Has anyone else "gutted" your Jackson PC1 ?

[kmanick]

I know the Axe Palace in Walpole MA had gotten in some real nice after market susainiac units a while back , you may want to check with them and see what they got.

[vklobucar]

In the end I will be happy with my new CS Shop Collen Archtop sustainer.

The other two older ones are truly killer guitars with or without that unit so it could be worse.

At some point I may play with a cheaper aftermarket version on one of mine though....

[Hellbat]

I'm sorry to hear that about the sustainers as I ordered one on my Jackson CS Star.

Hopefully they only use the retarded parkinson monkeys to wire the production models.

[SixstringKing]

hopefully they only use the retarded parkinson monkeys to wire the production models.

rotflmfao!!!!!!!

[superduty01]

In the end I will be happy with my new CS Shop Collen Archtop sustainer.

If they ever get built...

[Hellbat]

Oh, come on, has it even been 2 years yet?

[superduty01]

Oh, come on, has it even been 2 years yet?

You're right, I'm getting too impatient.

[wango]

One of my 2 PC-1s has a couple of bad components on the sustainer board. My tech said that the parts are proprietary and I will have to order a new board. Jackson told him they have re-spun the board which is now larger, so I would have to route out my cavity to fit the replacement board. If anyone is thinking of gutting theirs, I'd be happy to buy the board from you :-)

Also, If anyone has a new PC-1, I'd love to see a pic of the cavity to know how much I would have to route out if it comes to that.

Thanks!

[rjohnstone]

One of my 2 PC-1s has a couple of bad components on the sustainer board. My tech said that the parts are proprietary and I will have to order a new board. Jackson told him they have re-spun the board which is now larger, so I would have to route out my cavity to fit the replacement board. If anyone is thinking of gutting theirs, I'd be happy to buy the board from you :-)

Also, If anyone has a new PC-1, I'd love to see a pic of the cavity to know how much I would have to route out if it comes to that.

Thanks!

It's the same board.
I popped the back off of a 2011 and it's the same Rev C. board they've been using for over 14 years. They had a different rev board early on, but it got changed fairly quick.
They have slightly better monkeys doing the connections, but it still looks like shit for a $3k guitar.

[vklobucar]

So my Chlorine PC1 had a bad ground connection somewhere and did not engage by plugging a cable into the stereo jack like it should have. It was actually always on the second you install two 9V batteries!

Unit worked fine other than that but if you did not remove the batteries after using the guitar.......dead batteries overnight!

My local Fender Gold Service Center did not sound to thrilled too even look at the guitar and told me that they had never even troubleshooted a PC1 before so I did not even bother.

Now my other Solar PC1 has one of the two mini switches wired backwards (do not recall which one at the moment) but since they are both PCB mounted, that would be a nightmare to unsolder and reverse. That and its started to just not sound right with the unit engaged. No longer that controlled sustain and feedback but an over the top screech instead.

I called Jackson directly on that issue of the fucked up switch, and said that I felt it was an obvious quality control issue and really needed to be addressed warranty or not.

They were polite but basically told me indirectly to go fuck myself and that it was out of warranty-end of discussion. When I mentioned that here in Montreal there was not many (any?) real service options, they said to ship the guitar back to the States and that the unit would be replaced with some nearly 1K price attached.

I offered to remove the PCB unit and send that back to them alone given that it was the only real fault with what is otherwise a simply awesome guitar. Nope! They do not touch parts and its either the whole guitar shipped back to CA (with customs and duties fees when it comes back to me) or a local service center.

Really? For what was an almost 3K guitar? Uh....No thanks!

So for all you folks that still have a totally functional PC1, congratulations as I will readily admit that I am indeed jealous of the fact that yours still functions.

It's a great tool that I admit made the PC1 what it is. I just wish that Jackson had better QC and that they actually gave a flying fuck after the fact.

[markD]

luckily for me, the sustainer was a gimmicky item added to an awesome looking and playing guitar. i shed no tears removing it because i ended up with the best sounding guitar i have ever owned in nearly 30 years of playing.

[wango]

It's the same board.
I popped the back off of a 2011 and it's the same Rev C. board they've been using for over 14 years. They had a different rev board early on, but it got changed fairly quick.
They have slightly better monkeys doing the connections, but it still looks like shit for a $3k guitar.

So, I spoke with support at Jackson - They no longer have any of the "old" boards left (this includes ones made in 2011). The new boards going into currrent guitars at the custom shop are not bigger, but have the 2 switches in a different position, so its not the cavity that would have to be modified - it's the holes in all existing PC-1s that need to be "moved" to accomodate the switches.

So, I'm basically Porked unless I can find a board pulled from an existing PC-1.

Anyone want $300 to gut their PC-1?

[rjohnstone]

So, I spoke with support at Jackson - They no longer have any of the "old" boards left (this includes ones made in 2011). The new boards going into currrent guitars at the custom shop are not bigger, but have the 2 switches in a different position, so its not the cavity that would have to be modified - it's the holes in all existing PC-1s that need to be "moved" to accomodate the switches.

So, I'm basically Porked unless I can find a board pulled from an existing PC-1.

Anyone want $300 to gut their PC-1?

Did the tech say which components are bad?
I'm curious how he came to that conclusion as well.
Short of the IC or a bad board trace, most of the components can be replaced if you're skilled with a soldering iron.

[SausageofPower]

This is why I went with the Sustainiac Model C.

[RCM78]

You can say I've had some issues with my PC-1. First the neck was built wrong. The nut was too far from the first fret and the truss rod was too deep in the rout to get a wrench on it. Jackson replaced the neck under warranty. The new neck is fine.

After a few mods (Blocked floyd, big brass block, several bridge pickups) trying to get the guitar to sound better. I gutted it.

Right now the guitar has DiMarzio pickups in it. 36th Ann PAF in the bridge, HS3 middle, and BC-1 in the neck. 1 volume, 1 tone, the third pot is dead. I installed two mini switches and wired the front one as a "Blower" switch and the rear one is a kill switch. I never use the kill switch so I'm thinking about wiring the rear switch as a series/parallel switch for the bridge pickup.

I very happy with the guitar now and the 36th ann pickup sounds fantastic. It's the fifth bridge pickup in this guitar including the stock Super 3. The others were a Surh Aldrich, DiMarzio Super Distortion, & DiMarzio AT-1. The AT-1 is a cool pickup but not quite bright enough for this guitar. The Super Distortion was hot and bland. No highs at all. The Suhr Aldrich was ok at first since it was the first one I tried after the Super 3 but compared to my other guitars it lacked low end. Since my PC-1 is kind of dark the Aldrich wasnt bad but the low end lacked punch.

The 36th ann sounds really good. Clean and articulate with nice punchy lowend and sparkly chimey high end. The signal is clean but strong and this guitar is just as loud as my other guitars with higher output pickups...

Ever since I removed the sustainer and rewried the guitar it's become one of my main live guitars. Heres a pic of me playing it recently. It has the aldrich in it in this pic...