Jackson Guitars - Design Hallmarks

Design Hallmarks

From the earliest beginnings until the present day, Jackson Guitars is known for its slender, elegant designs, and feature aggressive motifs that are popular with hard rock and metal musicians.

Traditionally, Jackson (and many Charvel) guitars share the typical pointed headstock that first appeared on the Rhoads prototype in 1980. This likely arose from trade dress infringement issues as a result of Charvel's use of Fender Stratocaster shaped headstocks until the early 1980s. Fender's 2002 acquisition of both the Jackson and Charvel brands has enabled the Strat-style headstock to be reintroduced (under license).

Another Jackson trademark is the 'shark fin' inlays, which inspired other famous guitar companies such as Ibanez to follow suit with similar designs.

Jackson guitars currently in production:

• Randy Rhoads: An asymmetric 'V' shaped body with pointy "wings", designed for guitarist Randy Rhoads
• Soloist: A neck-through body superstrat with a body 7/8 the size of a stratocaster.
• Dinky: A bolt-on superstrat, 7/8 the size of a strat.
• Kelly: A sleeker version of Gibson's popular Explorer, made famous by Marty Friedman of Megadeth, who had a signature model made for him, the KE1.
• King V: A symmetric 'V' shape with long pointy wings, originally designed for Robbin Crosby of Ratt, but popularized, through prolific use, by Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, who had a signature model, the KV1.
• Warrior: An aggressive body style consisting of four pointy ends that mimic the Jackson headstock shape.

Signature series:

• Phil Collen's PC1 Signature Dinky: Dinky style with a Jackson Sustainer/Driver pickup in the neck position, DiMarzio HS2 Stacked Humbucking Pickup in the middle position, DiMarzio Super 3 Humbucking Pickup in the bridge position, Floyd Rose original locking tremolo and gold-plated hardware. It was followed by the short lived PC3 model, a moderately priced version featuring DiMarzio HSS pickups and a Wilkinson floating vibrato.
• Chris Broderick's Signature Soloist: Based on the soloist but with a custom asymmetric arch-top design. It features stainless steel frets as well as custom DiMarzio pickups, a low-profile Floyd Rose tremolo, push-pull potentiometers, and a kill switch along with other unique features. Available in both 6 and 7 string varieties.
• Mark Morton's Dominion: A signature guitar designed by Jackson and Lamb of God guitarist, Mark Morton
• Phil Demmel's Demmelition V: A signature guitar based on the King V with cutouts on the bottom of both wings.
• Adrian Smith's San Dimas: A signature guitar based on the 1980s Jackson custom shop models produced for Iron Maiden's Adrian Smith.
• Scott Ian's T-1000: A signature guitar for Scott Ian, based on his original Soloist but with a slightly bigger body.

Jackson guitars available only through the custom shop:

• Death Kelly: Similar to the Kelly; the bottom portion of the guitar is cut almost like the Warrior, but the upper portion near the neck remains the same.
• Death Angel: Similar to the Death Kelly; the bottom portion of the guitar is cut almost like the Warrior, but the upper portion near the neck has a SG/Kelly type shape.
• Demon: Shaped almost exactly like an Ibanez 540.
• PC Archtop: Jackson's first Signature Model for Phil Collen, developed in 1988 after using various Soloist & Dinky custom models for 2 years. Phil and Grover Jackson decided to make an ergonomically correct guitar with a body like a normal arched-top Super Strat, except the top horn is dramatically bigger, the lower horn has more of a Fender Telecaster shape, and was concaved much like a Spector NS-series Bass Guitar.
• Roswell Rhoads: General concept of a Rhoads (asymmetric 'V'), except it's more curved, like an asymmetrical 'U'.
• Star: Exactly like the original Charvel Star, except with Jackson headstock and label.
• Surfcaster: Exactly like the original Charvel Surfcaster except with different logo.
• Xtreme Rhoads: Rhoads with slightly scaled down body and shorter top fin.

Discontinued models:

• Kelly Star: Similar to the Kelly; the bottom portion of the guitar cut almost like the Rhoads, but the upper portion near the neck remained the same.
• Y2KV: Used by guitarist Dave Mustaine; a custom V with rounded edges, first launched in 2000 and offered until 2002.
• Firebird: based on the Gibson Firebird but with a trademark Jackson headstock

Jackson Professional and Performer Series:

• "Professional" is a tag that denotes the Japanese-made versions of many popular USA models. All Jacksons with "Professional" on the headstock are made in Japan.
• "Performer" is a tag that denotes Jackson's low end models, produced during the mid-1990s in Asian factories (initially Korea, and later Japan).