NGD I guess you could say I have a type

rossipedia

rossipedia

Power User
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Jackson American Series Virtuoso in Specific Ocean

My entire circle of guitar nerds wouldn't shut up about this thing (and I'll admit Jackson's marketing hooked me with Marty Friedman) and ya know what?

They were right. This thing is an absolute beast. The workmanship and quality might actually be a cut above the American SL3. Literally the only thing I needed to tweak to knock down the 24th fret (of all frets) as it was choking out 22nd fret bends (Side note: I don't care how good your QC is, how expensive the guitar is, you ship a wooden instrument across the country, especially into a dry climate, things are gonna shift. Learning how to do setups and fretwork is something I cannot recommend highly enough).

Unfortunately, I'm still bummed out about the bridge choice. Not because the 1500 is a bad trem, it's not. It's just the bent plate makes the saddles angle backward and affects the tension of the trem in a way that I don't like. So, as is tradition, the 1500 will be swapped out with an Original (and noiseless springs).
 
Happy NDG! That fretboard is gorgeous! I’ve been GASing for one of these since their release. I blame Brandon Ellis.
 
Stick with the 1500 you may be surprised . IME these are a lot better than they were when the 1000 came out. The saddles are harder and they have refined some to the other parts too. I can easily get the same performance out of these as the German OFR and the locknut is probably better and on this it certainly because it is 12" radius to match the fingerboard. Yes you can say that the finish is better on the German one and there are differences in the forged baseplate and cnc saddles (German ) but sound and function is all there now.
 
Andy Eagle said:
Stick with the 1500 you may be surprised . IME these are a lot better than they were when the 1000 came out. The saddles are harder and they have refined some to the other parts too. I can easily get the same performance out of these as the German OFR and the locknut is probably better and on this it certainly because it is 12" radius to match the fingerboard. Yes you can say that the finish is better on the German one and there are differences in the forged baseplate and cnc saddles (German ) but sound and function is all there now.
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Yeah it's just the backwards angle on the saddles I can't really get around. It's crazy hard to flutter on these too. I'm not arguing that the OFR is better than the 1500, just that it feels the way I personally like a floating trem to feel 👍

Andy Eagle said:
I have been a Jackson fan for years,I just found this;
View attachment 128315
late 80s pre production SL1 in near mint.
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oh... oh my 😍
 
This is what I mean by the backward angle on the 1000/1500. Every one I've had, the lock bolts and saddles slant downward to the rear like this:

IMG_4737.jpeg

Whereas on the Original the saddles angle slightly upwards instead.

IMG_4735.jpeg

Functionally theres not a ton of difference, but (as best I can tell) the slightly different pivot/balance point affects the feel. To me the trem feels tighter, where I feel I have to fight with it a bit more than I like. And every time I replace a 1500 with an OFR I have to back the spring screws out quite a bit to get the bridge flat (for whatever that's worth).

Again, the 1500 is a super solid trem and does the job. The Original is just the hardware I prefer.
 
rossipedia said:
This is what I mean by the backward angle on the 1000/1500. Every one I've had, the lock bolts and saddles slant downward to the rear like this:

View attachment 128334

Whereas on the Original the saddles angle slightly upwards instead.

View attachment 128333

Functionally theres not a ton of difference, but (as best I can tell) the slightly different pivot/balance point affects the feel. To me the trem feels tighter, where I feel I have to fight with it a bit more than I like. And every time I replace a 1500 with an OFR I have to back the spring screws out quite a bit to get the bridge flat (for whatever that's worth).

Again, the 1500 is a super solid trem and does the job. The Original is just the hardware I prefer.
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That just looks like the fine tuners are screwed down more... Although it also appears that the part of the baseplate they screw thru has a bit more angle downwards.
 
unix-guy said:
That just looks like the fine tuners are screwed down more... Although it also appears that the part of the baseplate they screw thru has a bit more angle downwards.
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Yeah it's the shelf angle. Just kinda annoying that like 5-6 of these things all have had the same angle 😤
 
It's just the way the back piece is bent but it makes no difference because the fine tuners are still drilled perpendicular and are the same hight albeit slightly longer. The reason the bolts angle back is the position of the fine tuner and the hight of the fulcrum in the saddles (microscopically lower on the German one.)
rossipedia said:
Yeah it's the shelf angle. Just kinda annoying that like 5-6 of these things all have had the same angle 😤
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It's actually nothing to do with this.
 
I would suggest the flutter is also nothing to do with the version you have (unless the knife edge is damaged) but more the length of the block. The shorter the easier the flutter is.
 
Andy Eagle said:
I would suggest the flutter is also nothing to do with the version you have (unless the knife edge is damaged) but more the length of the block. The shorter the easier the flutter is.
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I use the same block on both trems. I swap the 32mm from the 1000 on to the Original because I don't like a 37mm. Same claw/springs too. But I do swap out the studs/posts.

I'm just trying to make sense of what I'm experiencing. If I'm wrong about the science or physics, I'm wrong. That's fine. It ultimately doesn't matter because I can 100% feel a difference between them, and I don't like the 1000/1500 series, regardless of the underlying reason or physics. 🤷‍♂️

Idunno why people seem to get so sensitive when I say I don't like the 1000/1500 series. It seems to rustle jimmies both here and other places on social media. It's just a personal preference thing, if I wanna spend the money on the Original then that's my choice.

I mean, at least I'm not arguing that a Special is just as good right? /troll
 
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What's wild is that I have never ...not once, played a jackson! no idea why that is. I've always thought they were cool guitars.
 
rossipedia said:
I use the same block on both trems. I swap the 32mm from the 1000 on to the Original because I don't like a 37mm. Same claw/springs too. But I do swap out the studs/posts.

I'm just trying to make sense of what I'm experiencing. If I'm wrong about the science or physics, I'm wrong. That's fine. It ultimately doesn't matter because I can 100% feel a difference between them, and I don't like the 1000/1500 series, regardless of the underlying reason or physics. 🤷‍♂️

Idunno why people seem to get so sensitive when I say I don't like the 1000/1500 series. It seems to rustle jimmies both here and other places on social media. It's just a personal preference thing, if I wanna spend the money on the Original then that's my choice.

I mean, at least I'm not arguing that a Special is just as good right? /troll
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I don't have a problem but I can make a 1000/1500 perform and feel exactly the same. I was trying to save you the money of an unnecessary swap but obviously you should fit whatever you want.
 
I wish I could say that I have a particular “type” but it seems that my “type’ is six strings. 😁 Beautiful guitar, congrats!

Andy Eagle said:
I have been a Jackson fan for years,I just found this;
View attachment 128315
late 80s pre production SL1 in near mint.
Click to expand...

I had this guitar except it was black and had a Kahler bridge. Had it come with a Floyd I would probably have kept it around.
 
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