Genesis | soldguitars

(SOLD)

Jaden Rose 'Originl Series' Prototype #1

"Genesis"

So, I was minding my own business and keeping my head down (as usual, right?!) and, for once, was just getting on with playng my guitars and enjoying the hobby. Okay, I'll admit that there were a few guitars on my eBay watchlist, and a few others that I was trying to hustle people into selling me. I'll also admit that I was bartering for a particular guitar that I've wanted for a while, but the bartering wasn't going too well ... a very slow and painful process. Anyway (I digress, as usual) there was nothing on the horizon that screamed "THAT has to be your next guitar". I will admit that it felt a little odd. Anyway, I logged onto one of my favourite internet forums (for a chat about guitars, as you do) and saw THIS. Even the NAME (given my fondness for one-off builds and prototypes) got me excited. Genesis. I knew the guitar, I kinda knew the seller, but I didn't ever think that I'd actually be in a position to buy it. This was not only a Jaden Rose Original Series ('OS'), but was THE ORIGINAL Original Series. THE prototype. Bloody hell.

If you've read much of my ramblings here, you'll know that I don't buy stuff on impulse very often, so I put the kettle on. Milk, two sugars and a long, deep ponder. Did I want it? Did I want it ENOUGH? Both bloody stupid questions of course. Yes, I wanted it. And I wanted it a lot. The asking price on the forum was maybe £400 lower (thats ... LOWER) than I thought the guitar was probably worth, but, because I'm a twat, I started with the bartering, and threw in a low offer. The seller is a big geezer, and is known not to take any shit, so I pulled a face like a four-year-old about to pop a balloon as I clicked 'send'. My plan with the low-ball offer was that he would come back with a very high counter-offer, then I would counter with an offer a little more than my original offer (... you know the process, I'm sure), so we would meet about half way between the asking price and my offer, and we'd both think that we'd won. His response, however, was to ask for a little more than my low-ball offer (which I agreed to, of course) then we shook hands on a deal. Done. Easy. It could have gone A LOT worse than that ... I could have ended up in a shallow grave in woodland just off the M62. So yeah. Happy days.

It took a few weeks for me to get the money into one place (its complicated), then a clandestine trade was done in a car park (... "You got the goods?" ... "Yeah, you got the money?") ... with both of us wearing dark hoodies and gloves. Or something like that ...

SO. Here she IS. And what a bloody DOOZY. [For my American buddies - "DOOZY" : noun : something outstanding or unique of its kind].

The carved-top body is made from 25 year old African Mahogany, which is light, vibrant and 'zingy'. The carve to the top is slightly different to my other carved-top Jadens, so suggesting that our boy Jaden modified the carve sometime after this one. The board is a thick slab of black ebony with lovely, deep scalloping to the last 8 of the 24 jumbo frets. The scalloping is 'off-centre', so that just the treble side is scalloped, which makes sense ... I don't get much use out of the bass-side strings right at the dusty end of the neck. While we're on the subject of the neck .. it is a beautiful (... BEAUTIFUL) wenge and purpleheart affair, with no scarf joint and a pitched back headstock. Using no scarf joint means that Jaden must have wasted quite a lot of wood to get it this way ... but whatever ... its absolutely bloody lovely. Nice and chubby too. The finish on these necks is raw, presumably oiled, so you get that lovely slinkiness with a hint of roughness from the open grain of the wenge. The face of the headstock isn't 'capped', so the stripes of wenge and purpleheart are visible, and the logo is bigger than any 'Jaden' logo that I've ever seen ... huge in comparison to his other early logos. The truss rod cover is also different to his 'usual' OS guitars, being a three-screw design, as opposed to the (quite odd) single screw type that he normally uses.

The guitar originally came with a set of EMGs (an 81 at the bridge and an SA single at the neck ... both decent pickups, see one of the phots below), but the last owner had them swapped out for DiMarzios (a MoJoe and a PAF Pro ... almost certainly a good choice). Clearly, the neck single route had to be enlarged to allow the humbucker to be fitted, but it was all done very tidily, and done by Jaden, so all is well. All other hardware is by Gotoh. The switching system is good and versatile, with the 5-way blade switch giving (1) bridge, (2) bridge coils in series, (3) both pups full-on, (4) both of the inner coils, and (5) the neck. Awesome.

In use, this is as creamy and velvety as … well … cream and velvet? You know. The playing surface is smooth and easy, and the guitar puts up SO little resistance to what you tell it to do, as is the case with most of my Jadens. As you might expect, the pickups are punchy and tuneful, and the natty 5-way takes you from awesome jangly quackiness through to the fury of the bridge humbucker in one quick movement … no coil split pots or switches to mess about with. Excellent.

What else can I say? It’s just a thoroughly, THOROUGHLY lovely guitar, and I’m VERY happy that it is here.