I bought one couple of years back, the dark fingerboard version ( can't remember what wood ). I was so happy I showed some English guy called Bruce my cool guitar and next thing I know he's scribbled his name on it! Up the irons
Ahh, I was torn between the two! I believe it's a Rosewood fingerboard on the other one. The main thing that made me decide was seeing videos of Adrian play the maple neck one in the 80s, that sold me! haha That's a really cool story! I bet the guitar is now way more sentimental for you! I'd love to meet Bruce, I hear he's a pretty cool guy.
This guitar arrived this week and I am very happy with it. It is a fantastic piece of wood. In the last few months I had the the "mission impossible" task: finding a mid-range price guitar with a neck which is so comfortable as an Ibanez and has a sound like a strato or tele. I went to a few music stores and tried about 30-40 guitars of different brands (Fender, Squier, Ibanez, Gibson, Epiphone, PRS, FGN, Schecter, Vintage, Yamaha..) but none of them met my requirements. Then accidentally I read in a forum that Charvel is producing starto- and telecasters with comfortable necks. But they are very pricey and they are very rare on the second hand market where I live (Austria). After that I started look into Jackson guitars as a more affordable version of Charvel. This review helped me a lot to choose this guitar. Thx for it!
nice guitar, i have the SDXQ version which is awesome. Adrian's original from 1986 wasn't stolen though, he still has it and he used it on the 2011 leg of the Final Frontier world tour. The prototype for the signature model was however stolen in Greece in 2008 on the Somewhere Back in Time tour.
I bought this guitar. No truss rod adjuster axcess. But two hours later and a dremel tool. And whala. Truss rod access just had ro notch the fret wood just like charvel does. Now its just awesome.
Thanks for checking the video out! I was exactly the same.... wanted one since I watched an old Maiden VHS from the 80s when I was young... then just never got around to getting one and this one landed on my lap at the right price 2 years ago so I went for it and I absolutely love it. I got the guitar in early 2020 and I can happily say that I still play it regularly and take it out for gigs... it's a really reliable instrument.
Just got my SDX and its so awesome. Feels like my Charvel! Its gets me that Warren Dimartini style ive been looking for! Very versatile from blues to 80s heavy metal!
I have a Charvel So Cal MIM and the Adrian Smith SDX among other super Strats. They’re so close as far as feel but my Charvel is king. The similarities are uncanny though. I did install a Gotoh Floyd and a Duncan JB in the Smith as I hate the Floyd special. Fun guitar for sure
Hey Bro! This Jackson model Floyd bridge can only dive bomb right? I mean... Its sticked to the body, right? No carved wood below for space to ascending tones right? Is its bridge super sticked to the guitar Body? Thanks from Brazil. Mauro
Hey man! Thanks for the comment. Yeah that's right. it's a dive bomb only Floyd. You can pull it up but only a very small amount, like you can on a regular Fender style tremolo.
It's a great guitar. The Floyd doesn't come up that far. It's a top mounted Floyd, it doesn't have the big recessed hole under it like some other floating tremolos. It's designed mostly to go down. You can pull it up by maybe a tone at the most, unless you set it up with a forward lean to give you some extra range.
Sweet. I’m a bass player but do a lot of writing so I use guitar. I have both the Steve Harris sparkle blue and the West Ham bass. Was really hoping this at that price played good. I got the green one and I swear my guitar playing has improved ten fold. Love it. Totally comfortable and I was able to set the action tight as can be. Plays like a dream. Thanks for the review. Up the Irons. 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻
Figured I’d have to upgrade the pickups but love the humbucker and the 4th position is nice and jangley (chimey) which I love. Clean tones remind me a lot of the late great Criss Oliva🤘🏻
Hey Joe! Thanks so much for checking the video out and for taking the time to comment. Oh man, I love those basses! I really want one of the Steve Harris basses for my collection. The Adrian Smith Jackson is insane value for money. I agree, I love the pickups. I had a few friends tell me they didn't dig the stock pickups, but I actually quite like them. I am considering maybe putting in a DiMarzio Super Distortion into the bridge, because that's what Adrian uses and that's what comes on the USA models... but I'm not in a rush to do it.
It's amazing how well they play! I love mine, I play it all the time. It's such a great playing guitar and it always sounds great too. Tempted to put a Dimarzio Super Distortion in the bridge to get it closer to the USA one.
@@LeighFugeGuitar This guitar with a Dimarzio super Distortion sounds awesome. I also put a Dimarzio hot single in the mid position and Fender neck single. It is versatile and sounds great clean or dirty.
