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I took the plunge and ordered a Jackson Adrian Smith SDX the other day from a seller on ebay. Keep in mind that not every seller is willing to ship to Canada so pickings are slim as they say.
This one was discounted as a factory second so I paid even less than a new one. Those things are usually some small blemish and I am not bothered by that stuff especially if a buck or two is to be saved.
This one was obviously a store model as the neck and over all guitar was pretty grimy with nasty old strings too.
I took the whole thing apart and spent the better part of the afternoon putting it back together. The fret ends were waaaaay to sharp and needed attention to. I was planing on swapping the bridge humbucker with a JB that I had lying around but when I opened up the guitar I just laughed!
Granted they did use Alpha full size 250K pots but the wiring was so lame and shoddy! The cheap 5 way switch was a joke but even better was the obvious cold solder joints pretty much everywhere!
Just for kicks I pulled out the Fluke meter and started to probe. Yup! Middle single coil is dead due to cold solder! Factory second alright! Not to mention no springs on that very pup! Good luck adjusting the height on that one huh?
At this point I just pulled all the crap out and in the next few days will install a proper Switchcraft 5-way and jack as well as some 500K CTS pots to repair this bad boy.
Body wise its pretty decent for basswood I assume? The neck needed to be shimmed so that the pickups were not a mile off the pickguard.
This guitar if scored for cheap and upgraded has some great potential but unless you are a pretty good guitar tech or have extra cash on hand, score a used MIJ So Cal instead. The quality is well worth the extra cash.
BTW totally off topic but this is what Mother Nature gave us today on April 12th here in Montreal. Almost 20 cm's of snow!
And to think last week I was on the Kawasaki riding all day! LOL! Only in Canada I guess!
This one was discounted as a factory second so I paid even less than a new one. Those things are usually some small blemish and I am not bothered by that stuff especially if a buck or two is to be saved.
This one was obviously a store model as the neck and over all guitar was pretty grimy with nasty old strings too.
I took the whole thing apart and spent the better part of the afternoon putting it back together. The fret ends were waaaaay to sharp and needed attention to. I was planing on swapping the bridge humbucker with a JB that I had lying around but when I opened up the guitar I just laughed!
Granted they did use Alpha full size 250K pots but the wiring was so lame and shoddy! The cheap 5 way switch was a joke but even better was the obvious cold solder joints pretty much everywhere!
Just for kicks I pulled out the Fluke meter and started to probe. Yup! Middle single coil is dead due to cold solder! Factory second alright! Not to mention no springs on that very pup! Good luck adjusting the height on that one huh?
At this point I just pulled all the crap out and in the next few days will install a proper Switchcraft 5-way and jack as well as some 500K CTS pots to repair this bad boy.
Body wise its pretty decent for basswood I assume? The neck needed to be shimmed so that the pickups were not a mile off the pickguard.
This guitar if scored for cheap and upgraded has some great potential but unless you are a pretty good guitar tech or have extra cash on hand, score a used MIJ So Cal instead. The quality is well worth the extra cash.
BTW totally off topic but this is what Mother Nature gave us today on April 12th here in Montreal. Almost 20 cm's of snow!
And to think last week I was on the Kawasaki riding all day! LOL! Only in Canada I guess!
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