Shit I'm picky af with 600$ and 800$ guitars . I had my 7 string jlv purple bc rich back of it got scratched up has two pretty deep ones . At a shop I left it thare to have a set up done and new strings
Silly complaints for a $400 guitar, perfectly reasonable for a $4000 guitar. If you're going to charge a premium price, you have to deliver a premium product, period.
I agree up until he got to the dents at the bottom of the neck. Even a low end guitar shouldnt come with that much damage, and no ignoring that because you'll feel it every time you're playing up there
I would not buy that for 400 dollars. You could just pay a little more for good Ibaneze. Or just the RG for the 400. They would not look like that Jackson he had
@Larry Smithart That’s actually average price, anything lower than $2,000 it can be considered lower end China, Indonesia made guitars. Higher end guitars are $7,000 and up.
I just got a 200$ Jackson Dinky and it looks IDENTICAL to this except it's matte black and the inlays are much nicer. I got it from Sweetwater, who inspects every guitar they put out, and I'm thrilled with it.
The features aren't that great. The roasted mahogany, Gotoh tuners, Seymour Duncans, original Floyd, will probably be typical of like a $1200 guitar. But the idea of a custom shop is to have expert craftsmen get everything perfect. The fretwork should be sublime, the neck should be dead straight. The fit and finish should be perfect. But it looks like that isn't the case at all here. That fretwork looked like trash.
A $4,000 guitar should be hand sanded. You use an electrical sander when you mass produce a guitar on an assembly line and need to ship out hundreds of guitars a day.
@@JENDALL714 have you ever hand sanded hardwood? I mean its mahogany so a bit softer but that's not something that would ever be done by any business running a shop. They should put more care into cleaning up the marks and more qc checks to make sure it doesnt happen
@@JENDALL714 yeah but Jackson is in business, paying someone to sit and hand sand and shape a guitar makes no sense when you could pay them less money to use a sander. Same end result if done properly(obviously not the case here) also less carpal tunnel for the person hand sanding everyday
So true. I was at Japan ESP in Tokyo but even that I don’t even get to speak with the luthier while it’s the sales rep that’s taking down my options. Custom shops are BS.
@@669rdyou just need to find a local luthier they will likely build you a custom instrument for a great price (way cheaper than a big company) and you are actually talking ti the builder when you buy a custom build from a local luthier
This is why I started ordering Kiesels, they are worth every penny and stand behind their products 110% and make some of the finest dadburn guitars out there.
It usually means a small group of people like the fender custom shop and then there is masterbuilt which is meant to be one dude. However who exactly works in the 'custom shop' is another question. Both my old $600 Korean made PRS SE's felt great with a lowering of the action and a intonation setup etc. Shocking times man!
Since this is 6 months old, I am hoping it got sent back. I would not accept the dents and there are way too many scratches. No way I would pay 4k for it.
In 2020 with the quality standards that have been set by sub $1k import guitars, even a SINGLE orbital sanding mark on a $4k custom shop USA guitar is 100% unacceptable. At that price range you are paying to get something immaculately crafted and exceptional beyond the average high end instrument.
Dunno, if I bought it to play it- I would not bodher of these minor surface flaws. Playing daily for 6 weeks will get me a lot more visible scratches... First of all: will never spend this amount of money on ANY guitar ever😅
MK4vDubbin Right on the Mark, man! I commented earlier saying how production numbers trump quality of craftsmanship. There are a number of guitar companies who I believe from my own perspective take shortcuts when it comes to production time, materials like tone woods; hardware; electronics; etc., and putting stress on and rushing the shop workers and quality inspectors. I hold the management accountable. Luthiers are hard to come by these days I’m assuming. Hell! I’m not an expert, I’m just passionate about craftsmanship. People shouldn’t be getting stiffed like this.
I bought last year a custom Shop soloist. The qualitiy was terrible and I took it back to the Shop! Never again a new Jackson! I have a Jackson dinky Usa from 90’ s , and way better than the new custom shop shit!
@@joeyever1511 Really??!! I looked into ordering a King V but with a Kahler fixed like Mustaine Jackson but I didn't even see it in the options, I don't know how people are able to order a crasy custom Jackson. Worse off that they're not worth the money? Almost all my Jacksons are Japan made and they're amazing
A $1000, made in Korea Schecter SLS has absolutely NONE of those flaws, has double the specs, and looks awesome. My god you have all the rights to be furious.
Wow. I'm a certified guitar tech and currently work at PRS right now in the wood shop, so I know exactly what it's like to see everything wrong with a guitar and not be able to unsee it. I can't believe all of the issues this thing has, especially the inlay and dents on the back of the neck. I hope you got all of your money back (I'm sure you did) and a better guitar.
i've been a jackson fanboy for 15 years, since i've only had great experiences with their cheaper, overseas made guitars ($500-$1500) and seeing this nasty work from the usa custom shop really hurts. looks like they let an apprentice lead a build and they dropped the ball. needless to say, i won't be filling out this custom order form. good video, m8.
I was the same way. They have always been my favorite brand. Who knows I just the worst one they have ever made and 99% of the rest are amazing. I do know the wait is crazy long to get a custom from them
Have wanted a quality Jackson since the Eighties. I'm Left. which has made it nearly impossible until a few years ago when they made the SL2 pro in LH. They are still trying to sell off the remaining stock of that. Why? If they would have made some COLORS with some diff configurations other than black I can pretty much guarantee they'd be gone. Ignorance has no room for logistics when it comes to fast greed. I spoke to a suit about this and got the same stink ass response I did 30 yrs ago "Not enough demand." Dumbass just didn't want to listen to what I had to say. Yet they continue to cut corners everywhere to the mainstream as well and make us pay for quality instruments by forcing the "custom shop" illusion - where this is now happening. Well, it's finally catching up to them and I call bullshit. This industry is built so much on hype it's refukendikluous. And now it's become a lawyer infested soap opera. What a f'cked up paradigm we are in. I've personally had enough. Have learned to do my own mods where i can, and found companies that are willing to work with their customers when it comes to buying new - which is NOT easy in the LH world. Apparently the apathy has been bleeding into my fellow RH's for awhile now as well. The industry is gonna hit a wall at some point, and the cpmpanies that truly care about customers will survive. Somebody please hire me as writer. I need work. Rant over.
Only with a few of the big companies. Tell me how many guitar and bass makers from the US are some of the finest instruments that have ever been crafted. The list is endless.
Yep, my Larrivée was hand made in Victoria, British Columbia. Gives me more love than reading ‘Made in USA’ maybe I’m just biased.... being Canadian and all lol however my Martin says ‘Made in Mexico’ 😢 it’s still a rocket though
Yeah...Made In Japan is where it's at these days. I recently got an ESP original series guitar and it's probably the best made instrument I've ever had. And I have 2 Fender CS Set-Neck guitars, a PRS and some other stuff.
I’ve been playing for 16 years now and I’ve come to the conclusion, no production guitar is worth more than a grand imo. Only handmade or custom guitars should draw higher prices. My number one guitar is a USA Chris Broderick Jackson 7 string. I paid 3 grand for it. It’s my fav guitar, but it’s not worth 3 thousand dollars. It’s ridiculous what they charge for guitars these days.
@@Jordan-rb28 not to me. I find their body shape to be ugly as hell. They have excellent wood grains and paint jobs and may play great, but aesthetics are as important to me and prs isnt my look
@@benrosow7997 I know, they just have wood that isn’t really picked out like a custom guitar would be, thrown into a cnc machine and pay a painter and a fat non English speaking women to wind pickups and pop the price sticker out and ship it. The robots are doing a lot of the hard stuff
Agreed. Esp is crushing it with their quality per price. I would never own a Jackson personally. I cant see how an unfinished body with such basic appointments cost him 3800. If that was a USA ESP at that price it would be a beautiful lifelong instrument.
beef nacos I don’t know what models you’ve played but ESP even the LTD line has some amazing instruments. Schecter is definitely lower end than ESP I will admit but still solid value instruments.
@@endtyme1345 a Jackson hell no.. or else they saw him coming a mile away here's a sucker...anytime it says custom shop it is what it is and could be a great piece of wood or to be a piece of shit.. that's the chance you get with a custom shop..
When you ordered a Jackson back in the day (1983-86), it took a minimum of 6 months to be delivered, and there were NEVER quality control issues. They took pride in their guitars back then. Looks like a $599 Indonesian made SLX Soloist would have been a better guitar. Shame.
Back when Grover Jackson was heading his own guitar brand. Now that Fender owns the Jackson name, different story. If I were to spend that much for a new "custom" guitar. I would purchase it from a small company that takes pride in its work!
Joe Dazey ESP or BC Rich would probably have better quality control. To me this is used quality at it’s best, nothing here in this Jackson deserves the title of Custom Shop.
@@fireemblemistrash75 I especially agree w/ ESP. With that said, ESP custom shop guitars start at about $3.2k and most are over 4k. So while they do make great quality custom shop guitars. part of that price is just due to the name alone. An example of a "small guitar company" that I am referring to is... www.fireplantguitars.com/fireplant-guitars-splitsville.htm
In 2014 I ordered a Jackson concert bass, there was none of the color I wanted in North America, so the manufacturer has to make my bass for me, there was nothing wrong with my bass
Joe Dazey I've been playing ESP M-ll Deluxe guitars since the early 1990's after Grover sold out to IMC (International Music Corporation) in 1990. Actually, Grovers wife at the time, Joanne, helped me with orders and such. But, her and Grover were pretty much gone by 1992 or so. That's when I switched to ESP.
Diezel i used to paint houses and refinish exterior and interiors for 3 years... i really think those are orbital markings. They never dropped down in grit to button things up.
Having owned and currently own Custom Shop Jackson's, I have never seen something like this before. I am familiar with some of the horror stories. I'd send this one back. Can't really make an excuse on this one. There is some sloppy work going on.
@@mayniac5.09 well I have serious doubts about that... I own a Jackson and bought a Gibson that I sent back cause it was utter shit. What we see in this video is "small defects", but they shouldn't be there nonetheless. The Gibson bass I ordered had defective pickups and a broken tuning peg... Like.. Wtf... Anyway for me Gibson is the king of shit guitars and basses
Hugues B You’re comparing a custom shop Jackson to an off the shelf Gibson. As someone who has zero interest in owning a Gibson, their custom shop quality is actually stellar and should be thought of as completely separate from their production line stuff.
