New Pro series!

[dr.distortion]

They are all great looking guitars. Yep, all that neck-thru Pro Jacksons are made in Indonesia. But as for me, I like new X series, so I'm pretty sure this guitars are cool too.

From the other hand, Dinkys are made in Mexico. In some reasons, they can't make neck-thru Jacksons there, but in some future all pro series should be produced in Mexico

[DarkkWarriorr]

They are all great looking guitars. Yep, all that neck-thru Pro Jacksons are made in Indonesia. But as for me, I like new X series, so I'm pretty sure this guitars are cool too.

From the other hand, Dinkys are made in Mexico. In some reasons, they can't make neck-thru Jacksons there, but in some future all pro series should be produced in Mexico

So the initial rumor has some merits. Any sources to confirm it, like a dealer or a Fender/Jackson representative? Thanks again.

[Trem]

Random, but i went into Guitar Center today kinda half wondering if they had any of the new Jackson Sevens. Of course they didn't, when i asked, didn't sound like they will either.

So i decided since there have been people venting on guitars being made overseas and quality of brand ect, that i would try out one of everything within reach that they had on the floor/walls.

First almost every guitar in the place was either made in Korea or China, ect for the obvious Gibsons ( which looked like it made up half of their inventory - there must have been a dozen SG's (Really)), a few Fenders, a few Musicmans and some PRS, though even PRS have Korean models now.

There were 4 Jacksons. 2 Js models, one of the shurken inlay models that was trashed and sitting behind a bunch of other crap a another .. ( more on that later).

So most of their inventory was like i said Gibsons, and Fender, they had quite a few PRS actually, and a handful of Musicmans. Everything else was like Ibanez Gio's, like 2 nice Ibanez saber, one of the new Ibanez Rg's that look like the style Jackson ripped from them on the new Pro series...it was high up, i forgot i should have grabbed that one and tried it.. A bunch of Deans...Schecters a few BC rich, and a few LTDs, Oh and some squires.

I grabbed most of them up and twanged on them a bit - every one of them out of tune and setups were ...there were no setups, lol.

I checked the quality of build on each of them and took mental notes on each.

The music mans were well built, no sharp fret edges, all the details were pretty quality - i suppose i expected that, and anyone should for their prices. I don't like the guitars personally, style wise, the necks are average, no real kind of "that's a music man neck", just average and the frets were mostly small, meh, nice guitars with quality you would expect for the price.

Moving on, The Gibsons were hit and miss, some felt ok, details were ok, and some were sloppy, ...i am not a good judge here and it's hard to be objective as i have no interest in Gibson and never have, Les Pauls do nothing for me, SG's are ok, V's are cool if someone else is playing it. I just never though much of Gibson, in fact i pretty much just dislike them altogether.

Moving on, The LTDs they had were pretty meh, there were some 300fm series, they actually had an Alexi model, which i have never seen in person so grabbed that first. Sharp fret edged across the board - ugly ass guitar. I once played a KH202 that i thought had a great neck on it, so i grabbed one of the ones they had - this one was crap, musta been a fluke one i played before.

Moving on i picked up a Dave Mustaine Dean, flipped it about sighted the neck twanged it a bit and put it down almost instantly, then i went to grab another one next to it, the same thing, absolute terrible Junk. I literally wouldn't take one for free.

Played a American strat and a Mexican strat - one was over a thousand dollars the other like 600 or something. No noticeable difference, both ok..felt like strats, one did not feel like it was built with any more care than the one that was half it's price.

Picked up the Shuriken model Jackson i mentioned, has a Cedro body i believe and a fender like standard tremolo. Actually not horrible, the neck was like the JS series -thicker for jackson, the guitar rang out and sustained very well, even out of tune with the strings somehwhat floppy. So far this was the best sounding feeling cheapo guitar that i picked up so far...liked it better than the Gibsons lol. The neck was nice feeling, Indian Cedro doesn't sound too bad, at least on this one, i think it sounds better than a lot of basswood on first impression.

So all of a sudden that kinda beat to shit Shuriken model was what i was using as a standard, oddly enough. (cheapo guitar standard) The LTDs were close by the Shuriken, so i brought them right next to each other and closely compared them. The LTD have smaller frets, they are not a big Jumbo, more like medium, and i swear they advertise them with xtra Jumbo frets, i know i've seen it before, but they are not. Quite a bit smaller than the Jackson actually. These were not that impressive, they were better than the Schecters and Deans i suppose. Not impressed.

