Christine | soldguitars

2013 Jackson USA Custom Shop Adrian Smith Signature

"Christine"

#007966

1987-8 were GOOD years. I met my wife, my guitar chops were possibly better than they've ever been (I was putting in 8 to 10 hours a day) and the stuff in the charts was rock GOLD. Appetite for Destruction, Whitesnake's 1987, Jovi's New Jersey ... then Iron Maiden's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son became the icing on a very big cake.

That started me off on an (almost) 30 year journey into Maiden's back catalogue. It was all good, but some of it was bloody great, and I maintain that Seventh Son was the pinnacle. Although I was always kinda intrigued by Dave Murray's playing, it was Adrian Smith who was the coolest kid in the class. Murray arguably had better chops, but it was Smith's solos that fascinated me. Not too technical, but always musical and written to fit the song as opposed to simply being a flurry of pointless notes.

Then he left to do a solo project, and Maiden was never the same (read "never as good") again. I still remember reading about it in Kerrang magazine, and having to sit down to get over the news. The photograph that Kerrang published showed our boy Smithy holding his white Jackson super-strat ... the same one that he'd been using solidly for years. Seeing that guitar still gives me tingles. If only.

That guitar was made for him by Grover Jackson, and he used it relentlessly. Fast forward a couple of decades and what d'you know, Jackson made him a signature model, and its very VERY nice.

There were/are a few models, some made in Indonesia (which are inexpensive and very popular) and some made in the Jackson Custom Shop, like this one. Some claim that these aren't "Custom" guitars (you don't choose the shape, the wood, the neck profile or the fret size) but if you DID then it wouldn't be like Adrian's, would it?! These are all built to his spec, by the nice folks at the Custom Shop. Yes, I KNOW that Fender's Signature Strats, like the Malmsteen, the Jeff Beck and the Eric Johnson, are USA production line guitars (not built in their CS), but Jackson and Charvel Signature models (like the DeMartinis, the Broderick and this one) are Custom Shop builds. Not that it matters of course ... what matters is how well it is made and how it plays, but I've had a few folks question why these retail at over £2k new but are actually the same as a USA Charvel Pro-Mod. Well, these sell for more than the USA Pro-Mods because they're CS Guitars ... these are priced just a smidge higher than Charvel's CS guitars, presumably so that Mr Smith can take a modest cut, which is fine.

Whatever. Suck it up. So. This has an alder body (a full size Strat shape, not a Jackson 'Dinky'), the neck is a bolt-on chunk of quartersawn maple, and the board is a thick chunk of smooth, none-more-black ebony, with abalone inlays. Frets are immaculately finished jumbos on a compound radius board (12" to 16").

Hardware includes a German Floyd, Gotoh machines, volume, tone and a 5-way ... no coil-splits, no coil-taps, no nuthin ... just ingrained awesomeness. The bridge hum is a DiMarzio Super Distortion, and both singles are Fender "Samarium Cobalt Noiseless" (SCN), which are nicely stratty and plenty powerful (although are almost entirely devoid of any 'quack' in the 4-position, but I guess I've got Strats for THAT tone).

The geezer I got this from bought it new at my local store, and paid the ticket price, then asked to trade it in when something else caught his eye. There's nothing wrong with wanting to swap gear, but the downside is that they apparently offered him 40% of what he paid for it. Which is sucky. SO, when I offered him that much plus £50, he sulked for a while, then said ok. I offered to drive to his place, pay cash, and promised not to haggle or give him any nonsense, and what do you know, we were both happy with the deal.

Because I got this for MUCH less than the fair used value, I used my best fine-toothed comb to check her over before handing over the (still not insubstantial) wad of cash ... don't forget that there are thousands of Adrian Smith Signature models around that are made in Indonesia (the SDX model), and finding out this this was an SDX would have really spoiled my day. Anyhow, everything checked out. Correct trem, pickups, nut, serial, neck plate, headstock waterslide ... and he had all the paperwork from the factory, including the hang-tag (correct serial and date).

The condition of the guitar was admittedly disappointing. Even though the frets were unmarked, the finish was entirely flawless and there was no corrosion or crap anywhere, he told me that he'd snapped the b-string that it came with from the factory, so he'd replaced it with a new one, AND I saw that the plastic film that was still attached to the scratchplate / pickguard had a few scratches on it. Yep ... the film was still on the pickguard, and it had never had a proper restring after being strung up at the Jackson workshop.

So, it's new. And I feel really quite smug about it ... sorry. Do I feel guilty for taking advantage of a fellow guitar-geek who has lost 60% of the cost of his new guitar? No. No I do not.

Acoustically, this is LOUD and sustains really nicely. Plugged in through a hot Marshall (what else IS there?) and this steps right into 'awesome' territory ... huge harmonics, big chuggy rhythm stuff, and all the tones you'd expect from a Super Distortion, and genuinely usable thick overdrives from the singles. I've watched Smithy closely in lots of YouTube vids since getting this, and he seems to spend quite a lot of time on the single coils, and now I see why.

The neck is a medium-to-thin 'C' profile with comfy shoulders, and the board edges are rolled heavily, so it is an absolute breeze. The Floyd is rock-solid, no tuning issues whatsoever and the arm collar is as tight as my trousers after a big Sunday lunch with pudding.

So there you have it. It's here, it's a keeper, and it's going to get some serious abuse ...