Phillip Pitts But a lot of times you have to buy online because the local guitar shops don’t have what you want. Iv got 3 from online with no problems. You can send them back if you do find problems. Specially if you paid as much as this guy did.
True that! Shopping on line really is all kinds of bad; starve your city, make it more expensive for small businesses to set up, de-personalise shopping & de socialise people, etc. The list goes on. The only 'benefit' is convenience...like we can afford to get any lazier. I bet we won't stop. I'm still paying about ten percent more for stuff because I'd rather the high street of my city got the money and could pay rates back into local services.....but nahhhhh quick deal and the brain goes off. Brave new world.
I worked at Charvel San Dimas for Grover Jackson ! These details never would have flown there ! I was there during the transition to the Jackson name and those first Jacksons made in San Dimas were impeccable as far as quality control !!!!
when i first saw this video, i originally thought “who the hell cares about some small little dents? you have a custom shop jackson bro.” but now i’m looking at this a year later, and realize if I spend 3,800 dollars on a guitar and it had flaws? i’d be pretty pissed too. cheers to you man for doing this vid, hope you got the guitar you deserve.
Hmmm, here’s another reason why I don’t buy super-expensive guitars. Don’t these companies realise that expectation levels are very high when someone parts with that kind of money? About $1500 is my spend limit and just recently I have been buying less known brand guitars and upgrading their shortcomings. That way I still get a great guitar at much lower outlay.
Mark Leadbeatter for acoustic guitars, Martin Guitar’s custom shop is famous for their hand crafted works. Extremely expensive, for extremely high quality.
I appreciate your attention to detail. Some people would watch this and say that you're going to far. I would disagree. When your hard earned 3-4k guitar comes in and has these issues, it's a big deal. They should ashamed to let it out the shop like that. Honestly, my biggest issue that you pointed out, was the inlay. Ues, i aldo have seem that beforr, but this is a custom build order, you pay extra for the care and quality. Thats how i see it, and that alone would do it for me. The rest of those blemishes would be the icing on the cake. Are you going for another CS Jackson? For $999, I brought a new Japanese Ibanez back in Jan. Ove been playing since the late 80's, and this guitar is up there amongst the best I've owned. Ever played one?
rrguitar1 is that Ibanez one of the origin reissues? Ive played quite a few Ibanez and own two rgs. I prefer the neck, string spacing, and look of a Jackson. You can’t beat the Ibanez quality. Even the Indonesian models have far better quality control that this USA Jackson. I ended up with a new Gibson Les Paul out of all things. They get a lot of crap for their quality control, but this one is perfect. Sounds and feels like the real deal
@@jed_shred_guitars I heard that newer LP'S are.really nice. I want one also. The ibanez is the RG550 genesis. I love those isa Jackson's, always have. It's sad to see this happening with them.
@@jed_shred_guitars exactly, thats why Ibanez move their 3rd class product to Indonesia. Even some people prefer premium Ibanez made in Indonesia rather than the prestige Ibanez made in Japan. Jackson also have some model made in Indonesia, and its not bad at all for the shake of your dollar and quality that comes with it.
I bought an Ibanez Prestige recently...guitar is flawless and plays even better than the jacksons I used to play..Mustain complains about Jacksons awhile back as well
To an extent that’s true. I’ve got guitars under $200 that are flawless and I have high end guitars that could be better. But I can attest a custom shop Gibson or fender and so on, when you get a truly great one, they’re worth the money.
In 2012 I bought a Jackson Warrior with a burst maple top and Floyd Rose (Tacky af I know) from a Norwegian online store. I literally got a different guitar. It was still a Jackson Warrior but it was black and hardtailed with EMGs. I was so disappointed but Iwas so insecure and dumb I did not even contact the store.. Oh well, live and learn. It is still one of my best playing guitars and I am so glad it did not come with a Floyd Rose.
That’s crazy man. How could they confuse them? I had a warrior a few years back, it was sick. Ended up trading it for some tattoo work to some crazy pregnant lady. I’m glad you like it man
When you can find $1000 range instruments with no finish issues or imperfections (maybe the hardware and electronics make it cheaper) but when a $1000 chunk of wood has no issues and a $3800 instrument has all of this, you’re definitely right to complain!
What do you mean way better specs? This Jackson clearly has all top quality hardware/electronics. J-customs are not actually custom either, you can't order what you want.
EOHRyan I agree it has good specs but it doesn’t have $4k worth of specs. Also, most customs you can’t order what you want, I know, so in no way is this the buyers fault. Jackson priced this wrong or at least the store did.
@@alif499 Better specs in what sense though? High end guitar builds aren't priced on their specs, they are priced on labour. And with custom shop stuff the whole point is that you can order what you want, be it Fender, Suhr, Tom Anderson, Kiesel. They obviously offer standard spec stuff, or a shop will order a batch of their own specs, but if you want to order your own build you can, as I did with my Suhr. With Ibanez you can't though, the J-custom stuff is set spec, the LA Custom shop only builds prototypes for artists.
For quality rock/metal guitars ESP is the way to go these days. Their MIJ E-II series are already usually fantastic. Their Original Series and Custom Shop are ALWAYS insane level quality GUARANTEED.
I build my own guitars from scratch. That's how you make sure you're getting exactly what you want. I even choose my own woods, and I can build a custom shop-quality guitar or better, for the price of a cheap guitar. It just takes time and patience. You get faster at making them over time though.
@@hellodumplings8564 You can always sell used guitar at the same price you have bought. I have owned 2x esp custom shops and 1x music man petrucci custom and they are the best guitars i have ever used. And yes they were used guitars. What is the point them getting worse? All of them were in mint condition.
I bought a Jackson USA series back in 2004 right after Fender bought them. It's immaculate. It's so sad to see that even their custom shops aren't up to standards now. I too have always wanted a custom shop Jackson but seeing stuff like this is why I didn't. I'm usually a, "buy Murican" guy but I just ordered a custom shop ESP. Hopefully they don't let me down.
Even if there were no flaws, where is the $3,800 in this guitar..? Standard guitar tonewoods, normal finish, $200-$250 pickups, $200 floyd, $150 max for all the inlays, $50-$60 Tremol-No, $40-$50 tuners, $20-$30 for the pots and switch, $5-$10 for the wiring...with the case I could see this going for MAYBE $1,000-$1,200 without these flaws...where is the other $2,600 value in this thing..?
Absolutely amazing. I have two Korean LTDs that have less issues than this "custom shop", and those are about 1/5 the price. For $4k the guitar should be absolutely spotless and perfect, instead it looks like a $300 Indo-made B-stock, the issues with the neck alone are absurd at this price. Seriously, for $2k, which is half the price of this Jackson, you can get a Japanese Ibby or an ESP and then have them set up professionally, and you'd get one hell of a guitar (and to be honest, even the $1-1.5k top Korean or Indo models would work great as well). The extra $2k above this level of quality should be a guarantee that the guitar is 99.9% free of even the smallest defects, you should get the nicest, roundest, smoothest fret ends possible and surgically precise leveling and fret crowns. That inlay alone is a firm return at this price point, let alone all other issues.
This honestly looks very similar to the workmanship on my $399 Gretsch. But the Gretsch has nicer binding and no sharp fret ends. Didn't really have any noticeable scratches or dents either. Pretty shocking stuff.
I am not trying to be facetious here, but I just cannot see how something so minimal and stripped down could cost over $3000. When an archtop costs that much, I understand that there is a lot of work that goes into them, but a minimalist Jackson? Someone please explain.
To be honest I can’t truly justify a price like that, their should be a little bit of flashy woods and finish for this price. USA labour rates and all the affiliations with running a business in the US heavily inflate the price. Now because US guitars naturally are more expensive, take into consideration that a custom shop is supposed to employees the best luthiers and the highest level of detail and craftsmanship which = lots of labour hours. I’d maybe say $2500 USD is a fair price for first like this. Seeing as custom shop fenders with relic finishes are around that $3500 usd price point.
It would be worth 4000 if it were perfect. Most custom shop guitars sound better because they are constructed with better fundamentals by master crafters. This clearly wasn't. It probably sounds great but with a closer inspection it is clearly unacceptable for 4000. As for the minimalist critique and it not being worth it based on that... they don't make jackson soloists like that and it's already a $1000 guitar. Throw in custom wood, build and time and it's not a stretch that it would be 3k+. Throw in how good it looks and probably feels to play someone would pay the premium price rather than the objective one.
I've seen these for sale from time to time at The Music Zoo. The idea of getting one has been sitting in the back of my mind for a while, but when I heard about how Fender bought Jackson I decided to order a Suhr Custom Modern instead. I feel like every time a giant corporation consumes a smaller one, the quality is guaranteed to suffer regardless of what kind of product is being produced. This might seem like a bizarre comparison, but I used to love Rolling Rock beer. Great signature taste, painted on labels....all unique good stuff. Then Anheuser-Busch bought them out and the bottles are now made with a cheap sticker label and the taste is just slightly reminiscent of it's former self.
@longrider Harley isn't owned by an umbrella corporation and Levis went the way of any other mass produced item in this country. They are farmed out and don't fit right. I buy Wranglers at Walmart for cheap.
I dont have a custom but my 20+ year old MIJ Soloist pro is PERFECT. I still go over it today and the finishing is amazing. Sad to see how your USA had all those things. My $900 dollar LTD was better finished it seems.
Wow! That's amazingly disappointing! I'm a guitar and bass builder also, my own shop now (well, my wife and I, that is). The crappy CNC pocketing, the fret work, the LACK of fret work, the finishing issues, just stunning that it was allowed out of the shop. Scratches on pickups, with no plastic protective film on anything, and body scratches, says, "floor model," to me, And I would see those small scratches, also. That's not being nitpicky, either, that's expecting professionalism, that's expecting a fellow craftsman to be holding himself to the highest standard in the work being done. That's expecting something that some people just don't have in them, unfortunately. It's easy to say that it's a product of our time, and to some extent that's true, but there have always been lazy people, there have always been, people who did sloppy work, there have always been people that in a room full of people doing their best possible work, giving their maximum effort, because they care, there's always some who just don't care, and do whatever they feel like doing, however little that happens to be. Some people are just willing to say f*** it close enough and walk away. Funny, I sent this halfway through your video, and you ended up saying a few things that I had typed just a few minutes earlier. One of my best friends, an ex-bandmate of mine, had to send back a custom shop Jackson V TWICE. This was several years ago, and he had many of the same issues you have with your guitar, but he also had a few more significant problems with the actual structure of the guitar. That was the last Jackson he bought. He only buys Ibanez and Schecter now. He can't afford mine, yet.
