position.
OVERALL OPINION
It's a very intimidating looking guitar, but don't let looks fool you. This guitar can really do nearly any style you can think of with the correct amp pairing. The one thing you need to pay attention to is the price. These are pretty expensive new, so I recommend buying used. You'll get the best deal that way. The guitars are fairly consistent, so buying sight unseen isn't too much of an issue like it used to be back during the Fender transition years.
UTILIZATION
The guitar had a really nice weight to it. It wasn't too heavy, and it balanced nicely. The access to the higher frets is awesome thanks to it being a neck-thru design. I was able to get to the 24th fret without any issues at all. The fretwork on this was top notch, too. The frets were properly leveled, and the neck was perfectly straight. I got some real sick action with this, and it was a real blast to play. The floyd on this is an original floyd rose, and that happens to be one of my favorite floyds ever made. It just feels right to me for whatever reason. The flutter is one of the best in the industry, too.
SOUNDS
The guitar had a fairly bright and bitey sound to it, and a lot of this is thanks to the body wood combination. The guitar had a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge and Classic Stack singles in the neck/middle position. The JB in the bridge was great at being able to do any style you can think of. Despite this looking fairly menacing, this guitar can do anything from blues to death metal, assuming you have the right amp. That said, the JB in this was a bit bright, and I would probably swap it out with something else to help make the guitar thicker. The Classic Stack pickups are pretty cool in the neck and middle positions. I was able to get some really nice clean tones and decent lead tones with these. However, I would have preferred a Hot Rails in the neck position.
OVERALL OPINION
It's a very intimidating looking guitar, but don't let looks fool you. This guitar can really do nearly any style you can think of with the correct amp pairing. The one thing you need to pay attention to is the price. These are pretty expensive new, so I recommend buying used. You'll get the best deal that way. The guitars are fairly consistent, so buying sight unseen isn't too much of an issue like it used to be back during the Fender transition years.