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King Loudness « If you play metal, it's a King. If not, well.... »
Published on 04/11/11 at 18:52This 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.
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.