Metalbass10000 another factor is time pressures in a factory environment. If management allowed this to go out. It was most likely inspected after sanding, again after finish, and again after final assembly. They allowed it to get it out the door. The management cares more about sales than service to their customer and pride in what have to offer the world. Where can I check out your builds?
I bought this guitar used from the local Guitar Center for $170. Just because I liked the way it looked and matched my man cave decor. Its my only electric, Im mostly into acoustics so I never play it. Didnt know it costs that much.
My "J" was pretty good. The pickups were quiet and never distorted, but had a fantastic feedback effect, even when playing folk music. The neck was tightly screwed on and hardly wobbled, and the guitar stayed in tune for long periods of time when sitting on its stand. The volume and tone controls rotated and the pickup selecter switch moved from one setting to another. While the action was a little high, this was normal back then in the 60s before shredding was invented. At a weight of only two pounds (with tapewound strings), that Jedson was possibly the best guitar I ever owned and lasted me for ages, especially the strap buttons. I really don't know why people are criticizing Jedson guitars so much, since for the price, they were better than some others.
I love my USA Chris Broderick Soloist but I notice it has more finish flaws than my PRS and Mayones which run for the same price. I also notice the Jackson imports feel more unfinished compared to LTD and Schecter
i have a JS and the adrien smith X , and they were actually perfect rite off the rack, it suprised me, but my sam ash does try to do a set up on all the guitars that come through there store, so ?? maybe that's not how they arived at the store, but hoshino would have fired all of us in QC if we had let something like that go, even the lower end shit went out set up and cleaned , no finish flaws
I just purchased a J S Series dka Lefty seriously had none of these issues, finish and craftsmanship was near impeccable for a $300 guitar. The neck and fret work was perfect and The Finish overall was nice.
This makes me happy I chose an Ibanez J custom over Jackson custom shop. Those neck dents and headstock bubbles are horrifying for a guitar of that price. What a shame.
My 11 year old Yamaha RBX170 Bass that I got used for 90€ does not have particularly sharp fret ends (it's the only electric guitar/bass I ever played so I don't have the comparison, but the fret ends are smooth enough to not get in the way when playing), its neck feels good and the pots feel smooth. I find it quite astonishing that a cheap, 11 year old Yamaha bass that was made in Indonesia and cost 170$ new plays better in some aspects than a 1.3k $ Jackson Custom Shop guitar.
No you're not being to fussy,i was a fitter and machinist for years,then when into fine furniture making..my friends would say "oh you're being to anal going that far on furniture", my reply was if somebody buys one of my pieces i want them to walk into their room 10 or 20 years from now and say"that is a beautiful piece i'm glad i bought it" It is having pride in the piece and pride and conscience in yourself.
Your grammar gave me COVID, so I fixed it for you: No, you're not being too fussy. I was a fitter and machinist for years, then went into fine furniture making. My friends would say: "Oh, you're being too anal going that far on furniture." My reply was: "If somebody buys one of my pieces, I want them to walk into their room ten or twenty years from now and say 'That is a beautiful piece; I'm glad I bought it.'" It is having pride in the piece and pride and conscience in yourself.
@@Vindsvelle i'm gonna fix it further, fuck you english major,i lived with a bunch of you assholes at a frat house, you all suck, and what did you actually do with you dumb assed degree, did it put you at next in line for manager at mickey dees, you people piss me off, i wish it had given you COVID fuckin 19, and AIDS with a touch of EBOLA, we're all tryin to be rock stars if we are watching this, bad grammer , spelling, alcohol, and drugs are almost a requirement
A lot of it comes down to how much you want to spend. If you're spending less than $1000, you can do most of the cursory inspection things he's doing. The fine scratches in the top would be a whole lot more noticeable if it were a glossy finish or a solid color gloss finish. You'd see the scratches. The fret ends are a quick giveaway. You'll know immediately if they're sharp. If you want to avoid some of the binding problems he noted, just don't buy a bound guitar or at least not a bound neck. I don't really like the look of binding anyway so that's not a thing for me. The thing that kills me is that for this guitar to be nearly $4000 is ridiculously overpriced. There is nothing on that instrument that even comes close to making it worth that price. I'd be willing to bet the body and neck are CNC cut pieces. Nobody at Jackson stood there and shaped that body by hand. CNC the pieces, slap them in a gluing jig, apply pressure and done. Final fit and finish is easy when CNC gets it so close to begin with. The frets are likely PLEK'd, not hand-installed. Gotoh tuners? I mean, the Japanese ones are good pieces, but they aren't all that fancy shmancy. Passive SD pickups? Meh. I think they should pay the user to use a Floyd. It should literally be a discount. Most of the issues he mentions are very nitpicky, and on a guitar that expensive, I can see why. But you can have a comparable Schecter for a whole lot less and pay a local guitar tech to address any little issues for you and still be in under that price. The CNC machine doesn't care where it lives.
Great vid but I am not surprised. I have had some great high end Jackson's in the day and for a custom shop that is terribly unacceptable espressically fret sprout. Their guitars really went down hill. I went to Mayones and never looked back. Now I have 3 and just got my master grade koa duvell elite. Guitar is gorgeous and plays like a dream. The quality is unprecedented. Thank you for putting time in this vid and I am glad to hear there are still builders like yourself taking pride in their work!
Seems to be a problem with expensive Ibanezes too, disappointing for a company I held so high. My first guitar I ever got, an 80 dollar strat felt and played better than my current 900 dollar Ibanez and jackson
@@ShadowBannedagain I had jagged frets, 1 broken tuner and two inlays not completely filled out. I had no issues with my strat, I also had issues with the metal softness in the floyd rose of the ibanez. I'm not lying
Mate, very good video. Very impressed how you managed to stay so calm. I had a similar issue with a Jackson DX1 backin 1997. Got replaced and still has issues. But for 3800$, this thing should be perfect.
I love my Jackson Kelly. It's a 2000, probably about 499$ new but it was given to me for free. Plug it into a good setup and you can play things that almost no Fender or Gibson can achieve.
"Don't wanna damage it because I want all my money back" Jackson "bro it is damaged, it has "swirl" marks and scratches, we won't give U our money back "
I have a schecter from 1999 that I bought for $250 used in 2017. Even in used condition it wasnt this scratched and dented. I can only imagine what it looked like new. I also can't imagine paying almost 4k for something so lack-luster, you can get a Kiesel that looks a million times better than this, with the attention to detail, for $1,800.
I bought 3 new Jackson in 2010: Soloist Indonesia, Kelly USA, and Warrior Japan. ALL PICKUP SWITCHES FAILED IN FEW MONTHS!!!! The Japanese one got broken in the nut and floyd area..The Cable jack always get loose in the 3 guitars....and all the tremolo black paint disappear in 10 years in the Japanese one. The Indonesian has an horrible always loose and cranky tremolo stick...And all of them only sound good with high action and 10’s strings (standard)...but sadly.....they sound amazingly incredible. It’s a hate/love relationship...
I've been a professional guitarist (session work) for 45 years, and a luthier for much of that time too - I've never liked Jacksons, though I understand why some people do (mostly shredders). That said, If I got something from the Fender or Gibson custom shop as poorly finished as this, I'd be spitting feathers. I rarely buy new guitars for all the reasons shown here and prefer vintage, but then I've been in the game long enough to acquire them before 'vintage' was a thing. I'm glad you're sending it back - I hope with a suitably chastening note - they need to learn that this is unacceptable.
There are also scratches in the cutaways. They use that satin finish to avoid having to buff them. Also the side dots are circles within circles and not centered within the circle. Those dings on the back of the neck look like pressure dents. They could have sweated them out with a wet rag and a soldering iron. The binding running across the fingerboard where it meets the body has what looks like tool marks or gouges. With a see thru finish you would always take them to 360 grit sand paper and put them under a light or take them out in the sun too check for scratches. That would have easily revealed those swirl marks and cross grain scratches. Most of these flaws are really not that big of a deal but if your buying a custom shop model the whole idea is to not have these flaws and that they were free of defects. You can hardly justify spending that much for what is no better than a mass produced guitar that you could for under a grand. It looks like it is probably a great guitar and if it were being purchased as used those flaws wouldn't be an issue to most. However to say brand new custom shop and carry the price tag that guitar should have been pulled for the inlay at the first fret alone being off. That makes it a second and the side dots are whacked.
Sad to see Jackson going down like that, hopefully it's just a one-time fluke that should have never surpassed by the final quality control checksheet. But extremely happy to see your first video has such a whopping number of views. You're doing things the right way.
Which is exactly why I exclusively buy Asian (Japan, Korea and some Chinese), and have done for many years now: their instruments are perhaps not always that great either but at least it's fixable and they costs less than a 1/10 😉👍
I bought my first Jackson CS SL-2h in 2009. The price was about $3000. The factory installed two neck pickups on that guitar. That means the strings are wider than the pickup poles in the bridge pickup position. My second CS Jackson is fine, with a small painting crack on the headstock. My latest CS Jackson has two big screw holes in the bridge pickup cavity throughout the body. I don't know why. For hot tone cooling? The rest of my Jackson CS collections are perfect.
Have been playing Jacksons for 30 years, and I have about 9 custom shops, most from the pre-fender era, but a couple from after and they have never had any issues like this. What a shame, send that thing back, send Jackson a letter, and if they don't make it right and get you a "real" custom shop, take your business elsewhere. Or build your own!
Right on. Definitely working on building my own, and looking out for pre fender USA/Japanese models. I sent it back to the store I bought it from and got all my money back immediately.
