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I remember someone being interested in a bit of a review and a few more pics so here goes.
Overall: After living with the warthog for a couple of weeks, I'm extremely happy with it. To me this one just feels right and consequently I'll assert that it plays very well. If this is representative of the work that's coming out of Jackson's USA shop these days, I'm impressed.
Out of the box: Considering that the guitar had been to last summer's NAMM show and resided in a shop since, I was a bit surprised that it was still in flawless cosmetic condition. To the extent that it had been set up (I didn't pay for or request a setup) it was done for something other than standard pitch. Tuning to standard pitch made the action unacceptably high but after a bit of work, it dialed in fairly well. The intonation on the low E was way off but otherwise it was pretty well ready to go.
Plugging in: I'd packed my Pod XT but was forced to borrow a Fender practice amp from my nephew to complete my holiday rig. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] The warthog has the standard Warrior pickup config (Full Shred/Invader) so there's plenty of gain. The Indaver proved to have too much gain for the Pod's higher gain models. In particular I really had to dial back the gain on the Mesa and Spinal Puppet models. On the other hand, all of the Marshall models and the Soldano *really* came to life with the Invader. Even through a practice amp, the sounds were simply brutal, I love these p'ups (too much gain being a correctable issue, too little being far worse).
Construction: This is my first Warrior and I find that I really like the body style. It's much easier to play sitting on the couch than I'd expected. The fingerboard rolls off a bit at the edges (more on this later). The joints between separate pieces of the binding are far less noticable than on most guitars. The trem route is deeper than any that I've seen which allows for a good amount of motion in both directions. The snubbed tips are even growing on me. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
Finish: Add a striking graphic (by Brian Bock) to a very distinctive body style you've got the makings of an interesting axe. The silver metallic is a fantastic color and when coupled with black hardware and an ebony board would make for a very sharp finish by itself. Layer the bolted steel appointments on top of that and it just gets better (the bolted steel would be a killer graphic on its own). One nice thing they did with this one (I have no idea if this is usually done on the bolted steel graphic or not) is a very very light black dusting in the larger silver areas to break up the look (see the back of the neck in the pics below for an example). That really adds to the look IMHO. Brian did a very nice job with the warthog head, really nailing the eyes and expression.
Nitpicks: These really are nitpicks, not major flaws but given the prices Jackson's Custom Shop pieces command, a bit of nitpicking is probably in order. 1) The silver metallic paint looks fantastic but it shows sanding marks. They're only visible from certain angles under certain lighting conditions but they're definitely there. Since they're present on the edges and inner surfaces of the wings but not on the neck or body center, I'll chalk them up to someone having done less polishing than necessary before proceeding past the silver coat. 2) There's an area approximately 3/8" x 1/4" just above the control cavity that contains some larger scratches under the clear coat. 3) The sharkfins are of noticably different lengths. In particular, the one at the first fret is quite a bit shorter than most of the others. 4) Some of the shark fins are very pointed while some are more blunt on the ends. 5) There's a very thin black line where the binding separated from the finish in some places along the neck and headstock. 6) There are some places in the outlines of the artwork (the black lines along the hog's head and the blue along the edges of the flames) that aren't very clean but IMHO that's to be expected with a one-off like this. 7) The fretboard rolls off more on the low E side than on the high E side (I'm assuming this is unintentional). It also rolls off more higher on the neck than lower on the neck (I'm assuming this is intentional).
Now on to the pics (click for *very* large images):
Overall: After living with the warthog for a couple of weeks, I'm extremely happy with it. To me this one just feels right and consequently I'll assert that it plays very well. If this is representative of the work that's coming out of Jackson's USA shop these days, I'm impressed.
Out of the box: Considering that the guitar had been to last summer's NAMM show and resided in a shop since, I was a bit surprised that it was still in flawless cosmetic condition. To the extent that it had been set up (I didn't pay for or request a setup) it was done for something other than standard pitch. Tuning to standard pitch made the action unacceptably high but after a bit of work, it dialed in fairly well. The intonation on the low E was way off but otherwise it was pretty well ready to go.
Plugging in: I'd packed my Pod XT but was forced to borrow a Fender practice amp from my nephew to complete my holiday rig. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] The warthog has the standard Warrior pickup config (Full Shred/Invader) so there's plenty of gain. The Indaver proved to have too much gain for the Pod's higher gain models. In particular I really had to dial back the gain on the Mesa and Spinal Puppet models. On the other hand, all of the Marshall models and the Soldano *really* came to life with the Invader. Even through a practice amp, the sounds were simply brutal, I love these p'ups (too much gain being a correctable issue, too little being far worse).
Construction: This is my first Warrior and I find that I really like the body style. It's much easier to play sitting on the couch than I'd expected. The fingerboard rolls off a bit at the edges (more on this later). The joints between separate pieces of the binding are far less noticable than on most guitars. The trem route is deeper than any that I've seen which allows for a good amount of motion in both directions. The snubbed tips are even growing on me. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
Finish: Add a striking graphic (by Brian Bock) to a very distinctive body style you've got the makings of an interesting axe. The silver metallic is a fantastic color and when coupled with black hardware and an ebony board would make for a very sharp finish by itself. Layer the bolted steel appointments on top of that and it just gets better (the bolted steel would be a killer graphic on its own). One nice thing they did with this one (I have no idea if this is usually done on the bolted steel graphic or not) is a very very light black dusting in the larger silver areas to break up the look (see the back of the neck in the pics below for an example). That really adds to the look IMHO. Brian did a very nice job with the warthog head, really nailing the eyes and expression.
Nitpicks: These really are nitpicks, not major flaws but given the prices Jackson's Custom Shop pieces command, a bit of nitpicking is probably in order. 1) The silver metallic paint looks fantastic but it shows sanding marks. They're only visible from certain angles under certain lighting conditions but they're definitely there. Since they're present on the edges and inner surfaces of the wings but not on the neck or body center, I'll chalk them up to someone having done less polishing than necessary before proceeding past the silver coat. 2) There's an area approximately 3/8" x 1/4" just above the control cavity that contains some larger scratches under the clear coat. 3) The sharkfins are of noticably different lengths. In particular, the one at the first fret is quite a bit shorter than most of the others. 4) Some of the shark fins are very pointed while some are more blunt on the ends. 5) There's a very thin black line where the binding separated from the finish in some places along the neck and headstock. 6) There are some places in the outlines of the artwork (the black lines along the hog's head and the blue along the edges of the flames) that aren't very clean but IMHO that's to be expected with a one-off like this. 7) The fretboard rolls off more on the low E side than on the high E side (I'm assuming this is unintentional). It also rolls off more higher on the neck than lower on the neck (I'm assuming this is intentional).
Now on to the pics (click for *very* large images):
r.i.p. dime
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