Hey guys, Brian here with World Music Supply again, sorry for the myriad of interruptions with the blog last week, what with me being sick, and my hours being rearranged here at the office in anticipation of the upcoming holiday season, the blog accidently just got pushed to the back burner, and you as the reader suffered. Not to worry, because we now return to our regularly scheduled blogging, and today I got a chance to sit and review some products from our awesome friends over at Jackson guitars. First up is the JS32RT Dinky.
The JS32RT Dinky features a transparent Black finished flamed top, and a string through Tune-O-Matic style JT390 tailpiece. This guitar is a different beast than most Jackson Dinky’s as many of them feature a more “Fender” esque bridge, rather than a string through style, this all results in little different sounding guitar, with a slightly different sound than it’s brethren. Add its unique construction, in with the fact that this guitar is armed with Jackson CVR2 humbuckers, with their blisteringly high output, and this guitar just screams rock! The action on the neck is smooth and well balanced thanks to its compound radius fretboard, without any dead frets or buzzing anywhere along the neck. The neck was smooth, and easy to play, and the Dinky body, with its slightly smaller shape fit like a glove.
Plugged into a clean amp, this guy had a lot of cool clean tones, with big warm chord tones, and bright, strident single notes. The Indian Cedro body, had a very unique and warm tone to it, which fit the over all sound of the guitar well, especially when I cranked up the gain on the amp and let this guitar shine. The high output pickups had a big, bold character to them that was never lost in chords or in quick runs along the neck. They stayed clear at all times, never muddying up, or losing their warm, yet cutting edge. Overall for a guitar that costs as little as this one does, to have tones like this, is down right unheard of, but pair the tones, and the price with the stunning looks, and unique hardware and the JS32RT Dinky easily earns itself a solid 9 out of 10.
Next up is the RRXT Rhoads with Duncan designed pickups, long time readers will know by now that I love Jackson Rhoads, mainly because I looked up to Randy Rhoads quite a bit in my early days as a guitarist, the image of that offset V is just so powerful to a young mind. Now this one is armed to the teeth, with a Neck through body that features Jacksons Speed Neck profile, a Tone Pros tailpiece and Duncan Designed HB-102 pickups.
Clean this guitar has a unique and interesting character, with lots of sustain and warmth, and a focused sound that had a neat way of cutting and pushing itself through the mix. The neck was just as its name implied, fast. The slim, yet not too slim taper of the neck, as well as the smooth finish lead this neck to feel almost like it wasn’t really there, it was just my fingers and that fretboard. The ability to play fast lines was almost unparalleled and the added sustain of the neck through design was equally amazing. The pickups had a lot of body to them, with a warm, vocal like character.
Distorted, this guitar was more of the same, the tone was still bold and powerful, never muddy, and defined across all the strings. The bridge pickup was fiery, and had more crunch and cut than I could imagine, and the neck pickup was warm and vocal, with a roundness to it that complemented the bridge pickup quite well. At the end of the day, this guitar is amazing, with a comfortable and memorable body shape, a sound that can do anything you ask of it, and sustain for days. The RRXT Rhoads definitely deserves its 10 out of 10 rating.