One of the LTD a 300fm quilt carve top had been dropped and had a piece of the top actually curling up. For anyone who didn't know, your maple top on these and most likely any Jackson or anything else in the cheapo range is as thin as a piece of paper - probably thinner than a piece of paper actually. It's the same as some shitty graphic such as on the Dean Megadeth album cover series. Probably can see through it if you held it to the light.

The Ibanez sabers were too high up to grab, i could see them well enough, they looked quality, i don't really have any doubt that they were typical Ibanez fare, which is usually pretty decent.
Honestly i don't think i've played an Ibanez that wasn't pretty fit for it's price range - except for a GIO ( they had a lot of them too, lol)

Moving on, the 2 JS series Jacksons were , well, pretty ok for their price range. Even with the rage that a lot of us may feel about everything going to China or Korea or whatever, these guitars probably should be a top consideration for like any parent getting their kid a starter axe. Easily i could play one of those as a couch guitar all day long myself. These too are Indian Cedro i believe yeah?

Moving on to at least what made the trip bearable..

The BC Richs....er Riches....um The BC Rich guitars. The two mockingbirds. Made in Korea ( they actually specified "Made Proudly in South Korea" , lol, as if anyone was confused they were made in N Korea. ) These guitars looked nice on the stand. Shiny, nice quilts on the tops, nice lines, lot's of switches ( oooh switches, lol ), but hey you know what? These were easily two of the nicest built and playing guitars in the store of any price range that i picked up. Very Very nice pro series type guitar with real floyds on them, not Floyd specials. I actually didn't look at the price, but anyway, if they were at 1200$ they were worth it compared to everything else. Very impressed, and actually goes in hand with the 2 Bc riches i had that were MIK. Solid built ( very nice fret work) and excellent sounding guitars. From my experience BC rich is probably making some of the finest mid range guitars today. I don't know why i was so seemingly shocked by them, i guess cause overall i was pretty non impressed so far.

Did i mention that the Deans and the Schecters sucked?....

Ok
Lastly, the Gem in the store.
I found this 90's Jackson Dinky Rev with maple board and offset black dots, all dusty, with corroded frets, yellowed neck, broken string with a Charvel Schaller on it behind a bunch of other dusty Junk.
It was literally hidden behind some shit guitars i could have stomped on to get to it and it probably wouldn't have mattered to anyone in the store or Universe for that matter. Hmmn, I wonder now if someone was hiding it..

Anyway I said, (to myself).. say now(self), what's this here, hmmn. I picked up this poor bastard, now nearing 20 years old i guess and looked closely at the fretwork and total build quality. Quality pretty obvious.. Rolled edges smooth as babys ass fret edges, i don't even have to say, you all know, the quality of build was obvious even under all that dust. I have a good mind to go back and rescue that thing, dunno, i already have too many maple boarded guitars.

Anyway to sum it up - when i left the store besides the BC Rich ezes that i picked up and that Dinky ( which i guess was in my mind the point of all this , comparing shit made today against the past) most everything else was bottom line Junk, or absolute Junk compared to decades past. And in all honesty I mean JUNK. Not considering the Musicmans, and the American made PRS here. But the Korean PRS single cuts were Junk too, and i thought they might stand out, nope.

I basically still walked out of the store thinking man what a bunch of Junk overall and had a sinking feeling in my stomach about the quality and direction of the world and new product, from a new microwave to a cock and ball valve for your toilet seems almost everything is JUNK being made today.




Well Daamn, that's probably TLDR for sure, i din't realize. Well i'm not deleting it now so fuck it. Hope it hurts your eyes or something cool.




Where that guy flying out of the cannon....RON! Pic Plx.

[xenophobe]

...it's going to get really hairy in the Jackson aftermarket with all the junk floating around. Know your product! lol

I already can't differentiate between all the different crap they have put out.

When I started worshiping the brand, ALL Charvels and Jacksons were all made in America and I couldn't afford them. I worshipped them in my guitar mags and heavy metal mags and when I got to see them on stage. Then they moved the Charvel name to Japan and then I got my first Charvel a Model 3A and the quality was awesome. A couple of years later I bought a 3DR when they first came out, and the quality was awesome. All Jacksons were still USA only, and all of them were still out of my price reach. Fast forward to being an adult and finally being able to afford nice toys, I went and I bought so many, resold a bunch and found a few that were absolutely amazing. Now I have to wade online through piles of garbage just to see one or two that are nice.