Hey, thanks for checking it out. Yeah you can get a bluesy sound with the single coils. I'm actually on tour at the moment playing a lot of funk and this guitar gets used a lot on shows.
I prefer the Adrian Smith. That’s my personal guitar. The other Dinky was a loaner from Jackson which was also good, but I prefer the Adrian Smith model
With this being a top mounted floyd, can you take all the strings off at once and restring it like a fixed bridge so to speak? Obviously the same string gauge!
You can, it reacts like a vintage style trem and just gets pulled against the body. Be careful though, where the allen key bolts are to secure the strings into the bridge, there are little metal plates, they can rest on the body and chip the paint because of the spring tension
@@LeighFugeGuitar I’m probably gonna get one and chuck a Duncan Distortion in the bridge and a Hotrail in the neck. I’m glad you’ve said you can do it that way cause I’ve seen loads of videos saying ‘one string at a time’ and i was like well why? It’s fixed to the bridge it can’t go anywhere unless I’m mistaken xD
i do own this model and for me it has a major flaw, The truss rod. Being down to the end of the fretboard is a major issue because you have to disarm the entire guitar to adjust the truss rod. Pickups do not have much output though but in the end is a good budget guitar and i love it.
Hey Enrique, Thanks for checking out the video! That's the one thing I hate too, it's annoying to take the neck off to adjust the truss rod. They should have either kept it up at the headstock, or added the cut away that allows you to adjust the truss rod at the neck heel like some brands do. The pickups aren't my favourite, I'm planning to swap them at some point, but overall I love the guitar
@@LeighFugeGuitar i tried a dimarzio super distortion on bridge position, but i swapped to a seymour duncan invader because its higher output and volume. I do not use neck and middle pickups on that guitar so i kept tem, but i plan to put a hot rail on the neck position some day
Love your videos! Well, I got mine coming in on Thursday! Being a big fan, I decided that it was justified to get me one. Been wanting one for a while. Hah. Will probably swap out the humbucker for a DiMarzio. Every guitar I currently own has Seymour Duncans in them. Will give this a shot.
Hey David, Thank you so much for checking it out! I'm glad you enjoy the videos, that means a lot. These guitars are killer. I realise by now you probably have the guitar... would love to hear what you think of it. The pickups for me are the only let down, they don't sound bad, they sound pretty good... but I find them a little uninspiring... they seem to lack anything special. I'm tempted to get a DiMarzio Super Distortion (Same as the USA model)... but you can get original 1980s ones on eBay for decent prices sometimes... maybe I'll get an old one to get even closer to the original sound... haha
Hey man, Thanks for checking out the video. I didn’t have any issues with it when it arrived. The setup was pretty good out the box. The only thing I didn’t like was the action on the one I got was super low out the box and I had to raise it up a little. But the neck was rock solid
I was searching for a versatile strat with a good bridge to play some jeff beck stuff. I love the sound of single coils, so it must be at least HSS or SSS. Do you guys think that this is a better choice than a player fender?
For the money these Jackson's are fantastic guitars. I love this and I gig with it very frequently. Another good contender, but slightly mroe expensive is the Schecter Nick Johnston model. That's available in both SSS and HSS versions and that is also a killer Strat style for around £800
I would assume just different production runs. I’m sure the early ones were made somewhere else too. Mine has the serial on the neck plate and I’m sure it’s on the back of the headstock too
Nice video Leigh, I have had my eye on the SDXQ model for a while. Nico from Licks of the beast channel has both and he commented that the SDXQ needed a mod, he changed the nut as the top E string was jumping out. Apparently I have heard/read Adrian has a DiMarzio super distortion in the bridge of his white one like yours and a Seymour Duncan JB4 in the bridge of his green model. Anyway I enjoy your video's , keep up the great work.
Hey! Thanks for checking it out and taking the time to comment. The SDXQ is cool, I personally never loved green guitars, but that one I don't mind so much. I prefer the white ones though. Interesting about the mod, I wonder if that was just his one, because minus the colour, to my understanding all the SDX range are essentially the same guitar with different colours. You're right too, on the USA models (Which I assume matches Adrians real stage guitars) he has a DiMarzio in the white one (He's used these pickups since the 80s) and a JB4 in the Green One. I guess he either wanted to try out a different pickup for a while, or the quilted maple gave a slightly different tone that the DiMarzio didn't sound great with. Either way, it sounds killer!
I was looking for a mexican Charvel SD but it its very expensive here, all the videos about the Jackson SD are for metalheads, just saw your video, bought mine last wednesday
Annoyingly it is at the base of the neck. You have to take the neck off to adjust it. It's the guitars major flaw I think. Once you've got it setup you can leave it and forget about it, but it's a real pain to adjust when you're tweaking things.
