Gibson Rant Pt. 1

[hippietim]

Nah, not true. If hardly anyone wanted Jacksons, the wait time for customs would be about 2- 3 months instead of 24+

A long wait time just means they are not staffed to pump them out any faster. It doesn't mean much beyond that.

Aside from a small number of metal guitar players, who uses a Jackson anymore? Heck, Adrian Smith has a signature Jackson and when I saw Maiden a few weeks ago he played a Les Paul at least as much as his Jackson (if not more).

[BLOOD SPLATTER]

Gibson makes some amazing instruments. They've made their share of dogs. Same with Jackson - search this forum for epic failures by the acclaimed Jackson Custom Shop. I've owned some great Jackson's and some that pretty much sucked donkey balls.

At the end of the day, hardly anyone wants a Jackson. Tons of people want a Gibson.

Agreed Tim & well said!!

A long wait time just means they are not staffed to pump them out any faster. It doesn't mean much beyond that.

Aside from a small number of metal guitar players, who uses a Jackson anymore? Heck, Adrian Smith has a signature Jackson and when I saw Maiden a few weeks ago he played a Les Paul at least as much as his Jackson (if not more).

[Emerald]

Paul Reed Smith took on the big Godzilla and won! Ha!
Strange or maybe not, many who can easily afford real Gibson Historics are either having them heavily modded to reach '50's specs or having whole new guitars built...
Emerald

[Rupe]

Paul Reed Smith took on the big Godzilla and won! Ha!
Strange or maybe not, many who can easily afford real Gibson Historics are either having them heavily modded to reach '50's specs or having whole new guitars built...
Emerald

Truth. The Yarons and Bennetts of this world are backlogged with orders.

[Sephiroth]

I love my Jacksons, but looking at the whole guitar market......hippietim is right. Hardly anybody wants a Jackson.

That's because during the early-to-mid 2000's when ESP made its big push to dominate the metal guitar market, Jackson sat on the sides and did nothing. They didn't compete on price, quality, "bang-for-the-buck" guitars, or anything. They figures they were Jackson and the value of the name was reason enough to buy one. They probably still maintain their policy of not paying endorsing artists. And ESP used that to steal a massive market share from Jackson to where probably half the euro-metal bands in that time frame started off on Jacksons and ended up on ESPs.

Heck, Adrian Smith has a signature Jackson and when I saw Maiden a few weeks ago he played a Les Paul at least as much as his Jackson (if not more).

I saw that too on their past two tours. He played his Jackson strat, a Les Paul in some brownburst, and a brown faded SG with a hippie peace symbol sticker on it

[roodyrocker]

I have to disagree with the above statement that Jackson wasn't competing in quality with ESP. I have Jacksons from several eras and one thing Jackson has always been great with is maintaining high quality. I saw Iron Maiden twice on the Somewhere Back In Time tour and Adrian Smith played his Jackson most of the night. On a couple songs he used his Gibson but most of the night by far it was the Jackson sigs. I don't know about the tour after that but I saw them twice on that tour. Dream Theater was on that tour also so it was double kickass

[leftykingv2]

I agree RoodyRocker! It's rare to see a really bad USA Jackson. I've been playing for almost 30 years now and I still haven't seen any really terrible ones. USA Jackson does have just about the best Q.C. in my opinion.

[Sephiroth]

For the price of a bolt-on (with no binding) Jackson with Jackson pups you could get a set-through or neck-through LTD with EMGs or something. For the longest time Jackson did NOT compete on quality and "bang for the buck." Yeah sure overall they were better quality (especially on the high-end stuff), but it's the mid-priced and cheap stuff that sells volumes and makes money for companies, and that's where ESP got them.


Jackson's doing it NOW, but only after ESP has pretty much taken over the metal guitar market

[leftykingv2]

For the price of a bolt-on (with no binding) Jackson with Jackson pups you could get a set-through or neck-through LTD with EMGs or something. For the longest time Jackson did NOT compete on quality and "bang for the buck." Yeah sure overall they were better quality (especially on the high-end stuff), but it's the mid-priced and cheap stuff that sells volumes and makes money for companies, and that's where ESP got them.


Jackson's doing it NOW, but only after ESP has pretty much taken over the metal guitar market

I'll take the 1K Japanese made Ibanez over the 1K Korean made LTD's any day of the week. Also I don't think ESP has "taken over the metal guitar market." I see a lot more Ibanez guitars around where I live than I do LTD's or ESP's. On the other hand though out of all the people I know who play around here only myself and two other friends have a USA Jackson. Most of the people who live and play around me aren't serious enough to drop 2 to 3K on a guitar. The guitars I see more than any other brand now are Fender or Squier Strats and Epiphone or Gibson. The Pgh. Pa. guitar center is a perfect example of what I am talking about. They have about 75 Ibanez guitars maybe 10 or 15 LTD's. No full on USA Jackson's only 4 Jackson guitars last time I was there and they were all low end stuff. No ESP's at all! Maybe 4 or 5 low end Dean and B.C. Rich models. I'll bet you can't guess what there shop is full of???? All Fender/Squier and all Gibson/Epiphone. In closing all I am saying is that Fender/Squire and Gibson/Epiphone and Ibanez are what people are buying mostly now, even metal players. This is what's selling around my neck of the woods anyway. Not Jackson, Dean, LTD, ESP.