Jackson SL1 USA Soloist Electric Guitar  (Used)

Comments about Jackson SL1 USA Soloist Electric Guitar:

I bought my SL-1 in 1995. Little did I know how good this guitar was. The pick ups back then where a Bill Lawerence XL-500 bridge, @ 2 jackson designed single coils. Pretty lame combo. Over the years I tried many different pickups before settling on my final configuration of a Dimazario X2N bridge and 2 Dimarzio HS3. This is the perfect setup for this guitar. A steve vai( he used X2N early in his career) and 2 Malmsteens (again early in his career). The pick ups work well together, no volumne drops or jumps. My guitar is fine blue metallic over white. Very durable finish,it still looks brand new 17 years later. Frets have almost no wear on them,very hard. Flawless fret work,not a single dead spot.I installed gibson volume and tone pots, switched to strat knobs and reversed the position of the volume and tone. Rolling the tone is more important than volume.I also ran a ground wire from my pot to the tremelo spring claw to eliminate hum when not touching the floyd. Over the years I have owned countless guitars from every brand and none have surpassed the Jackson for ease of playability. This will be one of your fastest. My 2012 Les Paul custom classic is just as fast but with a different feel. I really enjoy going back and forth between them. Guitars come and go but after 17 years nothing has dethroned the Jackson and never will. ITS THAT GOOD.

Comments about Jackson SL1 USA Soloist Electric Guitar:

Stellar guitar, crushes all others, even for Blues, Country, just anything. The sustain of the neck-through goes on foreever, yet there is clear note delineation on fast runs. At first I was a little reluctant since it was so tied to the 80s, but man, I can do anything on this, and it can sound like anything you want. From a Fender Strat playing Texas Blues down to a LP for rock, metal, or otherwise. I got the cherry sunburst to add a little sophistication.
Nothing better for any genre. You can play anything with this.
Solid quality wood selection, beautiful fit and finish. Destroys the LP Standard that I bought two years ago which will now be going on evil bay. The string tension on the Soloist feels like a 24.75 scale, nice and supple. Sits perfectly on my should, just feels right.
I suppose it could be cheaper, but it's made in the USA, and of solid components.

Comments about Jackson SL1 USA Soloist Electric Guitar:

I have been shredding these axes for over a decade. I own two and they are superb top of the line instruments well worth the money. I have one from 1998 and it plays perfectly. beautiful neck it seems to adapt to you. Thank you Jackson guitars for such a perfect instrument.

Comments about Jackson SL1 USA Soloist Electric Guitar:

When I first took this guitar out of the case, the first thing that hit me was that the ebony on the fretboard was dry as a bone. Very, very dry. Before restringing (which I ALWAYS do to a brand new guitar) I gave it 2 treatments with Dunlop Fingerboard Deep Conditioner. It sucked the first application up like nobody's business, and I let the 2nd, heavier application sit for about 5 minutes. When I wiped it dry I was greeted with a beautiful piece of ebony.I strung it with Dunlop 9-46's, set up the Floyd, and plugged it in. Tone, tone, tone. This thing has BEAUTIFUL tone. Neck profile, is, as one reviewer said, perfect for those like me who are used to playing Les Pauls. Not quite as thin as the usual Jackson shred-profile, but very comfortable to play nonetheless. The floyd is indeed very responsive, and the routing is adequate to bottom your strings on the fretboard and then some! Sustain is excellent. I have the action adjusted extremely low with almost no fret buzz. All electronics function perfectly. Many don't like the position of Jackson's volume knob, and this guitar is no exception with the knob placed even more in the way than usual. However, it makes volume adjustments on the fly VERY easy if you adjust your technique.Build quality is OUTSTANDING. The control cavity and spring covers are actually made of brushed aluminum, a very cool touch. All electronics function perfectly. Genuine mother-of-pearl inlays, with very nice swirl and figure. Jackson has always impressed me with their attention to detail and quality, even on lower-end guitars. The only thing it could benefit from is a coil tap on the bridge humbucker, hence the 4.5 on features. A little pricey, but you get what you pay for!This is a very nice guitar, but take note that it probably will not be set up out of the box. Guitar manufacturers do not fully set up their instuments, they leave that to you, and/or your guitar tech of choice. That way it will be just how you like it. So if your strings buzz, that doesn't mean it's a piece of junk, OK?

Comments about Jackson SL1 USA Soloist Electric Guitar:

body and everything on my erie guitar is amazing.Found out that the erie swirl isn't called erie for some weird reason. the pickups are Duncans but they can't compare to PAF Dimarzio's so even still the guitar is ok. the frets buzz a bit so i gotta tweak around with the guitar a bit but other than that the guitar is pretty awesome.

