Whoa! Jackson 30th Anniversary Soloist

[Hairmail]

This is what Jackson says about it:

New for 2014, Jackson commemorates 30 years of sonic mayhem with the 30th Anniversary Soloist. This master-built limited-run homage to the godfather of high-performance guitars is the perfect combination of past and present, with features that evoke the Soloist’s debut year of 1984 and contemporary Jackson design elements.

Hand-built by longtime Jackson Master Builder Mike Shannon, the 30th Anniversary Soloist is armed with a poplar body and a three-piece quartersawn through-body maple neck with original-era “old skool” neck joint. Other fearsome features include a compound-radius ebony fingerboard with 24 frets and mother-of-pearl inlays, EMG® SA1 active single-coil neck and middle pickups, EMG® 81 active humbucking bridge pickup, three mini pickup-selector switches, top-mounted vintage-style “1984” Floyd Rose® bridge and more. Available in original Gloss Black, Ivory, Ferrari Red, Pink and Yellow finishes, and includes commemorative 30th Anniversary Soloist hard-shell case.

Body Material: Poplar
Pickups: EMG 81 (Bridge), EMG SA1 (Middle/Neck)
Neck Material: 3-Piece Quartersawn Maple
Neck Joint: “Old Skool” Thru-Neck
Bridge: Floyd Rose® Vintage 1984 Bridge


I'd love one of these. Its my ideal soloist, HSS with a couple of interesting switching options, floyd and shark inlays, I don't even mind the active pickups. Too bad its probably gonna cost a million-bazillion dollars and they're probably only going to make 1984 examples cause that's what they normally do during anniversaries.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Whoa! Jackson 30th Anniversary Soloist

How long would it take Mike Shannon to build 1,984 of them?

 

[LReese]

Re: Whoa! Jackson 30th Anniversary Soloist

That's sharp. The shark tooth inlays are a little much for me though. I really like the bound dot fingerboards they used to do.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Whoa! Jackson 30th Anniversary Soloist

Those are shark fins.

These are shark tooth inlays, as seen on an Ibanez:

 

[kramersteen]

Re: Whoa! Jackson 30th Anniversary Soloist

Now thats my sort of guitar.. So nice.

 

[Aasinsilta]

Re: Whoa! Jackson 30th Anniversary Soloist

Such a beauty, such a fortune. They should have introduced similar model to the one of the import lines this year, at least in terms of the pickup configuration. Since the DK2 left no imports have the HSS setup, it's all HH.

 

[Hairmail]

Re: Whoa! Jackson 30th Anniversary Soloist

Limited to 30 pieces globally, now I'll never get one.

 

[Ashurbanipal]

Re: Whoa! Jackson 30th Anniversary Soloist

Hm, don't care for EMGs and separate switch for each pu but it's period correct so...

Still cool nevertheless. Big + for top mounted Floyd.

 

[LReese]

Re: Whoa! Jackson 30th Anniversary Soloist

As I recall, Jacksons back then were custom order.

Mine came stock with the 3 mini toggles and Seymour SSL-1's.

 

[Jeff5]

Re: Whoa! Jackson 30th Anniversary Soloist

Nice! I love my soloist. I can only imagine that a custom shop one would be nothing short of amazing.

 

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: Whoa! Jackson 30th Anniversary Soloist

I'm sure they'll make someone very happy,but too rich for my blood,personally...

Always hated that switching,tho...

.02

 

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: Whoa! Jackson 30th Anniversary Soloist

Does can SA pups keep up with 81s?

IME,they couldn't hang w/an 85...

 

[BloodRose]

Re: Whoa! Jackson 30th Anniversary Soloist

I was excited till I saw emgs..I thought they normally came with duncans back then

 

[jmh151]

Re: Whoa! Jackson 30th Anniversary Soloist

I was excited till I saw emgs..I thought they normally came with duncans back then

Back then they were mostly custom and came with whatever pickups you wanted- my 1989 Soloist came with Bill Lawrence and Jackson pickups.

 

[ErikH]

Re: Whoa! Jackson 30th Anniversary Soloist

I dig that. Would love a custom made Jackson but would have to know what neck profiles are available. Most are too thin for me.

 

[Kosh Naranek]

Re: Whoa! Jackson 30th Anniversary Soloist

The poplar body sides, separate switches for pickups, and original Floyd are SO 80's! Very cool. It's like finding a 30 year old guitar... only it might cost more.

 

[marvelous_seven]

Re: Whoa! Jackson 30th Anniversary Soloist

Has Jackson stopped making their own EMG-look-alike pickups with preamp? I thought that were in their guitars back in 80s when aftermarket pickups just began to emerged. even alexi laiho admitted that his EMG signature pickup and preamp was based on Jackson pickups.

 

[Brian Griffin]

Re: Whoa! Jackson 30th Anniversary Soloist

Floyd Rose without a cavity? NOT!

I can't really see any difference between this Soloist and the one I saw in Musicians Friends catalog back in 1994. Except maybe the pickups and the tremolo.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Whoa! Jackson 30th Anniversary Soloist

I dig that. Would love a custom made Jackson but would have to know what neck profiles are available. Most are too thin for me.

It's worth asking. They have two levels of custom now: Master Built and Custom Select. Custom Select is the more limited of the two; it's basically where you specify a USA Select-level instrument with options from a predefined menu. Master Built it more free-form, where they will do a wider range of options.

 

[marvelous_seven]

Re: Whoa! Jackson 30th Anniversary Soloist

is it true the waiting time for a custom shop jackson is 2+ years since initial order?