Guitar Shootout

[Slartibartfarst42]

Time for another long post from me  After a huge amount of deliberation, I finally got to have a shootout between the three guitars I’d narrowed my choice down to so I thought I’d share my findings. The three guitars in question were:

PRS SE Floyd Custom 24 in quilted purple
Jackson Pro DK2MQ with Floyd bridge in quilted chlorine burst
Sterling JP100D in pacific blue burst

Price

I’m going to ignore the RRP on these things because that’s irrelevant so instead let’s look at what I could actually buy these things for after a great deal of haggling. The PRS was coming in at £570, the Jackson was £585 and the Sterling was a little different. Strictly speaking, the best price I could get on the Sterling was £695 but because the UK distributor had mistakenly sent me a rather abusive email, they agreed to drop the price to just £599. In theory this should put the Sterling in pole position as it’s a significantly more expensive guitar that I have been fortunate enough to get into the same price bracket.

Build and Finish

1.   PRS
2.   Jackson
3.   Sterling

All three of these were very well built and felt like they were aimed at serious musicians. The ‘Pro’ name used on the Jackson wouldn’t have felt out of place on any of these instruments. None had any blemishes on the paint and everything had a reassuringly solid feel to it. If I had to pick a winner, I’d say the PRS felt like it was the highest quality guitar there, with the Jackson and Sterling close behind; perhaps the Jackson just shading it over the Sterling. The set up from the factory was good for all three but the PRS was certainly the best one here and would need no adjustment at all.

Bridge

1.   PRS/Jackson
2.   Sterling

There’s absolutely nothing to choose between the PRS and the Jackson here as both use a Floyd Rose while the Sterling has what’s called a ‘modern tremolo’ that’s designed by Sterling themselves. Needless to say, the bridges on the PRS and Jackson felt very solid and well made with a smooth operation. The Sterling bridge also felt solidly built and had a lovely smooth action. It was better than the Floyds for more subtle vibrato but as it’s not locking, more limited when more extreme use is called for. I much preferred this to the normal PRS or Fender tremolo bridges but it didn’t seem quite up to the quality of the Floyds and I noticed that when pulling up on the trem bar, there was a disturbing ‘clunk’ from the system but I have no idea what was causing it. I was also mindful of a few reports I’d read online of the Sterling bridge being prone to snapping high ‘E’ strings.

Neck

1.   Jackson
2.   PRS
3.   Sterling

All three have slim, fast necks but beyond that, they are quite different. Both the Jackson and Sterling had lightly oiled maple necks while the PRS neck was painted so felt the slowest of them all to play. The Sterling neck might have been marginally more ‘chunky’ than the other two but there wasn’t much in it and because it wasn’t painted, it still felt faster than the PRS. The combination of a thin, narrow, oiled neck with a compound radius fingerboard made the Jackson feel superb and I loved the fact that it had a maple fingerboard. Both the PRS and Sterling used rosewood fingerboards with the quality of rosewood being significantly better on the PRS. To be honest, the quality of the rosewood on the PRS was fantastic and I never expected to find such quality on a guitar at this price point. While the PRS lost out in sheer speed of the neck to the other two, it had the best upper fret access by some margin. The double cutaway on a Custom 24 is so far up the neck that it’s almost like an SG. I’ve owned both Ibanez and Jackson neck-thru guitars before and they offer virtually no advantage in upper fret access over this PRS.

Pickups

1.   Jackson
2.   Sterling
3.   PRS

This is clearly down to personal preference so anything I can say now would be purely subjective. The PRS comes with their own HFS/VB set while the Jackson uses a Seymour Duncan JB/59 set and the Sterling, a DiMarzio Crunchlab/Liquifier set. The pickups in the PRS, while good for stock pickups, simply couldn’t live with the quality of the other two. In this company, they were rubbish. I liked the DiMarzios more than I expected as I find that ceramic pickups just lose too much tone in exchange for tightness. They were nice but a bit bland. I used to have a JB in a Jackson Soloist and I was seriously unimpressed but here, in a bolt on, alder bodied superstrat, the JB was sublime. I REALLY loved the tone that JB was producing in that guitar so I can only conclude it works best in alder bodied guitars. The 59 was also very nice but nothing like as special as the JB.

Controls

1.   Jackson
2.   Sterling
3.   PRS

The pickup selector on the Sterling was beautifully positioned so changing pickups wouldn’t interrupt your playing at all, though I think some people may find it a bit close to the strings. The positioning of the controls on the Jackson was pretty much perfect. The PRS has the worst positioning of the pickup selector as you either have to reach over the whammy bar to get to it or move the bar out of the way. Why they can’t position it better is beyond me. Other than that, I found the positioning of the controls fine on all of them, though I found the domed knobs on the Sterling a bit gimmicky and a bit too far away for maximum comfort.

