New guy question for trans owners

[Tedmac]

My SL1T I have on order is sched for 12/22/10 del. to the dealer. I ordered 2nd wk of Aug. so i know what your going through as far as the wait and even though mine is gun metal grey, I still have panic attacks that something will be wrong. But it does help to have guys here who own USA's, give their comments as to "its worth waiting for".

congrats on the new baby.

[roodyrocker]

I have to agree with others here that while some tops may be better looking than others I've not seen any truly bad ones on USA Jacksons. Thats one thing Jackson has over everyone else, consistently good quality and their factory setups are pretty good out of the box too compared to Gibson, ESP, etc...
If you're really worried about what you may get 90 days from now just look for one already built and you can see exactly what the top looks like before you buy. I'm sure a trans black Soloist can be found in stock somewhere within 90 days. A custom shop will not only cost a lot more but the wait is also much longer.

[Rich#6]

I've very, very rarely seen badly matched tops on the Jacksons. Honestly, the ONLY one that stands out in my mind is one that was for sale on a popular store's site earlier this year that was a natural top....the flame was barely noticeable and it was actually parallel to the neck (as opposed to how you normally see flame tops).

This is what I was talking about in my post. The top wasn't the wrong way at all, but the flame that has no color different by itself is very light in comparison to the darker tree rings.

[Tmoran]

well ive seen great tops on jacksons but ive also seen some that were not even what I would consider flame. Oddly enough the tops that werent great were on cherry burst guitars where you would need an exceptional piece to pop through the actual color. The only thing that bothers me about the tops are that they are veneers. There will be no tonal distinction from a solid color guitar as the top is about as thick as card stock. For me even though I dont pay much mind to the tonewood debate I still find it rather cheap to put a veneer on a $2000+ guitar. Even the thicker tops on like the mahogany soloist are only 1/8" thick. Thats acceptable to me for looks. But if you have a natural color jackson where the top is easily distinguishable from the body wood its an ugly site. Amplify that even more so if the instrument is a shape that has bevels like the KV2 as you will have a flame top with plain bevels and then the light colored neck wood at the ass end of the guitar. To me a Veneer is for cheap furniture and chinese imports. Not a multi thousand dollar instrument. Dont get me wrong I like the idea of saving resources and Im sure its a cost effective choice to use veneers but there are alot of companies out their that are not stingy with the figured wood and still have comparable prices. Id find it hard to believe that fender having the buying power it does cant get a good deal on a bulk order of flamed maple. Its not as rare as it is believed to be. The flame top was actually one of the reasons I hated my KE2 and I opted out of it to get my candy green KV2. I love figured maple but not if its pissing distance away from a photo flame.