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Well, the well documented story of my PC1 shipping problem has been well documented and solved by rjohnstone. Now all that remains is to get down with this guitar and see what's under the hood.
First off, the specs. 2006 Jackson PC1, redrum finish. Purchased from ebay.
My impressions of the finish.
I am a sucker for quitled guitars. Always have been. This is no exception. Even though I had reservations about a quilt showing through the red finish, those doubts were erased when I opened the case. It is a stunning quilt. For the gold hardware, I feel that the red finish gives it the most "pop" when you look at it.
On to the neck. This is my second maple neck guitar (my first was an EB Axis) and I really, really like it. The finish (or lack of) really has a nice woody feel to it. I like the feel of a wooden unfinished or oil finished neck and this one felt like an old friend from the first touch. The Strat headstock is a nice touch. But the best part is the fretboard. I've seen birdseye maple necks but nothing like this. Visually stunning. I'm so glad they didn't ruin this with dots on the neck. No dots on the fretboard didn't bother me at all, which surprised me. The dots on the binding were more than enough to keep me from getting lost.
There have been different opinions about the size of the neck. While it is a tad larger than a regular Strat neck and quite larger than an Ibanez or other "shredder" necks that are out there, after a few minutes playing it and I never even realized there was a size difference. The large frets fit me quite nicely. The tiny frets on my Axis were part of the reason I got rid of it. I always felt I was playing on top of the guitar instead of digging in.
Feel wise, this guitar totally destroys my 88 American Standard Strat and places ahead of my ESP MII, a guitar I really didn't think I could surpass.
Now for the real test. Playing it.
Putting it through its paces was a lot of fun. The tremolo is a little tougher to move than on my MII. I chalked this up to OFR vs. Kahler, plus the fact that my MII is about 15 years older and I'm sure the springs are a little worn out.
As for pickups, the Humbucker was by far my favorite of the three. Solid tone, harmonics are a breeze. Very full sounding for a humbucker.
The middle pickup was really in between as far as tone was. It did lean toward being a better distorted pickup than a clean one.
The Sustainer kind of perplexed me. After all the trouble I went through with it, I really expected a better performance than I got from it. I had it so close to the strings that when I hit the E string on the 24th fret, it would catch the string. After backing the pickup down a bit all was well. When turned on, I could tell the difference between the regular and harmonic mode. But when it was on, I reallly expected more sustain than I got from it. After watching the Fernandez video from the site, I wanted my PC1 to just scream and go on and on just like that one but it didn't. The notes would die out a second or two longer, but that was it.
Now that I'm typing this, I realized I probably need to go back and adjust the noise gate on my amp. It's very possible that the gate is closing so soon that it is killing the Sustainer. So until I check otherwise, my jury is out on the Sustainer.
All in all I am extremely happy with this guitar. It is my first Jackson and it was well worth the wait. It is a well crafted guitar. It has a well rounded sound that could fit all types of music. I know I could play any type of gig with this guitar and it would be right at home. Until I bought this guitar, I felt you had to have a guitar for each situation (Strat for clean work, MII for rock, etc.) With my PC1, I feel Jackson has made one guitar capable of doing it all.
So thank you Jackson, for giving me the guitar I've always wanted and needed. I am proud to call myself a Jackson owner.
Now if you'll excuse me I need to get back to playing this beauty.
First off, the specs. 2006 Jackson PC1, redrum finish. Purchased from ebay.
My impressions of the finish.
I am a sucker for quitled guitars. Always have been. This is no exception. Even though I had reservations about a quilt showing through the red finish, those doubts were erased when I opened the case. It is a stunning quilt. For the gold hardware, I feel that the red finish gives it the most "pop" when you look at it.
On to the neck. This is my second maple neck guitar (my first was an EB Axis) and I really, really like it. The finish (or lack of) really has a nice woody feel to it. I like the feel of a wooden unfinished or oil finished neck and this one felt like an old friend from the first touch. The Strat headstock is a nice touch. But the best part is the fretboard. I've seen birdseye maple necks but nothing like this. Visually stunning. I'm so glad they didn't ruin this with dots on the neck. No dots on the fretboard didn't bother me at all, which surprised me. The dots on the binding were more than enough to keep me from getting lost.
There have been different opinions about the size of the neck. While it is a tad larger than a regular Strat neck and quite larger than an Ibanez or other "shredder" necks that are out there, after a few minutes playing it and I never even realized there was a size difference. The large frets fit me quite nicely. The tiny frets on my Axis were part of the reason I got rid of it. I always felt I was playing on top of the guitar instead of digging in.
Feel wise, this guitar totally destroys my 88 American Standard Strat and places ahead of my ESP MII, a guitar I really didn't think I could surpass.
Now for the real test. Playing it.
Putting it through its paces was a lot of fun. The tremolo is a little tougher to move than on my MII. I chalked this up to OFR vs. Kahler, plus the fact that my MII is about 15 years older and I'm sure the springs are a little worn out.
As for pickups, the Humbucker was by far my favorite of the three. Solid tone, harmonics are a breeze. Very full sounding for a humbucker.
The middle pickup was really in between as far as tone was. It did lean toward being a better distorted pickup than a clean one.
The Sustainer kind of perplexed me. After all the trouble I went through with it, I really expected a better performance than I got from it. I had it so close to the strings that when I hit the E string on the 24th fret, it would catch the string. After backing the pickup down a bit all was well. When turned on, I could tell the difference between the regular and harmonic mode. But when it was on, I reallly expected more sustain than I got from it. After watching the Fernandez video from the site, I wanted my PC1 to just scream and go on and on just like that one but it didn't. The notes would die out a second or two longer, but that was it.
Now that I'm typing this, I realized I probably need to go back and adjust the noise gate on my amp. It's very possible that the gate is closing so soon that it is killing the Sustainer. So until I check otherwise, my jury is out on the Sustainer.
All in all I am extremely happy with this guitar. It is my first Jackson and it was well worth the wait. It is a well crafted guitar. It has a well rounded sound that could fit all types of music. I know I could play any type of gig with this guitar and it would be right at home. Until I bought this guitar, I felt you had to have a guitar for each situation (Strat for clean work, MII for rock, etc.) With my PC1, I feel Jackson has made one guitar capable of doing it all.
So thank you Jackson, for giving me the guitar I've always wanted and needed. I am proud to call myself a Jackson owner.
Now if you'll excuse me I need to get back to playing this beauty.
One question, do you have fresh batteries in the guitar. Your sustainer should oscillate the strings in endless fashion when the intensity knob is 3/4-full up. The Sustainer will continue to vibrate the strings until you stop it with your hand. When it's full up, it takes some pressure to really stop the strings because the sustainer is really strong with that 18 volt system. I have the Fernandez system on another guitar and it's weak compared to the Jackson Sustainer. That one is brand new. Check those batteries and your noise gate.
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