As an employee at a guitar company, you should know how underpaid most instrument manufacturing company employees are. You have to be a supervisor to make even ok money. Not that what Jackson presented is acceptable, but I’m sure (being a smaller manufacturer, located in SoCal), most of the shop workers make around $15/hr. Viewers in other parts of the country/world may think that sounds pretty good, but here in Cali, they doesn’t get you far. That barely gives you money to pay rent, and if you do, there’s not much left. QC should have caught these things along the way, but if multiple people along the line are saying “fuck it”, you get this. So what I’m saying is this, back in the golden days(50s/60s), when American guitars were being built that earned the reputation of being great(also largely because the bulk of guitars were only built in America), a factory worker wage was solidly middle class. People bought homes, raised family’s, and could be content on what they got paid. Now, you have to really struggle if you want to work at a guitar manufacturing job. I know from experience, these places are filled with people that stumbled into these jobs. They were looking for ANYTHING that would give them a check. The other half of the employees are aspiring “luthier to the stars”, that went to school (or not), that hope to one day be successful and that they gotta pay their dues. Current factory/manufacturing conditions are not conducive to the types of idealistic expectations we Guitar nerds hold about these things. You go to Indonesia, Korea, China, and the conditions there allow a factory job to be much more in line with life here in America in the 50s/60s, which is why “for the money”, QC is better.
You know what you’re absolutely right. I’ll bet if corporate wasn’t so out of touch with what happens on the floor, and valued quality and the customer as much as profit the guitars at all the big players would be a lot better. It’s definitely not just the workers on the floor to blame. Once a company earns a good reputation and becomes iconic and corporate culture takes over everything goes down hill and becomes about profit and not the love of the instrument and community.
THIS right here. Americans have not been happy since those decades. Pride has been reduced by the corporate greed mongers. On a kinda slightly different angle ... Q. how well can you improve on a well made TOASTER? A. Advertising!
My 200 dollar Jackson JS22 felt like a million bucks. I did a set up, swapped the pickups and I am really happy with it. Honestly if I wanted a custom guitar, I'm heading to a smaller company like Balaguer guitars for a fraction of the price.
Your complaints are valid! When paying over $1000 there are things that are just not acceptable. even faint hairline scratching. I could deal with the scratches on this Jackson but that hole in the fretboard and the clear coat on the headstock starting to peel are a no go for me! Those dents on the back of the neck would have bothered me as well. This particular Jackson has too many things where i would never be 100% happy with it.
Not the first time I've seen issues like this on a USA Jackson. Unbelievable. I'd be pissed too! They need to get their shit together. After you get your $ back what guitar are you looking at getting? I'm gonna guess not a Jackson haha
Glad to see you nipped this in the bud....I'll never buy another gibson after getting a POS 335 out of their factory. Burred frets hanging over the edges, couldn't intonate it. Some of these high end guitar companies are putting out trash. My favorite local shop stopped carrying them due to too many major quality issues.
All "custom shop" guitars from major brands aren't worthy of the price tag. If you want a custom built guitar go to builders like Tom Anderson Guitarworks and get a guitar worthy of the price tag. Usually around the same price as all the others, less expensive than Fender and Gibson, and you get a killer guitar out of the box.
@@MaestroJericho I live about 70 miles from the PRS factory. You can find a ton of stores who get first pick of PRS guitars in the DC area. You can plunk down $2500 for one off the shelf and it beats other's custom stuff. $5K would get you a nice PRS.
@Mendozer01 thanks for sharing that story, i've searched it and it's probably the funniest thread i've ever seen on sevenstring (i've been in the same boat as this guy , though it was a 750€ guitar ...). Gibson really took all the credit for having the worse QC , people don't call out on the jackson CS enough.
My guitars range from $850 to $1800, and I couldn't imagine sending even the $800 model out to a client in that condition. You're not buying a Walmart guitar at that price, you expect quality and a fare bit of pride of craftsmanship to have gone into it.
Maybe I just didn't catch it in the video, but I have two questions: 1) Why didn't you build yourself a sick guitar as you're working in a guitar shop? Would feature the Ikea effect as well. 2) For nearly 4 grand, you could have opted for a high end Kiesel or Mayones, why didn't you think of those brands? Especially Kiesel are doing a superior work in the USA for reasonable prices. Just curious!
@@Keysquall Yeah, I know about those as well, can only talk about my experience, though. I bought my Vader used in mint condition and there is absolutely no flaws on it whatsoever. There are loads of people share this experience, but still there sometimes seem to be some issues apparently.
I have a 32 year old Jackson soloist I got back in 1988. It was a custom order. There was no such thing as a Custom shop guitar. Jackson had alot of pride back then. After 32'years it's still a great guitar (it cost $2000 brand new). I feel bad for him. It should have been the best moment in his life but Jackson ruined it.
No such thing as being nitpicky with a Custon Shop guitar.
I mean he payed 3800$ for this. I understand him when he dont want a fucking hole on the fretboard
At 4 grand!? Damn right!
Custom shop at that price means you should be nitpicking. Someone chose the exact specs on that and should be pristine at that price.
Sadly some people don’t understand that and are like: oh, you could have gotten a 200$ guitar aswell, why buy such an expensive guitar anyways? 🙄
Shit I'm picky af with 600$ and 800$ guitars . I had my 7 string jlv purple bc rich back of it got scratched up has two pretty deep ones . At a shop I left it thare to have a set up done and new strings
Silly complaints for a $400 guitar, perfectly reasonable for a $4000 guitar. If you're going to charge a premium price, you have to deliver a premium product, period.
I agree up until he got to the dents at the bottom of the neck. Even a low end guitar shouldnt come with that much damage, and no ignoring that because you'll feel it every time you're playing up there
If this happened to me i would’ve don’t everything to take them down
I would not buy that for 400 dollars. You could just pay a little more for good Ibaneze. Or just the RG for the 400. They would not look like that Jackson he had
@Larry Smithart That’s actually average price, anything lower than $2,000 it can be considered lower end China, Indonesia made guitars. Higher end guitars are $7,000 and up.
$400 or $4000 i still want my product in good shape. Even if it cost me $10. Terrible business. No respect for the product and customers.
Why is that thing that expensive in the first place, looks like a 500 dollar guitar
200$
@@AntonioLopez-kw3ev $150. I have a family to feed and that's my final offer
Parts alone go for about that much give or take a few 100. I agree with you none the less
I just got a 200$ Jackson Dinky and it looks IDENTICAL to this except it's matte black and the inlays are much nicer. I got it from Sweetwater, who inspects every guitar they put out, and I'm thrilled with it.
The features aren't that great. The roasted mahogany, Gotoh tuners, Seymour Duncans, original Floyd, will probably be typical of like a $1200 guitar. But the idea of a custom shop is to have expert craftsmen get everything perfect. The fretwork should be sublime, the neck should be dead straight. The fit and finish should be perfect. But it looks like that isn't the case at all here. That fretwork looked like trash.
The orbital marks make it look homemade, not handmade.
A $4,000 guitar should be hand sanded. You use an electrical sander when you mass produce a guitar on an assembly line and need to ship out hundreds of guitars a day.
@@JENDALL714 have you ever hand sanded hardwood? I mean its mahogany so a bit softer but that's not something that would ever be done by any business running a shop. They should put more care into cleaning up the marks and more qc checks to make sure it doesnt happen
@@bolerdweller I just completed an Ash wood guitar and it's as hard of wood as you can find. It's my favorite wood for guitars.
@@JENDALL714 yeah but Jackson is in business, paying someone to sit and hand sand and shape a guitar makes no sense when you could pay them less money to use a sander. Same end result if done properly(obviously not the case here) also less carpal tunnel for the person hand sanding everyday
"Custom shop" actually means "the intern built it".
Too bad they don't drug test the interns!😆
Lol
So true. I was at Japan ESP in Tokyo but even that I don’t even get to speak with the luthier while it’s the sales rep that’s taking down my options. Custom shops are BS.
No.
@@669rdyou just need to find a local luthier they will likely build you a custom instrument for a great price (way cheaper than a big company) and you are actually talking ti the builder when you buy a custom build from a local luthier
“Custom Shop” is the most overused marketing ploy in guitar
Yup
EXACTLY. it's a 500 dollar guitar with a 3000 dollar piece of paper. No specs or quality can justify this price.
xanos .lauwereys Amen!
This is why I started ordering Kiesels, they are worth every penny and stand behind their products 110% and make some of the finest dadburn guitars out there.
It usually means a small group of people like the fender custom shop and then there is masterbuilt which is meant to be one dude. However who exactly works in the 'custom shop' is another question. Both my old $600 Korean made PRS SE's felt great with a lowering of the action and a intonation setup etc. Shocking times man!
Since this is 6 months old, I am hoping it got sent back. I would not accept the dents and there are way too many scratches. No way I would pay 4k for it.
Ripley7t oh yeah went back the next day
@@jed_shred_guitars did they fix it?
@@danielmanrique4830 or get a refund
In 2020 with the quality standards that have been set by sub $1k import guitars, even a SINGLE orbital sanding mark on a $4k custom shop USA guitar is 100% unacceptable. At that price range you are paying to get something immaculately crafted and exceptional beyond the average high end instrument.
yeah exactly, Jackson CS is really premium too. They should not have these issues, hell a US standard Jackson shouldn't either.
@@MaestroJericho All roads lead to the banks and money my friend!
Dunno, if I bought it to play it- I would not bodher of these minor surface flaws. Playing daily for 6 weeks will get me a lot more visible scratches...
First of all: will never spend this amount of money on ANY guitar ever😅
MK4vDubbin Right on the Mark, man! I commented earlier saying how production numbers trump quality of craftsmanship. There are a number of guitar companies who I believe from my own perspective take shortcuts when it comes to production time, materials like tone woods; hardware; electronics; etc., and putting stress on and rushing the shop workers and quality inspectors. I hold the management accountable. Luthiers are hard to come by these days I’m assuming. Hell! I’m not an expert, I’m just passionate about craftsmanship. People shouldn’t be getting stiffed like this.
Man, this is heartbreaking being a Jackson fan. This shouldn't have happened.
Blindness? Bad day at factory? Lol who knows.. appallingly thou yep ..
I bought last year a custom
Shop soloist. The qualitiy was terrible and I took it back to the Shop! Never again a new Jackson! I have a Jackson dinky Usa from 90’ s , and way better than the new custom shop shit!
@@joeyever1511 Really??!! I looked into ordering a King V but with a Kahler fixed like Mustaine Jackson but I didn't even see it in the options, I don't know how people are able to order a crasy custom Jackson. Worse off that they're not worth the money? Almost all my Jacksons are Japan made and they're amazing
@@lessthanhumanmusic3410 Fender bought them almost 20 years ago
@@joeyever1511 I have a 1996 DNKY made in Japan at Chushin Gakki Factory. Absolutely flawless guitar. Never am selling it, getting buried with me.