Comments about Jackson SL1 USA Soloist Electric Guitar:

I've owned a soloist SL1 for three years. Gorgeous guitar with flawless workmanship, most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Neck has a decent feel to it in your hand. Frets seem to wear quickly though. Terrible lack of sustain on the E and B strings up past the 15'th fret, too. I have to use a lot of finger wigglin to keep them going or the sound dies within a few seconds. I don't know if it's the Floyd acting as a damper at that frequency or what, but it's pretty bad to me. Other than that, it's a nice guitar, like I said. Strings last nearly forever, and that's with me working the bar fully down and up. Stays in tune too. Just that with the Floyd, string bending lowers the pitch of the other strings, and bending the G to match pitch with the B is messy, because you have to bend both the G and B, otherwise you're flat. Either that or raise the bar while you do the bend, but it's a hassle either way. So the Floyd is great, and not so great at the same time. I agree that the volume knob placement is not very good, it gets in the way when palm muting the higher strings, and I have to hook my pinky around the knob. That's why I give it average marks. If it weren't for the few negatives I listed here, it would be heaven, but these negatives are kind of a big deal to me, so that's why I give it an average grade when it comes to value. Narrower frets would be a plus when playing up high, too, because maybe it's the 24 frets or whatever, but the frets are very close together and difficult to place your fingers to get a crisp sound when you're burning it up.

Comments about Jackson SL1 USA Soloist Electric Guitar:

I went for the burnt cherry finish as I needed a guitar that had a "slightly" conservative look due to the broad musical styles I play. To be honest I was not really thrilled with the pictures of this finish online so had my fingers firmly crossed when I opened the case. The guitar looked incredible, not the "orangey" color pictured online, but a beautiful fire red stain burst over a burnt orange - the depth of flaming on the cap when catching the sunlight makes the finish Burn like fire. The Jackson logo and inlays were highly figured mother of pearl which set off the aesthetics beautifully.The neck needed adjustment twice (as we live in the mountains about 4500 feet up in the Arizona Air ( y-know - right next to the sun)- so, no surprise there, but this guitar has acclimated well and has since needed no further setup. The action is beautiful and there is lots of room on the fretboard for 80's style Gary Moore string bends. Very stable tuning after the strings have stretched. The Original Floyd Rose is Highly responsive for both subtle and exaggerated note inflections. The neck profile is different to the SL3 I own - in fact - comparing the SL1 and the SL3 side-by-side there really is no comparison between the two. These are completely different guitars.Being a Les Paul Fan, The tone is what was most important to me and I was Ecstatic with the sound of this SL1. Timbre and tone; I was expecting a slightly better sounding guitar than the SL3 - what I got was Les Paul type timbre and tone which is EXACTLY what I was searching for but never expected to find.Sustain? You Bet. And all you will ever need, Bright shimmering highs, soulful mids and well defined lows. Excellent note definition on Every Single Note on the neck (this is very rare) excellent harmonic response, this guitar is an all around champ for everything I play.Quickly playing between a Les Paul Custom to a Jackson SL3 your hand hovers off the back of the neck - as the neck on the SL3 is So thin and wide. The Neck on the SL1 is chunkier with a better feel in the hand if you are used to playing a Les Paul (which I am).The switching, tone and volume controls are very tight and responsive, very high end electronics - quality all the way here.Overall the SL1 is almost perfect. I say Almost as I am incredibly hard to please and this guitar has come as close to a perfect 5 as I have ever found. Well Done Jackson. A Beautiful and Real "Instrument" at a reasonable price.For those without a bottomless guitar budget - you are not alone - I spent years saving for this guitar and I begrudge Jackson not a single penny - Well worth the financial sacrifice.Guitars I own: Hamer Californian, Jackson SL3, Jackson Fusion Standard. Jackson DKMG, Les Paul Custom, LTD EC 1000, Ibanez RGT 42DXFM, Charvel Model 4, Charvel Model 7..... For my needs - The SL1 is a better "all round" guitar than any of these... Rest in Peace Les Paul. Thanks for your lifetime contribution to our dreams.

Comments about Jackson SL1 USA Soloist Electric Guitar:

I've had this guitar for roughly 3 years now. By far the most versatile and well built guitar that I have ever played. I own this guitar and a Dinky DK2M and if you are trying to decide if there really is more playability in that $1000 difference, believe me, there is. If you have the cash and are looking for the best guitar on the market. this is it

Comments about Jackson SL1 USA Soloist Electric Guitar:

Just received this guitar today in the burnt cherry finish. Beautiful guitar, action is fantastic, the neck is lightning fast, great tones out of all pickup configurations, creamy tones from neck pickup and 80's metal tones from bridge only complaint is volume knob too close to pickups, I have big hands anyway.I'll get used to it. I highly recommend this axe. Buy it you'll fall in love with it!!!!

Comments about Jackson SL1 USA Soloist Electric Guitar:

After nine years, and many other models being presented to try, the usa soloist still remains my main axe. She can do it all, and she simply refuses to fall out of tune... period... BUY IT!!!