Question for those who have ordered from the Jackson Custom Shop

[GuitarSalad]

Is there any kind of price comparison to be done in this situation? I recognize that any CS guitar is going to be expensive, but now that the Custom Shop Select form doesn’t have any pricing on it (which I’m assuming was list pricing), how am I to know that I’m getting a decent price? Should I just send the same specs to two dealers and see who gives the better price?

The reason this is on my mind dates back 20+ years to when I bought my KV-2. As a kid in high school I dreamed about a KV-2 with blue ghost flames for years. I saved every penny I could expecting to pay what Musician’s Friend listed out for in their catalogs. It seemed like a pretty good price since they advertised it well below list price. When I went to the only Jackson dealer in my city, they beat every advertised price by a substantial margin. Sadly, the owner of that shop retired years ago, so I can’t go back there.

Am I being paranoid about getting taken to the cleaners? Can anyone recommend dealers that are good to work with? I’m in AZ, so I’ve already got a call in with Rainbow.

[metalhobo]

I believe pricing is always going to be derived from the pricing that jackson themselves set, but of course different dealers will apply different discounts. the only to do that comparison is probably to reach out to each dealer and ask then what discount they normally apply. i believe as part of the ordering process you may be able to see the actual order form used which has list prices for each option. this is different than the public facing order form you download.

there's also the fact that the list price isn't final until fender rubber stamps it. i think when i ordered mine, in between me getting the quote from the dealer and fender rubber stamping it, something went up by like $100 or so, but the dealer ate that cost.

[groverj3]

Is there any kind of price comparison to be done in this situation? I recognize that any CS guitar is going to be expensive, but now that the Custom Shop Select form doesn’t have any pricing on it (which I’m assuming was list pricing), how am I to know that I’m getting a decent price? Should I just send the same specs to two dealers and see who gives the better price?

The reason this is on my mind dates back 20+ years to when I bought my KV-2. As a kid in high school I dreamed about a KV-2 with blue ghost flames for years. I saved every penny I could expecting to pay what Musician’s Friend listed out for in their catalogs. It seemed like a pretty good price since they advertised it well below list price. When I went to the only Jackson dealer in my city, they beat every advertised price by a substantial margin. Sadly, the owner of that shop retired years ago, so I can’t go back there.

Am I being paranoid about getting taken to the cleaners? Can anyone recommend dealers that are good to work with? I’m in AZ, so I’ve already got a call in with Rainbow.

I ordered my custom select soloist in 2014 from Scott at Rainbow when I was living in Tucson. I can recommend them, but I don't know if they're much of a J/C dealer since Scott passed away (RIP).

I live in the Boston area now and can recommend Matt's Music in Weymouth, MA as well as The Axe Palace in Walpole. Though, the guys at AP are kind of snobs.

Just keep in mind that pricing and wait have gone up quite a lot. The days of Jackson being quicker and faster than say... ESP's/Suhr's custom shop are dead. They're now equivalent in price and longer in wait time. Things were trending that way before COVID but they got slammed with orders over that time, and they have not hired any more people. Expect ~$5k and 3-4 years wait.

[john.w.lawson]

I believe pricing is always going to be derived from the pricing that jackson themselves set, but of course different dealers will apply different discounts. the only to do that comparison is probably to reach out to each dealer and ask then what discount they normally apply. i believe as part of the ordering process you may be able to see the actual order form used which has list prices for each option. this is different than the public facing order form you download.

there's also the fact that the list price isn't final until fender rubber stamps it. i think when i ordered mine, in between me getting the quote from the dealer and fender rubber stamping it, something went up by like $100 or so, but the dealer ate that cost.

Love you

[Nidec]

I ordered mine back in 2011, and I went with Matt's Music over at MA. As far as I know, the custom shop quotes you with the MSRP and the dealer as some kind of discretion to knock off the price from the MSRP to the customer. So, Matt didn't charge me full MSRP, but at some lowered price.

Mine took about 18 months, from the day of the first initial payment to me actually getting a picture from Matt. I heard Matt passed away few years ago, so I don't know how they do it now over at Matt's Music, but I would hit them up.

Nowadays, I am not so sure if it is worth to order one, as I have not heard back from some of the dealers that I have made contact just to get a quote. Mind you that I was getting a quote for 'Master Built' option, not the custom select ones. It is kinda outrageous that you need to go with a Master Built option in order to put a Tune-o-matic bridge on some model. Anyways, last time I heard, they are not taking any Master Build orders because they are backed up about 2 years. I have been hitting them up consistently over the time span of last 2~3 years, and this situation has not been improving. Most recent news I got from them was I have to wair for 2~4 years to get one, let alone you have to wait forever to get a quote on anything.