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Re: Your take on Japanese Jacksons
Economics 101 Class......... please pull up a chair boys:
In the beginning(1986), Grover Jackson and company went to Japan, spent tons of money, setup a shop and taught the Japanese how to build a guitar to the quality of the USA product. Grover spent a lot of time there making sure they built the guitars correctly.
From 1986 to 1993, those Japanese guitars were EXPENSIVE!!! In 1989, when you walked out the door with a flametop Charvel Model 475 Special and case, your wallet was about $800 lighter if you got a good deal. Let's time warp to 2003...........
You call up Musicians Friend, Easton Guitars or whoever and order up a DK-2(today's equivelent of the 475) and get it shipped to your door for $400. Let's take a look here:
1989 475 - $800
2003 DK-2 - $400
Do you see a problem???
Let's then throw INFLATION into the equation. At a standard 3% INFLATION per year, you're looking at a 42% price increase from 1989 to 2003. Let's adjust a 1989 Charvel 475 for inflation:
1989 475 - $800
2003 475 adj. for inflation - $1136
2003 DK-2 - $400
Are you beginning to see why us old timers talk about how good the early Japanese Charvels were and how they were every bit as good as the USA guitars? Do you see why we think the newer Japanese Models don't hold a candle to the early stuff?
The current Japanese Jackson guitars are "good" guitars. They aren't great, they aren't any better than Dean, Ibanez, ESP, Schecter, etc's. stuff from Japan or Korea. It's all economics. The newer Japanese Jacksons are made out of cheap wood, cheap necks, cheap hardware, cheap inlays, cheap pickups, cheap trems, cheap.. cheap.. cheap. Even the fretwork is miles and miles behind what was being done in 86-93. It's pure ecomonics. You can't build a USA quality guitar and sell it for $400. Nobody can, nowhere, no how.
Let's look at Floyd Rose trems. Both Jackson USA and Charvel/Jackson Japan used the same Made in Germany Schaller Floyd in 1989-1993. In 1994, Jackson Japan went to the 1st version JT580 trem. It had a symetrically square(like an OFR) baseplate and locking screws in the BACK(like an OFR). That JT580 was a pretty decent trem made out of good metal. Over the years, the JT580 was cheapened out 4 DIFFERENT TIMES and made into a pot metal piece of crap with horrible lock screws and a trem bar the will not stay in place. The current JT-580LP's aren't even being made in Japan anymore.
If you want an excellent Japanese C/J, look for a mildly used 87-93 Charvel or Jackson Pro. I personally think the 89-93 stuff is the best since they used the Schaller Floyds.
Economics 101 Class......... please pull up a chair boys:
In the beginning(1986), Grover Jackson and company went to Japan, spent tons of money, setup a shop and taught the Japanese how to build a guitar to the quality of the USA product. Grover spent a lot of time there making sure they built the guitars correctly.
From 1986 to 1993, those Japanese guitars were EXPENSIVE!!! In 1989, when you walked out the door with a flametop Charvel Model 475 Special and case, your wallet was about $800 lighter if you got a good deal. Let's time warp to 2003...........
You call up Musicians Friend, Easton Guitars or whoever and order up a DK-2(today's equivelent of the 475) and get it shipped to your door for $400. Let's take a look here:
1989 475 - $800
2003 DK-2 - $400
Do you see a problem???
Let's then throw INFLATION into the equation. At a standard 3% INFLATION per year, you're looking at a 42% price increase from 1989 to 2003. Let's adjust a 1989 Charvel 475 for inflation:
1989 475 - $800
2003 475 adj. for inflation - $1136
2003 DK-2 - $400
Are you beginning to see why us old timers talk about how good the early Japanese Charvels were and how they were every bit as good as the USA guitars? Do you see why we think the newer Japanese Models don't hold a candle to the early stuff?
The current Japanese Jackson guitars are "good" guitars. They aren't great, they aren't any better than Dean, Ibanez, ESP, Schecter, etc's. stuff from Japan or Korea. It's all economics. The newer Japanese Jacksons are made out of cheap wood, cheap necks, cheap hardware, cheap inlays, cheap pickups, cheap trems, cheap.. cheap.. cheap. Even the fretwork is miles and miles behind what was being done in 86-93. It's pure ecomonics. You can't build a USA quality guitar and sell it for $400. Nobody can, nowhere, no how.
Let's look at Floyd Rose trems. Both Jackson USA and Charvel/Jackson Japan used the same Made in Germany Schaller Floyd in 1989-1993. In 1994, Jackson Japan went to the 1st version JT580 trem. It had a symetrically square(like an OFR) baseplate and locking screws in the BACK(like an OFR). That JT580 was a pretty decent trem made out of good metal. Over the years, the JT580 was cheapened out 4 DIFFERENT TIMES and made into a pot metal piece of crap with horrible lock screws and a trem bar the will not stay in place. The current JT-580LP's aren't even being made in Japan anymore.
If you want an excellent Japanese C/J, look for a mildly used 87-93 Charvel or Jackson Pro. I personally think the 89-93 stuff is the best since they used the Schaller Floyds.
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