New Pro series!

[markD]

HAHAHAHA - yeah, report back on that one, for sure!!!!

[markD]

Man, I'm loving the look of that matte grey Rhoads!

it's growing on me...i think it would be even sweeter if the logo was black, or silver - something to add to the "stealthiness" of that guitar.

[VanHoosen]

yeah, but nothing beats having skills AND a flashy, exclusive guitar that makes people in the crowd go ape-shit....having a special instrument helps with the image when playing rockstar.

Yeah, but let's see you light that thing on fire and smash it at the end of the set.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the $3k+ guitars out there. I'm hard on gear and know that no matter the quality, I'm going to beat the thing up in a couple years and be in the market for a new one, so the price point on those is not that appealing to me. For me, guitars are nothing but tools. I'm interested in durability and playability more than artistic craftsmanship. There is no "Holy Grail" of guitars. It's all in your fingers and in your head.

[Nightbat]

No, you didn't hit a bullseye, you completely missed the mark and hit someone else's target. If you've ever been to a rifle range, you'd know that is an embarrassment.

I'll explain a little of what I meant.

No need because I understood you from the first post

Dude, I don't want to see US Jacksons in the unobtainable market. I'm the guy saying there aren't enough options available to me, and all my options have been removed.

Let me rephrase that comment in "You never struck me as the person wanting to make Jackson unaffordable"
Because you singled out my comment about accusing 'corksniffers' thinking it was about you; while in no way it wasn't

There is no animosity towards you from my side, it's simply as I stated "settle down", because you're starting to miss context in posts when you're edgy
no need in a bashfest over nothing

[Trem]

For me, guitars are nothing but tools. I'm interested in durability and playability .... There is no "Holy Grail" of guitars. It's all in your fingers and in your head.

You know, for me at least, i have never noticed much what guitar players were playing growing up.
I always craved the Black RR that Randy had in like 1 pic, but never saw him play. I never cared for his White Les Paul at all, or his Polka Dot V really either. I felt it was his personal style/statement, not my style or statement. I used to idolize Jakes white guitar, and when i first saw him play it back in the 80's on tv and recorded it on vhs. I watched that a hundred times and i don't ever remember noticing it had reverse singles in it until seeing them here on this forum. I made a little copy off it out of pine and painted it back then, if i can find a picture of it i would know if i painted in the pickups that way, or if at all. I also made a little EVH frankenstein copy. Other than that, i never payed any attention to the "what" people were playing that much. I think i wanted a Kelly before i saw Marty ever play one. I liked some BC Rich designs like the Warlock Mockingbird and the Stealth of which i think that's was Rick Derringer that designed and played that back then. And i liked the "look" of a White Gibson V because of Wolf Hoffman, but other than that i guess the only guitars i really payed a lot of attention to was Yngwies' strat and Akiras Killers which there was zero info on and hardly any pictures of back then.

Now days i might take more notice of what gear someone is playing live a little more because of the forum influence of reading about this kind of stuff more. But i don't care as much as the music they are producing. I always wanted what i liked personally and I used to draw guitars all day in school I always liked that about Randy, and i wanted my own thing/style no one else had too. So i was more interested having a guitar i designed more than what someone else was playing. I finally began building one with a Carvin neck thru blank i ordered in 93 from a design i had drew up in high school, but never finished it do to lack of tools and i had no clue how i was gonna paint it correctly. It got put away and it's been sitting at my moms for what 19 almost 20 years now wrapped in a blanket in the attic. I need to go over and pull it out and see how bad it is now that i am aware of a lot more. There's things i don't know if i was aware of back then as far as different scale lengths ect and it might be fucked.

