Did The Jackson Custom Shop Botch My Order?

[MASS DEFECT]

To those who have returned their Jackson customs, what is the waiting time for it? I mean, do you jump in front of the line or you wait farthest back like you are ordering a new custom?

I had to wait a year for mine. But it is the simplest specs. Rev head, mahogany, ss frets, black paint. Didnt want to wait two years for a quilt top and riverbed burst. So if I ordered a quilt top and I didnt like it, do I wait another two years?

 

[ThomasUV777]

What you asked for doesn't matter, what the dealer asked Jackson for, and what Jackson said in return does.

The build sheet matters too.

This is why communication between dealer and manufacturer is so important.

The build sheet that I filled in was all correct. Additional comments (yes, you can make some special demands/remarks) are indeed supposed to be communicated through to the Custom Shop via the dealer.

This is what the dealer said after I told them I was not satisfied with it:

I'm sorry but we forward the pics when we ordered. Everything else is in the hands of Jackson Custom Shop.

So if the dealer is to be believed, they also provided the custom shop with sufficient information.
That's enough for me to pull my hands off and let the dealer and the custom shop resolve this matter.

 

[SDMFVan]

I'll echo what's been said a few times: The example you used looks to have been double stained, the one they made you was not. I'd imagine that's a special request the dealer would have needed to specify.

 

[Andromalia]

In France, AAA-AAAAA is a grading of andouillettes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andouillette

With how readily available high figured maple is and how little it costs to get a mastergrade top compared to other woods a USA shop has zero reason to use anything but.

Reason: you need to upgrade to get more. It's not a matter of cost of production. If pretty woods and ugly woods costed the same, you'd still be asked a premium for a pretty wood guitar. Builders would withhold them from their entry-level.

 

[xzacx]

To those who have returned their Jackson customs, what is the waiting time for it? I mean, do you jump in front of the line or you wait farthest back like you are ordering a new custom?

I had to wait a year for mine. But it is the simplest specs. Rev head, mahogany, ss frets, black paint. Didnt want to wait two years for a quilt top and riverbed burst. So if I ordered a quilt top and I didnt like it, do I wait another two years?

The people I’ve known basically went to the back of the line and started the wait again. From what I know as of late, Custom Selects have been taking a year or less for a lot of people, but that obviously adds up when you have to do it multiple times. Jackson isn’t exactly known for its amazing tops either—I’ve seen them, but I’ve seen an awful lot more underwhelming ones. Then again I don’t equate level of figuring with instrument quality like a lot of people seem to do, so I don’t really care. Pretty tops aren’t why I’m into Jackson.

 

[Rev2010]

Is it really that much of a hassle for companies, especially at this price point, to take the time for a short email conversation and let the customer choose the top? Or at least discuss the figuring with the help of prvious guitars they made? You could avoid so much trouble beforehand. I would never ever order a 4k guitar without seeing the woods beiing used...

Actually, Jackson did just that with my custom spalted maple Kelly 7-string. But, this was before Custom Select came out and I had specified a very active spalted top. They reached out to my retailer and sent him a pic of the top they planned to use along with an outline drawn on top of the Kelly shape and he sent it to me. I thought some of the cooler parts of the spalt laid outside of the body lines so I had the idea to have them flip the wood horizontally which they did and redrew the outline and it was perfect and I approved it.

Of course though.... they had to find something to fuck up so they installed nickel frets instead of my requested stainless But, they did take care of it by paying for shipping both ways, refretting it to stainless, and refunding me $300 for the trouble. So that made me a happy camper.


Rev.

 

[eaeolian]

Jackson's "trans black" is all over the place. Mine (over quilt, and 18 years ago) looks more gray with hints of green in the center of the burst, whereas that one looks like the Friedman Kellys with all the brown and the narrow black edges.

The quality isn't spectacular, that I'll agree on.

 

[G_3_3_k_]

AAAA One X looks gorgeous but keeps catching on fire

Mine didn't catch on fire. It melted.

 

[ArtDecade]

Mine didn't catch on fire. It melted.

Shredding that fast causes heat!

 

[VictimsOfDeception]

Jackson's "trans black" is all over the place. Mine (over quilt, and 18 years ago) looks more gray with hints of green in the center of the burst, whereas that one looks like the Friedman Kellys with all the brown and the narrow black edges.

The quality isn't spectacular, that I'll agree on.

Seconded on their trans black being inconsistent. When I ordered my CS, I was expecting it to be gray with a bit of a burst, but what I got was truly transparent black with no burst (although I was really happy with both the color and the grain of the top).

 

[eaeolian]

Honestly, the OPs trans black looks like the burst on the Jugg Pro:

 

[mikernaut]

I'd return it. It's a very lackluster grade top. Black/Charcoal tops are really hard to get a accurate pic/representation. When I ordered my BRJ custom I sent this picture and was expecting it to be more black then brownish.

Although the quilt top I did get was pretty amazing so I could deal with it.

 

[MetalDaze]

^ For all of the things that went wrong with BRJ guitars, the finishes were one of the highlights - probably because Bernie wasn’t the one doing them

 

[twguitar]

Its always an issue with trans black finishes, you need virtually completely white maple to get it that dark while maintaining the grain and in reality most maple is fairly yellow. This is why I went for a fairly light trans black on my Moser build but it can change in the light from almost solid black, to grey, to chocolatey.

I would agree that top is pretty shoddy for a CS, the book matching isn't great either

Moser 10

• twguitar
• Apr 18, 2019

IMG_4141

• twguitar
• Dec 31, 2018

 

[Justin L Franks]

The flame maple tops on both my Epiphone Nighthawk and PRS SE245 are significantly more figured than that Jackson. The flame is both tighter and more intense. They're also bookmatched much better.

And each of those guitars were bought brand new for less than 10% of what you paid. Sure, they are veneers, and sure, figured tops are very subjective, and sure, each piece of wood will take stain differently. But for the amount you've paid, I certainly would be upset as well. It's a rather poor piece of wood.

 

[Jamey36]

If that had happened through a reputable U.S. Jackson dealer you could reject it with no monetary loss,or they would offer it with about a 10 % discount.I ordered this one a couple of years ago.I almost rejected it because it should have had a blank board and different volume knob placement.I accepted it with a $450 discount because the top was just spectacular and they had actually gotten the Trans Black spot on for my tastes.
View attachment 76829 View attachment 76829

 

[bzhang9]

totally pathetic top, return it no questions asked

To those saying OP should test it to see if it plays good, it doesn't matter even it plays good he paid for top grade playability and top grade woods, if Jackson CS can't make a guitar with both they've failed.

compare that to a kiesel top at a fraction of the price

 

[ThomasUV777]

View attachment 76831 If that had happened through a reputable U.S. Jackson dealer you could reject it with no monetary loss,or they would offer it with about a 10 % discount.I ordered this one a couple of years ago.I almost rejected it because it should have had a blank board and different volume knob placement.I accepted it with a $450 discount because the top was just spectacular and they had actually gotten the Trans Black spot on for my tastes.
View attachment 76829 View attachment 76829 View attachment 76830

Woah...

 

[Boris_VTR]

Any rough estimate how much EUR custom RR (nothing crazy) order is this days? Wait time is around 1 year?

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Any rough estimate how much EUR custom RR (nothing crazy) order is this days? Wait time is around 1 year?

The price list should be available.