It doesn’t come with a push pull, but it would be an easy mod if you were swapping the bridge pickup. I’m not sure the pickup that it comes with has the extra wires attached.
Yeah... I thought it was Basswood, but I got the specs off the Jackson website and it says Poplar. I was under the impression is was Basswood.... and a lot of the retailers advertise it as Basswood...but Jackson seem to say Poplar. Strange.
For me, the Jackson, but I'm not a fan of the Jem. I don't like the super slim necks on some Ibanez models and I prefer the more traditional Strat shape with the top mounted Floyd
Adrian is a killer guitarist. Love the look and sound. Fantastic axe.
It's a fantastic guitar! I've always loved Adrian's playing and this guitar is very inspiring to play on.
I bought one couple of years back, the dark fingerboard version ( can't remember what wood ). I was so happy I showed some English guy called Bruce my cool guitar and next thing I know he's scribbled his name on it! Up the irons
Ahh, I was torn between the two! I believe it's a Rosewood fingerboard on the other one. The main thing that made me decide was seeing videos of Adrian play the maple neck one in the 80s, that sold me! haha
That's a really cool story! I bet the guitar is now way more sentimental for you! I'd love to meet Bruce, I hear he's a pretty cool guy.
These are made in the Cort facility in Indonesia anything that comes out of any of the Cort facilities is professional quality crafted
Yeah man, that factory produce some incredible stuff. A lot of the Indonesian Schecter stuff also comes from there.
This guitar arrived this week and I am very happy with it. It is a fantastic piece of wood.
In the last few months I had the the "mission impossible" task: finding a mid-range price guitar with a neck which is so comfortable as an Ibanez and has a sound like a strato or tele. I went to a few music stores and tried about 30-40 guitars of different brands (Fender, Squier, Ibanez, Gibson, Epiphone, PRS, FGN, Schecter, Vintage, Yamaha..) but none of them met my requirements. Then accidentally I read in a forum that Charvel is producing starto- and telecasters with comfortable necks. But they are very pricey and they are very rare on the second hand market where I live (Austria). After that I started look into Jackson guitars as a more affordable version of Charvel.
This review helped me a lot to choose this guitar. Thx for it!
nice guitar, i have the SDXQ version which is awesome. Adrian's original from 1986 wasn't stolen though, he still has it and he used it on the 2011 leg of the Final Frontier world tour. The prototype for the signature model was however stolen in Greece in 2008 on the Somewhere Back in Time tour.
I bought this guitar. No truss rod adjuster axcess. But two hours later and a dremel tool. And whala. Truss rod access just had ro notch the fret wood just like charvel does. Now its just awesome.
Can you post the final result? I'm curious. Thanks!
Nice guitar Leigh and you did a great job showing it off.
Thanks man! Glad you enjoyed it! It's such a fun guitar to play
Great review! I'm a massive Adrian fan too and have wanted one of these for years but never pulled the trigger. You've givrn me GAS again!!
Thanks for checking the video out! I was exactly the same.... wanted one since I watched an old Maiden VHS from the 80s when I was young... then just never got around to getting one and this one landed on my lap at the right price 2 years ago so I went for it and I absolutely love it. I got the guitar in early 2020 and I can happily say that I still play it regularly and take it out for gigs... it's a really reliable instrument.
@@LeighFugeGuitar Maiden on VHS was how I learned some of the riffs back in the day! Subbed off the back of this video mate, Up the Irons 🤟
Just got my SDX and its so awesome. Feels like my Charvel! Its gets me that Warren Dimartini style ive been looking for! Very versatile from blues to 80s heavy metal!
I have a Charvel So Cal MIM and the Adrian Smith SDX among other super Strats. They’re so close as far as feel but my Charvel is king. The similarities are uncanny though. I did install a Gotoh Floyd and a Duncan JB in the Smith as I hate the Floyd special. Fun guitar for sure
I have had one from a few years and I love it. Thanks for the demo
Thanks for checking the demo out! They're great guitars!
Bought the USA version. Great guitar, very versatile
Awesome! I'd love to see how the USA version differs from the Indonesian version. I've heard so many good things about the American version.
Hey Bro! This Jackson model Floyd bridge can only dive bomb right? I mean... Its sticked to the body, right? No carved wood below for space to ascending tones right? Is its bridge super sticked to the guitar Body? Thanks from Brazil. Mauro
Hey man!
Thanks for the comment.
