Incoming NGD: Trying my luck with another Jackson!
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beaubrummels
Well-known member
Here's hoping it works out. The last one looked really cool, and had a few things in common with mine.
Honestly, i was afraid of Jackson because of the painted necks. After i played that one for an hour, the tackiness disappeared and it felt good.
But really, im in it for the shakfins!
This was a discounted "open box" from PAS. This guitar has alot going for it, but also at least one noticeable issue. Not sure if it is a reflection of poor QC on part of Fender/Jackson, but my guess is this is a B-stock grey market guitar that didn't go through normal QC. There isn't an "inspected by" sticker on the back, and the box only has a UK address, so I'm guessing it was B-stock EU inventory that made it's way to a liquidator.
But anyway.. I think the finish is amazing.
But anyway.. I think the finish is amazing.
Review (Part 1)
I am writing this review to help form my opinions on the guitar as I learn more about it.
Finish- I've had the guitar two hours. Most of that time has been checking it over for damage or issues. The guitar body finish is excellent and nicer than many crackles I've seen listed. The crackle pattern has a nice aesthetic mix of large and small elements. (Some of the other ones I've seen aren't as well balanced and look more like a honeycomb of smaller lines.)
Prior Use- It is an "open box". There aren't any gouges or missing paint on the headstock or body. I don't see any dents, scratches or hazing on the body. The plastic pickup covers are not there and there is a mild bit of dust under the strings between the pickups, so it has been out of the box and in someone's hands. The paint on the Floyd posts is in tact so there doesn't seem to be any evidence of someone tampering with the action. The only damage I see is on the 15th fret, low E side there is a very slight dent in the binding on the fretboard side.
Hardware- The FRS appears new-ish. There is a whitish dust or wax on the threads of the back screws. The volume pot makes a bit of scratch noise when turning. The whammy bar and allen wrenches are in the box like the other Jackson I bought.
Setup- I think the Floyd Roses come with standard intonation pattern, so it is generally correct. The action is cavernous with almost 1.5mm of relief. Action at the 12th fret in the 2.0mm neigborhood. The string alignment is true. Fret edges are smooth, but not as well done as the ones being turned out in Indonesia. Like the JS34 I returned, they chop or file the edges of the frets straight instead of individually forming rounded fret ends. The ends are smoothed, and acceptable, but I don't like this method as it leaves less playable fret length. Obviously I won't know how well the frets are leveled and how fast the neck is until I have adjusted the relief.
Sound- Wow, this is a very resonant guitar, especially for a neck thru! This is a Basswood soloist and I've always had good luck with basswood guitars, and this one does not dissappoint in this area. One of the reasons I wanted a crackle Jackson is that these are Basswood and most of the other SLX and SL3X are Poplar. Downside is this is MIC. Scale shows it is 7lbs 8oz.
Neck/Fingerboard- This is what lets down the guitar. Unfortunately, there is a finish defect on the upper binding. There is a haphazzard line under the clear coat, that runs the length of the fretboard. It appears as if during the fretwork, some of the the clear coat (near the fretboard) was accidentally removed, but they sprayed another clear coat over this to mask the damage. Its either not noticeable or very noticeable depending on lighting. The sides of the board are rounded so it has a nice feel, but this finish defect seems to be a result of that, almost as if they forgot to round the upper edge before clearcoating, rounded it, and clear coated it again. The Laurel fingerboard is light colored and the neck overall has a bit of a cheap feeling to it because of this. The Amaranth fretboard on the JS34 I returned was better than this. It may be that when oiled it will darken/mellow a bit and be much nicer.
Summary- This guitar is a mixed bag. I really like how the finish looks and it is very toneful, but the binding defect has me concerned this is B-stock. I haven't set it up with a proper action or tested tuning stability. If it can get it setup with an amazing action and the Floyd has perfect stability, I may decide to keep it, otherwise it will go back.
I am writing this review to help form my opinions on the guitar as I learn more about it.
