UNBIASED GEAR REVIEW Jackson Brandon Ellis Signature Kelly Guitar
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- Опубліковано 16 вер 2024
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DISCLAIMER - all views contained herein are mine and mine alone. My comments merely reflect my own, individual experience with this gear. They do not necessarily reflect what your personal experience may be as a potential customer of the brand I am reviewing.
Jackson Pro Series Brandon Ellis Signature Kelly
- Maple neck-thru-body construction
- Poplar body wings
- Ebony fingerboard with 24 frets
- Floyd Rose 1000-series bridge
- Master volume control
- Seymour Duncan Parallel Axis humbucker
- $1349 street price at the time of this video's publication
Please like and subscribe. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding the instrument or the video, please leave a comment.
I love the kelly shape so bad. His gold and black one is so sick.
Nice review! I'm usually pretty willing to be understanding of flaws in a guitar when they correspond to a reasonable price point. If a guitar is inexpensive you gotta be ready less-than-perfect craftsmanship. At over $1000 tho, closer to $1500 even, the locking nut problem is completely unacceptable. Doesn't help my already shaky confidence in Jackson. It's unfortunate cause they're rad guitars!
Too be frank I don’t think any company in any avenue are gonna have zero QC issues! Regardless of being made in USA, you also have to think if an actual human is hand making an item, you basically have to gamble on whether or not said person was putting there heart into it that day! Human’s aren’t perfect! With that being said I got a Jackson Corey B king V from indo, mfer feels and plays better than my Jack CS from 88, but the quilt top has left something too be desired!
@@TrentDooley420 Yeah man that's so true about the gamble on the individual actually making it. We all know from our various professions how easy it is for people to be lazy or unscrupulous. Or heck maybe it was simply someone having a bad day. Who knows. I have a King V that has served me quite well and hasn't had many issues. It's not perfect but it was cheap and meant to be a beater guitar so I can't complain!
@@TrentDooley420 While true, this sentiment with newer Jacksons is pretty widespread. They seems to just be pumping out paintjobs resembling guitars to make a quick buck.
I bought my 15yr old Son this guitar for Christmas. It's killer! No issues whatsoever thankfully!
That's one lucky kid! You definitely earned some "Good Dad" points with that xmas gift.
@@benjaminhawksleysr6573 I try! He's a good kid, very deserving. I was a menace at that age so seeing him turn out differently is awesome.
@@hoofhearted6900 that's awesome, great perspective. My little fella is 5, he likes listening to metal with me, He has aN Ibanez in the corner covered with superhero stickers for when he is ready to play. Right now Iron Maiden is his favorite.
With some good fortune and my best effort at being a good dad he wont end up like I was. Live and learn and try to do better.
@@saltpeter7429 Yep, all we can do is try to give em more than we had. And try to keep em from making the mistakes we did. Hell yea, my 2 boys have been listening to metal with me since the ride home from the hospital after they were born! Keep doing your thing fellow metal Dad!
best dad !
I like how the lower horn is basically the same shape as the headstock.
I never noticed that into I read your comment lol and I own this guitar haha
Brandon is such an amazing player, absolutely love his stuff. Just not a fan of Jackson's current quality
Man, I never noticed this before, but your right hand is ferocious! Awesome intro song. Thank you for the awesome content.
Usually the top mount locking nuts have wood screws and they give up sometimes. quick fix is to loosen up the woodscrews and take the nut off dab a small amount of super glue on each end of the nut shelf. That usually works great for a long time.
Don't be lazy with floyd nuts if the screw is stripped. Plug it and re-drill. Come on, man! 😄
@@RyRyTheBassGuy Even better, and I've done this on a client's BC Rich Ironbird having the same issue, is to install threaded inserts into the screw holes and swap the wood screws for mechanical bolts. It's a bit of an advanced fix, but very stable.
@@peachmelba1000 sounds like a great fix.
