Jackson not progressing any? Why?

[eakinj]

Oh yeah, and since people keep mentioning what got them into Jackson - For me I saw Vinnie V play a Rhoads on the Lick it up video and thought it looked great. At some point I saw the Kelly and fell in love with it. Unfortionately the Jackson rep I spoke with was evil *won't go into it*and it turned me off on Jackson completely. Then 1992 the LTD came out and after playing that I was completely hooked back into Jackson. However had not not seen that Kiss video, had I not seen whoever it was playing the Kellys I wouldn't have known Jackson existed because they were not in the stores (1980's custom shop only?)

Oh and as a side note- the jackson rep so pissed me off I went and ordered a custom shop les paul that took 9 months to deliver. Awesome guitar, but when I got the LTD the Les Paul stopped getting played and eventually got sold.

[sakeido]

I dont think the endorsed players is the problem, i think it is their lack of options.if you dont count the js series and the x series (which are beginner guitars), all that they have for imports are the pro series and the MG series (which has like only 4 guitars in it) and their all either bolt on or neck thru, they should really try to mess around with setnecks to get the price down, im not saying discontinue their good guitars, just add more diversity. For example, i want a jackson king V, so my options are according to their website js30kv,kvx10, the jenna jameson V (which are all bolt on, basswood, designed humbuckers) or the kv2 and kv2t (which are close to 2000$ neck thru american made) so, im stuck in 2 extremes, so guess what i start looking around and come upon the ESP v-500 (mabey its 400) which is a 700$ set neck guitar with emgs, good quality, and the only things stopping me from buying it is the lack of trem and the mahogany body.

They also need to put more development in certain types than other, from my point of view they need more variants of king V. RR, soloists and dinkys, more than they need variants of kellys and warriors.

and yes they need to start endorsing musicians more than porn stars. In some ways i think they they are stuck in the past with hair metal with the unnecessary large amount of finishes, maple fretboards (i prefer rosewood or ebony) , and pornstar endorsements.

Bolt ons are the cheapest, easiest style of guitar to make. Set necks are more expensive and less durable, and have crappy note definition. If I'm playing metal and I'm playing fast, I want the responsiveness of a neck through or bolt on guitar. You are blowing minor issues out of proportion.. you want a set neck guitar, that doesn't have a mahogany body? There are very, very, very few of those.. for a good reason. Set necks thin out the tone and you need the mahogany to make up for the craptasticness of the construction.

And what point are you trying to make? You found a set neck guitar made by someone else, but then you didn't buy it anyway. What?

[cdwillis]

I was thinking I wouldn't mind seeing them do away with the JS and X series guitars all together, but I don't know how much of their business really relies on those entry level guitars. They could concentrate on the MG and Pro series guitars. Have a trem and string through model for each body style guitar. They could then do different runs each year like maple boards, reverse headstocks, or wild paint schemes to keep interest running.

[sakeido]

I would love if Jackson set their import line up like that. It'd be so nice and straightforwards and would have exactly what you need in each guitar..
5 series - rosewood boards, bolt on, licensed trem/tune-o-matic, Duncan Designed, Korea target $500-600
5NT series - rosewood boards, neck through, licensed trem/hardtail bridge (same tooling for low neck angle), Duncan Designed, Korea, target $600-700
4 series - bound rosewood or maple board, bolt on, licensed Floyd/tune-o-matic, Genuine Duncans or EMGs, Korea, $650-750
4NT series - bound rosewood or maple board, neck through, licensed Floyd/recessed tune-o-matic, Duncan Designed or EMGs, Korea, $750-850
3 series - ebony board, bolt on, genuine Floyd/tune-o-matic, genuine Duncans or EMGs, Japan, $900-1000
3NT series - ebony board, neck through, genuine Floyd/tune-o-matic, genuine Duncans or EMGs, Japan, $1000-1200

You'd have perfectly consistent model numbers across the range, always the right guitar for the player, using the same tooling for each series (by using hardtail bridges on cheaper guitars) keeps costs down, etc. Put all the sig models in between the 3 series and the USA 2 series, just like how LTD sigs are in between the LTD Deluxes and ESP Standards, add sig models to flesh out the range..
I can dream

[Spivonious]

That does bring up a good point. Their numbering system makes no sense. I would assume that an SL2 is equal to a DK2 equal to a KV2, etc. but they're not. Maybe going back to the Std, XL, and Pro way of naming would help things.

