Jackson Guitars! Is poplar wood any good?

[dave_mc]

Ok, I'll cut to the chase. A guy on another forum posted a pic that showed that the X series Jacksons were MIJ (Japanese). I tried some out today, and, if the sticker is to be believed, they are indeed MIJ.


So I tried out an KVX10 (EDIT: king v string-thru) and RX10 Rhoads (trem sucked, but i'd change it anyway). They were great, very good value, great feel (no idea about the pickups, i played it unplugged). Between £300 and £350. I think the RX is alder, while i think the KVX might be poplar. Needless to say, major GAS is building (for both! Dammit!)...

So, two questions:

1) are the x-series jacksons any good? Being japanese-made (my ibanez MIJ rg, bar the trem, rules!), I'd assume so, but obviously you never know- any horror stories? I'm perfectly willing to change bridge/tuners/floyd on them, but if you know the wood sucks, or the neck sucks, or whatever, that's a major problem.

2) Is poplar any good? It was hard to tell unplugged, I think the Rhoads sounded better, but that may be just because the strings felt looser, and i was playing better lol. From what I hear, poplar is a bit like alder- true? (I know steve morse uses it on his musicmans (men?) and they're £1500, so it can't be terrible!)

Thanks for your time!

 :D

[Searcher]

2) Is poplar any good? It was hard to tell unplugged, I think the Rhoads sounded better, but that may be just because the strings felt looser, and i was playing better lol. From what I hear, poplar is a bit like alder- true? (I know steve morse uses it on his musicmans (men?) and they're £1500, so it can't be terrible!)

I had a poplar-bodied strat-style guitar and the tone was pretty thin in comparison with other guitars I've played.  That could have also been due to other factors, though.  I know that Fender has used poplar for their cheap made-in-Mexico stuff.  So, I'm not a big fan, but I've never played a high-end poplar guitar.

[TwilightOdyssey]

To my ear, poplar guitars sound very 'small'; I've never played a poplar guitar that I would want to own.

Your best bet is to try before you buy, of course. You may love it.

[dave_mc]

^yeah, i have tried it, I was just wondering what you guys thought, lol.

I thought the poplar sounded kind of "thin/small" unplugged anyway...

But it looks so nice!

GRRR

still, i think the rhoads one was alder...

:twisted:

Thanks for the help, guys! Any ideas on the actual quality of the X-series Jacksons?

[maliciousteve]

I don't like the X series personally. I'd wait a few weeks till the NEW Jacksons come out, they look damn nice

[Cattivo Ragazzo]

Jacksons are $%&#ing ace guitars, I own a few, and they're great, and believe me when I tell you that I am extremelly critical when it comes to the quality of guitars. I own a jackson dxmg guitar, which is the kind of budget soloist, and it is unbelievable good for the money, I can't believe that you have to pay so much more for the high end soloist models, shite trem and pickups, but they can easily be changed. I can't comment on the x seriers jackson.
 I own a 1990 jackson, and a 2005 jackson, they're both excellent, both MIJ, but they are not poplar wood guitars, and I have not heard anything good about poplar wood, but then I've played guitars made from expensive exotic tone woods which sounded wack.
Jacksons normally have big frets, which is good-for me, but I play Ibanez guitars and favour them, and so I only dislike the thicker neck, and slightly more difficult high fret access, which you don't get with most newer Ibanez guitars, however, I think their budget stuff sucks compared to jackson.

[blue]

poplar?  i have a trio of poplar guitars, two gibson mIII's and a gibson blueshawk.  one of the mIII's needs some serious setup work, i got it fairly recently as a spare, but the other is my absolute favourite, number one guitar!  i've seen a couple of discussions where people have dismissed the wood as no good, but both the mIII and the blueshawk sound wonderful.  
your main guide should be how the guitars feel to you, all my mates hate my "horrible looking" mIII and my "girly" blueshawk, but they feel and sound great (the guitars, not my mates) and that makes me play better, so who cares what they think?  as it happens i think they both look great

[dave_mc]

I don't like the X series personally. I'd wait a few weeks till the NEW Jacksons come out, they look damn nice

yeah. I know. Real duncans (ok, they suck, but not as much as duncan designeds, lol).

Unfortunately, the presence of "real" duncans will probably increase the price to like £600, while these x-series ones are £300.

Cattivo: you know your trems. From what i could tell by looking at the trem on the rhoads one (JT580LP? think that's the one), it seemed to be the same size as an OFR- are the studs the same size too? I think they were, but i don't trust my eye versus a ruler, lol.

I appreciate the input guys, keep it coming!

As for the poplar: i DID think it sounded a little thinner/smaller, but as I said, that may be due to other factors, lol.

[dave_mc]

Jacksons normally have big frets, which is good-for me, but I play Ibanez guitars and favour them, and so I only dislike the thicker neck, and slightly more difficult high fret access, which you don't get with most newer Ibanez guitars, however, I think their budget stuff sucks compared to jackson.

+1 on that, you sound exactly like me, lol, I have an ibanez too! I quite like the jackson neck though, in a kind of "different, but not necessarily worse" kind of way, compared to the ibanez ones :D

[Miracle Man Matt]

apparently the first Fender guitars made were out of Poplar, but was changed as Alder was less expensive/easier to get or something.  Ive heard people really like poplar, it is very light!!

my next few guitars Im making will be out of poplar.

MMM

[Twinfan]

I've got a Jackson DKMG which is a carved alder body.  Compared to my basswood body Ibanez RG the sounds are very different.  The alder has much more lower end oomph.  The basswood is more midrangey.

I don't own a poplar guitar, so I can't really comment, but I believe it gives a sharper/thinner tone.  The fact that it isn't used by high end builders would suggest to me that it's not a great tone wood.

I would buy the alder bodied guitar.

[Dakine]

Dave,
I love my Japanese Soloist!
It is alder and neck-thru though.
I saw a SL3 on Evilbay the other day for 500 quid! So maybe a option (I know if I sell mine that's about what I would think it's worth, although mine is SL4 twin hum and not made anymore).
It SINGS. Great neck, fatter than my EB's but just as fast!

Love it!

[dave_mc]

I've got a Jackson DKMG which is a carved alder body.  Compared to my basswood body Ibanez RG the sounds are very different.  The alder has much more lower end oomph.  The basswood is more midrangey.

I don't own a poplar guitar, so I can't really comment, but I believe it gives a sharper/thinner tone.  The fact that it isn't used by high end builders would suggest to me that it's not a great tone wood.

I would buy the alder bodied guitar.

+1 on that, I already have a basswood guitar (ibanez) and alder (kramer) and they do sound a fair bit different.

^dakine: yeah, the soloists are nice, but those SL3's are about £900- at that kind of cash I'd be thinking custom build by somebody like Legra. The whole point of the x-series ones is they're about £300, I could get a quality guitar (inc. upgrades) for around £500.

I'm gonna wait to see how much the 2006 pro series are. A USA 2006 price list got posted on another forum, and, assuming the UK prices are near-enough direct conversions, I might look into them, in addition to the X-series.

Just one final point- the 2006 King V (x-series) is alder, not poplar- but it has a floyd now, lol.

Thanks for all the input, I appreciate it.

 :D

[Dakine]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Jackson-SL3-Soloist_W0QQitemZ7402015669QQcategoryZ33044QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

not one I saw other day, but about same price.

[dave_mc]

^thanks, dakine.

I don't trust ebay though :(

and £400 is quite a bit... :(