The locking nut issue is a pretty common thing with import Jacksons these days, which is a real shame. I ordered an Indonesian pro series soloist last year and Sweetwater shipped me 3 guitars that all had this issue before I gave up and cancelled my order and got something else instead. I took the nut off one of them and noticed the issue is the "shelf" the nut rests on isn't flat, the cut in the wood was crooked and uneven so the nut can't make good contact and sit correctly. The end of the fretboard that the nut sits against was also crooked on mine. You may be able to take the nut off and sand the neck or add some rubber shims that will squish to fix the issue, I just personally thought for a $1k+ guitar it shouldn't have the issue and sent them back. The popping/cracking sound on mine was so bad that you could hear it through the amp louder than the notes I was playing. I love Jackson, but they need to get this issue taken care of.
I think the non-matching headstock was an aesthetic choice by Brandon himself.
It would look stupid if the crackle finish was on the face of the headstock
Brandon has the crackle over the headstock of his USA Custom shop version...
@@666vhd not the original crackle, which this one is based off of.
@@XBLASTLIFEX Correct. Which means he changed his mind later on...
@@666vhd you’re right, the 27 fret crackle does have matching headstock with abalone logo. maybe they wanted to highlight the green Jackson logo?
Jackson needs to settle on one factory for the Pro series and it shouldn't be the Chinese factory that makes this or the Samick factory that makes a lot of the other Pro series neck throughs.
Should be either the Mexican factory that makes the equivalent Charvels, the Cort factory that makes the Misha Mansoor model or the Korean factory that makes their sandblasted guitars
This is something I’ve thought of as well. On the production side of things however, I’ve noted that ALL the crackle finished guitars (regardless of quality tier / line) are manufactured in Chinese factories. I can only assume it comes down to the tooling and staff experienced with crackle finishes. That might be something that’s not easy to implement on a broad spectrum when it comes to training staff and acquiring the necessary paints. I’d also love to see these coming out of factories that are deemed more efficient at providing quality instruments, but I think that’s what it ultimately comes down to. Not that what comes out of Chinese factories is bad, because I’ve played plenty of exceptional Chinese Jackson’s/Squiers/etc and I can definitely see some of those exceeding the usual quality standards for the price. This one however… yeah, that price would normally warrant different manufacturing and yet I believe it’s all down to the finish
@@CheezeWhizzz I'd say a good solution might be having a single QC facility in the US/Japan/Mexico that does QC to all the Pro series guitars. Kinda like how PRS, Sterling and G&L do it
@@Mr.Goldbar They obviously just don't care. QC issues have been on going for a long time.
@@RyRyTheBassGuy it's baffling because their sister brand Charvel for the same price range or even lower makes some of the best import guitars out there
@@Mr.Goldbar I know!
13:10 the fun palace! Love that riff
Now THIS, is how you review an instrument! Excellent work, sir. Would love to see you review the new baritone Kelly the same way.
So the Floyd clamp thing, you’re correct in the string is moving the clamp. If you just replace the clamps and bolts with some stainless steel or titanium ones should take care of that issue. I had to do that for a Jackson wr7 I have.
great review, of most wanted guitar nowadays by me, thanx a lot. This little issue noise of unstable locking nut, with a bit of your own experience and delicacy, it can be fixed, just fasten the saddle well so that it absolutely does not move. there are several ways the easiest way is to tighten both screws or insert the pins into the drilled holes and screw them on. It will work. This solves the problem that is often found on all FR guitars. Thank you for great done movie and talk.
Wow! It would be really good to hear your opinion on this guitar!
Damn, I had the same problem with the 7-string Winter Storm Pro King V and called it out.
The cracking at the locking nut is because the screws for the nut are a little loose. Had the same issue with my BC Rich JrV Extreme, it's a simple one time fix, probably just happens because of temperature change when the guitars ship.
I have a tele that does that, but its the truss rod making the noise. I don't have a trem on it though, you only notice it if you yank on the neck
Love that crackle finish! (The only thing that would make it better is if it was red, with the black crackle on top!) Great demo bro!!
I have one, and I agree with you mostly. I have 2 small issues - fret sprout, like you said, just a little bit - but just enough to push the clear coat up. can't feel it, but it's ugly. and then like you said, the nut. It seems like they were really gun-shy making the shelf for the nut, it just needs to be cleaned up and re-mounted, usually. Mine isn't wobbly like that, but I can see that the shelf wasn't exactly the most professional job. Doesn't really bother me, the string positions are good and it stays in tune.
besides those two cosmetic issues, it's been an awesome guitar. plays like a dream, sounds fucking amazing, looks awesome... can't ask for too much more.