Yeah that's right. it's a dive bomb only Floyd. You can pull it up but only a very small amount, like you can on a regular Fender style tremolo.
@@LeighFugeGuitar thats super cool! Thank you brooo
Just got mine and I play really heavy stuff. Sounds fantastic
I love mine! I’ve used it for all sorts of different styles. It’s so versatile
@@LeighFugeGuitarAgreed
Great review. Great playing. I love metal and blues. I want this guitar.
Thanks man! Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for checking it out. The guitar is super versatile! I used it a few weeks ago for a pop gig!
I am planning to buy this guitar for my birthday. How far can i take fhe Floyd up?
It's a great guitar. The Floyd doesn't come up that far. It's a top mounted Floyd, it doesn't have the big recessed hole under it like some other floating tremolos. It's designed mostly to go down. You can pull it up by maybe a tone at the most, unless you set it up with a forward lean to give you some extra range.
Bought it recently. Great value for money!
It plays great doesn't it! It's super affordable but so good!
Sweet. I’m a bass player but do a lot of writing so I use guitar. I have both the Steve Harris sparkle blue and the West Ham bass. Was really hoping this at that price played good. I got the green one and I swear my guitar playing has improved ten fold. Love it. Totally comfortable and I was able to set the action tight as can be. Plays like a dream. Thanks for the review. Up the Irons. 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻
Figured I’d have to upgrade the pickups but love the humbucker and the 4th position is nice and jangley (chimey) which I love. Clean tones remind me a lot of the late great Criss Oliva🤘🏻
Hey Joe!
Thanks so much for checking the video out and for taking the time to comment. Oh man, I love those basses! I really want one of the Steve Harris basses for my collection.
The Adrian Smith Jackson is insane value for money. I agree, I love the pickups. I had a few friends tell me they didn't dig the stock pickups, but I actually quite like them. I am considering maybe putting in a DiMarzio Super Distortion into the bridge, because that's what Adrian uses and that's what comes on the USA models... but I'm not in a rush to do it.
Love mine i got the Snow white one as you said very versatile guitars that play extremely well at the price point.
It's amazing how well they play! I love mine, I play it all the time. It's such a great playing guitar and it always sounds great too. Tempted to put a Dimarzio Super Distortion in the bridge to get it closer to the USA one.
@@LeighFugeGuitar This guitar with a Dimarzio super Distortion sounds awesome. I also put a Dimarzio hot single in the mid position and Fender neck single. It is versatile and sounds great clean or dirty.
Thank you for this great video :) Can you tell me if the single coils give the strat typical blues sound?
Hey, thanks for checking it out. Yeah you can get a bluesy sound with the single coils. I'm actually on tour at the moment playing a lot of funk and this guitar gets used a lot on shows.
Which one you prefer the dinky 3 pink neon or this Adrian smith sdxm?
I prefer the Adrian Smith. That’s my personal guitar. The other Dinky was a loaner from Jackson which was also good, but I prefer the Adrian Smith model
With this being a top mounted floyd, can you take all the strings off at once and restring it like a fixed bridge so to speak? Obviously the same string gauge!
You can, it reacts like a vintage style trem and just gets pulled against the body. Be careful though, where the allen key bolts are to secure the strings into the bridge, there are little metal plates, they can rest on the body and chip the paint because of the spring tension
@@LeighFugeGuitar I’m probably gonna get one and chuck a Duncan Distortion in the bridge and a Hotrail in the neck. I’m glad you’ve said you can do it that way cause I’ve seen loads of videos saying ‘one string at a time’ and i was like well why? It’s fixed to the bridge it can’t go anywhere unless I’m mistaken xD
i do own this model and for me it has a major flaw, The truss rod. Being down to the end of the fretboard is a major issue because you have to disarm the entire guitar to adjust the truss rod. Pickups do not have much output though but in the end is a good budget guitar and i love it.
Hey Enrique,
Thanks for checking out the video! That's the one thing I hate too, it's annoying to take the neck off to adjust the truss rod. They should have either kept it up at the headstock, or added the cut away that allows you to adjust the truss rod at the neck heel like some brands do. The pickups aren't my favourite, I'm planning to swap them at some point, but overall I love the guitar
@@LeighFugeGuitar i tried a dimarzio super distortion on bridge position, but i swapped to a seymour duncan invader because its higher output and volume. I do not use neck and middle pickups on that guitar so i kept tem, but i plan to put a hot rail on the neck position some day
I think they may have updated this model because the SDXM has the spoke wheel trussrod adjustment.
That's a deal-breaker for me...
Love your videos!
