Does this timeframe seem realistic?

[Cootermanjaro]

Hoping to get some feedback from those of you with some experience ... After 6 months I finally received a quote from Jackson on my CS guitar (some of this delay was due to the company re-organization), I requested their estimate of completion with the quote and the dealer told me 5 to 8 months - does this seem realistic? I'm hesitant since it took just about that long to get a quote, let alone build the thing; especially since I recently read on this forum the guitars have been sitting for approximately 3 months before shipping after completion. The guitar does not require any fancy paint job or anything I would consider too out of the ordinary. Are they reeling me in? Thanks in advance for your comments.
Coot

[TreeFitty]

"the dealer told me..."
That usually doesn't do much for me, depending on the dealer.

[Jack Napalm]

5-8 months seems agressive. I am still waiting on one I ordered about 11 months ago. I was hoping to see it by summer. There is a limited run of PC1's a few of us are in on and we are at 15 or 16 months I think.

My first custom I waited 18 months and there are others who have waited longer. Hopefully the times will get better.

[Cootermanjaro]

"the dealer told me..."
That usually doesn't do much for me, depending on the dealer.

Irregardless of the dealer, has anyone experienced this quick of a timeframe, unless, that is, certain dealers have preferrential treatment from Jackson.
Coot

[cerealkiller]

6 months but it is NOT the norm.

[N1CK]

FWIW; I ordered my custom Soloist in January of '88 and received it in August of '88.
Almost 2o years later that lead time has almost doubled. There is no feature, finish or combo that I'd wait a year and a half to play. There are plenty of beautiful Jacksons out there, new or like new, that make me happy and that I'd love to own.

So I gotta ask you Coot, what exactly will be custom about your custom?

[TreeFitty]

My other comment wasn't all that clear. Some dealers believe you'll buy from them if they claim a quicker than average delivery time. I was once told "oh, I know a guy..." when I asked how one dealer's time frame was so much shorter than a couple other shops. Naturally the guy couldn't give a name or show anything on paper to back his claim. I could be completely wrong, but 5-8 seems a little suspect.

[Newc]

If you get it in that time frame, I'll be amazed, unless you're paying Custom Shop price for something simple like a pickup swap, abalone inlays, or some other cosmetic change to a standard model.

My two Customs were ordered in April of 2005. I got one in October/November of 2006, and the other in December of 2006. The Completion dates were June for the War Angel and September for the 7-string Warrior.

BUT, those were both totally Custom body shapes (no templates for the bodies). If all you're getting is a minor change to a standard USA Select model (finish, inlay material, pickups, etc), then you may get it sooner than that, but IMO it's a waste of money to order what amounts to an SL-1 with just abalone fins.

[Cootermanjaro]

Basically my custom is as follows:
Ebony fret board with no inlays
reverse Jackson headstock
Wide tubular AAAAA maple top and headstock
Single + hum direct mount
volume and 3 way only
3 piece flame maple speed neck, mahogany body

And that it is, nothing too exotic, but still a custom from the location of the knobs, types of pickups, strap locks, etc. I've left out some other details, but I don't think it is close enough to a production model that mine would result in an earlier completion date??
Coot

[Newc]

Rhoads? Soloist? Kelly?

[Newc]

Another thing to consider is that a few months ago (October?) Jackson stopped taking new orders so they could clear the backlog, which was largely responsible for the long wait times, and no one here has received a Custom that was ordered after they started taking orders again, so we'll have to wait and see what the new turnaround is going to be.

One thing I do wish Jackson would do is put the Start date on the hangtag along with the Completion date. For all anyone knows, they may only take 2 months from first cut to packaging.

[Cootermanjaro]

Another thing to consider is that a few months ago (October?) Jackson stopped taking new orders so they could clear the backlog, which was largely responsible for the long wait times, and no one here has received a Custom that was ordered after they started taking orders again, so we'll have to wait and see what the new turnaround is going to be.

One thing I do wish Jackson would do is put the Start date on the hangtag along with the Completion date. For all anyone knows, they may only take 2 months from first cut to packaging.

Soloist ...
You have a good point, maybe their reorganization has sped things up ... I guess I won't know for sure. I think I will put some heat on my dealer to make them honest on the date; they are a high quantity Jackson dealer who does a lot of special exclusive guitar runs, so my instinct is to trust them at this point.
Thanks for everyone's comments.
Coot

[Newc]

One last point - you might get faster results if you pay off the whole thing at one time, or at least in a couple of months. Dealers are allotted a certain amount of "credit", but as with anything else, whatever's paid off gets first priority (usually - haven't tried it myself )

[xenophobe]

It all depends on how much they want to build that particular guitar. My Custom XTRR took nearly 20 months. The Custom Demon I ordered was already half finished by the time I got the work order back. I had to cancel it because I wasn't prepared to drop $3500 a month after I submitted an approved quote, and my XTRR hadn't been touched for nearly a year.

So if I had the funds to pay for it, I would have received the Demon before the XTRR, even though the XTRR was ordered a year earlier. Go figure.

I'm a bit disgruntled at Jackson at the moment, and for the foreseeable future.

[peedenmark7]

if you want a jackson or charvel be patient... its nearing the back order length of time as back n '84-85.

which is good, theyre either selling guitars or stepping up the q.c..

with all the troubles theyve been having since the buy out, maybe this back log back log is indeed indicitive of better guitars coming down the pipe.