I remember a couple years ago I asked Brandon on a post if he’d do an LTD sig guitar and he said he wouldn’t want a signature to not be a USA or Japan made guitar so to see his signature be a China made model surprised me a lot. Not saying it’s not a great guitar but just a thought.
Hell yea! I have high hopes this demo will be black daliah inspired but will be great regardless!
The locking nut is loose. I suggest tightening the up as much as possible
Immolation T-shirt👍🏻 they're new ablum is amazing
Dude thank you! I’ve been waiting for a good review on this
Sick dude. You have come so far the last few years with your playing. Awesome!
And my lord does that thing sound good.
Love ur vids bro, glad to see a new one
What a killer axe your pick attack is next level sounds killer
I got mine back last summer and it rocks
Another nice review Arnold. Yeah, locking but problems occur often, when you put bigger strings on. I recently had the same problem with my ESP M II MIJ. The problem can be fixed, by removing some fretboard material and putting a shim underneath the locking nut. It stabilises the grip of the locking nut. However: you’ll need to have the installation done by a professional luthier.
Or just glue it? I know a lot of people do it with great results, shouldn't be a big thing. When you land a good lefty, you just make it work lol I didn't have any issues with my Horizon and MII, but I may have to remove some material on my M Black Metal the nut is a bit high.
@@the_hippykiller22 that’s what my luthier did, but it didn’t fix it. I guess it depends on the problem.
Loving mine, but I swapped alot parts based off of Brandon's interviews. Swapped to hipshot locking tuners, a 37 mm brass block and Ti parts/ locking nut for the stock floyd, Copper tape for the cavities, a schaller sure claw, a pure tone jack and SS fret wire. Saving for a Hantug and would've loved SS frets from the factory. With a set of .11 -.56 NYXS strings it's one of my favorite guitars. I have it in C standard, also added a schaller string retainer bar to shave some time off of tuning. Sounds great out of an old boosted 5150
How do those 11-56s feel in C standard I usually use that set for drop C so I'm afraid it'll be floppy in C standard but that's what Brandon uses I think.
@gaberox1 They feel great to me. I also use them on a couple of my guitars in drop C and drop B. The 11-49 set was too floppy I thought, drop C was the lowest I'd go with those, 11-56 was perfect.
@@blkmrrs3111 awesome thanks for your input I use 12-60 for drop B which I love for the heavy 3 strings but don't love on the high 3 so I'm gonna have to give c standard a shot at 11-56. Thinking of adding a wound G string though.
The Parallel Axis is like a DiMarzio X2N, but way better, totally perfected.
Can you explain the differences ? I'm a big X2N fan and they sound awesome with Poplar wood.
@@skxj Yes, it's better with harmonics. This is not to say the X2N doesn't scream. It does. But the harmonics can be on the dry side, which is often the case with extremely high output humbuckers, with some exceptions. The PATB uses an alnico 5 mag to great advantage, making for sweeter harmonics, and the magnetic field given off by horizontal rails catch the strings with more clarity. The X2N, and rail pups in general, are kind of sledghammery. At their best, they prevent string drop and are great for bends, and this goes for the X2N, Bill Lawrence, Dimebucker, Jupiter Rails, and even EMG 81/85 because under the epoxy cover they are also rail pups, similar in appearance to a Bill Lawrence, although you don't want to open one unless you want to ruin the EMG, which is not a smart idea. The PATB works very well for trems, which it was designed to do, so the strings not only line up, as they are Trembuckers, but also individuate more like a normal PAF design. But they in no way sound PAF-like. The PATBs are very modern setting, so even with the alnico 5 version (they also make a ceramic Distortion PATB and alnico 8 PATB) you're not gonna have a good pup for classic rock. But for hard rock and metal but kick but. For an experiment go to a Guitar Center or large shop and compare the Brandon Ellis Jackson Kelley to a similar guitar with more traditional (in appearance) PAF style screw and pole pups. You will notice the PATBs are more immediate in their response. If you see an ax with an X2N, then you can compare them directly. The X2N is a good pickup. I've owned many and own a few right now. They are fun. But they are also nothing new under the sun. After all, the X2N was first produced in 1979, so it's a 43 year old design already. Jimmy Carter was president when this thing was first produced and Maiden were playing pups in England and living out of a van. Long time ago. Trust your ears.
