What is a Jackson Concept?

[intGod]

Are they like the professional series? Are they any good? Is it an official Jackson guitar? I've never seen one like this before ...




I especially want to know if the standard pickups are any good compared to the Fusion EX and the Fusion SS pickups.

[Inazone]

The Concept guitars were the predecessors to the Performer series, and more or less took the place of the Professional EX models. The Concepts were made for only one year (supposedly for the 1994 Christmas season), and three of the four were rolled into the Peformer line.

JDR-94 Dinky Reverse = Performer PS-4
JRR-94 Rhoads = Performer PS-3
JSX-94 Dinky = Performer PS-2
JDX-94 Dinky (hardtail) = discontinued

They were good Japanese guitars, with the typical import hardware of the day but no binding or sharkfins. Incidentally, the JDX-94 is my favorite, and I own four at the moment. Since the Concepts were good guitars but pretty plain, they are great for modding.

[intGod]

Hmm, not sure if I'm going to buy this one. The Performer is a little less good than the Professional EX line if I remember well. Am I right?

[Sunbane]

The korean performers aren't held in very high regard, but I would expect the japanese ones to be on par with the Pro EX line - except maybe for crappier pups and hardware(?). Some of the performers came with a single locking trem, but I think the Concepts had a double locking one (unless I'm mistaken).

Another point that needs to be brought up, is that the Concepts had basswood bodies.

[intGod]

Another point that needs to be brought up, is that the Concepts had basswood bodies.

Is that a good or a bad thing?

[Sunbane]

Depends on your preference. Basswood supposedly sounds similar to mahogany. Some people like the sound of it, while others do not. A lot of Ibanezes are built of basswood, as well as the highly appreciated Charvel model series.

Basswood is very soft however, and dings easilly.

[intGod]

I brushed up on my wood-knowledge. It's said that basswood (hah, very punny) also has more bass, warmer, but at the expense of a little sustain and high tones. Well, I guess I'm passing on this one, especially seen the fact that it's got fretwear starting at fret I through IX in combination with the price (200 euro). That's about 250 USD.

[Rich#6]

i had one of those from 94 to 98. I thought it sounded good. The neck was warped but still had good action. They were $400 new here in the US. I think you can get a PS4 cheaper that $250 so like you said pass on this one.

[Inazone]

The JDR-94 was by far the most common. In the 1995-96 catalog pics, the pictured Performer PS-4 actually still had the JDR-94 truss rod cover and Concept headstock logo. To say that the Concept guitars were "low end" would be fair compared to the features of the more expensive Professional line, but even my extremely nice Dinky XL Pro has a basswood body, Jackson pickups and licensed trem. The neck profile is virtually identical (Concept is slightly thinner), so the only advantage of the XL is the neck binding and MOP sharkfins...which you can't even get on current imports.

Since you're passing on this particular guitar, it may not matter to you, but my experience with basswood is that it definitely shares some tonal similarities with mahogany, and seems (to me) to sound better with medium-output pickups like a DiMarzio PAF Pro or Duncan Screamin' Demon.

[intGod]

Thanks for the info, InAZone. If this guitar comes back cheaper, I'll reconsider it.

[Special-K]

It looks really nice

[Kont_De_La_Fere]

I used to own one of these JDR's unfortunately sold it, now i regret it so bad. I'll post some pics of her when i get to my PC..

[technogumbo]

Thanks for the Concept info!

JDR-94 Dinky Reverse = Performer PS-4
JRR-94 Rhoads = Performer PS-3
JSX-94 Dinky = Performer PS-2
JDX-94 Dinky (hardtail) = discontinued

That is good information...thanks. I bought a badly abused JRR-94 off of Ebay a year or so ago (the price was low, so I had to adopt it). I always wondered the specifics on that model as it is not typical for a Rhoads model. It came to me with both tips broken off, a loose neck, pots loose with failed solder connections, and some broken strings. It is a solid player now, but the cheesy pickups will soon go in the parts box. Since the body is trashed, it has become my sticker guitar. Fits in well with the rest of the family.

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m161/technogumbo/IM000914.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m161/technogumbo/IM000916.jpg

[rjohnstone]

I had a JDR-94 for a long time. Great guitar.
The trem (JT-500) and the pups sucked, but the rest of the guitar was rock solid.