I think dropping the JS/X series would be a bad idea. Many more people can afford to buy a $500 guitar than a $1200 guitar.

[yard dawg]

Jackson needs to expand its offerings. They need to offer something that isnt considered "metal" ... Lets face it metal is basically 3rd world music now. Its dead. Friggin rap has the attention for now. Look at what you see the non metal rock bands playing. teles,SGs and LPs.. Some use strats too. Pointy metal isnt "in" .. maybe if Jackson started marketing there guitars as versatile and not just for metal. They are versatile but people need to be told lol.

[Maximum_Crunch]

As long as they don't go under i would rather them stay the way they are. Quality over quanity.

[rjohnstone]

Jackson needs to expand its offerings. They need to offer something that isnt considered "metal" ... Lets face it metal is basically 3rd world music now. Its dead. Friggin rap has the attention for now. Look at what you see the non metal rock bands playing. teles,SGs and LPs.. Some use strats too. Pointy metal isnt "in" .. maybe if Jackson started marketing there guitars as versatile and not just for metal. They are versatile but people need to be told lol.

They make "non-metal" looking guitars already.
The PC1 is hardly a "metal" looking guitar. Versatile as hell too.
The Mark Morton Gumby looking thing... metal???? NOT! Looks like a Gibson that has been left under a heat lamp too long.
The JS series are far from "metal" looking... beginner trash, no fancy finish options, just basic colors. But you gotta start somewhere.

I don't buy guitars because (insert famous guitar player here) plays one.
I buy them because I like the way they look, feel and sound.
I own guitars from several manufacturers. They all serve a purpose.

One of my better players is a Chinese built Austin LP copy.
Fit and finish are less than perfect, but it feels great and the sound is HUGE. Sustain is incredible and the fretwork is better than most guitars I've played that cost 10x what I paid for this one.

[sakeido]

Jackson needs to expand its offerings. They need to offer something that isnt considered "metal" ... Lets face it metal is basically 3rd world music now. Its dead. Friggin rap has the attention for now. Look at what you see the non metal rock bands playing. teles,SGs and LPs.. Some use strats too. Pointy metal isnt "in" .. maybe if Jackson started marketing there guitars as versatile and not just for metal. They are versatile but people need to be told lol.

Metal isn't dead when I see bands like Protest the Hero with 3,000,000 views on MySpace and headlining the Canadian chart, Meshuggah making it onto the billboard top 200, Dethklok setting a record for highest debuting death metal album, screamo and post-hardcore getting mainstream acceptance and so on. Like it or not, emos are making metal more popular than it has been in some time

[åron]

I thought that was the thing about music from here on out. No genres die, and the really good stuff can sell well enough to support a decent lifestyle.

[eakinj]

I keep seeing people say "I don't buy because of so and so.." any of us using ourselves as the arguement is pointless, we're already brand loyal. But some 14 year old kid it's COB or whatever the flavour of the month band is, isn't going to hunt down jacksons when GC has rows and rows of Ibanez, Epiphone, Schecter, or whatever. They hear their guitar god on a guitar, they are going to buy that brand. Jackson can't rest of JCF buying up all their guitars (although JCF gives 'em that's for sure) they need more then just our humble buying power if they are going to exist for years to come.

And really, it doesn't matter what anyone here cares about - it's just the reality of business. If jackson is going to keep going they have to sell guitars to more people than the JCF. They need to get their guitars into peoples hands. This isn't about what people wish Jackson could be, it's what is going to keep Jackson alive.

Btw, no one here (especially those who got turned on to Jackson in the 80's) can say they didn't see someone playing a Jackson and it inspired them to check Jackson out. Jacksons weren't hanging in guitar shops all over the place. Everyone here either saw them in a magazine or in a video. No one here woke up one morning after having a strange dream with the urge to find some random ass guitar called Jackson. So try to be as cool as you want but everyone here got into jackson because at the very least someone else looked cool playing one.

