Custom shop serial number initial letter question

[Armageddon]

I saw many custom shop guitar has the serial number with the initial letter "J", while some other custom shop model has the serial number with the initial letter "U", why? Thanks.

[rjohnstone]

"U" is regular production neck thru, not a Custom Shop piece.
"J" followed by 4 digits is a neck thru Custom Shop piece.
Not to be confused by the serial "J" followed by 6 digits, which is an import model.

http://www.jacksonguitars.com/resources/serialnumbers.php

[onekillglory]

Well I was about to actually post a question similar to this. The auction linked below is to a Randy Rhoads I came across the other night, and it has something peculiar. While it has a U serial number, the headstock has the custom shop logo.

http://cgi.ebay.com/JACKSON-RANDY-RHOADS-HEAVY-METAL-FREE-SHIP_W0QQitemZ370039305833QQihZ024QQcategoryZ33044QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

any idea? Ive seen a few like this before, as well. I believe a few Mike Learn pieces might have had the same situation?

[rjohnstone]

That's an interesting one for sure.
They say it's "Team Built"... which probably means they grabbed a production body and made the CS tweaks to it. According to the specs, the inlays, paint and pickups are the only things that appear to be non-standard.
So grabbing a Select body for this would not seem out of the question.

[NextInLine]

There are a lot of custom shop Jacksons with the U serial. Especially recently.

They are "mostly" guitars that have the same wood construction or wood work with a USA select. That guitar is an RR1 except for the finish so that's why

[neilli]

Yeah, the lines between 'U' and 'J' serials seem to have kind of blurred somewhat recently.

Personally, I don't consider a guitar to be a custom if the guitar has a U serial and has exactly the same specs as a USA select model, with only the finish differing.

[NextInLine]

Yeah, the lines between 'U' and 'J' serials seem to have kind of blurred somewhat recently.

Personally, I don't consider a guitar to be a custom if the guitar has a U serial and has exactly the same specs as a USA select model, with only the finish differing.

Agreed, a custom should have a unique "Jx..x" serial imo

[Armageddon]

Thanks a lot for all the valuable inputs. When I choose a CS model, I would buy one with "J"+4digits serial, which seems more decent and authentic to me

[NextInLine]

I was looking at drumcityguitarland's inventory and I realised this



Look at the serial, custom shop logo and the hang tag. It's actully named a ke-2

I think it's not about the serials but the custom shop logo. They are putting the custom shop logo on everything with a custom feature from what I can see so it doesn't imply it's a custom Jackson, that's why the serial..

[cookiemonster2]

Who cares about the serial number, what's the cup size?

[åron]

Who cares about the serial number, what's the cup size?

Lefty looks like a C and Righty looks like a B. It happens that way sometimes.

[Armageddon]

I was looking at drumcityguitarland's inventory and I realised this

Look at the serial, custom shop logo and the hang tag. It's actully named a ke-2

I think it's not about the serials but the custom shop logo. They are putting the custom shop logo on everything with a custom feature from what I can see so it doesn't imply it's a custom Jackson, that's why the serial..

Yes, I agree. I suppose Jackson used excessively the custom shop logo on the headstocks of some USA select guitars with custom features nowadays, Jackson dose know the attraction of custom shop logo.

So JXXXX could be the only safe choose which represents much higher quality

[neilli]

So JXXXX could be the only safe choice which represents much higher quality

The quality theoretically shouldn't be 'much higher' on a custom, as the custom guitars are made by the same people in the same facility as the USA Selects. It's just that the CS guitars are (normally) one-offs with user chosen specs, whereas USA Selects are made in batches of 10 to set specs.