Finish- I've had the guitar two hours. Most of that time has been checking it over for damage or issues. The guitar body finish is excellent and nicer than many crackles I've seen listed. The crackle pattern has a nice aesthetic mix of large and small elements. (Some of the other ones I've seen aren't as well balanced and look more like a honeycomb of smaller lines.)
Prior Use- It is an "open box". There aren't any gouges or missing paint on the headstock or body. I don't see any dents, scratches or hazing on the body. The plastic pickup covers are not there and there is a mild bit of dust under the strings between the pickups, so it has been out of the box and in someone's hands. The paint on the Floyd posts is in tact so there doesn't seem to be any evidence of someone tampering with the action. The only damage I see is on the 15th fret, low E side there is a very slight dent in the binding on the fretboard side.
Hardware- The FRS appears new-ish. There is a whitish dust or wax on the threads of the back screws. The volume pot makes a bit of scratch noise when turning. The whammy bar and allen wrenches are in the box like the other Jackson I bought.
Setup- I think the Floyd Roses come with standard intonation pattern, so it is generally correct. The action is cavernous with almost 1.5mm of relief. Action at the 12th fret in the 2.0mm neigborhood. The string alignment is true. Fret edges are smooth, but not as well done as the ones being turned out in Indonesia. Like the JS34 I returned, they chop or file the edges of the frets straight instead of individually forming rounded fret ends. The ends are smoothed, and acceptable, but I don't like this method as it leaves less playable fret length. Obviously I won't know how well the frets are leveled and how fast the neck is until I have adjusted the relief.
Sound- Wow, this is a very resonant guitar, especially for a neck thru! This is a Basswood soloist and I've always had good luck with basswood guitars, and this one does not dissappoint in this area. One of the reasons I wanted a crackle Jackson is that these are Basswood and most of the other SLX and SL3X are Poplar. Downside is this is MIC. Scale shows it is 7lbs 8oz.
Neck/Fingerboard- This is what lets down the guitar. Unfortunately, there is a finish defect on the upper binding. There is a haphazzard line under the clear coat, that runs the length of the fretboard. It appears as if during the fretwork, some of the the clear coat (near the fretboard) was accidentally removed, but they sprayed another clear coat over this to mask the damage. Its either not noticeable or very noticeable depending on lighting. The sides of the board are rounded so it has a nice feel, but this finish defect seems to be a result of that, almost as if they forgot to round the upper edge before clearcoating, rounded it, and clear coated it again. The Laurel fingerboard is light colored and the neck overall has a bit of a cheap feeling to it because of this. The Amaranth fretboard on the JS34 I returned was better than this. It may be that when oiled it will darken/mellow a bit and be much nicer.
Summary- This guitar is a mixed bag. I really like how the finish looks and it is very toneful, but the binding defect has me concerned this is B-stock. I haven't set it up with a proper action or tested tuning stability. If it can get it setup with an amazing action and the Floyd has perfect stability, I may decide to keep it, otherwise it will go back.
beaubrummels
Well-known member
Congrats! Overall seems like a really nice guitar. (Nicer than mine.) The issues cited seem more in the "minor" classification for me. I'd just rock it and enjoy it.
Review (Part 2) -This guitar is garbage.
Remember how I said the action was incredibly high and there is a ton of relief? The neck seems to have some twist to it. When relief on the bass side is set to normal (.25-.5mm), the treble side has back bow. Trying to get anything close to a reasonable action, the high strings sitar and fret out around the 11th fret.
Sighting down the treble side of the neck, there is a hump around the 11th fret.
It might be possible to fix this with a level, but the thing that has me concerned is that the truss is fully relaxed in this position. I had another guitar that had its best action with the truss not profiding much force, and it was not a stable neck.
This one is going back, for sure.
I think I'm going to give up on Chinese made Jacksons. This has to be B-stock or worse.
The Indonesian X ones might be OK. (The Indonesion "Pro" ones don't have sharkfins.) Or maybe I just need to order a FOB (fresh off boat) guitar that hasn't been bouncing around the return cycle.