When I used to go to a music store, if I saw a pointy headstock with the Jackson or Charvel logo, I knew exactly what I was looking at from across the whole room, and if you saw a Jackson logo, you knew it was probably something special and you could see it from the other end of the music store showroom. Now you have to take time to specifically look, because if it has the Jackson or Charvel logo, it's probably kinda crappy instead of a nice, mid-to-high grade USA guitar, which gets lost amongst the mud.

But that's ok, I've found nicer quality in guitars from other makers. I'm really liking the high end Fenders and ESP at the moment. Though I am looking for another new brand that will inspire my parting with cash as Jackson used to have. ESP was neck-and-neck with Jackson in both popularity and overall quality back in the 90's. ESP has won the war against Jackson. If you see an ESP logo, you know you're almost positively seeing a Japanese guitar (there are only a few exceptions), and you know it's either their Select production series or a custom and even if you don't like them, you know that the build quality will be there.

I still love the Jackson brand enough to have placed TWO custom orders this month, but as has been said, this isn't the company I fell in love with all those years ago.



EDIT:

And I wanted to say, it took 5 or 6 years of dedicated searching to find two of my top 3 best playing Jacksons, out of the 60-70 USA and MIJ I've owned (mostly USA), most of them just plain models with nothing particularly unique about most of them, and playing everything at a handful of music stores over that time... In the last two months of buying non-Jackson guitars, I've found two that sound better and play just as well as my #2 all time best mojo Jackson and another possible 2, but I won't know until I get them back from the luthier.

Anyway, I've found that I really do notice the difference between more expensive guitars, so I'm justified in spending the extra money. But to those that don't, good on you. Ignorance really is bliss.

[beachjammer]

Although I'm usually a USA or Japan guy when it comes to guitars I took a chance on ordering one of the new X Series 7 string soloists and I've been very impressed with the quality and tone of the guitar. I don't regret the purchase in the least. I think that some of these over-seas builds are getting better. I'd still prefer they be made in USA but I wouldn't have been able to afford it if it was made in USA. Just throwing the info out there that, coming from an actual owner of one of these new Indian Jacksons, they're pretty darn sweet.

[Morgray]

OFR instead of Floyd Rose Special!

These are NOT Original Floyd Roses on these guitars, see the beveled back edges of the saddles, and the ridged stringlock bolts...these are the Floyd Rose 1000 or 2000, I'm not sure. I think its the one Ping ghostbuilds in China. Definitely NOT made in Germany though...and don't even get me started on THAT. I think that is an absolutely dispicable and disgusting marketing deception and the people behind that should be ashamed of themselves.

Also, Vigier has been making necks with carbon fiber cores instead of truss rods for years and they rock, but I doubt these factories will be able to pull it off as well as they do.

[lepard]

Moving on to at least what made the trip bearable..

The BC Richs....er Riches....um The BC Rich guitars. The two mockingbirds. Made in Korea ( they actually specified "Made Proudly in South Korea" , lol, as if anyone was confused they were made in N Korea. ) These guitars looked nice on the stand. Shiny, nice quilts on the tops, nice lines, lot's of switches ( oooh switches, lol ), but hey you know what? These were easily two of the nicest built and playing guitars in the store of any price range that i picked up. Very Very nice pro series type guitar with real floyds on them, not Floyd specials. I actually didn't look at the price, but anyway, if they were at 1200$ they were worth it compared to everything else. Very impressed, and actually goes in hand with the 2 Bc riches i had that were MIK. Solid built ( very nice fret work) and excellent sounding guitars. From my experience BC rich is probably making some of the finest mid range guitars today. I don't know why i was so seemingly shocked by them, i guess cause overall i was pretty non impressed so far.

We were discussing this subject in the "Guitars by Other Manufacturers" Forum. When looking at import guitars, you really need to be looking at the actual foreign factory that made the guitars, not the name on the headstock. All the guitar companies use the same Korean, Indonesian, Chinese, etc. manufacturers.

What we have come to find is that anything made by World Guitars in Korea is a high quality guitar, probably the highest quality import outside of Japan. These guitars are all made in South Korea and most have "E" serial numbers. Those BC Rich's are made by World Guitars in South Korea and do have E Serial Numbers. Guitar Center actually had those guitars on sale for $599 during their Labor Day Sale a few weeks ago. World guitars used to make the higher end Schecters, LTD's, Dean's, etc. Schecter, LTD, Dean and pretty much everyone else has been moving their guitars away from Korea to Indonesia and China over the past few years. The same high quality Korean World Guitars E-serial numbered neck-thru Schecter or LTD from a few years ago is now made in Indonesia or China.