@@angusorvid8840 killer info Angus, thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge. I will have to try a set of the alnico 8's . I got an 81 EMG back in the day (when the epoxy was brownish) for my Strat but later changed it to the warmer 85. I liked em but then in 2000 I started putting the X2N in and was much happier. Im curious to hear these PATB's. Again thanks for the reply. Cheers.
Fret sprout is, to my experience, (living in just about the meanest climate for guitars - 3% humidity and 35 celsius is perfectly normal here) is an issue on just about every Pro series jackson, as well as more and more Ibanez.
My older DKA8 stopped its crap, and after some work with my fret files, it's sorted... but at the price point, it shouldn't be a "thing".
The similarly priced PRS SEs that I own, notably do NOT have that problem since the day I got them...
the Problems on the locking nut are completely unacceptable.
It's a shame, since it's SUCH a nice looking guitar, and made for one BEAST of a guitarist.
Jeez thats dry wow, I thought 15% in the winter was bad enough here in Saskatchewan Canada
@@skxj for clarity - that's 3%, not -3% haha. But yes, it's dry as anything here (Southern Africa - go figure).
guitars and craft beer love it!
1' in the video and I'm already head banging .... TOOOOOOOOOOOP
Awsome review, mine arrives in a few weeks so hyped.
Just bought one of these Jackson Pro Series Brandon Ellis Kelly Green Crackles and it compares favorably in many ways with my USA Custom DK2H & RR1T Jacksons. The playability, neck and tone are world class. Jackson did a great job on fretwork and rolling the fretboard edges. Made in China guitars can be great like this! The only downsides are the Jackson branded tuners are absolute garbage. I've played $300 guitars with smoother tuners. And they should be including a hard case for the price point.
That locking nut issue is just loose screws (not on the locks themselves but the screws going into the nut itself to keep it tight in the slot). If you tighten them up the problem should go away and the guitar will hold tuning again.
The locking nut on my Schecter E-1 FR-S Special Edition does the same thing. I took some steps to repair it and for the most part it is fixed, but every now and then I have it come back again slightly. I've been thinking about sending it to Schecter to be fixed. What I found is one of the holes that the locking nut screws in to wallows out/strips. I feel like Floyd Rose should provide slightly longer screws from the factory.
I had the exact same problema with My Kelly X.... I just put a little piece of Scotch tape behind the nut, and that solved it
Damn dude you’ve been working on your gig moves. 😂🤘🏻
Still looking forward to Arnold plays guitar while drunk 🥴
Holy shit your demo songs are good
Wow I would have bet the farm the crackling sound was coming from the bridge. Great review man!
Let's go Brandon!
The locking nut on mine doesn't do that at all, however, due to the tuners being too tall the strings aren't flush across the nut and it goes sharp when locking the nut. Even Brandon himself confirmed this issue with me. Not a huge deal, but at $1200 (at the time) I don't want to have to tune slightly flat, lol.
hi bro, have you played standing position? How heavy is it compared to gibson 2017 firebird?
tighten the screws that secure the nut to the neck. Use teflon tape on the screws.
One thing to add is that jackson head stock in reverse form forces quite the angle on 1th and 6th strings. If you see under the locking nut you'll see angled grooves because of this. Surely not a natural angle. This lead to tuning instability and I had to stop using the floyd too much.
Tighten down that nut immediately, if you can. Screws loosen up, tighten them up before they chew all the wood threads out.
ok here is the thing about resonance...
the body is a neckthrough maple with poplar wings(more similar to maple rather than alder acoustically).
Guess what...it's not that the guitar does not resonate, it's that the caracteristics of the woods make the sound, punchier and tighter and not as deep as you used to...(mahoganny)
I have a maple body-maple neck guitar and you can hear it acoustically...it does not sound deep and rich...but when it plugs in...oh hell is breaking loose...the clarity and punch are f unmached by any combination...
