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I have not been posting here very long but in my posts, I think most people would infer I have tried very hard to remain a JC guy and have only owned JC guitars since 1986ish until my wife and I got back into serious playing about 5-6 months ago.
Along with a bunch of other people here, it seems that living in Boston (of all places, we have Berkeley College of Music & New England Conservatory) it seems I am geographically "challenged" in that nobody ever has any decent made American Jacksons or even high end MIJs. Just the 'JS junk' - and if thats your price bracket or your a n00b then cool, don't be offended.
I play an RR-1 and my wife just got an RR-24 maybe 6 weeks ago by dumb luck (someone was trading it into a Daddy's while the clerk tried to tell us we did not want a Jackson and that we really wanted a Gibson SG collectors edition of some sort).
I love my RR1 and my wife seems to really dig her RR-24 (she has not picked up her little pink Daisy Rocks "Rock Candy" guitar, which is made by Schecter actually and it pretty darn sweet, since she got the RR-24).
We also own a set of Kramer acoustic/electrics for doing old stuff like "More Than Words" by Extreme and other cheesy, 80's rock ballads (my wife butchers 'Every Rose Has Its Thorns" because Chinese is her first language and its hysterical to watch her try to sing this in English!). Try finding a Jackson/Charvel acoustic/electric in or around Boston!!!!
We've been looking for a couple of "seat friendly" guitars for over a month now. Yeah, you can play an RR series sitting down but it's just a little awkward.
I've been to almost every music store in a 50 mile radius and nobody has had a decent American/MIJ Jackson for sale. No Dinky 1's or 2's, one store had a "vomit green" Soloist with a bolt on (SL-3H maybe), nothing. I mean, NOTHING!
This has been very frustrating to both of us (and I have posted to that effect).
I tried some of the pawn shops in Boston and they had zilch for JC guitars.
I suppose it really is hit or miss with these guys.
Well, "the local chain" does carry ESP's (mostly LTD Korean stuff, some of which is decent at the higher end). We happened to stumble across a couple of true goodies. A left over black ESP Eclipse II with the neck and body binding as well as an ESP Eclipse II with a "black cherry" finish and all black hardware. They come loaded with EMG's (81 and 60) as well as Sperzel locking tuners. I wasn't wild about the TOM bridge and I might install a tremolo on them later (yeah, I bought them both). I also like the fact that thet are single cutaways but are of much higher quality than Gibbies LP's, even the LP Custom. I paid $1100 each (and the f8cker tried to clip me for another $180 per ESP "genuine" OHSC but we fixed that just fine). So for $2200 I got two killer ESP's with a pup configuration that is very close to what I want in colors I like, with the cases. We also bought a used (you can't tell) ESP Horizon II which is strung through for a grand even.
The salesdude told me he could order any ESP guitar, even the MIJ stuff, and have it to me in under a month (aside from a Custom Shop Order). He told me American/MIJ Jackson are much harder to come by, take longer, and they do not usually stock them (unlike ESP stuff) but of course, he is happy to take my $$$ to order me one with no guarantee of when it will arrive (or is that "if it will arrive?").
ESP makes killer guitars with a lot of extra "little things" that Fender and Gibson have long since forgotten about in their quest to make particle board guitars to sell in Wal-Mart. Jackson also makes the best guitars around and I would argue, dollar-for-dollar, there is no USA manufacturer that offers a better deal than Jackson (outside the Custom Shop which sucks...think they would do a single cutaway?). However, no matter how good a deal it is, how "awesome, shreddy-wedable" or how cool of a "holographic neon spackle" paint job THAT Jackson might have, if I can't play it or buy it in a reasonable time, Jackson loses my business.
Man, I am 40 years old, I am still rocking on, I got my wife into this thing with me and in the last 6 months I went from owning one old RR-1 in my closet with a Roland JC-120 and an old Marshall half stack to owning, NINE (9) axes with my wife along with a bunch of stomp boxes and rack effects.
I would have liked it if all 9 could have been Jackson/Charvel (two of them are) and I am sure I'll be adding to the collection in the next year until our "basement" runs out of room for guitars and stuff.
But I am done hunting for high end Jacksons. Sorry, love the guitars, hate the attitude and service. I'm not willing to hunt around and wait 6 months to find a guitar. Its an impulse buy for me and the wifer. I lose interest in pursuing it if I have to wait half a year and make 20 phone calls.
I hope Jackson gets their sh8t together and starts to realize that middle aged rockers like me, who grew up on Ozzy, et al, who are getting back into the game and have a lot of disposable income, are becoming increasingly frustrated with the "holier than thou" attitude Jackson company people seem to exude constantly as well as the sheer impossibility of trying to find a decent American/MIJ Jackson in the state/city/proximity we live in.
Anyhow, sorry for the rant and b8tch fit, I know you're all die hard Jacksonians here, I am just hoping someone from the company reads this and maybe gives a damn. I bought three ESP guitars which should have been three Jackson guitars. If you're reading this guys at corporate, know that you're going to lose more sales and it ain't just me!