A $1000, made in Korea Schecter SLS has absolutely NONE of those flaws, has double the specs, and looks awesome. My god you have all the rights to be furious.
Americans just no longer know how to make guitar
the cheapest prs se guitars have better fretwork
Not true my sls elite had binding tool marks and weird clear coat that was raised
@@jozhaoyuansong6937 or anything else, cars included. We are slowly becoming China.
Wow. I'm a certified guitar tech and currently work at PRS right now in the wood shop, so I know exactly what it's like to see everything wrong with a guitar and not be able to unsee it. I can't believe all of the issues this thing has, especially the inlay and dents on the back of the neck. I hope you got all of your money back (I'm sure you did) and a better guitar.
i've been a jackson fanboy for 15 years, since i've only had great experiences with their cheaper, overseas made guitars ($500-$1500) and seeing this nasty work from the usa custom shop really hurts. looks like they let an apprentice lead a build and they dropped the ball. needless to say, i won't be filling out this custom order form. good video, m8.
I was the same way. They have always been my favorite brand. Who knows I just the worst one they have ever made and 99% of the rest are amazing. I do know the wait is crazy long to get a custom from them
@@jed_shred_guitars Well, Whats the word? Did you get a new one?
Have wanted a quality Jackson since the Eighties. I'm Left. which has made it nearly impossible until a few years ago when they made the SL2 pro in LH. They are still trying to sell off the remaining stock of that. Why? If they would have made some COLORS with some diff configurations other than black I can pretty much guarantee they'd be gone. Ignorance has no room for logistics when it comes to fast greed. I spoke to a suit about this and got the same stink ass response I did 30 yrs ago "Not enough demand." Dumbass just didn't want to listen to what I had to say.
Yet they continue to cut corners everywhere to the mainstream as well and make us pay for quality instruments by forcing the "custom shop" illusion - where this is now happening. Well, it's finally catching up to them and I call bullshit. This industry is built so much on hype it's refukendikluous. And now it's become a lawyer infested soap opera.
What a f'cked up paradigm we are in.
I've personally had enough. Have learned to do my own mods where i can, and found companies that are willing to work with their customers when it comes to buying new - which is NOT easy in the LH world. Apparently the apathy has been bleeding into my fellow RH's for awhile now as well. The industry is gonna hit a wall at some point, and the cpmpanies that truly care about customers will survive.
Somebody please hire me as writer. I need work.
Rant over.
Hawk InTheWind 👏 well said my friend!
@@PulledPurk The *word* is "got", as in "Who knows, I just GOT the worst one..." Hope this helps, and I appreciate your concerns for quality.
"Made in USA" means less and less these days.
Ryan Weiss very true
Only with a few of the big companies.
Tell me how many guitar and bass makers from the US are some of the finest instruments that have ever been crafted.
The list is endless.
Yep, my Larrivée was hand made in Victoria, British Columbia. Gives me more love than reading ‘Made in USA’ maybe I’m just biased.... being Canadian and all lol however my Martin says ‘Made in Mexico’ 😢 it’s still a rocket though
Yeah...Made In Japan is where it's at these days. I recently got an ESP original series guitar and it's probably the best made instrument I've ever had. And I have 2 Fender CS Set-Neck guitars, a PRS and some other stuff.
christian larsson Paul Reed Smith’s are beautiful guitars, I’m envious.
I’ve been playing for 16 years now and I’ve come to the conclusion, no production guitar is worth more than a grand imo. Only handmade or custom guitars should draw higher prices. My number one guitar is a USA Chris Broderick Jackson 7 string. I paid 3 grand for it. It’s my fav guitar, but it’s not worth 3 thousand dollars. It’s ridiculous what they charge for guitars these days.
PRS guitars can be worth over a grand. Some of the Pro 2 strats are also worth it
@@Jordan-rb28 not to me. I find their body shape to be ugly as hell. They have excellent wood grains and paint jobs and may play great, but aesthetics are as important to me and prs isnt my look
Especially for solid bodies. Carved top jazz boxes are another story, but a solid body simply doesn't cost that much when factory produced.
@@benrosow7997 I know, they just have wood that isn’t really picked out like a custom guitar would be, thrown into a cnc machine and pay a painter and a fat non English speaking women to wind pickups and pop the price sticker out and ship it. The robots are doing a lot of the hard stuff
Reasonable. Unless you are after smth like a production 9 string with weird specs or some not so standard stuff
I really actually liked how you took the time to complement them in some areas. Very classy.
ESP has pieces of art for that price! Shoulda bought a Schecter!
Appreciate your comment!
ESP and Schecter play like shit to me.
Someone understands. Absolutely stellar companies.
Agreed. Esp is crushing it with their quality per price. I would never own a Jackson personally. I cant see how an unfinished body with such basic appointments cost him 3800. If that was a USA ESP at that price it would be a beautiful lifelong instrument.
beef nacos I don’t know what models you’ve played but ESP even the LTD line has some amazing instruments. Schecter is definitely lower end than ESP I will admit but still solid value instruments.
That guitar looks like an $400 Indonesian replica. Seriously THAT costs almost $ 4.000 dollars??? Mmmm...😐 💩
no he had too many zeros
@@truckerkevthepaidtourist Lol! U mean he probably pay less for that?
@@endtyme1345 I sure hope so...
@@truckerkevthepaidtourist I don't think that guitar costs that ridiculous amount of money either ;)
@@endtyme1345 a Jackson hell no.. or else they saw him coming a mile away here's a sucker...anytime it says custom shop it is what it is and could be a great piece of wood or to be a piece of shit.. that's the chance you get with a custom shop..
$3,800!? I'd send that back for being so plain!
Nick Ostrye this looks like a 400 dollar guitar at most.
Literally looks like X series soloist
Ehh I prefer plain guitars. I’ve owned flashy guitars and I just get sick of looking at them after a while
mark olivares a 200$ guitar
Wtf why does everyone think that an expensive guitar has to have a flashy finish
Small custom builders are putting these big brands to shame at less than half the price!
We appreciate tips😜
Yep!
Must have been finished on a Friday lol
At 4:50 pm..lol jk
Lol
When you ordered a Jackson back in the day (1983-86), it took a minimum of 6 months to be delivered, and there were NEVER quality control issues. They took pride in their guitars back then.
Looks like a $599 Indonesian made SLX Soloist would have been a better guitar. Shame.
Back when Grover Jackson was heading his own guitar brand. Now that Fender owns the Jackson name, different story. If I were to spend that much for a new "custom" guitar. I would purchase it from a small company that takes pride in its work!
Joe Dazey ESP or BC Rich would probably have better quality control. To me this is used quality at it’s best, nothing here in this Jackson deserves the title of Custom Shop.
@@fireemblemistrash75 I especially agree w/ ESP. With that said, ESP custom shop guitars start at about $3.2k and most are over 4k. So while they do make great quality custom shop guitars. part of that price is just due to the name alone. An example of a "small guitar company" that I am referring to is... www.fireplantguitars.com/fireplant-guitars-splitsville.htm
In 2014 I ordered a Jackson concert bass, there was none of the color I wanted in North America, so the manufacturer has to make my bass for me, there was nothing wrong with my bass
Joe Dazey I've been playing ESP M-ll Deluxe guitars since the early 1990's after Grover sold out to IMC (International Music Corporation) in 1990. Actually, Grovers wife at the time, Joanne, helped me with orders and such. But, her and Grover were pretty much gone by 1992 or so. That's when I switched to ESP.
The orbital sander marks would be an instant return for me... yikes!
Sharp fret ends too
The dents for me
NickHyphy Yeah man, the frets are the first I’d notice and it’s unacceptable.
Those look like CNC tooling marks, not orbital sander marks. If they are, that makes it 10x worse as the body wasn't sanded properly before finishing.
Diezel i used to paint houses and refinish exterior and interiors for 3 years... i really think those are orbital markings. They never dropped down in grit to button things up.
This guy would have a heart attack if he bought a new Gibson
He did, he preferred it. It is in his reply comment to another poster above.
James Fulton 🤣
James Fulton you mean a Gibson from a couple years ago, the new ones are amazing
Go Epiphone. I switched just recently and wont go back.
James Fulton I bought a new 2019 les Paul standard 50’s out of all things and absolutely love it. I’ll make a video soon
For a custom you would expect perfection hence the prices you pay, shame this happened to you
Having owned and currently own Custom Shop Jackson's, I have never seen something like this before. I am familiar with some of the horror stories. I'd send this one back.
Can't really make an excuse on this one. There is some sloppy work going on.
I guess im just kind of confused why that instrument is 3800, even if the errors seen here were not part of the equation.
Brenden Dooley because fender is a joke.:worse than gibson
Dude....I agree...I don’t see anything there that justifies 3800 bucks...maybe $2000 TOPS...and that’s pushing it
@@mayniac5.09 well I have serious doubts about that... I own a Jackson and bought a Gibson that I sent back cause it was utter shit.
What we see in this video is "small defects", but they shouldn't be there nonetheless.
The Gibson bass I ordered had defective pickups and a broken tuning peg... Like.. Wtf...
Anyway for me Gibson is the king of shit guitars and basses
@@eddiejr540 true. Even without the defects, no reason for this to be more than 2k....
Hugues B You’re comparing a custom shop Jackson to an off the shelf Gibson. As someone who has zero interest in owning a Gibson, their custom shop quality is actually stellar and should be thought of as completely separate from their production line stuff.
You have every right to send it back that’s a lot of money for a half ass finished guitar
The one thing I take away from this video. Don’t buy a guitar without holding it in your hands.
yeah this is so sad. Nowadayes you just cannot trust the companies and buy guitar online ...
Phillip Pitts But a lot of times you have to buy online because the local guitar shops don’t have what you want. Iv got 3 from online with no problems. You can send them back if you do find problems. Specially if you paid as much as this guy did.
Or have a great return policy. Sweetwater and music zoo have taken great care of me. Guitar center lets you return to any physical store
True that! Shopping on line really is all kinds of bad; starve your city, make it more expensive for small businesses to set up, de-personalise shopping & de socialise people, etc. The list goes on. The only 'benefit' is convenience...like we can afford to get any lazier. I bet we won't stop. I'm still paying about ten percent more for stuff because I'd rather the high street of my city got the money and could pay rates back into local services.....but nahhhhh quick deal and the brain goes off. Brave new world.