In fact, I don't know of much being made by World Guitars anymore. The Korean BC Rich's and the Korean DBZ's are all high quality World Guitars builds.

The other high quality Korean manufacturer is UnSung. Dean still has a few higher end imports made by UnSung Korea with "US" serial numbers. Give me a few days for delivery and I will show you a super high quality neck-thru solid-mahogany with quilt top, USA pickups and Korean OFR 1000 trem'd guitar than I picked up for $181 on eBay. If you know what you're looking for, there are some great guitar deals out there as most people have no clue what shop is actually building these guitars.

I can give you so many examples where companies like LTD, Schecter, Kramer, Dean, etc. built a model in Korean one year, moved it to Indonesia for a couple years and then moved the exact same model to China 2 years later. They may all 3 look the same from 6 ft away but one will be high quality, 1 mehhhhh and 1 really poor. Here's a perfect example. Have you ever seen one of the Kramer "Customs" ? They only made them for a few years. The first year or so was made in Korea by UnSung(Made in Korea, U Serial Number). They look like this, I have this model in trans-red:



They were basically the exact same Korean guitar that LTD was selling for much more:



After a year or two, Kramer moved production of these to Indonesia and quality declined bigtime. A year or two later, Kramer moved these to China. All 3 bring about the same money on eBay but the Korean ones are WAY ! better than the Indonesian and Chinese models.

[lepard]

These are NOT Original Floyd Roses on these guitars, see the beveled back edges of the saddles, and the ridged stringlock bolts...these are the Floyd Rose 1000 or 2000, I'm not sure. I think its the one Ping ghostbuilds in China. Definitely NOT made in Germany though...and don't even get me started on THAT. I think that is an absolutely dispicable and disgusting marketing deception and the people behind that should be ashamed of themselves.

Also, Vigier has been making necks with carbon fiber cores instead of truss rods for years and they rock, but I doubt these factories will be able to pull it off as well as they do.

Actually, they are real Original Floyd Rose trems. Floyd Rose has made a real mess of these things and confused everyone. Now it's pretty much settled out and there are 3 versions:

1. Original Floyd Rose made in Germany by Schaller
2. Original Floyd Rose 1000/2000 Series made in Korea (used to have the beveled edge on the saddles and now they don't which makes things even more confusing).
3. Floyd Rose Special made of inferior parts. Floyd Rose's website claims they are make in Korea but I really think they are made in China.

[Maiden89]

I'm with xenophobe. Jackson's were the holy grail of guitars for me. I used to fantasize of owning them, because they were out of my price range. I knew that when I got enough money I wouldn't have to worry about the quality; It's a fucking Jackson!

I used to see old 80's metal videos and guitar magazines of ratt with their Jackson's and Randy Rhoads with his V. When I walked into a music store the first thing I would look for were Jackson guitars. It didn't matter which one I picked up, because most of them were Japanese and they were all bad ass.

Now it's kind of hit or miss with all the cheap entry level stuff they are throwing out. Good thing there's plenty of used MIJ and MIA Jacksons to choose from...

[Rich#6]

we are all complaining about J/C and what THEY have done wrong, name another brand that hasn't done the same thing. the good ole days are long gone.

[pro-fusion]

I basically still walked out of the store thinking man what a bunch of Junk overall and had a sinking feeling in my stomach about the quality and direction of the world and new product, from a new microwave to a cock and ball valve for your toilet seems almost everything is JUNK being made today.

I have the same exact experience every time I go to Guitar Center nowadays. I head straight for the used guitars and rarely ever veer over to look at the new guitars. It's all a bunch of Chinese & Indonesian crap nowadays. Schecter was making some good guitars in Korea, with the fret finishing work being done in the USA shop--that appears to be a thing of the past, as the newer Schecters I've played have almost all been garbage.

I haven't bothered with the BC Riches, as I'm forever comparing them to the old USA guitars from the '80s.

Yeah, it's depressing to see what's become of Jackson lately. I too used to get excited when I'd see *that* headstock in a store. It was probably inevitable they'd join the Schecter/LTD crowd eventually, but I appreciate that they kept the Japanese quality instruments coming as long as they did. My SLXT is a fun guitar that I got for cheap, but it's nowhere near what Chushin Gakki was producing.

[lepard]

we are all complaining about J/C and what THEY have done wrong, name another brand that hasn't done the same thing. the good ole days are long gone.

