Jackson Soloist

The Jackson Soloist electric guitar has been a favorite of hard rockers, melodic shredders and heavy metal players for almost thirty years, thanks to its impeccable craftsmanship, supreme playability, and top-notch electronics and hardware.

First introduced in the early 1980s, the Soloist was one of the first so-called Super-Strats, high-octane axes based on the familiar Fender Stratocaster, but hot-rodded to appeal to the new breed of extreme guitarists on the scene, with amped-up appointments like higher-output pickups, locking tremolo/vibrato systems, and shred-friendly necks designed for speed, carved with ultra-fast profiles and loaded with jumbo frets. The Soloist, like its sibling the Jackson Dinky, is notable for its slightly smaller 7/8-scale body size, while still retaining the familiar-feeling 25.5 scale length common to Fender guitars, making it a breeze to sling around the stage for hours on end. The Soloist, however, boasts a neck-through-body design, which, while more expensive to produce, results in increased resonance and sustain, and enables a much smoother heel where the neck meets the body, for greatly enhanced access to the upper frets.

Other design elements common to the Soloist beyond the 24-fret through-neck design include Floyd Rose or Kahler whammy systems, screaming hot, high-output pickups, like Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio or EMG humbuckers, and the distinctive, 6-on-a-side pointed headstock, although there have been plenty of design variations over the years, including single-coil pickups, 7-string models and numerous signature versions to suit any shredder's needs. For instance, the SLSXMG Soloist, from Jackson's more affordable X-Series line, offers an incredible value on the classic design, with an arched-top basswood body; maple through-body Speed Neck with tilt-back scarf joint headstock; bound, compound-radius rosewood fingerboard loaded with 24 Jumbo frets; Floyd Rose Special locking 2-point tremolo; and a pair of molten EMG humbuckers. The SLX Soloist is another X-Series stunner, featuring a gloss urethane finish to show off either the neck-through design on the Natural version, or the quilted maple veneer on the Burnt Cherry Sunburst model, as well a pair of Duncan-Designed humbuckers, so it sounds as cool as it looks. The SL2 Pro Soloist kicks things up a notch, with a 3-piece through-body maple neck with hand-rubbed oil finish and graphite reinforcement; alder body; white neck and headstock binding; and a pair of direct-mount Seymour Duncan humbuckers. Thrashers looking for something a bit more brutal will want to check out the Scott Ian Signature T1000 Soloist, crafted to the Anthrax axe-slinger's specs, sporting Shepard Fairey-designed High Boltage fingerboard inlays, and available either with dual Seymour Duncan humbuckers and Floyd Rose whammy, or in a more stripped-down, single-humbucker hardtail version with a TonePros Tune-O-Matic bridge. Seven-string slingers will dig the Chris Broderick Soloist 7-string, designed by the Megadeth shredder, featuring an offset arch-top mahogany body with maple neck and quilt maple top; and a pair of Broderick-designed Custom DiMarzio humbuckers, wound to extract the maximum amount of damage from every note. Whatever your style, there's a Jackson Soloist destined to help you shred it to pieces. Order yours today!