Remember how I said the action was incredibly high and there is a ton of relief? The neck seems to have some twist to it. When relief on the bass side is set to normal (.25-.5mm), the treble side has back bow. Trying to get anything close to a reasonable action, the high strings sitar and fret out around the 11th fret.
Sighting down the treble side of the neck, there is a hump around the 11th fret.
It might be possible to fix this with a level, but the thing that has me concerned is that the truss is fully relaxed in this position. I had another guitar that had its best action with the truss not profiding much force, and it was not a stable neck.
This one is going back, for sure.
I think I'm going to give up on Chinese made Jacksons. This has to be B-stock or worse.
The Indonesian X ones might be OK. (The Indonesion "Pro" ones don't have sharkfins.) Or maybe I just need to order a FOB (fresh off boat) guitar that hasn't been bouncing around the return cycle.
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Thanks for being kind and trying to put my mind at ease, but the neck on this guitar is junk.
I honestly cannot believe this is a $900 msrp guitar.
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Rex_Rocker
Well-known member
That finish looks killer, but that fretboard doesn't.
Too bad about the neck.
Too bad about the neck.
This was an open box from ProAudioStar.
I bought two new guitars from them a couple years ago. One was perfect, the other just needed some spot leveling.
That finish looks killer, but that fretboard doesn't.
Too bad about the neck.
Its tragic. They use a nice ebony substitute (amaranth) on their $300 guitars, but they use this light colored Laurel on the mid-tier models, which makes them worse.
And the neck profile is horrible. Hump around the 11th fret on treble side.
If the guitar was otherwise perfect, I would look into dying the wood to a darker shade.
Rex_Rocker
Well-known member
I had good luck with Laurel on my Epi or Pau Ferro on my old LTD, but yeah. Most people seem to get really pale sickly looking pieces.
Some more thoughts on this guitar.
- The neck has a "D" profile with rolled edges. Not my favorite, but ok.
- The binding defect could be just a really bad job of masking the frets and fretboard when they sprayed the neck. Or it could be a finish crack. How could they let that get out of the factory?
- I measured the board to see what is going on. With 1mm of relief of the bass side, I don't detect anything odd. Nice gradual relief along the length. On the treble side, the fretboard has a hump centered around the 11th fret that is about .3-.5mm(?). This doesn't sound like alot, but it has a very bad effect on the action. This leads me to believe that these guitars are not leveled from the factory.
- Laurel fingerboard. Why? If you want a dark board with Sharkfin inlays, you spend $300 for an entry level, or 3K for an American.
I have Pao Ferro on a LTD, which isn't as nice as Ebony or Rosewood, but its uniformly dark and I would take it any day over this.
beaubrummels
Well-known member
That's interesting. My Indonesian SL3X is Poplar body / Laurel fretboard but it's kind of "Rosewood-dark-ish" to my eye. Are there different species of Laurel? Or do they stain some of them? Wonder if there's a treatment that would darken it up (without messing up the inlays or anything around it)? Mine was a $699-level guitar, but I got it used (someone put a kill-switch tone in it and changed the knobs).
Rex_Rocker
Well-known member
I'd take a nice dark piece of Pau Ferro over Ebony, personally.
I've never had a fancy guitar with an Ebony board like a PRS or a Custom shop Jackson or ESP. But I've had four mid-level guitars with ebony boards. Two of them developed cracks, and it wasn't for lack maintainance, I assure you. I oil my guitars' fretboards every 2 or 3 string changes.
I also had an Epi LPC which was fine, but I didn't keep it for long either. And a Chapman Scallon that was fine too, but it was really brown and streaky. At that point, I'd much rather have a nicer Rosewood board, personally.
Rosewood is my preference. All of my best-sounding guitars have had rosewood boards. But Pau Ferro is fine. Same as Laurel. As long as they're not horribly pale and unhealthy-looking. Ebony looks pretty, but sounds (and actually is) brittle. Then again, I've never felt like a high-end piece of Ebony.
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