Yep, you are absolutely right. At lease before now, Jackson USA and Japan guitars were built by exclusive Jackson shops. You were truly buying a unique "Jackson", not some cookie-cutter import with a Jackson name applied while the exact same model with a tiny tweak or two hangs next to the "Jackson" at Guitar Center with an LTD or Schecter logo. You really said it when you said "the good ole days" as now the only way to get a real Jackson made by a real Jackson shop is Jackson USA. The Indonesian shop that is making these new Jackson Pro Series guitars is the same shop that is making some of the new Ibanez RG's. This is how you get new neck bolt patterns, differently shaped control cavities and 12th fret dot spacing. It's no long a real "Jackson", just a shared line with Ibanez and who knows who.

[Morgray]

Actually, they are real Original Floyd Rose trems. Floyd Rose has made a real mess of these things and confused everyone. Now it's pretty much settled out and there are 3 versions:

1. Original Floyd Rose made in Germany by Schaller
2. Original Floyd Rose 1000/2000 Series made in Korea (used to have the beveled edge on the saddles and now they don't which makes things even more confusing).
3. Floyd Rose Special made of inferior parts. Floyd Rose's website claims they are make in Korea but I really think they are made in China.

I know all about this, but to me and many others, a real OFR is the german one and I have no interest on having anything else on my guitars...the import ones on the pro mods...not even close to the same level of craftsmanship as a Schaller build. They are lower quality and much cheaper and that's the only reason you see them on these cheaper guitars. I will admit they are probably better than most of the other asian made licensed Floyd Roses though. But they just haaaad to go making it look as 100% identical to the real german OFR as possible, and that is the disgusting part. They could easily stamp a 1000 or 2000 into it just like they stamped Special into the floyd rose special but no. I already have friends who have bought 1000s that were sold used market as OFRs because they didn't know any better.

[lepard]

I know all about this, but to me and many others, a real OFR is the german one and I have no interest on having anything else on my guitars...the import ones on the pro mods...not even close to the same level of craftsmanship as a Schaller build. They are lower quality and much cheaper and that's the only reason you see them on these cheaper guitars. I will admit they are probably better than most of the other asian made licensed Floyd Roses though. But they just haaaad to go making it look as 100% identical to the real german OFR as possible, and that is the disgusting part. They could easily stamp a 1000 or 2000 into it just like they stamped Special into the floyd rose special but no. I already have friends who have bought 1000s that were sold used market as OFRs because they didn't know any better.

LOL, there's a reason for this. You see, Floyd Rose himself had a whole bunch of different patents on different parts and designs on the Floyd Rose Original trem. He would only license out a few of those patents to the companies making "Licensed By" Floyds. Therefore, the "Liscensed By" trems could never be as good as Floyd's "Original". His 25 or 30 year patents have all expired now and so he decided to try to keep a step ahead of the other companies and that's why he made these new models look just like the real thing. Since he no longer has exclusive patents to protect himself, he figured he would go ahead and build cheaper models. If he could make them look just the "Original" and have "Floyd Rose" stamped on them just like the "Original", he could corner the market.

[Morgray]

LOL, there's a reason for this. You see, Floyd Rose himself had a whole bunch of different patents on different parts and designs on the Floyd Rose Original trem. He would only license out a few of those patents to the companies making "Licensed By" Floyds. Therefore, the "Liscensed By" trems could never be as good as Floyd's "Original". His 25 or 30 year patents have all expired now and so he decided to try to keep a step ahead of the other companies and that's why he made these new models look just like the real thing. Since he no longer has exclusive patents to protect himself, he figured he would go ahead and build cheaper models. If he could make them look just the "Original" and have "Floyd Rose" stamped on them just like the "Original", he could corner the market.

I wouldn't say that the licensed ones weren't as good because of design reasons...and there have been plenty of licensed floyd rose tremolos that rocked and can compete with the original...the Gotoh, the Schaller, the Kahler Steeler and even Spyder...I think even Ping was making tremolos basically on par with all of these new imported authentic Floyd Rose tremolos before. But yeah, I know what you mean and its a totally cool idea. I just think it is plain deceptive the way they are doing it though, and some companies don't even specify which tremolo it is, the specs just say "Original Floyd Rose"...that could be the one that is built in Germany to the highest quality which is actually worth a bit of money, or it could be the cheap OEM asian ones that aren't worth 1/4 as much. There's nothing wrong with them using and making those tremolos, actually they're definitely an improvement on most of the other non-german floyd rose's that you'd find on guitars in this price range, but if they were a little more forward about it that would be nice.

Sorry for the thread hijack, lets put this to rest. Point: These guitars don't have German Floyd Roses and I'm not sure how much of a real upgrade the 1000 and 2000 are from the special.