I worked at Charvel San Dimas for Grover Jackson ! These details never would have flown there ! I was there during the transition to the Jackson name and those first Jacksons made in San Dimas were impeccable as far as quality control !!!!
Charvel and Jackson are just a name and shapes now. The soul has left and been replaced with numbers
When charvel and Jackson were together quality was always the finest of details still dream of owning a charvel
Joe Williams built my Warrior.
It’s a work of art.
I did too. Next to the boat finisher in the commercial complex! I didn't go to Ontario. I quit and moved to Los Angeles......
@@pigjubby1 Me neither ! I left before Ontario ! Grover begged me to stay , gave him a full 6 weeks ! And it was back to making bicycles in Claremont!
when i first saw this video, i originally thought “who the hell cares about some small little dents? you have a custom shop jackson bro.” but now i’m looking at this a year later, and realize if I spend 3,800 dollars on a guitar and it had flaws? i’d be pretty pissed too. cheers to you man for doing this vid, hope you got the guitar you deserve.
Hmmm, here’s another reason why I don’t buy super-expensive guitars. Don’t these companies realise that expectation levels are very high when someone parts with that kind of money? About $1500 is my spend limit and just recently I have been buying less known brand guitars and upgrading their shortcomings. That way I still get a great guitar at much lower outlay.
yep, my bass started as a 200 ibanez. the only thing ibanez about it is the body. all custom parts done by me
Mark Leadbeatter for acoustic guitars, Martin Guitar’s custom shop is famous for their hand crafted works. Extremely expensive, for extremely high quality.
I appreciate your attention to detail. Some people would watch this and say that you're going to far.
I would disagree. When your hard earned 3-4k guitar comes in and has these issues, it's a big deal.
They should ashamed to let it out the shop like that. Honestly, my biggest issue that you pointed out, was the inlay. Ues, i aldo have seem that beforr, but this is a custom build order, you pay extra for the care and quality. Thats how i see it, and that alone would do it for me. The rest of those blemishes would be the icing on the cake.
Are you going for another CS Jackson? For $999, I brought a new Japanese Ibanez back in Jan. Ove been playing since the late 80's, and this guitar is up there amongst the best I've owned. Ever played one?
rrguitar1 is that Ibanez one of the origin reissues? Ive played quite a few Ibanez and own two rgs. I prefer the neck, string spacing, and look of a Jackson. You can’t beat the Ibanez quality. Even the Indonesian models have far better quality control that this USA Jackson.
I ended up with a new Gibson Les Paul out of all things. They get a lot of crap for their quality control, but this one is perfect. Sounds and feels like the real deal
@@jed_shred_guitars I heard that newer LP'S are.really nice. I want one also. The ibanez is the RG550 genesis. I love those isa Jackson's, always have. It's sad to see this happening with them.
rrguitar1 agreed
@@jed_shred_guitars exactly, thats why Ibanez move their 3rd class product to Indonesia. Even some people prefer premium Ibanez made in Indonesia rather than the prestige Ibanez made in Japan. Jackson also have some model made in Indonesia, and its not bad at all for the shake of your dollar and quality that comes with it.
I bought an Ibanez Prestige recently...guitar is flawless and plays even better than the jacksons I used to play..Mustain complains about Jacksons awhile back as well
I guess buying an american made overpriced guitar these day’s is not a very good idea any more?
it was never a good idea
@@johnhruby6205 never was..
better off getting a $500-$800 dollar ibanez and modding the shit out of it... or get a prs
To an extent that’s true. I’ve got guitars under $200 that are flawless and I have high end guitars that could be better. But I can attest a custom shop Gibson or fender and so on, when you get a truly great one, they’re worth the money.
PRS, Fender, Suhr, Kiesel, and a bunch of other boutique brands will not have these issues.
In 2012 I bought a Jackson Warrior with a burst maple top and Floyd Rose (Tacky af I know) from a Norwegian online store. I literally got a different guitar. It was still a Jackson Warrior but it was black and hardtailed with EMGs. I was so disappointed but Iwas so insecure and dumb I did not even contact the store.. Oh well, live and learn. It is still one of my best playing guitars and I am so glad it did not come with a Floyd Rose.
That’s crazy man. How could they confuse them? I had a warrior a few years back, it was sick. Ended up trading it for some tattoo work to some crazy pregnant lady. I’m glad you like it man
When you can find $1000 range instruments with no finish issues or imperfections (maybe the hardware and electronics make it cheaper) but when a $1000 chunk of wood has no issues and a $3800 instrument has all of this, you’re definitely right to complain!
Even if it was perfect, its way overpriced
Exactly, no way in hell I'd pay 4000 for any guitar, especially a mahagoney body. That thing better be Alder or Poplar if I'm dropping that amount.
Not worth it
I’m returning my Jackson. They rushed mine as well and the neck isn’t even sanded down correctly.
Almost $4k for this??? You can get a J. Custom (Japan made) Ibanez with waaaaaay better specs!
Well, Ibanez is a brand that you get what you pay
@@NDRWCHNNL And it seems in this case Jackson is a brand you don't get what you pay.
What do you mean way better specs? This Jackson clearly has all top quality hardware/electronics. J-customs are not actually custom either, you can't order what you want.
EOHRyan I agree it has good specs but it doesn’t have $4k worth of specs. Also, most customs you can’t order what you want, I know, so in no way is this the buyers fault. Jackson priced this wrong or at least the store did.
@@alif499 Better specs in what sense though? High end guitar builds aren't priced on their specs, they are priced on labour.
And with custom shop stuff the whole point is that you can order what you want, be it Fender, Suhr, Tom Anderson, Kiesel. They obviously offer standard spec stuff, or a shop will order a batch of their own specs, but if you want to order your own build you can, as I did with my Suhr.
With Ibanez you can't though, the J-custom stuff is set spec, the LA Custom shop only builds prototypes for artists.
For quality rock/metal guitars ESP is the way to go these days. Their MIJ E-II series are already usually fantastic. Their Original Series and Custom Shop are ALWAYS insane level quality GUARANTEED.
Has to be a rushed job... It's all about the money, were living in a world where the value of things mean nothing...
Part of the reason I almost always buy used guitars.
Seriously, let someone else beta test the guitar for you.
To get them even worse?
I build my own guitars from scratch. That's how you make sure you're getting exactly what you want. I even choose my own woods, and I can build a custom shop-quality guitar or better, for the price of a cheap guitar. It just takes time and patience. You get faster at making them over time though.
@@hellodumplings8564 To get something that's built to last
@@hellodumplings8564 You can always sell used guitar at the same price you have bought. I have owned 2x esp custom shops and 1x music man petrucci custom and they are the best guitars i have ever used. And yes they were used guitars. What is the point them getting worse? All of them were in mint condition.
They do Jackson soloist models with the relic finish now?
OOOF
@@sohamsengupta6470 IT BUUURNS! double OOOOOF!
The least they could've done was fretwork. Crazy
I bought a Jackson USA series back in 2004 right after Fender bought them. It's immaculate. It's so sad to see that even their custom shops aren't up to standards now. I too have always wanted a custom shop Jackson but seeing stuff like this is why I didn't. I'm usually a, "buy Murican" guy but I just ordered a custom shop ESP. Hopefully they don't let me down.
Hows the esp?
We demand an ESP update!
@@wisteriahill7584 It's absolutely perfect! Looked over it thoroughly and couldn't find any flaws. Sounds great too!
@@oh033 It's perfect!
Damn! My teenage son's $250 Squier arrived in better condition than that.
Even if there were no flaws, where is the $3,800 in this guitar..?
Standard guitar tonewoods, normal finish, $200-$250 pickups, $200 floyd, $150 max for all the inlays, $50-$60 Tremol-No, $40-$50 tuners, $20-$30 for the pots and switch, $5-$10 for the wiring...with the case I could see this going for MAYBE $1,000-$1,200 without these flaws...where is the other $2,600 value in this thing..?
“Custom shop” means “get ready to pay more”
I think he mentions it being USA-made. So expect 2-3x + the normal price.
When fender takes over, this is what happens..... sad
Jamie Bertin preach!
Facts
I mean, Fenders and Charvels play good no matter what you pay
To be fair, this type of shit has been going on with Jackson long before Fender came into the picture.
@@bdamotta I don't know about that. They turned out some world class guitars when they were custom shop only
Absolutely amazing. I have two Korean LTDs that have less issues than this "custom shop", and those are about 1/5 the price. For $4k the guitar should be absolutely spotless and perfect, instead it looks like a $300 Indo-made B-stock, the issues with the neck alone are absurd at this price. Seriously, for $2k, which is half the price of this Jackson, you can get a Japanese Ibby or an ESP and then have them set up professionally, and you'd get one hell of a guitar (and to be honest, even the $1-1.5k top Korean or Indo models would work great as well). The extra $2k above this level of quality should be a guarantee that the guitar is 99.9% free of even the smallest defects, you should get the nicest, roundest, smoothest fret ends possible and surgically precise leveling and fret crowns. That inlay alone is a firm return at this price point, let alone all other issues.
animaegray absolutely!
This honestly looks very similar to the workmanship on my $399 Gretsch. But the Gretsch has nicer binding and no sharp fret ends. Didn't really have any noticeable scratches or dents either. Pretty shocking stuff.
I am not trying to be facetious here, but I just cannot see how something so minimal and stripped down could cost over $3000. When an archtop costs that much, I understand that there is a lot of work that goes into them, but a minimalist Jackson?
Someone please explain.
To be honest I can’t truly justify a price like that, their should be a little bit of flashy woods and finish for this price.
USA labour rates and all the affiliations with running a business in the US heavily inflate the price.
Now because US guitars naturally are more expensive, take into consideration that a custom shop is supposed to employees the best luthiers and the highest level of detail and craftsmanship which = lots of labour hours.
I’d maybe say $2500 USD is a fair price for first like this.
Seeing as custom shop fenders with relic finishes are around that $3500 usd price point.
@@SG-wj2qj Thanks, that puts things into better perspective.
It would be worth 4000 if it were perfect. Most custom shop guitars sound better because they are constructed with better fundamentals by master crafters. This clearly wasn't. It probably sounds great but with a closer inspection it is clearly unacceptable for 4000.
