Cheap
.....ite
After letting the dust settle for about a week I figure it's time to sort out my NGD post for this glorious Made in Korea Jackson. Pics first!
Novel:
-I really can't say enough good things about this guitar. The paint finish/execution is almost flawless (absolutely obsessed with the color!) and the neck is as silky smooth as my Mulecaster which I truly believed could not be matched in feel.
-The pickups are so well balanced and suited (obviously) to the guitar and I like them so much I've taken away my pre-eq processing on every sound I dial in to just let them be. I was a huge fan of the Black Hawks and have wanted to try out an Impulse set as soon as they were announced, but for one reason or another this is the first chance I've gotten to get them under my hands.
-It showed up tuned to B Standard even though from what I've heard these are supposed to ship a step down. Potentially because of this, the action was a bit high and there was a surprising amount of relief in the neck. I purchased from Sweetwater and have found that regardless of what a guitar is supposed to be set up to, if they've got 'Standard' written on a spec sheet for a brand, they're going to tune it up for better or worse.. I spent some time getting the neck where I like it with just a hair of relief and the height of the low B dropped from 6/32nds(!) to 3/32nds without any buzz. The remaining 6 strings were just above where I like them already so a half-turn on the evertune got them in check. This might be a weird thing to say, but the guitar takes to a setup really well--with some guitars you have to fuss and go back and forth adjusting for days until everything settles, but this one is really up for whatever you throw at it--total breeze.
-I've got it set up in open Eb (1-5-1-3-5-1) with a low Bb on the bottom and HOLY SHIT does it sound great there. There's a 99.9% chance I'm going to drop it to open C with a low G on the bottom, but I'm taking the 7 string thing one day at a time since this is the first I've owned in ~10 years
-For anyone interested, the neck feels like a C shape and is .70 at the first fret and .84 at the 12th
-Since having it for a week I've already recorded more than I have all year and that's definitely thanks to the incredible sounding pickups and the ease of the Evertune. I'm worried for my non-Evertune'd sixers because their days may be numbered since I've got this hangin around now. The neck and middle positions on the selector switch are so soupy and surprisingly stratty sounding. The bridge is as pissed as you need it to be, but the secret bridge inner coil option when you're in the middle and roll the volume of the neck down has already made it's way as a leading favorite sound for textural or lead stuff
Gripes:
-I mentioned in the main SL7 thread that the ebony fretboard is spotted just about all over and found that after a setup with some oil the dots persist. If anyone knows any tips or tricks or even what they are (through google maybe they're mineral spots?) that'd be super helpful. They didn't scrape off with a razor blade and even with oil they still show through, though a shade less than before the treatment. I tend to be bothered by things like that, but in this case the guitar sounds and feels so good that I'm okay with chuckling and just telling people they're freckles when they notice them. They're still really hard to photograph, but it looks like there may be another one or two available at Sweetwater that have the same thing if you look close enough
-I opened it up to look in the back cavity and the wiring pretty clean (way cleaner than expected), but it looks like they're MIK pots. May swap them for VIP/BKP pots, but it sounds so good as is it's more of an OCD thing than anything else
-This may be more of an Evertune problem than anything else, but I noticed the D string tends to slip tuning if i bend it at all. I will set it in zone 2 because I'm a caveman and am not interested in bends or much vibrato and the tuning will drop about a quarter step if i do bend the string accidentally and i can tune it back up with the tuner or the saddle. Importantly, the tuner seems to only have about 30% of the zone range as all of the other tuners. Could this be an issue with the tuner or maybe an Evertune saddle assembly that needs replaced? It will hold pitch if I don't bend and I can leave it there for days, but it's the only string I actually have to babysit when all the others hold solid
Anyway, big block of text over! I'd love to see more people get their hands on these, but understand especially in the USA how the price can be a bit of a turnoff. Totally worth giving it a shot if you like fun, fast guitars in fun, fast colors
--Cheap
Novel:
-I really can't say enough good things about this guitar. The paint finish/execution is almost flawless (absolutely obsessed with the color!) and the neck is as silky smooth as my Mulecaster which I truly believed could not be matched in feel.
-The pickups are so well balanced and suited (obviously) to the guitar and I like them so much I've taken away my pre-eq processing on every sound I dial in to just let them be. I was a huge fan of the Black Hawks and have wanted to try out an Impulse set as soon as they were announced, but for one reason or another this is the first chance I've gotten to get them under my hands.
-It showed up tuned to B Standard even though from what I've heard these are supposed to ship a step down. Potentially because of this, the action was a bit high and there was a surprising amount of relief in the neck. I purchased from Sweetwater and have found that regardless of what a guitar is supposed to be set up to, if they've got 'Standard' written on a spec sheet for a brand, they're going to tune it up for better or worse.. I spent some time getting the neck where I like it with just a hair of relief and the height of the low B dropped from 6/32nds(!) to 3/32nds without any buzz. The remaining 6 strings were just above where I like them already so a half-turn on the evertune got them in check. This might be a weird thing to say, but the guitar takes to a setup really well--with some guitars you have to fuss and go back and forth adjusting for days until everything settles, but this one is really up for whatever you throw at it--total breeze.
-I've got it set up in open Eb (1-5-1-3-5-1) with a low Bb on the bottom and HOLY SHIT does it sound great there. There's a 99.9% chance I'm going to drop it to open C with a low G on the bottom, but I'm taking the 7 string thing one day at a time since this is the first I've owned in ~10 years
-For anyone interested, the neck feels like a C shape and is .70 at the first fret and .84 at the 12th
-Since having it for a week I've already recorded more than I have all year and that's definitely thanks to the incredible sounding pickups and the ease of the Evertune. I'm worried for my non-Evertune'd sixers because their days may be numbered since I've got this hangin around now. The neck and middle positions on the selector switch are so soupy and surprisingly stratty sounding. The bridge is as pissed as you need it to be, but the secret bridge inner coil option when you're in the middle and roll the volume of the neck down has already made it's way as a leading favorite sound for textural or lead stuff
Gripes:
-I mentioned in the main SL7 thread that the ebony fretboard is spotted just about all over and found that after a setup with some oil the dots persist. If anyone knows any tips or tricks or even what they are (through google maybe they're mineral spots?) that'd be super helpful. They didn't scrape off with a razor blade and even with oil they still show through, though a shade less than before the treatment. I tend to be bothered by things like that, but in this case the guitar sounds and feels so good that I'm okay with chuckling and just telling people they're freckles when they notice them. They're still really hard to photograph, but it looks like there may be another one or two available at Sweetwater that have the same thing if you look close enough
-I opened it up to look in the back cavity and the wiring pretty clean (way cleaner than expected), but it looks like they're MIK pots. May swap them for VIP/BKP pots, but it sounds so good as is it's more of an OCD thing than anything else
-This may be more of an Evertune problem than anything else, but I noticed the D string tends to slip tuning if i bend it at all. I will set it in zone 2 because I'm a caveman and am not interested in bends or much vibrato and the tuning will drop about a quarter step if i do bend the string accidentally and i can tune it back up with the tuner or the saddle. Importantly, the tuner seems to only have about 30% of the zone range as all of the other tuners. Could this be an issue with the tuner or maybe an Evertune saddle assembly that needs replaced? It will hold pitch if I don't bend and I can leave it there for days, but it's the only string I actually have to babysit when all the others hold solid
Anyway, big block of text over! I'd love to see more people get their hands on these, but understand especially in the USA how the price can be a bit of a turnoff. Totally worth giving it a shot if you like fun, fast guitars in fun, fast colors
--Cheap
So happy to have that silver medal on this guy