True this. I have a maple neck, body, rosewood board guitar that cuts.
Bro you're pretty fucken badass at that nightmare machine my dude. I love your mix of thrash and deth metal. Fuck yeah bro I wanna start a band with you.
Did not disappoint! It was as if Arnold joined black daliah. Arnold's style with a hint of black daliah.
This was a great review.
Absolutely love these man
Mate! I bought a Soloist pro series last year, the bright magenta one. I had the EXACT same issue with the locking nut! The base side screw holding the nut base on was stripped out when I got it. It took me way too long to figure that out. I ended up having a connection with the specific guitar so I figured I'd try gluing the nut base down and if that didn't work, I was just going to block it. That seemed to work and all is well now.
Annihilator - The Fun Palace in C standard, amazing!!!!
The green Jackson letters is the matching paint theme with the body man... black instead of green scribble it's legible...but if they would have made the Jackson letters all brutal metal style that probably would have smoothed the flow instead of looking a little off . I see what your saying.
Nice axe, I am considering buying a used one. Just my personal opinion, as much as I love reverse headstocks (I own 5 of them), I do think the regular down pointing 6 in line does look much better on these explorer style bodies.
Awesome!! The same killer riff as in the Solar Guitar review!
arnold, a lot of that issue with the locking nut comes down to the the break angle of the strings in between the nut and tuners, are any of the strings being locked down and then breaking back up in a n upward angle between the nut and the tuners? ive noticed this on a few modern jacksons i have worked on, and fixing the break angle (which is essentially causing over straining of the nut itself when using the trem) of the strings after the locking nut should solve that issue. a retainer bar or something similar to bring the strings fully flush against the locking nut and continuing on that path to the retainer bar, would definitely remedy that issue. Jackson really needs to start going to a tuner post with a shorter string thru hole as standard because this issue permeates from the JS series all the way up to jackson usa customs (seems to only be an with that classic inline headstock, especially with the reverse inline due to the reversed string placement on the design).
I just got this guitar yesterday and it definitely needs that retainer bar. Can’t understand why Jackson didn’t put one on ? The break angle of the strings on the nut is really bad , only a small part of the string sit on the actual nut… this must cause a lot of pressure on the nut itself. Will definitely be getting a retaining bar 👍 thanks
@@romanshredz also, if you desire, look into getting some tuners with shorter posts, it should solve the issue in a similar fashion, just depends on how clean you want your headstock looking, I personally like the look of a retainer bar.
Thanks for the info was really helpful! Just ordered the Floyd Rose retainer bar part# FR1SRB. I’ll try the retainer bar first 👍
It was driving me mad and when I explained it to the guys at the music store they looked at me like I was an alien 👽 they’re like well All Jackson’s we have are like that… I’m like well yeah but my brand new Jackson that I just got from you they’re something wrong with the strings they not sitting in the nut properly and the break angle isn’t steep enough to cradle the whole string … you could hear crickets I swear 😂
All good now 👍 might even end up swapping out the tuners as well … honestly they feel kinda cheap these stock Jackson tuners. Anything you’d recommend that would be an easy swap (no extra drilling or routing) ?
not matching headstock, why, just why, WHY
8:10 simply tighten up the screws which hold locking nut in it's pocket
Yup, the only reason that i didn't buy one was the label on the headstock that reads "made in china." I've had terrible experiences with guitars out of that factory and it really bummed me out that they didn't use the existing kelly production line at WMIC on Korea. With Jeff Loomis' kelly, which has tons of rave reviews, already in production there, I don't get why they opted for a chinese built pro series. Only thing I could think of was pinching pennies on production costs to create an increased profit margin and I don't want an instrument created by the lowest bidder who also has a bad reputation for producing more lemons than bangers.
Just hate the green Jackson logo. Other than that, I’ve thought about picking one up
Cool guitar!! Too bad it has a loose nut. But tighten the screws will fix it. Had the same problem on a couple of my Ibanez’s.
i wonder what would be the differences in terms of sound with the jeff loomis one
God Damn nice shredding song! This is somewhere to stream?
I don't think that's an issue with all the guitars in this configuration...(locking-nut rattle) probably just that particular guitar.
Love the black headstock
Yeah - it's Chuggin!!