Anyway peoples playing was always what i payed attention to most, not what they were playing. Jackson was always an iconic brand due to Randy for me, but when i got my fist one i didn't like it at all as far as the neck felt, or the next one either for that matter. In the last few years i've bought more guitars than i ever owned before in my life, a bunch of Jackson, some Bc Rich, and gotten rid of them all ultimately, partly because i found they weren't what i liked exactly playability wise, and partly financial. I don't need a lot of Stuff in my life. One working item that does what i need is fine for me, or i would be perfectly happy with. So i've still only truly craved what i wanted for my preference, and have still yet to find it since the last guitar i owned that i truly loved an old beat up Fernandes FR.

Anyway i figured when i could play worthy enough or as good as my idols then i'd worry more about nice gear/guitars...Still working on that

Gonna try and find a picture of the Jake white Charvel mockup i made back then and see if i ever even knew or realized it had reversed singles or not, and i might have some pics of that first build too.

[xenophobe]

because you're starting to miss context in posts when you're edgy

You are absolutely correct. Thank you for pointing that out. I am sorry.

[xenophobe]

Just as 86-93 Japanese Charvels and Jacksons are looked at today, I think you will see 05-12 higher end Korean World Guitars and UnSung models looked at in the future. I have bought quite a few of them in the past couple years. Many of these guitars are neck-thru, have EMG's and Original Floyd Rose trems. In the used market, they are the bigtime steal because people haven't figured it out yet.

A couple years from now, people will be posting on these Forums about the gool 'ol days when high quality guitars were made in Korea.

Dude, thanks for your insight. My 7 string Marc Rizzo Stealth arrived today. I'm actually very surprised and quite happy with the quality. Just like you said, the quality is right on par with those early Japanese Pro Jacksons and Model 650xl. If the BC Rich didn't have the "Crafted in Korea" stamped on the headstock, you could have told me it was made at Chushin Gakki and I would have believed you without question. The fretwork is great, the binding is perfect, it sounds great and plays well. I couldn't get the action as low as I wanted (I think it's more due to tolerances designed for 7 string than anything else) and I needed to shim the nut and I still need to readjust and fine tune the truss, but it set up easily. Quality is definitely on-par with Chushin Gakki. Quite frankly it makes my DX1 look like rubbish. I found a few wood lines where the body was glued together under the paint, but I couldn't find any real flaws. Inlays are done with no visible filler detected. The binding and paint line on the neck up to the binding totally remind me of a Charvel Model 6/650XL.

Anyway, thanks for pushing me in the right direction. I paid $670 shipped, it easily feels like a $1k guitar. So in reality I paid about $200 less for my DX1 and this guitar blows it away in overall quality. There really isn't a comparison. Thanks again, this is really a lot of guitar for the money.

[Trem]

When i had my Stealth 7 i couldn't see hear or feel much difference in quality if at all between it and the 2 RR1 i had at the time. The action came too low for my preference and it had no buzz or anything, i had to raise it. I put a 1 step heavier gauge strings on it, tuned it down a step. That was it. No other adjustments needed, intonation was still good. My biggest gripe was i wish it had extra jumbo frets, and it neck dives but that is expected from that shape, and both were manageable. Loved the neck on it.

[xenophobe]

When i had my Stealth 7 i couldn't see hear or feel much difference in quality if at all between it and the 2 RR1 i had at the time. The action came too low for my preference and it had no buzz or anything, i had to raise it. I put a 1 step heavier gauge strings on it, tuned it down a step. That was it. No other adjustments needed, intonation was still good. My biggest gripe was i wish it had extra jumbo frets, and it neck dives but that is expected from that shape, and both were manageable. Loved the neck on it.

The neck shape is very similar to a neck-thru Charvel Model series in feel, but extended for the 7th string... maybe a little more C shaped than D shaped though. But I've felt Model 6/650XL necks that were round C shaped to D shape. The binding is probably a little thicker or better quality than the Stealth, but from all the model series I've seen, the actual binding work is probably slightly better on the Stealth. I really can't find any flaws and I can't see any seams. Even at the end of the fretboard. After seeing what $500 can get you with a Desolation, it's shocking that $200 more can get you so much better craftsmanship. Build quality is very close to USA Jackson. Very surprising.

