USA Jacksons - was always the same wood used?

[toejam]

My '94 Dinky HX is poplar, and it's the lightest guitar I own.

[Bert]

Early Jacksons have very little consistency. That's one thing I love about them. Every one I pick up sounds so different, even if they have the same specs. I've got 3 '86-era bolt ons and each sounds unique.

[hopkinsWFG]

Always thought that poplar is a cheaper alternative to mahogany ? I be surprised if jackson would offer ash wings or even maple wings ?

People says tone god george lynch has a maple body and it kills... maybe too bright for the JB to fit in but maybe better off with other boutique pickup that is still based off the JB

[xenophobe]

I'm fairly sure they used poplar or alder due to cost and ease of woodworking. Mahogany is harder wood and also costs a bit more, so that's usually an upcharge from most places.

Personally I don't think the JB sounds good in most Jacksons. It's too bright and wonky/nasally.

[hopkinsWFG]

What you usually load your jackson with ? I gotta afwayu by motorcity and it sounds good... but still looking at other PU for a thicker natural sweeter tone....

Maybe jackson sounds better with thinner lacquer ?

[xenophobe]

I like old school.... EMG 85 in the bridge for actives, Super Distortion for passives.

[Carcaridon]

I've had probably 7 KE1's and most have been the same, but there was a white one I had that was very noticeably heavier than the rest. It was the oldest model I had.

[VoiceX3]

My Soloist is Poplar. I was told when I bought it back in the 80's that "Jackson/Charvel uses both poplar and alder as they are extremely close tone wise, but poplar can be a bit green tinted so they only used it on painted color finish guitars and trans finished guitars got alder."

['84RR]

My Soloist is Poplar. I was told when I bought it back in the 80's that "Jackson/Charvel uses both poplar and alder as they are extremely close tone wise, but poplar can be a bit green tinted so they only used it on painted color finish guitars and trans finished guitars got alder."

I wonder just who told you this...

I find it rather hard to believe as poplar is usually denser than alder, and varies all over the place as far as characteristics when compared to alder (which I find a much more uniform wood)...on the flip side, perhaps Jackson was able to peruse lots of the woods and choose what they desired out of them...yeah, poplar can be green, purple, black, and white (often in the same board) so it's not really suited to anything stained/trans...then again, it can actually look rather nice when stained if the piece is uniform in its coloring.

either way, it's an annoying wood to me as it has a LOT of internal stresses in it most times and this creates issues for me when in the field trimming a high dollar house (it's a very popular paint grade wood these days)...I've always found alder to be a much better wood to work with, though certainly not worth spending the $ on to simply paint.

[j2379]

& the occasional Maple body. I had an '86 strat w maple body...weighed a ton but it sounded great....to me anyway.