Jackson not progressing any? Why?

[MartinBarre]

I love my SL3, it's an incredible guitar for the money, and this is a Jackson at the lower end of the scale. So I'm surprised when I see brands like Ibanez and in particular ESP and Dean taking all the artist endorsees. Ibanez have quality shredders like Gilbert, Vai and the mighty Satch. ESP and Dean have, well, they seem to have anyone in an extreme metal band on their books.

Who does Jackson have as an endorsee nowadays? Phil Collen? Fair enough, he's one of my favourite guitarists, but his sig model is too expensive for most bedroom players - there's no cheaper option available which I just don't understand. Surely the PC2/3 with a Sustainiac would have been worthwhile?
I can't even think of another Jackson endorsee that compares with Satch or Gilbert. Are there any?

Why aren't Jackson going after guys like Karl Sanders, Dallas Toller-Wade, Trey Azagthoth, Peter from Vader, Ralph Santolla and the modern bands (who I think are shit but others don't) like Dimmu Borgir, Trivium, Bullet For My Valentine etc?

Are Jackson just resting on their laurels? SHit, even Dave Mustaine jumped ship after all those years.

[neilli]

Who knows what's going on with Jacksons A&R department, but they do have Matt from Bullet For My Valentine, and there are strong rumours about an Adrian Smith signature model.

Personally, I'd like to see a variation of the USA PC1 without the sustainer and maybe in solid colours. It'd get the price down but retain the quality...

[MartinBarre]

Even a cheaper USA PC1 would cost a bloody fortune over here in the UK. Bedroom players won't pay it, they'd just pay for an LTD Kirk Hammet or cheaper Ibanez Satriani model.
It's good they got that guy from Bullet (I think they're a shitty kid on metal band but it's a good endorsee for people who like that kind of music). I just think they need to focus on the respected extreme metal bands.

[levantin]

Sure, I agree that high profile endorsers would do the brand good, that has been talked about in many threads before this one. I'm still wondering why they either don't listen or don't want to listen to what players want/need. Case in hand; is it that hard to put binding on an SL3? How about a neck thru MIJ kelly? We waited years for the rr24 and now for the Demmelition. Guess what, black binding

I've been talking about the imports, that's because as MB1 says, USA's are expensive. I play semi-pro, and I want an affordable but high quality guitar. I'm thinking of jumping ship to Schecter! Ok, props for the DK2M, RR24 etc., but I think Jackson/FMIC needs to listen even more and provide more options. Think Jackson Stars. They can do it, Schecter can do it, even LTD can produce a mean axe for under 1k. I think Jackson should do it too.

[åron]

I hear the honchos at ESP/Schecter and Guitar Center are in a huge pissing match and GC isn't placing new orders. There's some influence from the launch of the in-house Laguna brand there, but it seems like a golden opportunity for FMIC to up their game.

As long as J/C remains so penny wise and pound foolish with the day to day and marketing operations, don't hold your breath.

[jacksoncsplayer]

I'm not so sure that they aren't listening, it may be a simple case of maintaining and rebuilding brand integrity. There are ibanez and schecters all over the place around here, but I play Jacksons and Charvels because I think they are some of the best guitars made, I don't play them because someone else does. They have their nitch right now and may be working with some developmental artists judging by their players list. I think this will come full circle and they will be back on top of their game in the next couple years. When they bought J/C who knows what kind of clusterfuck they got with that purchase. Costs could have been outrageous and they may have needed to cut some of their expenses to rebuild the brand name. Just a hunch, but I think we're in for some treats.

[MartinBarre]

What bothers me is people saying Jacksons are shite - I think "All these people are saying my guitars are worse than lower priced ESPs and Ibanezs, maybe they're actually all right and I shoulda bought an ESP!"

Thing is, I live in Scotland and we don't have huge guitar stores with lots of different axes to try out. The amount of people I've read recently on forums downing Jacksons in comparison to other brands makes me wonder if I'm showing false loyalty, especially since I've still never got my RR3 to sound good despite trying various different DiMarzios and Duncans (thinking it's just a shitty piece of wood I got). So, when top players are all endorsing Dean, ESP, Ibanez etc and no one is bothering with Jackson (or leaving Jackson like Mustaine), well, what's the score here?

[sully]

does it really matter, though? i mean really, does it impact your life at all if someone plays a different brand? a big reason that jackson has ALWAYS (with the exception for a few years) had a low endorsee count in comparison is because they don't pay the endorsee money to play their guitars. and if that keeps the gear whores away, good riddance. look at all of those kickass george lynch abortions that have come out over the years (not counting the kamis); esp can fucking HAVE them.

personally, i couldn't care less who endorses jackson; their best endorsee died 26 years ago. it's not like the brand is going to fold because some dude from cranberry corpse plays an esp or an ibanez.

[sully]

oh, and dave mustaine left jackson because his attempt to purchase the company failed, and he had sour grapes. there's WAY more to it than that, but that's it in a nutshell. and look at where he's gone since.

[Mat]

Peter from Vader

doesnt he endorse his polska buddies at Ran?

[jtr]

I DON'T care who plays Jacksons or who endorses them.I play Jackson because they are the best guitars I've ever owned!!!!

[skorb]

I'm not so sure that they aren't listening, it may be a simple case of maintaining and rebuilding brand integrity.

that's it, jacking prices skyhigh and limiting models and options is some genius method of maintaining and rebuilding brand integrity...! --- I guess?

[jacksoncsplayer]

oh, and dave mustaine left jackson because his attempt to purchase the company failed, and he had sour grapes. there's WAY more to it than that, but that's it in a nutshell. and look at where he's gone since.

Steadily downhill

[eakinj]

Reguarding Martins comments - Most of the people I have heard bad mouth jackson are generally fairly young, only buy the ibanez, esp stuff because their favorite band plays them. In fact in most cases I have run across most of the people who bad mouthed jackson never owned or even played one. Or if they did it was the lowest end models they picked from the floor level at a guitar center. And you may just have a bad RR3, I love the sound of mine with the SD SH-6 in it.

Jackson has huge room to grow. They need to get their guitars out there, even if that means giving away a few guitars. As they say, you have to spend money to make money. Don't do it for everyone but if you can get a couple big players in there it's worth the cost of a couple guitars.

And don't go just for metal. I see the endoress list and wonder who half of them are... And when I find out, most of them I wish I hadn't bothered.

Oh yeah they need to stop putting their guitars with porn stars. If they want to be a nich company then by all means keep it going. but if they actually was serious musicians from all musical catagories they need to stop trying to be the Metal Guitar Company for the 1980's and start being the Serious Musicians choice guitar company of here forward.

As much as I love metal, 2 hours on MTV2 a week and a 30 minute show on Fuse talking about it (in a pretty un-entertaining way) doesn't make a foce anymore. Jackson shouldn't disown metal by any means, but they need to seriously persue other musical styles and artists.

But at the end of the day Jackson is now Fenders red headed step child. I don't think they will ever persue Jackson with the love and devotion that'll take the bring the Jackson line back to it's legendary status.

[KBRR]

I DON'T care who plays Jacksons or who endorses them.I play Jackson because they are the best guitars I've ever owned!!!!

+1 for that!!! Well said