[necrotechno]

If nobody is endorsed by Jackson, then the kids will not buy Jackson. I got my first Jackson because Mustaine played them. I'm sure all of you have similar stories.

I bought my first Jackson in 1993, a King V Pro-Mustaine. I didn't buy it because Dave played it, I bought it because it was the best compromise between price and what I wanted in a King V.

Pickups were changed almost instantly, tone control and second volume control removed. But first, a nice piece of electrical tape went over Dave's signature. Eventually it got the Kahler flatmount replaced with a TOM and string-through setup (the Y2KV came out a couple years later). Pickups and tuning keys changed a couple more times.


Also of note: if Dave had come back to Jackson last year, part of the deal he wanted was that all KV's would only be variations of his sig model. That is to say, NO FLOYD. But then he'd get custom versions with Floyds for himself to tour with, of course.

I love Megadeth, and Dave is probably in my top ten fave players (top 20 for sure), but I'd much rather have the current standard USA Select model KV2 than whatever he would have turned it into.

[CharvelRocker]

I would love if Jackson set their import line up like that. It'd be so nice and straightforwards and would have exactly what you need in each guitar..
5 series - rosewood boards, bolt on, licensed trem/tune-o-matic, Duncan Designed, Korea target $500-600
5NT series - rosewood boards, neck through, licensed trem/hardtail bridge (same tooling for low neck angle), Duncan Designed, Korea, target $600-700
4 series - bound rosewood or maple board, bolt on, licensed Floyd/tune-o-matic, Genuine Duncans or EMGs, Korea, $650-750
4NT series - bound rosewood or maple board, neck through, licensed Floyd/recessed tune-o-matic, Duncan Designed or EMGs, Korea, $750-850
3 series - ebony board, bolt on, genuine Floyd/tune-o-matic, genuine Duncans or EMGs, Japan, $900-1000
3NT series - ebony board, neck through, genuine Floyd/tune-o-matic, genuine Duncans or EMGs, Japan, $1000-1200

You'd have perfectly consistent model numbers across the range, always the right guitar for the player, using the same tooling for each series (by using hardtail bridges on cheaper guitars) keeps costs down, etc. Put all the sig models in between the 3 series and the USA 2 series, just like how LTD sigs are in between the LTD Deluxes and ESP Standards, add sig models to flesh out the range..
I can dream

...so you want them to downgrade their whole line? That would a step backwards; going to Korea with little improvement in features (same bridges) and cheaper pickups.

[joshulator]

I think the thing is, while many famous guitarists in the 80s were using Jacksons, those guitars were all custom orders. What that means is that when we were of an age where we would get a guitar because so and so played it, Jackson was not an option. To my knowledge, Jackson did not have entry level guitars available at that point, and how many of us at the age of 14 or whatever had the resources to custom order a guitar?

So by the time we got around to purchasing our first Jackson, most of us were older and past the stage of getting a guitar to emulate our heroes.

Be that as it may, images of our heroes were etched in our minds already, and many of those images included Jackson guitar. So while many of us may not have actively seeked out Jackson guitars because of a particular artist, the credibility of the brand was already well established in our minds because we already associated Jackson with top notch players.

I wouldn't mind getting rid of the entry level stuff if it made good business sense. Market share isn't everything. If the profit margin is low on that stuff, and I don't know one way or another what it is, it could be that whatever resources being used to produce those guitars would get a better return on investment if they were used for higher margin product instead. Perhaps, and again, I claim to be no expert, by getting the guitars in the hands of high profile quality players, and by no longer diluting the Jackson brand with the entry level stuff, Jackson would start to be perceived as a high quality professional product that everybody wants. Maybe a 14 year old kid won't be able to afford one, but he'll want one and it will be the first guitar he gets when he's older and has more coin.

To some degree, I think Gibson has sort of done this. They are, recent grumblings nonwithstanding, perceived as a quality company. Their cheapest Les Paul, the Studio, is roughly a grand, and most teenagers could not afford a Gibson. But as those teenagers get older, I think the Epiphone gets replaced with the real deal ASAP.

[markD]

that is what i think too....