As for the minimalist critique and it not being worth it based on that... they don't make jackson soloists like that and it's already a $1000 guitar. Throw in custom wood, build and time and it's not a stretch that it would be 3k+. Throw in how good it looks and probably feels to play someone would pay the premium price rather than the objective one.
Go Warmoth.
I've seen these for sale from time to time at The Music Zoo. The idea of getting one has been sitting in the back of my mind for a while, but when I heard about how Fender bought Jackson I decided to order a Suhr Custom Modern instead. I feel like every time a giant corporation consumes a smaller one, the quality is guaranteed to suffer regardless of what kind of product is being produced. This might seem like a bizarre comparison, but I used to love Rolling Rock beer. Great signature taste, painted on labels....all unique good stuff. Then Anheuser-Busch bought them out and the bottles are now made with a cheap sticker label and the taste is just slightly reminiscent of it's former self.
I’ve seen the same thing happen many times. The passion and identity are lost to pure profit motives
Yep, you're right
Hey..... I love Rolling rock beer or at least I used to.....,?? Lol
@longrider Harley isn't owned by an umbrella corporation and Levis went the way of any other mass produced item in this country. They are farmed out and don't fit right. I buy Wranglers at Walmart for cheap.
@@hectorgonzalez9170 The old 33.
I dont have a custom but my 20+ year old MIJ Soloist pro is PERFECT. I still go over it today and the finishing is amazing. Sad to see how your USA had all those things. My $900 dollar LTD was better finished it seems.
Wow! That's amazingly disappointing!
I'm a guitar and bass builder also, my own shop now (well, my wife and I, that is).
The crappy CNC pocketing, the fret work, the LACK of fret work, the finishing issues, just stunning that it was allowed out of the shop.
Scratches on pickups, with no plastic protective film on anything, and body scratches, says, "floor model," to me, And I would see those small scratches, also. That's not being nitpicky, either, that's expecting professionalism, that's expecting a fellow craftsman to be holding himself to the highest standard in the work being done. That's expecting something that some people just don't have in them, unfortunately.
It's easy to say that it's a product of our time, and to some extent that's true, but there have always been lazy people, there have always been, people who did sloppy work, there have always been people that in a room full of people doing their best possible work, giving their maximum effort, because they care, there's always some who just don't care, and do whatever they feel like doing, however little that happens to be. Some people are just willing to say f*** it close enough and walk away.
Funny, I sent this halfway through your video, and you ended up saying a few things that I had typed just a few minutes earlier.
One of my best friends, an ex-bandmate of mine, had to send back a custom shop Jackson V TWICE. This was several years ago, and he had many of the same issues you have with your guitar, but he also had a few more significant problems with the actual structure of the guitar.
That was the last Jackson he bought. He only buys Ibanez and Schecter now.
He can't afford mine, yet.
Metalbass10000 another factor is time pressures in a factory environment. If management allowed this to go out. It was most likely inspected after sanding, again after finish, and again after final assembly. They allowed it to get it out the door. The management cares more about sales than service to their customer and pride in what have to offer the world.
Where can I check out your builds?
I bought this guitar used from the local Guitar Center for $170. Just because I liked the way it looked and matched my man cave decor. Its my only electric, Im mostly into acoustics so I never play it. Didnt know it costs that much.
My "J" was pretty good. The pickups were quiet and never distorted, but had a fantastic feedback effect, even when playing folk music. The neck was tightly screwed on and hardly wobbled, and the guitar stayed in tune for long periods of time when sitting on its stand. The volume and tone controls rotated and the pickup selecter switch moved from one setting to another. While the action was a little high, this was normal back then in the 60s before shredding was invented. At a weight of only two pounds (with tapewound strings), that Jedson was possibly the best guitar I ever owned and lasted me for ages, especially the strap buttons. I really don't know why people are criticizing Jedson guitars so much, since for the price, they were better than some others.
I've owned just about every major guitar brand over the years , the two jacksons I owned were the biggest pieces of junk by far
I love my USA Chris Broderick Soloist but I notice it has more finish flaws than my PRS and Mayones which run for the same price. I also notice the Jackson imports feel more unfinished compared to LTD and Schecter
yeah a $3800 guitar should be PERFECT
if it was a Js or a x series, i'd "meh, okay for the money" for almost 4 grand, this is unacceptable.
i have a JS and the adrien smith X , and they were actually perfect rite off the rack, it suprised me, but my sam ash does try to do a set up on all the guitars that come through there store, so ?? maybe that's not how they arived at the store, but hoshino would have fired all of us in QC if we had let something like that go, even the lower end shit went out set up and cleaned , no finish flaws
I just purchased a J S Series dka Lefty seriously had none of these issues, finish and craftsmanship was near impeccable for a $300 guitar. The neck and fret work was perfect and The Finish overall was nice.
This makes me happy I chose an Ibanez J custom over Jackson custom shop. Those neck dents and headstock bubbles are horrifying for a guitar of that price. What a shame.
My 11 year old Yamaha RBX170 Bass that I got used for 90€ does not have particularly sharp fret ends (it's the only electric guitar/bass I ever played so I don't have the comparison, but the fret ends are smooth enough to not get in the way when playing), its neck feels good and the pots feel smooth. I find it quite astonishing that a cheap, 11 year old Yamaha bass that was made in Indonesia and cost 170$ new plays better in some aspects than a 1.3k $ Jackson Custom Shop guitar.
No you're not being to fussy,i was a fitter and machinist for years,then when into fine furniture
making..my friends would say "oh you're being to anal going that far on furniture",
my reply was if somebody buys one of my pieces i want them to walk into their room
10 or 20 years from now and say"that is a beautiful piece i'm glad i bought it"
It is having pride in the piece and pride and conscience in yourself.
Absolutely!
Your grammar gave me COVID, so I fixed it for you:
No, you're not being too fussy. I was a fitter and machinist for years, then went into fine furniture making.
My friends would say: "Oh, you're being too anal going that far on furniture." My reply was: "If somebody buys one of my pieces, I want them to walk into their room ten or twenty years from now and say 'That is a beautiful piece; I'm glad I bought it.'"
It is having pride in the piece and pride and conscience in yourself.
Those circles left from the orbital sander was absolutely disgusting. No pride in the making of that guitar.
@@Vindsvelle i'm gonna fix it further, fuck you english major,i lived with a bunch of you assholes at a frat house, you all suck, and what did you actually do with you dumb assed degree, did it put you at next in line for manager at mickey dees, you people piss me off, i wish it had given you COVID fuckin 19, and AIDS with a touch of EBOLA, we're all tryin to be rock stars if we are watching this, bad grammer , spelling, alcohol, and drugs are almost a requirement
@@jakeqwaninne8502 are you ok?
I would pay him to go Guitar shopping with me so he can tell me if I’m buying good quality
A lot of it comes down to how much you want to spend. If you're spending less than $1000, you can do most of the cursory inspection things he's doing. The fine scratches in the top would be a whole lot more noticeable if it were a glossy finish or a solid color gloss finish. You'd see the scratches. The fret ends are a quick giveaway. You'll know immediately if they're sharp. If you want to avoid some of the binding problems he noted, just don't buy a bound guitar or at least not a bound neck. I don't really like the look of binding anyway so that's not a thing for me.
The thing that kills me is that for this guitar to be nearly $4000 is ridiculously overpriced. There is nothing on that instrument that even comes close to making it worth that price.
I'd be willing to bet the body and neck are CNC cut pieces. Nobody at Jackson stood there and shaped that body by hand. CNC the pieces, slap them in a gluing jig, apply pressure and done. Final fit and finish is easy when CNC gets it so close to begin with.
The frets are likely PLEK'd, not hand-installed. Gotoh tuners? I mean, the Japanese ones are good pieces, but they aren't all that fancy shmancy.
Passive SD pickups? Meh.
I think they should pay the user to use a Floyd. It should literally be a discount.
Most of the issues he mentions are very nitpicky, and on a guitar that expensive, I can see why. But you can have a comparable Schecter for a whole lot less and pay a local guitar tech to address any little issues for you and still be in under that price. The CNC machine doesn't care where it lives.
Answer high end prs sc 245 or custom 24 mid end prs se standard 24 low end idk it's just a starter guitar best to get a mid end
Great vid but I am not surprised. I have had some great high end Jackson's in the day and for a custom shop that is terribly unacceptable espressically fret sprout. Their guitars really went down hill. I went to Mayones and never looked back. Now I have 3 and just got my master grade koa duvell elite. Guitar is gorgeous and plays like a dream. The quality is unprecedented. Thank you for putting time in this vid and I am glad to hear there are still builders like yourself taking pride in their work!
No guitar is perfect. No guitar is perfect.
Mike McKeen yeah no way they hand made that neck. I know Warmoth hand makes their necks.
woah, sharp frets? Thats like.. a 100 dollar guitar problem, almost excludive to those
It's an emo guitar for people who want to cut themselves.
The wood shrunk. Metal does not shrink.
Seems to be a problem with expensive Ibanezes too, disappointing for a company I held so high. My first guitar I ever got, an 80 dollar strat felt and played better than my current 900 dollar Ibanez and jackson
@@ShadowBannedagain I had jagged frets, 1 broken tuner and two inlays not completely filled out. I had no issues with my strat, I also had issues with the metal softness in the floyd rose of the ibanez. I'm not lying
Mate, very good video. Very impressed how you managed to stay so calm. I had a similar issue with a Jackson DX1 backin 1997. Got replaced and still has issues. But for 3800$, this thing should be perfect.
I love my Jackson Kelly. It's a 2000, probably about 499$ new but it was given to me for free. Plug it into a good setup and you can play things that almost no Fender or Gibson can achieve.
I have a Jackson custom shop Chris Broderick and the guitar is absolutely flawless in every detail
William Lewis I’m glad you got a good one man. Enjoy!
"Don't wanna damage it because I want all my money back"
Jackson "bro it is damaged, it has "swirl" marks and scratches, we won't give U our money back "
Dude those orbital marks the logo and that inlay would bother me constantly.
Dave Mustaine said way back in the day that Jackson was going to turn into a crap company after the buyout.
I have a schecter from 1999 that I bought for $250 used in 2017. Even in used condition it wasnt this scratched and dented. I can only imagine what it looked like new. I also can't imagine paying almost 4k for something so lack-luster, you can get a Kiesel that looks a million times better than this, with the attention to detail, for $1,800.