1300 bucks and a qc issues with lots of these Indonesian high end guitars. Yeah, the market is awuful atm. The korean factory days will be remembered.
This guitar is actually made in China lol
@@Mr.Goldbar Loool. Really?! Well, this is ridiculous price for a chinese guitar.
maybe it needs thread locker on the nut mounting screws, or through the neck bolts for the nut or both?
The top mount variant of FR locking nuts just uses wood screws, so thread lock is not possible. The rear fastened variant is much better, since the fasteners are bolts which mate with threaded holes in the nut base plate.
ANOTHER GREAT UNBIASED REVIEW. The sounds coming from the pickup is at least good. I do think Jackson is hit or miss as I've noticed on reviews from sweetwater and musicians. The build quality needs QC/QA.
Sometimes, and I do mean SOMEtimes the clickly loose locking nut can just be a screw that's backed out/wasn't tightened properly. Yeah, it sucks that it should have been caught at the factory, but if all it takes to fix is half a turn or less of a screwdriver, is it really a massive issue?
That said, sometimes it's a bigger issue like the shelf being cut wrong or the truss rod channel being misaligned (saw that happen on a USA made King V, ffs) and in that case, it IS a big issue and you should 100% make a big fuss about it.
Jackson should have their imports made in Japan again. You wouldn't find a basic qc issue like this one with the nut.
That's a sic looking guitar man
Ya really can't bitch about the crackle finish not being on the front of the headstock...Jackson has to have a place to advertise what is, mate!!
Love the intro demo with standing rocking out and sitting as well! Awesome jam!
Cool content bro I just subscribed to you channel
It really seems in this day and age if you buy a Floyd Rose equipped guitar for under £2000, the chances that you will need to spend some extra money sorting some issues out are really high. Build quality needs to be perfect.
I took one my xtream cut worrier guitar n want out da sidez like da ploblo style xtra xtream cut worrier guitar itz badz azz n withz da upsidedown shark tooth nlayz..itz now my main jam axe..
I love Jackson guitars I have a Dinky myself but they are owned by Fender now so don't expect too much in the qc category. I had problems with 3 Charvels(high frets) that i had taken back until I just leveled them myself again owned by Fender. Look nfor a made in Japan Jackson if you want a good one.
If that Kelley had a stop tail or hardtail and a right-side up headstock with crackle it would be 10+ perfect. Still a very cool guitar. I'm just not into locking trems.
I just got one of these, same very annoying nut noise problem. I tightened the screws as much as possible but it didn’t fix it. I ended up putting a piece of painters tape on the back of the nut where you would place a shim and it’s completely silent now
Nice moves
Hey man, thanks for the detailed review, it helped me a lot! I have one more question though: in classical playing position, can it be compared to the rhoads/king v body style in terms of comfort?
I would say Kelly/Explorer types are far more comfortable (I play classical position, I have an Ellis Kelly & a RR24)
Have you had: Jonny Walker Blue label?
Get the Stew Mac fret dressing kit… sharp frets will be gone! Ive used mine on almost all my guitars
Me like green guitar
I have an Ltd 7 string and the nut is doing the exact same thing. I cannot figure out what to do at all
so when I get this, a bridge, nut and tuners will be upgraded
Does sound really good... I find personally guitars that don't resonate have best tone for heavy guitars .possibly because they're quiet besides the strings especially in the studio...may need to try that pickup man
Is it a regular parallel axis or a parallel axis distortion?
Regular
Take it to your local guitar luthier and have him put the alen screws through the back of the neck or put longer screws through the top problem solved 😉 if you want to go all out order the original German floyd rose.
The headstock lookd fine... reverse headstock is great. Jackson have very high quality control. I have owned several. My latest is an 8 string which was made in Indonesia out of local woods. It is still near perfect, no buzz, awesome action and pickups. That green guitar , although not my style is a work of art!!
I'd love too hear you demo a Solar guitar! Just saying - no ya can't have mine!!!
He actually did a few years ago and he's owned a few more ever since
Damn this guy is great
Have this guitar, no issues whatsoever
Great guitar
i own a japan ke3 2006 midnight blue le;;y and hell its my most comfortable guitar