I can't get my action really low right now, but I haven't fussed with it much. I just did a quick and dirty setup... there's still a little buzz I'm not happy with, but I'm fairly certain another slight tweak should do it. I'll play around with it a little more... but I'm not sure if I will send it back, my luthier charges about as much for a setup and minor fret level for between $40-$60, which is probably about as much as shipping both ways would cost me to return. Neck dive is no biggie, I use a 1" leather strap that doesn't move and I'm already familiar with using my right wrist to stabilize a neck heavy bass so that's a non-issue for me.

Also, whereas I could not genuinely recommend a Desolation due to their quality vs pricing, I can definitely recommend one of these on that basis.

What I really love about this guitar is that if I were to order a custom Stealth from BC Rich, the only real differences would be that I'd get jumbo frets and it would be a 1 hum. Other than that, no other changes, which is why I bought this instead of waiting a year or two...

[Nightbat]

MY NJ Warlock is the same, I was a little hesitant with the history of BCR imports, I was expecting quality similar to my Epiphone LP Custom (not that good)
but got something that outclassed my MiJ Fusions and Ibanez RG

[gerryl98]

Ya know, about 4 months ago my luthier was telling me that even though production stopped in Japan there was still a cache of MIJ Jacksons yet to be released. I wonder if these are it. If you looks at the MSRP of the new Pro Series, they look comparable to MSRP of the MIJ before they stopped production. I guess it's a wait and see.

[xenophobe]

Ya know, about 4 months ago my luthier was telling me that even though production stopped in Japan there was still a cache of MIJ Jacksons yet to be released. I wonder if these are it. If you looks at the MSRP of the new Pro Series, they look comparable to MSRP of the MIJ before they stopped production. I guess it's a wait and see.

The new MIM or MII Jacksons have taken over the old MIJ price point. That much is already known. It would be nice if there were more new MIJ models made, but the factory was closed down at the beginning of the year, so everything that's out now is probably already known.

[Hellbat]

I believe the "Elite" pro series were the Chushin Gakki swan song.

[markD]

+ 1 - that was my understanding....

[lepard]

Dude, thanks for your insight. My 7 string Marc Rizzo Stealth arrived today. I'm actually very surprised and quite happy with the quality. Just like you said, the quality is right on par with those early Japanese Pro Jacksons and Model 650xl. If the BC Rich didn't have the "Crafted in Korea" stamped on the headstock, you could have told me it was made at Chushin Gakki and I would have believed you without question. The fretwork is great, the binding is perfect, it sounds great and plays well. I couldn't get the action as low as I wanted (I think it's more due to tolerances designed for 7 string than anything else) and I needed to shim the nut and I still need to readjust and fine tune the truss, but it set up easily. Quality is definitely on-par with Chushin Gakki. Quite frankly it makes my DX1 look like rubbish. I found a few wood lines where the body was glued together under the paint, but I couldn't find any real flaws. Inlays are done with no visible filler detected. The binding and paint line on the neck up to the binding totally remind me of a Charvel Model 6/650XL.

Anyway, thanks for pushing me in the right direction. I paid $670 shipped, it easily feels like a $1k guitar. So in reality I paid about $200 less for my DX1 and this guitar blows it away in overall quality. There really isn't a comparison. Thanks again, this is really a lot of guitar for the money.

Cool, glad to hear. I can show you guitars on the used market for crazy low prices that are just as good or better. Seriously, people just have no clue who is building these guitars and which ones are the serious bang for the buck. I sware companies like ESP/LTD, Dean, Schecter and Kramer have built the same guitars for the past 10 years, first in Korea at World Guitars or UnSung, then Indonesia at Cort and then at some place in China. The kids buying these things have no clue that the guitars made 3-4 years ago in Korea are much, much better instruments.