Jackson Stealths EX and HX reviewed.

[dannyantell]

Pros:
Talk about bang for your buck. Geez, beats the sh!t out of the new Jacksons. Thinnest necks I have ever played. Picked them both up for $200 each at a pawn shop. Goodbye my DK2's and my Soloist. The bodies are carved very thin also. I am a devoted DK2 Floyd player and soloist player and have been for years and I thought there was nothing better that fit me and my playing style. That is, until I played the stealths. I couldn't get the money out of my wallet fast enough to pay for them. I didn't even plug them in(should have) but I knew when I saw "Jackson" on the pickups, I was going to change them out anyway for Seymours and Dimarzios. Nice heavy duty Truss rods Gibson style. After cleaning them, changing strings and doing a good setup on it, I plugged them both in.....
:think:Cons:
Crackly Jack and crackly in and out pots...............in both. Being 17 years old I can actually not call this a "CON" though, but from reading posts this seems like a common problem, but not a big one. I changed both barrel jacks with better new ones and changed both the tone and volume pots, checked all the wiring and grounds and pickups to make sure I had decent ohm readings. Both bridges pulled a 16 ohm reading so I figured they would be pretty hot. Changed out the selector switches also, but they worked fine, but if your doing the pots and jack, might as well. Got them all together and:
Wow! Final Review
Not too bad. Neck and middle pickups were fine for what I do on both. Bridge pickups were only a hair weaker than what I need, but actually aren't too bad and will do for now. The body and neck were in good shape and the frets seem barely played. I am removing some of the gloss finish on the HX's back of the neck. It's a little hard to slide on that much gloss.
I have always said there is no such thing as a perfect guitar for me. I have never given a 10 rating (1-10) or a 5 star rating to any guitar. After the fixes, I can now. I am putting a Screamin' Demon in the EX's bridge and a dimarzio super distortion in the HX. 3 fu$%ing Humbuckers in the HX!! Nice little touch, Jackson!! or should I say Caparison?

[VitaminG]

Welcome to the JCF! The Stealths are cool, although I found the bodies too thin for my tastes.

3 fu$%ing Humbuckers in the HX!! Nice little touch, Jackson!! or should I say Caparison?

why would you say Caparison?

[dannyantell]

From what I read, Jackson halted the production of the Stealth when it was outselling the American stuff and it was too high quality craftsmanship. The group in Japan that built the "Stealth" and all the series that had "Professional" on the headstock, started their own guitar manufacturing company and called it Caparison. I'll find that link.

[dannyantell]

http://audiozone.dk/index-filer/jackson-professional-history.htm

This is the link about the professional series and Caparison.

[VitaminG]

From what I read, Jackson halted the production of the Stealth when it was outselling the American stuff and it was too high quality craftsmanship. The group in Japan that built the "Stealth" and all the series that had "Professional" on the headstock, started their own guitar manufacturing company and called it Caparison. I'll find that link.

Jackson halted production of the top of the line imports. The Professional series continued, but without the PRO models. So the Stealth HX, EX, etc were still being built.

As the link states, one of the lead designers left to start Caparison guitars, not the whole Jackson team. So Caparison guitars had nothing to do with the construction of any of the Jackson imports.

[toejam]

Only the Caparison Horus is very similar to the Jackson Falcon, which was pretty rare.
http://audiozone.dk/guitargallery/?c...1993Page04.jpg

[dannyantell]

The Stealth was an excellent design. The body and neck are a home run. I played them both at practice last night and I was just amazed. It just seems easier to play and my fingers just seem to love this neck. Now I pick up my DK2 and my soloist and the necks seem like fat Les Paul necks. Jackson needs to re-issue these. It's hard to believe that the necks on both of these are perfectly straight even as old as they are and this thin. The truss rod works perfectly and it obviously very heavy duty.
After more research, I see that some of the models were made only for a couple of years, but the EX was made up to '97 the HX up to '95.

[jackson1]

Only the Caparison Horus is very similar to the Jackson Falcon, which was pretty rare.
http://audiozone.dk/guitargallery/?c...1993Page04.jpg

New Horus:

http://audiozone.dk/guitargallery/?content%2FGuitars_Photo_Tank%2FCaparison%2FCaparison_Horus%2F

[toejam]

New Horus:
http://audiozone.dk/guitargallery/?c...rison_Horus%2F

Very nice!

[jackson1]

Agreed, Joe I managed to rip some good photos from eBay on many of the current Caparison models. In case someone wants to check the Capa's out:
http://audiozone.dk/guitargallery/?c...2FCaparison%2F

Sorry Danny, this is maybe a wee bit off topic.