Well, I got mine coming in on Thursday! Being a big fan, I decided that it was justified to get me one. Been wanting one for a while. Hah.
Will probably swap out the humbucker for a DiMarzio. Every guitar I currently own has Seymour Duncans in them. Will give this a shot.
Hey David,
Thank you so much for checking it out! I'm glad you enjoy the videos, that means a lot.
These guitars are killer. I realise by now you probably have the guitar... would love to hear what you think of it. The pickups for me are the only let down, they don't sound bad, they sound pretty good... but I find them a little uninspiring... they seem to lack anything special. I'm tempted to get a DiMarzio Super Distortion (Same as the USA model)... but you can get original 1980s ones on eBay for decent prices sometimes... maybe I'll get an old one to get even closer to the original sound... haha
Did u have any air pockets in the neck or any bad thing when u first got it
Hey man,
Thanks for checking out the video. I didn’t have any issues with it when it arrived. The setup was pretty good out the box. The only thing I didn’t like was the action on the one I got was super low out the box and I had to raise it up a little.
But the neck was rock solid
I was searching for a versatile strat with a good bridge to play some jeff beck stuff. I love the sound of single coils, so it must be at least HSS or SSS. Do you guys think that this is a better choice than a player fender?
For the money these Jackson's are fantastic guitars. I love this and I gig with it very frequently. Another good contender, but slightly mroe expensive is the Schecter Nick Johnston model. That's available in both SSS and HSS versions and that is also a killer Strat style for around £800
Do you know why some have serial numbers printed behind the headstock and some don’t?
I would assume just different production runs. I’m sure the early ones were made somewhere else too. Mine has the serial on the neck plate and I’m sure it’s on the back of the headstock too
Nice video Leigh, I have had my eye on the SDXQ model for a while. Nico from Licks of the beast channel has both and he commented that the SDXQ needed a mod, he changed the nut as the top E string was jumping out. Apparently I have heard/read Adrian has a DiMarzio super distortion in the bridge of his white one like yours and a Seymour Duncan JB4 in the bridge of his green model.
Anyway I enjoy your video's , keep up the great work.
Hey! Thanks for checking it out and taking the time to comment. The SDXQ is cool, I personally never loved green guitars, but that one I don't mind so much. I prefer the white ones though. Interesting about the mod, I wonder if that was just his one, because minus the colour, to my understanding all the SDX range are essentially the same guitar with different colours.
You're right too, on the USA models (Which I assume matches Adrians real stage guitars) he has a DiMarzio in the white one (He's used these pickups since the 80s) and a JB4 in the Green One. I guess he either wanted to try out a different pickup for a while, or the quilted maple gave a slightly different tone that the DiMarzio didn't sound great with. Either way, it sounds killer!
I was looking for a mexican Charvel SD but it its very expensive here, all the videos about the Jackson SD are for metalheads, just saw your video, bought mine last wednesday
What is the body thickness on this lovely guitar ?
What a pretty guitar.
It's so simple, but so attractive!
where is the truss rod?
Annoyingly it is at the base of the neck. You have to take the neck off to adjust it. It's the guitars major flaw I think. Once you've got it setup you can leave it and forget about it, but it's a real pain to adjust when you're tweaking things.
Does it have a push pull knob to split the coils?!
It doesn’t come with a push pull, but it would be an easy mod if you were swapping the bridge pickup. I’m not sure the pickup that it comes with has the extra wires attached.
The body is basswood... Not poplar... if I understand correctly
Yeah... I thought it was Basswood, but I got the specs off the Jackson website and it says Poplar. I was under the impression is was Basswood.... and a lot of the retailers advertise it as Basswood...but Jackson seem to say Poplar. Strange.
@@LeighFugeGuitar yes , is so strange... The Jackson site Maybe is too correct... I hope...
...
This can play 😭
Yes it can! It’s a great guitar!
This or an Ibanez Jem Jr??
For me, the Jackson, but I'm not a fan of the Jem. I don't like the super slim necks on some Ibanez models and I prefer the more traditional Strat shape with the top mounted Floyd
@@LeighFugeGuitar thank you Leigh, Jackson it is!
It cost $600.00 now
I guess it depends where in the world you're buying, in the UK they're still the same price (£400-450 GBP) which is roughly 550-600$ USD
@@LeighFugeGuitar here in the United states it's now $600.00 American dollars the upside to this is it's worth it
I thought his gold top Les Paul was stolen
No, he still has the Goldtop, it was the Prototype of this guitar that was stolen.
@@LeighFugeGuitar ahh.... I thought it was the other but he got it back