Value

1.   PRS
2.   Jackson
3.   Sterling

In one sense, this has to be the Jackson as this is a serious amount of guitar for the money. It has the highest specification and because of the pickups, it was the only one I’d be 100% happy to play and gig with straight out of the box. At the other end of the spectrum, the Sterling looks like it’s overpriced to me. It didn’t really shine in any particular area compared to the other two and while I can see how some people might prefer the Sterling in this company if they liked ceramic pickups and a non-locking trem, it has to be remembered that I was being offered this guitar at £100 below its normal street price and it was still struggling to live with the other two. At its normal price of £695, I just couldn’t see any reason to pay the extra and £695 was a very good price. Thomann couldn’t get below £750 and that had to be on a blue one they’d had in stock too long! Of course, value is about more than purchase price. You get a lot of guitar for your money with the Jackson but it will drop like a stone in terms of value and that pointy, ‘Metal’ headstock will severely limit your market if/when you come to sell, as I found out when I sold my Jackson Soloist. On the used market they fetch about £300 in excellent condition based on completed sales on Ebay. Conversely, the PRS holds its value very well indeed and should easily make £400 in this specification AND be far easier to sell. I’ve sold two PRS SE Custom 24 guitars over the years and both went within 48 hours and I had people lined up to buy them. The pickups may be poor but at least you can install something of your own choosing and they will have value if you come to sell too. It’s difficult to tell with the Sterling as there are so few of them around but my research suggested that a resale value of about £350 would be reasonable so like the Jackson, it loses a lot of money, especially if you’re paying £700 for a new one.

Conclusions

All three were really nice guitars but it probably won’t come as a surprise to discover that the first to be discarded was the Sterling. It just didn’t feel ‘special’ in any way and if I’m honest, I expected more for what they’re charging. This isn’t a bad guitar in any way. On the contrary, it’s lovely, but the pricing is ridiculous. If it had been £500 or even £550 it would have looked more tempting but as it was, it was the most expensive to buy, had the worst bridge, the pickups that didn’t bowl me over and its resale value is bang average at best. Once the Sterling was gone, it was REALLY tough to choose. In many respects I liked the Jackson best and I would have been perfectly happy with that guitar, but I bought the PRS. Why? Three reasons really. Firstly, while the Jackson had the fastest neck, I’m no shredder and I would rather trade that for the very impressive build quality of the PRS. It may be made in Korea but we only have to look at Gibson to know that having a ‘Made in the USA’ sticker on it doesn’t mean it’s any good. The quality of the PRS was more than a match for any Gibson or Fender priced at under £1000 and arguably even a little higher and I guess that’s why it holds its value so well. The second reason is down to my vanity I’m afraid. I’m 50 years old and no shredder and frankly, I thought the headstock on the Jackson looked like it was designed for a 12 year old rather than someone of my advancing years and I couldn’t see that perception changing as I move towards 60! Finally, it was the neck pickup. Just in case I bought the PRS, I’d already been in touch with a custom winder and one of the things I’d said was that when using the neck pickup for leads, I invariably find myself turning the tone control down to make it smoother and creamier and while that’s fine on my Les Paul, it’s a pain when one tone control operates both pickups. As a result he suggested a neck PAF with an AII magnet and double rows of screws for fine tuning and I thought why am I compromising when I can get whatever pickups I want in the best quality guitar and although it costs more initially you get that back in the longer term while having a more bespoke instrument. In a way I wish I could have had that Jackson as it was seriously good and on another day I might have gone that way but as it is, I have no regrets at all. The PRS is beautiful, it’s nicely understated and in a month’s time, it will have exactly the pickups I want in it. You just can’t go wrong with a Custom 24 and with a Floyd in it, it’s even more versatile.

[Dave Sloven]

Interesting.

I would have went for the Jackson, but then again I don't care what people think of how my guitar looks!

[Andrew W]

Interesting read and a great review. Something that has always intrigued me with new guitars is that although you can plot a price vs quality graph and very roughly the more you spend , the better a guitar you get, the number of outliers on that graph is probably higher than the the guitars that would actually be anywhere near the line of best fit. It's ever more proof that you really have to try before you buy to be sure you're getting the best guitar for your money.

I think in your shoes, I'd have gone for the PRS too.

[Slartibartfarst42]

Interesting.

I would have went for the Jackson, but then again I don't care what people think of how my guitar looks!

As I said, on another day I may well have just taken the Jackson, it really was that close. In my defence, it wasn't just about the looks, although I admit that was part of it. The PRS felt better built, upper fret access was better and as much as I really loved that JB in alder, every time I moved to the neck pickup, I knew deep down that I would eventually change it and because of the heavy depreciation on the Jackson, that started to make it look less attractive. I'm not in a rush to drop another £160 on pickups having just bought a guitar but I reasoned that in the long term I'd end up both happier and better off. The trick now of course is to find a hot and saturated bridge pickup that will give me the smooth thick mids of 80s Metal that I like while also being bright enough to move a mahogany guitar towards the sound I had from the Jackson. I doubt that's going to be possible but it will sound good.

[Alex]

The one guitar I really regret not buying was an old 80s Jackson soloist with a Kahler tremolo, which I once had a great offer for.

But yes, it's really true, you can't go wrong with PRS.

[Dave Sloven]

Didn't you find that the Cold Sweat bridge was too bright in a PRS before?