March
PS - I am going to arrange our 9 guitars this weekend on the stands and take some pics to post of them with the wifer and the amps. Gimme time to figure out how to use photobucket.
Along with a bunch of other people here, it seems that living in Boston (of all places, we have Berkeley College of Music & New England Conservatory) it seems I am geographically "challenged" in that nobody ever has any decent made American Jacksons or even high end MIJs. Just the 'JS junk' - and if thats your price bracket or your a n00b then cool, don't be offended.
I play an RR-1 and my wife just got an RR-24 maybe 6 weeks ago by dumb luck (someone was trading it into a Daddy's while the clerk tried to tell us we did not want a Jackson and that we really wanted a Gibson SG collectors edition of some sort).
I love my RR1 and my wife seems to really dig her RR-24 (she has not picked up her little pink Daisy Rocks "Rock Candy" guitar, which is made by Schecter actually and it pretty darn sweet, since she got the RR-24).
We also own a set of Kramer acoustic/electrics for doing old stuff like "More Than Words" by Extreme and other cheesy, 80's rock ballads (my wife butchers 'Every Rose Has Its Thorns" because Chinese is her first language and its hysterical to watch her try to sing this in English!). Try finding a Jackson/Charvel acoustic/electric in or around Boston!!!!
We've been looking for a couple of "seat friendly" guitars for over a month now. Yeah, you can play an RR series sitting down but it's just a little awkward.
I've been to almost every music store in a 50 mile radius and nobody has had a decent American/MIJ Jackson for sale. No Dinky 1's or 2's, one store had a "vomit green" Soloist with a bolt on (SL-3H maybe), nothing. I mean, NOTHING!
This has been very frustrating to both of us (and I have posted to that effect).
I tried some of the pawn shops in Boston and they had zilch for JC guitars.
I suppose it really is hit or miss with these guys.
Well, "the local chain" does carry ESP's (mostly LTD Korean stuff, some of which is decent at the higher end). We happened to stumble across a couple of true goodies. A left over black ESP Eclipse II with the neck and body binding as well as an ESP Eclipse II with a "black cherry" finish and all black hardware. They come loaded with EMG's (81 and 60) as well as Sperzel locking tuners. I wasn't wild about the TOM bridge and I might install a tremolo on them later (yeah, I bought them both). I also like the fact that thet are single cutaways but are of much higher quality than Gibbies LP's, even the LP Custom. I paid $1100 each (and the f8cker tried to clip me for another $180 per ESP "genuine" OHSC but we fixed that just fine). So for $2200 I got two killer ESP's with a pup configuration that is very close to what I want in colors I like, with the cases. We also bought a used (you can't tell) ESP Horizon II which is strung through for a grand even.
The salesdude told me he could order any ESP guitar, even the MIJ stuff, and have it to me in under a month (aside from a Custom Shop Order). He told me American/MIJ Jackson are much harder to come by, take longer, and they do not usually stock them (unlike ESP stuff) but of course, he is happy to take my $$$ to order me one with no guarantee of when it will arrive (or is that "if it will arrive?").
ESP makes killer guitars with a lot of extra "little things" that Fender and Gibson have long since forgotten about in their quest to make particle board guitars to sell in Wal-Mart. Jackson also makes the best guitars around and I would argue, dollar-for-dollar, there is no USA manufacturer that offers a better deal than Jackson (outside the Custom Shop which sucks...think they would do a single cutaway?). However, no matter how good a deal it is, how "awesome, shreddy-wedable" or how cool of a "holographic neon spackle" paint job THAT Jackson might have, if I can't play it or buy it in a reasonable time, Jackson loses my business.
Man, I am 40 years old, I am still rocking on, I got my wife into this thing with me and in the last 6 months I went from owning one old RR-1 in my closet with a Roland JC-120 and an old Marshall half stack to owning, NINE (9) axes with my wife along with a bunch of stomp boxes and rack effects.
I would have liked it if all 9 could have been Jackson/Charvel (two of them are) and I am sure I'll be adding to the collection in the next year until our "basement" runs out of room for guitars and stuff.
But I am done hunting for high end Jacksons. Sorry, love the guitars, hate the attitude and service. I'm not willing to hunt around and wait 6 months to find a guitar. Its an impulse buy for me and the wifer. I lose interest in pursuing it if I have to wait half a year and make 20 phone calls.
I hope Jackson gets their sh8t together and starts to realize that middle aged rockers like me, who grew up on Ozzy, et al, who are getting back into the game and have a lot of disposable income, are becoming increasingly frustrated with the "holier than thou" attitude Jackson company people seem to exude constantly as well as the sheer impossibility of trying to find a decent American/MIJ Jackson in the state/city/proximity we live in.
Anyhow, sorry for the rant and b8tch fit, I know you're all die hard Jacksonians here, I am just hoping someone from the company reads this and maybe gives a damn. I bought three ESP guitars which should have been three Jackson guitars. If you're reading this guys at corporate, know that you're going to lose more sales and it ain't just me!
March
PS - I am going to arrange our 9 guitars this weekend on the stands and take some pics to post of them with the wifer and the amps. Gimme time to figure out how to use photobucket.
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