Jackson CS NAMM 7 String: All Show No Go (lots of pics)

[Oblivion99]

When this guitar appeared at NAMM this year, I just couldn't resist it, even though I thought I was done with 7 strings. Here it is:











It looks fuckin awesome, can't deny that. However, after I just recently got past the looks and began to pay more attention to how it plays, I discovered some problems with it that quite frankly are unacceptable for a guitar that cost over 3 grand. The trem is inset way too deep in the body, no matter what adjusts are made, due to the fretboard thickness nearly halfing in size from fret 1 to fret 24. 5 springs are required in order to tune to standard on relative light 7 gauge strings (10-59). Needless to say, any heavier gauge would probably be impossible to use on this guitar.







Also the fretboard error made the strings not parallel to the pickups, forcing the pickups to be lowered further than they should have to be.




This is not a flame thread. I actually am still a big fan of Jackson and will continue to be a customer. However, I find this quite unacceptable for a guitar that supposedly is the "best of the best" being a NAMM guitar. The SLAT7s I have seen recently seemed to be built much better than this, and are 1/3 of the price or even less than that.

Luckily for me, Jason at Drumcityguitarland will be taking a return on this, and I will get full store credit. DCGL has been very understanding about this, and am very greatful to be able to return this thing.

Important lesson learned here for me...just because it is expensive and is supposed to be great, doesn't mean it will be.

Carefully examine the guitars you buy guys, Jacksons are great guitars but just like anyone else, the builders make errors from time to time, even Pablo

- Matt

P.S. thanks to Grandturk for the clever title

[Charlz]

That's pretty damn disappointing to hear... I was excited about those. It is a beauty to look at!!!

[KBRR]

hey matt , personally i think there is no excuse for that. this is an expensive custom shop piece hand built for namm and to be sold to the public, that guitar should have never left the factory like that , i have been a loyal and diehard jackson player for most of my guitar life , but due to the last couple of years of buying usa jacksons that have had set up problems and poor finishing i now use a different guitar company and i must say their quality control is far better than jackson. Im not trying to flame on jackson as i still love to see everyones guitars here and talk about jackson , but am i the only one who thinks that $4000 dollar guitar shouldn't have left the factory like that? mistakes happen i understand but there is no way the master builders at jackson didn't notice that !

[Oblivion99]

I certainly agree with you man. I don't really understand how this was sold to begin with, but I'm glad that I'm not stuck with it. I would have preferred to have my cash back instead of store credit, but that is something I certainly can deal with.

The issues in the original post were just the ones that affected playability...little cosmetic issues are apparent at various places on this guitar as well.

The floyd cavity was obviously cut quite sloppily, the inside of the cavity has a few odd cuts on the sides. The Jackson MOP logo has quite a large bubble/scratch under the clearcoat on the n. The sharkfins themselves are uneven in several areas and seem done without much care. Then the binding...quite sloppy at parts. Can see seperate layers of binding and they certainly are not even like you would expect. Can obviously see the seperation.

Other Jacksons I have had have generally been built way better than this one, and hopefully it is just a dud. They are never perfect, and always have little cosmetic flaws, but generally they play so good that you forget about those things. This thing obviously doesn't play well on top of the little issues, and I won't accept it.

[neilli]

From all of that, it would seem to me like the neck angle is too shallow....

[Grandturk]

If the neck angle is wrong, that's pretty much bandsaw city forthat guitar. I guess you could put a new fretboard on it or something, right?

[toejam]

From all of that, it would seem to me like the neck angle is too shallow....

Indeed. Looks tilted too far forward and should be flat with no angle for recessed Floyds. It's ashame, because that guitar is gorgeous otherwise.

[ulijdavid]

After looking at the pics, I think the problem is the maple drop top. As Toejam pointed out, there is no need for a neck angle with a recessed Floyd. The problem seems to be the maple cap was too thick. That's why the fretboard appears to be thinner.

[neilli]

Yeah, that's another possibility. I was gonna say that the trem route could be routed deeper to drop the action, but that would worsen the pickup issue...

[redxiiidave]

Wouldn't thinner pickup rings solve the pickup height issue? Or are the pickup routes just not deep enough?

[kmanick]

wow , what a bummer, that thing is gorgeous.........................firewood.

[RobRR]

I had pretty much the exact same problem on my BGF KV2... I noticed the action wasnt quite low enough, and when I went to set it up, I realize the problem... too little neck angle. I absolutley loved the guitar otherwise, and with my custom electronics already installed, I wasnt about to send it back because I knew theyd just send me another off the shelf one. So instead, I simply routed the trem rout a bit deeper, and put thin metal pickup rings on it... Now its absolutley perfect.

Should I have had to do that on a $2200 guitar? Hell no... and you bet your ass I was sweating bullets approaching that guitar with a router... but Im a sentimental prick, I wanted THAT exact guitar, I knew exactly what I was doing and I did what I had to to keep it. Unfortunatley I couldnt save the Chlorine SL2H I bought used from here, so they did make me a new one... and unfortunatley, the new one just isnt the same as the original. I still wonder what happenned to that original guitar... even with its major problems, it still sounded phenominal.

Good luck with your ordeal... Id take that guitar in a heartbeat, and do exactly what I did to my KV2... at a heavily discounted price of course!

[fatstrat]

you know what? every single guitar i've bought from jackson $3k and over has had major flaws. I had a black rhoads with gold pinstriping that had gold paint all over the black, like the dude that did it smeared his hands in it and handled the guitar. didn't even fix it! not to mention the pinstripes were NOTHING CLOSE to the pattern i ordered. two of my pcs rhoads' had string nut's cut so bad the strings were resting on the fretboard. solder connections that popped off, the headstock on my black pcs #7 had the entire headstock paint bubble up. lol. several people in the custom shop NEED to be fired. and every single person down the inspection line didnt say anything? shame on them. this happens WAY too much with jackson. their quality control is at it's lowest point ever. it really starts to put some weight to the "pre fender" quotes from sellers!

[bibz]

This is what happens with handmade guitars But you shouldn't be able to buy this shit, especially not for that money!

It kinda sucks, but should be rightable? Unless the entire fretboard isn't flat a nut shim and some woodwork would sort it out.

[TVTiZtiK]

I saw that guitar in some pictures from NAMM and thought to myself how much I'd love to have that.... guess I was wrong.

Seriously, that sucks ass though. It's mind boggling that something like that would get out of the factor without anybody noticing.