[Slartibartfarst42]

That was an Emerald but as well as being very bright, it also didn't have the characteristics I'm currently looking for.

[Kiichi]

Interesting read. Thanks for the write-up as always. I too would have done what you did. Would have gotten a PG or Stormy for the neck though...or a Blue Note or Manhattan. Try P90s already mate. ;)

[dave_mc]

Excellent review/story there. Glad you're happy with what you got.

They mistakenly sent you an abusive email? LOLwut?

[Slartibartfarst42]

Interesting read. Thanks for the write-up as always. I too would have done what you did. Would have gotten a PG or Stormy for the neck though...or a Blue Note or Manhattan. Try P90s already mate. ;)

Oddly enough, this whole process started because I wanted to change my last PRS for an SG with a P90 neck but I was just disappointed with the SG and in messing around with other guitars at the shop I developed a hankering to get a guitar with a Floyd again. I was sure I was going to get a different guitar so it's taken a bit of explaining to a very sceptical wife as to why I've ended up with the same guitar except for the bridge. It's even the same colour!!! I did try to point out that the last one was a quilted purple burst whereas this one is just quilted purple and I think that helps to lighten the guitar a bit and allow the colour to come through but she didn't look impressed. Anyway, as this one will be a humbucker set the P90 has had to go onto the back burner for now but I may look at it again when I eventually change the pickups on my Les Paul. For now I'm happy with the stock pickups but when the gold covers start to look a bit worn I'm going to change them for black open poled pups with double rows of gold screws. I'm pretty certain I'll go for a Black Dog in the bridge but not sure about the neck so it may be a P90.

Excellent review/story there. Glad you're happy with what you got.

They mistakenly sent you an abusive email? LOLwut?

Yes. I contacted the UK distributor 'Strings and Things' to see if they could get a guitar to Sheffield for me to try as it was unreasonable to expect anyone to spend that much money on a guitar nobody was actually stocking. I pointed out that the reason for this might be because they're so expensive compared to the opposition and asked if anything could be done on price as surely the guitars are better on the streets than in a warehouse. You don't ask, you don't get  Anyway, I received this reply:

'Absolutely not! The price is down to f***ing Praxis not the distributor. Cheeky b*****ds.'

That was all I got, except they didn't block out any of the letters. It seemed an odd way to deal with a prospective customer so I wrote back to them to thank them for their help, such as it was, and told them my interest in the guitar was over. I mentioned this on the Music Man forum where it turns out the Vice President of Praxis (Sterling guitars effectively) is an active member and he took up the matter, leading to the guitar being sent to Sheffiled and the £100 concession on the price. I really wanted to like the Sterling but even with that £100 discount it was still too expensive. To compete with the PRS and Jackson it would have to have been a lot cheaper still. At £500 I probably would have bought it and at £550 I might have been more tempted but £600 was just too high in my view.

[Telerocker]

Good choice, those PRS's are a lot of bang for the bucks.

[dave_mc]

Excellent review/story there. Glad you're happy with what you got.

They mistakenly sent you an abusive email? LOLwut?

Yes. I contacted the UK distributor 'Strings and Things' to see if they could get a guitar to Sheffield for me to try as it was unreasonable to expect anyone to spend that much money on a guitar nobody was actually stocking. I pointed out that the reason for this might be because they're so expensive compared to the opposition and asked if anything could be done on price as surely the guitars are better on the streets than in a warehouse. You don't ask, you don't get  Anyway, I received this reply:

'Absolutely not! The price is down to f***ing Praxis not the distributor. Cheeky b*****ds.'

That was all I got, except they didn't block out any of the letters. It seemed an odd way to deal with a prospective customer so I wrote back to them to thank them for their help, such as it was, and told them my interest in the guitar was over. I mentioned this on the Music Man forum where it turns out the Vice President of Praxis (Sterling guitars effectively) is an active member and he took up the matter, leading to the guitar being sent to Sheffiled and the £100 concession on the price. I really wanted to like the Sterling but even with that £100 discount it was still too expensive. To compete with the PRS and Jackson it would have to have been a lot cheaper still. At £500 I probably would have bought it and at £550 I might have been more tempted but £600 was just too high in my view.

Wow That's crazy. I haven't tried the sterlings, but as you said, the prices seem to be pretty high for the supposedly "cheaper" version of the MusicMan.

[Dave Sloven]

Sounds like someone passed your inquiry on to his boss, and the boss sent the message he expected the underling to translate into more diplomatic language directly to you instead ... Quite funny really, and would have left a lot of egg on that boss's face

[Slartibartfarst42]

They 'claimed' that the area rep who covers Sheffield has the same name as me so they just responded without reading it all, thinking it was all a joke. Not convinced I believe that but to their credit they did bend over backwards to help after I mentioned it to the Vice President of Praxis  It's just a shame that even throwing some money at it and offering me a bag of Ernie Ball 'goodies' the guitar still struggled to stand out.

[dave_mc]

There can't be that many people called "Slartibartfarst42", surely? Not sure I buy that.