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tjon901 « Jet Warrior »
Published on 09/02/11 at 16:23The Warrior is one of the most unique guitars Jackson has put out recently and still sells. This one is the special edition that comes in the bolted steel finish. I think it looks like a Jet Airplane or something. These guitars play and feel great partly due to the crazy design. This shape is a lot more comfortable than it looks because it provides perfect balance. The WR1 under its shape is just a basic Jackson like an SL2 or something. It has many of the same features that all the other USA Jacksons have. It has an alder body with a maple neck through design. It has a 24 fret ebony fretboard with Jacksons Compound radius. It has an Original Floyd Rose locking tremolo system so it will stay in tune no matter what. It comes with EMG pickups from the factory which are great for metal. Just from the names you can tell that these are heavy metal pickups. It has the classic Zakk Wylde set with the 81 in the bridge and the 85 in the neck. It has a master volume and master tone knob and a 3 way pickup selector.
UTILIZATION
Even with this guitars crazy looking design everything is there for a reason. The design gives the guitar perfect balance. The neck-through design is a feature I love and wish more guitar makers would use. The wood for the neck goes all the way through the body and the top and bottom of the body are glued to the side of the neck piece. With this construction there is virtually no neck joint which makes playing up at even the highest frets as easy as playing at the middle of the neck. Not only does this construction let you not have a bulky neck joint it also increases sustain as the pickups are mounted directly to the same piece of wood as the neck. The compound radius makes playing all over the neck comfortable and the ebony fretboard feels good under your fingers. With a compound radius fretboard the fretboard up by the headstock has a rounder radius than the fretboard down by the pickups which is really flat. This makes the neck very comfortable for chords up in the low and and lets you get a super low action up on the high notes for shredding. The original Floyd Rose is the original double locking tremolo system and its still the best. When properly setup this system will never go out of tune.
SOUNDS
The Zakk Wylde set is a classic setup for metal. It has been used for many years by a ton of players not just Zakk Wylde. A ton of companies use this setup when they are using EMG's because it provides a great metal tone and a decent amount of versatility for active pickups. THe 81 in the bridge is a great pickup. It is a real metal machine. It has a high end grind to it that keeps your playing from getting muddy. When you play with EMG's everything you play comes out they dont cover up bad playing. The 81 in the bridge is super sharp so if you are playing ninja style riffs at low tunings it is a great pickup. The 85 is also a great pickup and in my opinion it is more versatile. The 81 sounds bad in the neck but the 85 sounds great in the neck and the bridge. In this guitar it is in the neck. It is similar to the 81 but has more low end to its sound and has an over all smoother tone. This is great for high gain leads in the neck position. This is also decent for cleans although active clean sounds are rarely very good. If you want an even better clean sound and more headroom overall you can do the 18v mod where you run the pickups on two 9v batteries instead of one. This gives you a more organic tone and more headroom overall.
OVERALL OPINION
This is a great metal guitar. It has the looks and the tone but does not sacrifice playability and comfort. The radical design helps playability and comfort by giving you ultimate balance. The EMG's are the ultimate setup for metal. They are not that great for anything else but if you are buying a Warrior you arent likely to be buying it for blues or Jazz. There are versions that come with Seymour Duncans and they will provide you more versatility in the tone but with the EMG's you get the best tone possible for metal. If you are looking for a metal Jackson with metal looks you cant get much more metal than this, it even has rust!
UTILIZATION
Even with this guitars crazy looking design everything is there for a reason. The design gives the guitar perfect balance. The neck-through design is a feature I love and wish more guitar makers would use. The wood for the neck goes all the way through the body and the top and bottom of the body are glued to the side of the neck piece. With this construction there is virtually no neck joint which makes playing up at even the highest frets as easy as playing at the middle of the neck. Not only does this construction let you not have a bulky neck joint it also increases sustain as the pickups are mounted directly to the same piece of wood as the neck. The compound radius makes playing all over the neck comfortable and the ebony fretboard feels good under your fingers. With a compound radius fretboard the fretboard up by the headstock has a rounder radius than the fretboard down by the pickups which is really flat. This makes the neck very comfortable for chords up in the low and and lets you get a super low action up on the high notes for shredding. The original Floyd Rose is the original double locking tremolo system and its still the best. When properly setup this system will never go out of tune.
SOUNDS
The Zakk Wylde set is a classic setup for metal. It has been used for many years by a ton of players not just Zakk Wylde. A ton of companies use this setup when they are using EMG's because it provides a great metal tone and a decent amount of versatility for active pickups. THe 81 in the bridge is a great pickup. It is a real metal machine. It has a high end grind to it that keeps your playing from getting muddy. When you play with EMG's everything you play comes out they dont cover up bad playing. The 81 in the bridge is super sharp so if you are playing ninja style riffs at low tunings it is a great pickup. The 85 is also a great pickup and in my opinion it is more versatile. The 81 sounds bad in the neck but the 85 sounds great in the neck and the bridge. In this guitar it is in the neck. It is similar to the 81 but has more low end to its sound and has an over all smoother tone. This is great for high gain leads in the neck position. This is also decent for cleans although active clean sounds are rarely very good. If you want an even better clean sound and more headroom overall you can do the 18v mod where you run the pickups on two 9v batteries instead of one. This gives you a more organic tone and more headroom overall.
OVERALL OPINION
This is a great metal guitar. It has the looks and the tone but does not sacrifice playability and comfort. The radical design helps playability and comfort by giving you ultimate balance. The EMG's are the ultimate setup for metal. They are not that great for anything else but if you are buying a Warrior you arent likely to be buying it for blues or Jazz. There are versions that come with Seymour Duncans and they will provide you more versatility in the tone but with the EMG's you get the best tone possible for metal. If you are looking for a metal Jackson with metal looks you cant get much more metal than this, it even has rust!