Jackson Custom Shop Sucks! Avoid

[Dukeman5]

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[CowboyFromHell]

Understanding the situation would be a lil easier if we knew both sides of the story. The wait should have been expected. It's common knowledge you should expect a 2 year+ wait for a Jackson from the custom shop. If you get it faster, hooray for you, if it takes longer, remember one thing... you ordered a Jackson for a reason. I agree that it's a ridiculous ammount of time to have to wait but if you place the order then you know and apparently at some point thought it was worth the wait. I'd say take a few days, breathe a lil, talk to some of the guys here that have done Jackson custom shop orders for advice, maybe even Matt would be so nice as to see what he can do, and calm down some before you decide your course of action. While your experience may deter you from placing anther order in the future, I think you'd be nuts to sell off the Jacksons you have, know, and have loved, all over this.

[neilli]

Talk to your dealer and get them to raise hell - you should be able to get progress pics so at least you can check the status.

[DRM]

The Custom Shop far from sucks. You're paying for the build quality and so are thousands of others at the same time. You know why the Tom Anderson guitars have a shorter wait time? Because far few artists are using and ordering them. Call your dealer as suggested and have them contact the JCS and get progress pics for you.

[Dave Rocks]

I've got 2 builds in the works and alot has to do with the dealer. I won't wait 2 years unless they f then up now and need to start from scratch....shit, I probably just screwed myself ;-)

I wanted them and was told 2 years from the start and I still placed the orders. based on what I've seen so far, I'm very pleased and Mike Shannon is building mine.

To me, it's worth it and these are not bolt-ons like some other builders. Sure 2 years is alot but they told me upfront....

[Maiden89]

The wait should have been expected. It's common knowledge you should expect a 2 year+ wait for a Jackson from the custom shop.

This. It's no secret that the Jackson custom shop takes an absurd amount of time. I would love to get a Jackson custom shop, but I'm not patient enough to wait 2 years or more. So many things can change in the time. I can have moved 2 or 3 times in the timeframe.

I would probably order a custom select if it's around a 6 month wait or less.

[Vass]

Please let me know when you want to let go of your Jacksons. I love a motivated seller.

[shreddermon]

+1: the 2-plus year wait is pretty much common knowledge.

In fairness, I will say that Jackson is notoriously "optimistic" with their estimated build times. Heck, even the current Masterbuilt Options Worksheet says they take "between 18 and 24 months for delivery". ( !) That hasn't been my experience for quite some time. Unfortunately, some people look at those things - or are told it by a dealer - and this creates unrealistic expectations. That's just a recipe for unhappy customers, who are then led to believe that their guitar is "late". While the custom shop doesn't "suck", either way this routine reflects poorly on Jackson's customer service.

Personally, I'm already at 27 months for one order, and well over a year for another. Tick tock.

[tomanyjacksons]

I can't understand the 2 year wait. If back logs are 2 years, why not get more craftsmen working on them. It's not like they're going to run out of work. Supply and demand basics'.

[Dave Rocks]

I can't understand the 2 year wait. If back logs are 2 years, why not get more craftsmen working on them. It's not like they're going to run out of work. Supply and demand basics'.

LOL, I agree but laugh because how many times a month can this be a thread here? It is what it is - nothing on this board will change it. When Fender wants to change it they will. In a way I'm glad coz Shannon is building mine compared to some newbie they may need to hire to reduce lead times....

[xenophobe]

The 2 year wait is better than all the 12-16 month waits when they were plagued with QC issues.

[Scholomance]

I admit the current even longer waits have deterred me from a new CS (though I did order a Custom Select). I've waited longer than anticipated on all of my custom shops going back several years, except maybe one. Each was in the 17-22 month range. But when I got the guitars, they were all worth it and each was something truly special I could not get anywhere else. I have not really ever pondered parting with a single one and I wish I had ordered more when they were cheaper instead of buying some other guitars!

[wilkinsi]

Please let me know when you want to let go of your Jacksons. I love a motivated seller.

+2

[neilli]

You know why the Tom Anderson guitars have a shorter wait time? Because far few artists are using and ordering them.

I don't buy that for a second. The reason that TA have a quicker turnaround is that they are entirely a custom shop, in that pretty much every guitar is a 'one off', ordered via a spec sheet (either dealer or customer spec), which are processed in turn. And that's all they do, no production guitars, no semi-production guitars etc. Fundamentally, it's a better organised setup than Jackson currently has, where Jackson have 2 main builders working on the custom shop stuff, then a bunch of other people working on custom select and USA select, all of who seem to mix their roles between production types. Add to that the open secret that they don't actually build stuff in the order that the work orders are received, so something ordered today could get delivered 6 months before something ordered a year ago. Plus Jackson are in a corner of the Fender factory and have to share certain facilities with Fender.

TA (and Suhr etc) are simply a more streamlined, focused operation than Jackson have been allowed to be. I have no idea if this is true, but I've heard that Suhr are now prioritising actual customer orders over dealer stock orders which seems like a bloody good idea to me.

Consider this when it comes to Jackson: how many guitars do the CS make which aren't actually ordered by a customer? They make a sizable number of guitars for NAMM, plus then a ton of dealer runs (TMZ, Rainbow Music, Fullers etc), none of which actually have a buyer lined up when they're made. All of which take time from 'proper' customer orders. Add to that FMIC Sales reps are always pushing dealers to order more guitars, because deposit paid CS orders are 'money in the bank', so all of that adds to the backlog.

[leftykingv2]

Matt at Matts Music told me the wait is that long because they only have three guys who are actually allowed to do custom shop builds. Shannon, Santana, and Red Dave IIRC.