Is there any korina JJ1 in black?

[slayest]

Recently I got two 1995 JJ1. Both are in all black finish, but the weight are very different. One of them is a little lighter than an average superstrat, while the other is much heavier, almost close to a Les Paul (but still a little lighter, maybe due to the smaller body size). So I wonder what's the body wood.

I checked old Jackson catalogs and found that JJ1 from that era had used poplar, korina, or mahogany. However, both my JJ1's sound very similar. At least, the heavier one sounds brighter than any other mahogany guitar I have, and I won't be too surprised if they are both made from poplar. But it would be hard to explain their weight difference. On the other hand, if the lighter one is korina, it would be a little strange that it's painted black (even in the pickup and electronic cavities. look original) instead of natural finish.

In brief, my questions are:
1) Has any korina JJ1 been finished in black?
2) Is it common for poplar guitars to vary so much in weight, even to the extend of mahogany?

[xenophobe]

1) It's possible. The only knowledge I have of this happening is with the Y2KV. A couple of gloss black korina guitars did make it out of the factory. They're rare as hell and I've been looking for one for a long time now.
2) Yes. It's relatively common.

[slayest]

Thanks for the info!

[dollyboy]

Can you post a few pics from your axes????
thank!!
i like JJ's very much!

[slayest]

I found it hard to take pictures of black guitars (I'm sucked on taking pictures of anything anyway), and you can see that the two JJ's look much the same, so there's not much good pics to share.
BTW, I made a typo in the original post. Both JJ's are from 1996, not 1995.


Interestingly, the nuts on the two JJ's are different. Can anyone tell me which one is original?
Here's the nut on the one which weights lighter.


And here's the nut on the heavier one.


Also, both pickup rings on the lighter one are flat with the same thickness, while I feel that guitars with a tilted neck (e.g. JJ) should generally have angled pickup rings. So, are these rings original? (I know that the rings on my heavier one are non-original, so I can't compare).


The following is a warning to those who plan to buy a JJ-1 and then swap the pickups. The pickup cavities are very tight, so they can't accept any pickup with a cover (including EMG). The square legs of Gibson's and Duncan's with a standard spacing (i.e., the SH-?'s) are too big to fit in. The stock ones got their legs cut, as shown below. Or you can also bent the legs a little to make them fit (I did that on one of my JJ). Dimarzio's and Duncan's with the trem-spacing (i.e., the TB-?'s) can fit without any mod.

[xenophobe]

That does not look original. Pull both truss covers and examine. It should be easy to tell which one is really original.

[slayest]

Thanks for the info. I guess the same too, since this nut seems to sound a little bit better!
The truss covers fit well on both guitars, though not pictured in the heavier one.