I bought 3 new Jackson in 2010: Soloist Indonesia, Kelly USA, and Warrior Japan. ALL PICKUP SWITCHES FAILED IN FEW MONTHS!!!! The Japanese one got broken in the nut and floyd area..The Cable jack always get loose in the 3 guitars....and all the tremolo black paint disappear in 10 years in the Japanese one. The Indonesian has an horrible always loose and cranky tremolo stick...And all of them only sound good with high action and 10’s strings (standard)...but sadly.....they sound amazingly incredible. It’s a hate/love relationship...
Ricardo Del Pino sounds about right. The term arms in those Korean made Floyd’s sucks. You can replace it with a German made one and problem solved
I've been a professional guitarist (session work) for 45 years, and a luthier for much of that time too - I've never liked Jacksons, though I understand why some people do (mostly shredders). That said, If I got something from the Fender or Gibson custom shop as poorly finished as this, I'd be spitting feathers. I rarely buy new guitars for all the reasons shown here and prefer vintage, but then I've been in the game long enough to acquire them before 'vintage' was a thing. I'm glad you're sending it back - I hope with a suitably chastening note - they need to learn that this is unacceptable.
All of my guitars are vintage as I have had them that long.
LOL ...and people bitching about some Harley Bentons imperfections!!!
😆
There are also scratches in the cutaways. They use that satin finish to avoid having to buff them. Also the side dots are circles within circles and not centered within the circle. Those dings on the back of the neck look like pressure dents. They could have sweated them out with a wet rag and a soldering iron. The binding running across the fingerboard where it meets the body has what looks like tool marks or gouges. With a see thru finish you would always take them to 360 grit sand paper and put them under a light or take them out in the sun too check for scratches. That would have easily revealed those swirl marks and cross grain scratches. Most of these flaws are really not that big of a deal but if your buying a custom shop model the whole idea is to not have these flaws and that they were free of defects. You can hardly justify spending that much for what is no better than a mass produced guitar that you could for under a grand. It looks like it is probably a great guitar and if it were being purchased as used those flaws wouldn't be an issue to most. However to say brand new custom shop and carry the price tag that guitar should have been pulled for the inlay at the first fret alone being off. That makes it a second and the side dots are whacked.
Yeah they just needed to spend a little more time on it, but rushed it through
Sad to see Jackson going down like that, hopefully it's just a one-time fluke that should have never surpassed by the final quality control checksheet.
But extremely happy to see your first video has such a whopping number of views. You're doing things the right way.
Funny thing is Jackson posted this guitar on their official instagram page 😂
How far down is it? I can’t find it
Found something veeerrryyyy similar on a post for October 26, 2019
Which is exactly why I exclusively buy Asian (Japan, Korea and some Chinese), and have done for many years now: their instruments are perhaps not always that great either but at least it's fixable and they costs less than a 1/10 😉👍
"Do I have any of those problems on this Ibanez?" The answer is no, 'cause it's an IBANEZ!
I bought my first Jackson CS SL-2h in 2009. The price was about $3000. The factory installed two neck pickups on that guitar. That means the strings are wider than the pickup poles in the bridge pickup position. My second CS Jackson is fine, with a small painting crack on the headstock. My latest CS Jackson has two big screw holes in the bridge pickup cavity throughout the body. I don't know why. For hot tone cooling? The rest of my Jackson CS collections are perfect.
Have been playing Jacksons for 30 years, and I have about 9 custom shops, most from the pre-fender era, but a couple from after and they have never had any issues like this. What a shame, send that thing back, send Jackson a letter, and if they don't make it right and get you a "real" custom shop, take your business elsewhere. Or build your own!
Right on. Definitely working on building my own, and looking out for pre fender USA/Japanese models. I sent it back to the store I bought it from and got all my money back immediately.
I feel so 😪 I love Jackson guitars. They were some of the best. Jackson guitars built 30 + years ago are still playable.
OMG , those dents look like a hammer hit or what. That whole body needs to be totally a rebuild 😾 . USA made doesn’t mean its great.
As an employee at a guitar company, you should know how underpaid most instrument manufacturing company employees are. You have to be a supervisor to make even ok money. Not that what Jackson presented is acceptable, but I’m sure (being a smaller manufacturer, located in SoCal), most of the shop workers make around $15/hr. Viewers in other parts of the country/world may think that sounds pretty good, but here in Cali, they doesn’t get you far. That barely gives you money to pay rent, and if you do, there’s not much left. QC should have caught these things along the way, but if multiple people along the line are saying “fuck it”, you get this.
So what I’m saying is this, back in the golden days(50s/60s), when American guitars were being built that earned the reputation of being great(also largely because the bulk of guitars were only built in America), a factory worker wage was solidly middle class. People bought homes, raised family’s, and could be content on what they got paid. Now, you have to really struggle if you want to work at a guitar manufacturing job. I know from experience, these places are filled with people that stumbled into these jobs. They were looking for ANYTHING that would give them a check. The other half of the employees are aspiring “luthier to the stars”, that went to school (or not), that hope to one day be successful and that they gotta pay their dues. Current factory/manufacturing conditions are not conducive to the types of idealistic expectations we Guitar nerds hold about these things. You go to Indonesia, Korea, China, and the conditions there allow a factory job to be much more in line with life here in America in the 50s/60s, which is why “for the money”, QC is better.
You know what you’re absolutely right. I’ll bet if corporate wasn’t so out of touch with what happens on the floor, and valued quality and the customer as much as profit the guitars at all the big players would be a lot better. It’s definitely not just the workers on the floor to blame. Once a company earns a good reputation and becomes iconic and corporate culture takes over everything goes down hill and becomes about profit and not the love of the instrument and community.
THIS right here. Americans have not been happy since those decades. Pride has been reduced by the corporate greed mongers.
On a kinda slightly different angle ...
Q. how well can you improve on a well made TOASTER?
A. Advertising!
@@hawkinthewind MAGA!
@@tedsmart5539 Yelling maga like an idiot won't help bud.
@@tedsmart5539 now that's some funny shit right there haha!
The issue with the inlay routing is enough to send it back. Everything else just makes it worse.
My 200 dollar Jackson JS22 felt like a million bucks. I did a set up, swapped the pickups and I am really happy with it. Honestly if I wanted a custom guitar, I'm heading to a smaller company like Balaguer guitars for a fraction of the price.
Your complaints are valid! When paying over $1000 there are things that are just not acceptable. even faint hairline scratching.
I could deal with the scratches on this Jackson but that hole in the fretboard and the clear coat on the headstock starting to peel are a no go for me! Those dents on the back of the neck would have bothered me as well. This particular Jackson has too many things where i would never be 100% happy with it.
Just think of it as a light relic, and consider yourself lucky they didn't tack on another grand for it.
This is like the jackson version of my indonesian made rg470mhz, but mine is only 500 dollars and it is very well made.
Not the first time I've seen issues like this on a USA Jackson. Unbelievable. I'd be pissed too! They need to get their shit together. After you get your $ back what guitar are you looking at getting? I'm gonna guess not a Jackson haha
Glad to see you nipped this in the bud....I'll never buy another gibson after getting a POS 335 out of their factory. Burred frets hanging over the edges, couldn't intonate it. Some of these high end guitar companies are putting out trash. My favorite local shop stopped carrying them due to too many major quality issues.
All "custom shop" guitars from major brands aren't worthy of the price tag. If you want a custom built guitar go to builders like Tom Anderson Guitarworks and get a guitar worthy of the price tag. Usually around the same price as all the others, less expensive than Fender and Gibson, and you get a killer guitar out of the box.
that's what i notice, don't the Jacksons start at 5k? I bet PRS wouldn't even answer your calls unless you have $10k on hand
@@MaestroJericho I live about 70 miles from the PRS factory. You can find a ton of stores who get first pick of PRS guitars in the DC area. You can plunk down $2500 for one off the shelf and it beats other's custom stuff. $5K would get you a nice PRS.
Looks like this was done by a third party... Can't be custom shop.
@Mendozer01 another reason why Jackson may not have a true in house custom shop
@Mendozer01 thanks for sharing that story, i've searched it and it's probably the funniest thread i've ever seen on sevenstring (i've been in the same boat as this guy , though it was a 750€ guitar ...). Gibson really took all the credit for having the worse QC , people don't call out on the jackson CS enough.
It's not really a custom shop. It's more of a mass production factory.
That thing was probably made in China ...
@Mendozer01 is it true that all the US Jackson sigs are dont by their custom shop guys?
Let Jackson know that I'll give them £20 for it!
Did you ever get your money back or new Jackson replacement?
My guitars range from $850 to $1800, and I couldn't imagine sending even the $800 model out to a client in that condition. You're not buying a Walmart guitar at that price, you expect quality and a fare bit of pride of craftsmanship to have gone into it.
I worked for Charvel/Jackson in Glendora in 1985. What a joy it was for $5./hr. Hey, I was 21 y/o. Did the fretting/inlay.
That look when you sell a b-stock as an a stock, thinking "no one will ever notice." And it goes to DIY guitar. #oof
Maybe I just didn't catch it in the video, but I have two questions:
1) Why didn't you build yourself a sick guitar as you're working in a guitar shop? Would feature the Ikea effect as well.
2) For nearly 4 grand, you could have opted for a high end Kiesel or Mayones, why didn't you think of those brands? Especially Kiesel are doing a superior work in the USA for reasonable prices.
Just curious!
Uh... I've heard 'interesting' stories about Kiesel QC on the grapevine
@@Keysquall Yeah, I know about those as well, can only talk about my experience, though. I bought my Vader used in mint condition and there is absolutely no flaws on it whatsoever. There are loads of people share this experience, but still there sometimes seem to be some issues apparently.
9:24 oh my friend... if people could touch and feel things in videos on the Internet, nobody would be watching videos about guitar quality control :3
Hahahahaha
hee hee
I'm sure all the porn sites would make more of a killing if that were the case! :-)
Had 4 stock ESPs in the late ‘80s that were absolute perfection. All lawsuit-headstock models.
I have a 32 year old Jackson soloist I got back in 1988. It was a custom order. There was no such thing as a Custom shop guitar. Jackson had alot of pride back then. After 32'years it's still a great guitar (it cost $2000 brand new). I feel bad for him. It should have been the best moment in his life but Jackson ruined it.