Jackson USA

[Luca1973]

The JB is a medium output compared to a ceramic or an EMG

Versatile, enough brilliant, with its own character, but not too strong as other pickups on the market.

[Vass]

They’re marketed as hot and are hot relative to more “vintage” pups but def not the hottest on the block. That said.... if I had to call them “hot” or “medium” I’d lean to hot.

[chucke]

Hot or not, they are probably not too hot for me... I just want to stay away from very hot/very high output pickups.

I will probably go with the JB and 59 in black. They are sitting at my local store looking at me.

[chucke]

Picked up the axe. It is in better cosmetic condition than I was expecting. It looks brand new. It came with the original case, tremolo arm, tags and all the case candy!

The tag is indicating model SL2HF. Just thought that I would show if someone was interested in trying to find out what the F represents. Could it have been a custom order with black hardware?

The guitar is beautiful but the action is surprisingly high. This looks to be because the neck has a big bow. I need to tighten the truss rod and flatten the neck a bit.

The tension on the Floyd springs look to be right. The bridge is sitting nice and flat. The springs are not too loose or too tight. I'll have to start by adjusting the truss rod and then see if I need to lower the Floyd to get the action lower.

I will also take a look into the control cavity to see how the battery is mounted assuming that it actually is an active EMG as told to me by the GC employee.





[IMG]

[DonP]

SL-2H is the normal model identification. The extra "F" likely means Flame as already mentioned. Or maybe it means Fender, since this is a post-Fender model

[Mudlark]

2007? Errrr....let's hope Johnnyryche comes along with his serial list because that's a bit odd.

[toejam]

Looks like an 81 in the bridge (silver logo) and 85 in the neck (gold logo). I'd swap them around first before going passive; I think they sound better that way.

[shreddermon]

SL2HF = Soloist 2 hum Floyd.

SL2HT = TOM bridge.

[toejam]

But they never had an F designation before.

[Number Of The Priest]

I'm in the same boat as toejam. Out of curiosity, I just did a quick Google search for "Jackson SL2HF" and found some hits.

https://www.google.ca/search?newwindow=1&dcr=0&source=hp&ei=4vhhWrKeC4K8zQKm1KDIBg&q=jackson+sl2hf&oq=jackson+sl2hf&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0.138.2313.0.2777.13.12.0.0.0.0.137.1081.7j5.12.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..1.12.1080...46j0i131k1j0i131i46k1j46i131k1j0i46k1.0.mRCD73_tW9I

This link (https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j...pt0Zp1KaB7tYaH) is the guitar that OP purchased. Other than the aforementioned black hardware and EMGs, no other specifications stand out to differentiate this "SL2HF" from a normal trans-finished SL2H.

The other hits on Google show normal trans-finished SL2H guitars with chrome hardware and Duncan pickups as to be expected. Even this one from WildWestGuitars (https://wildwestguitars.com/electric...-soloist-sl2hf) is just a normal transparent red SL2H except with "Custom Shop" on the headstock. Why does this even deserve the Custom Shop logo on the headstock? I don't understand. There is no specification change aside from the extra logo on the headstock. Everything else looks stock!

Methinks whoever at the factory wrote the hangtag got overzealous with that extra F designation, and didn't know that SL2HF is an officially nonexistent model. You might even say, that that F is F-ing us all up.

[Johnnyryche]

2007? Errrr....let's hope Johnnyryche comes along with his serial list because that's a bit odd.

Well... this is an odd duck. No idea why that would have a 2007 production date. I have a couple other flame top soloists in my log that are close to this one. Figured they were all made in the same batch. So I was thinking this should have a May/June 2006 production date based on the others in my log. Haven't seen anything like this before.

[shreddermon]

The "F" designation was not an official model number. It was more of a code used between Jackson and dealers to differentiate between Floyd'd and TOM bridge versions of a model, especially Soloists. I've seen it many times, although written down on the tags inconsistently. It was more common during the couple of years that SL2HTs were more popular.

[toejam]

Interesting. That just confuses things, like how the older models with the T designation used to stand for tremolo and then got changed to tune-o-matic somewhere along the way.

[shreddermon]

Agreed. I suspect the issue was that dealers / customers would order an SL2H, but it could be either bridge. Technically, an SL2H was Floyd only and SL2HT was TOM. But apparently that wasn't specific enough to avoid errors with some knuckleheads. LOL

[chucke]

I noticed that the serial number stamped on the neck does not have the U.

It is stamped: 16982

Is this common? I had a soloist in the early 2000's and I remember it having the U stamped.