Jackson Guitars.

[Rex_Rocker]

For metal, I've never found a light weight/bright tone to be an issue. The cheaper a guitar feels, the more I tend to like it (I don't like gigging with a guitar that is/feels expensive) and rely on the pickups for the tone. Especially if it's just a solid color (usually gloss black in my case), poplar/basswood are fine.

John Petrucci's Ibanez in his Rock Discipline video was made of basswood. He says so at the end of the video.

So are EVH's guitars and many Suhrs, but I'm sure they don't use the same basswood on the super expensive stuff as on the inexpensive stuff.

I remember they made a fuss about the basswood they were using on the Ibanez Premiums at first. I used to have an Ibanez Premium that was pretty good.

 

[Top-L]

For metal, I've never found a light weight/bright tone to be an issue. The cheaper a guitar feels, the more I tend to like it (I don't like gigging with a guitar that is/feels expensive) and rely on the pickups for the tone. Especially if it's just a solid color (usually gloss black in my case), poplar/basswood are fine.

John Petrucci's Ibanez in his Rock Discipline video was made of basswood. He says so at the end of the video.

Basswood is a great wood, I love basswood. Basswood guitars are every bit as substantial as alder.

Poplar is alot lighter. I don't have experience with the plugged tone of the JS Soloist I had here, but it was around 5 pounds in weight and felt toy like.

 

[Inflames626]

Basswood is a great wood, I love basswood. Basswood guitars are every bit as substantial as alder.

Poplar is alot lighter. I don't have experience with the plugged tone of the JS Soloist I had here, but it was around 5 pounds in weight and felt toy like.

I didn't even know the Soloist had a JS variant. When I was keeping up with Jackson in the 90s and 00s you had to shell out at least $1000-2000 to get a Soloist, mainly because it was a thru neck.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I don't think Poplar itself is a bad wood. My point comparing it to Poplar to Basswood is that I'm sure there are "better" and "worse" grades of Poplar. My point is that an average to bad JS is probably not good because it gets a Poplar body, but because the Poplar (which is already an inexpensive wood in itself) they use is dependant on the price point they're building them at.

Honestly at that price point, finding any guitar brand/line that is not a gamble is going to be hard.

Not to say there aren't good examples out there, though, if you look hard enough.

But honestly, at that price point, it's going to be hard to find a guitar with a trem that's... durable and reliable in the long run. That's going to make the hunt harder for sure. Especially because a large part of the budget they use to build those guitars is going to a trem that isn't the best.

 

[Mincer]

Poplar is a great wood, but it isn't nearly as soft or light as basswood. My poplar Music Man also is super mid-heavy, so I need super scooped pickups to balance that out (a Jazz & a C5).

 

[Lucius Paisley]

I have an old Indian made Dinky from the 00s that uses an unusual Floyd licensed design that holds the strings in the bridge by the ball end inside hollow tubes where the saddle bolts would be.

My Ibanez RG270 has the same bridge design called the SLT101, "Single Locking Tremolo". Locks at the nut, but the strings are thread through tubed saddles at the bridge. It's got a single EMG in the bridge that I need to get rewired to volume only. It also needs new tuners.

A shame it's not left-handed. I'm thinking of swapping some stuff over to a JemJr, which IS left-handed. But then I don't have the upside-down headstock.

Decisions, decisions.

 

[Inflames626]

My Ibanez RG270 has the same bridge design called the SLT101, "Single Locking Tremolo". Locks at the nut, but the strings are thread through tubed saddles at the bridge. It's got a single EMG in the bridge that I need to get rewired to volume only. It also needs new tuners.

A shame it's not left-handed. I'm thinking of swapping some stuff over to a JemJr, which IS left-handed. But then I don't have the upside-down headstock.

Decisions, decisions.

I think the single locking design needs to be reconsidered, especially with strings with reinforced ball ends. It seems that would put less pressure on the string overall than a locking saddle and the weak point of most licensed floating trems is the zinc saddle blocks they use.

 

[Top-L]

I didn't even know the Soloist had a JS variant. When I was keeping up with Jackson in the 90s and 00s you had to shell out at least $1000-2000 to get a Soloist, mainly because it was a thru neck.

Its not really a soloist because it is bolt on.

Ooops, myh bad. I just checked and it was a dinky.

 

[Lucius Paisley]

I think the single locking design needs to be reconsidered, especially with strings with reinforced ball ends. It seems that would put less pressure on the string overall than a locking saddle and the weak point of most licensed floating trems is the zinc saddle blocks they use.

In a similar fashion, a friend has a Fender Strat with a Mini Floyd Rose bridge.

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He lost the clamps, so he took out the string lock screws and just threads the strings through the back.

I guess with the SLT101, it's harder to ensure that the strings are stable.