Jackson PS5 Bass

after playing an encore precision bass copy for about a year,i needed more and as we were doing what teenagers do in a garage full of tools and flammable things i looked up to see a jackson headstock pointing out from under some old pieces of car or something.i siezed it immedietly but was suprised/dissapointed when only the neck came down.we found the rest of it and took it for examination.(there was also an eb-3 bass or something but that suprisingly was in much worse state)
the neck was completely bent and the bridge and some electronics were missing(still had the jackson pickups though).the rear finish was gone from where the previous owner(my friends brother)had try to strip it with a blow torch-he mustve been wasted at the time

i did eventually repair it and was drowned in a sea of tones.cliff burton,jason newstead,jaco pastorius and lemmy(with the aid of a boss overdrive/distortion pedal)are some of the tones i can get with the simple turn of a dial-by the way i only use the p-pickup!us it through a 1x15 amp with a compressor,the boss and jim dunlop cry baby-very bassey but had a little trouble trying to get some high range tones out-THIS WAS JUST THE AMP AND NOT THE JACKSON!

well as i said the finish was retty gone and i had to set up the action myself so i cant really say-but it works well with me.

damn this things taken so much shit from me.punching it at the end of a gig( a la lemmy)jack socket does get loose though-but it dont take a proffesional to tighten a nut.upper horn strap button also needs tightning every once in a while,truss rod never needs adjusting(apart from when i got it)this may be because of the fact that i use light strings(makes playin anythin burton did easy(dont belive me look out for korpse,frontline and genocide coz they let me do a bass solo every gig)the encore had to be used for parts so i have to gig withut backup

never dealt with them

been playing for about two years,ive been told im the next cliff burton(in look and sound)i want to buy a new jackson ps5 to see the difference.if stolen the person who stole it would have his testicles fed to my dog(this is how much the jackson means to me)once when playing on a friend s bass my gilfriend asked"you prefer that bass to me" and i said "no, i pefere MY bass to you"not suprisingly were not together anymore.but whos she got-nobody,i still have my jackson......

This is a very basic bass, therefore it doesn't have a great many extra features. The ones it does have are great though, and I can't wait to get my hands on a fully loaded Jackson. The finish is black satin, it has 22 frets, all black hardware (a real plus) and my favorite, the old style pointed Jackson headstock. The neck is thin and makes for very quick action. Bass also came with a padded hard case.

I'm so happy with the sound I could ramble for hours. I now play for a hardcore metal band but I also played in a blues band and still used this bass. It sounds good with anything I play. I usually go for a slightly dirty sound with a huge bottom end and this bass delivers. There is no buzz at the pickups EVER. I play through a Peavy 2x10 combo and usually a Boss distortion pedal.

The action on this bass is really fast. That helps when I'm playing metal music especially. The pickups were adjusted perfectly for me straight from the factory. Like I stated earlier, there is no buzz whatsoever out of this bass. The black finish still looks nice after gigs, spilled beers and me beating the hell out of it. I did notice a flaw on the neck though. On the back of the neck near the headstock you can feel where the wood had been glued together. I also noticed that the knobs on this bass have to be tighened up periodically. But nothing I'll ever lose sleep over.

This bass has put up with my abuse for longer than most probobly would. The strap buttons seem especially strong (I've still got a scar from the last practice from jumping a little to high, and the strap button digging into my leg, ouch!) I depend on this bass as much as I depend on air to breath. I've only had the truss rod adjusted once, and that was when I switched to a heaver string (.45-1.05) I would not use it without a backup, but then again I won't use anything ever built without a backup. I play very hard, and have a tendency to break strings, so the backup stays.

Never dealt with customer support.

Overall, I love my Jackson bass. I always look for other Jackson bass players and still don't know any. Their loss. If it was stolen (God forbid) I would absolutely buy another one. I think I would check out the wood on the neck first to avoid the problem I have now. I would also go for a neck through body design. I compared it with several other basses. I liked Ibanez sound but thought they were excruciatingly ugly. B.C. Rich had the looks hands down, but they didn't sound as good. Fender basses to me were top heavy, had slow action, didn't have as good a tone, and were dreadfully ugly to boot. I guess the Jackson was the all around best buy. I'm quite content with my Jackson.

This Jackson bass is a four string that I picked up a couple years ago, new. I don't think it's American simply due to the price (I bought it before I had enough sense to ask basic questions such as this and others). It has 22 frets, and right on the 22nd fret, there is a small, unpainted "2" embedded in the rosewood fretboard. I'm almost certain that this means the bass is a "second" which Jackson did not want to sell full price (more on that in a moment). The bass comes with P/J Jackson pickups (passive electronics) and a V/V/T knob configuration. The bass is all black satin w/ black hardware except for the back of the bolt-on neck, which has transparent finish. Unlike some of the newer Jackson basses, this one has the classic, spiky headstock. It has a strat body style with less contouring than most modern basses (think Fender Precision instead of Fender Jazz). The scale is just a tiny bit smaller than my P-bass. I bought it at a used guitar store that just happened to have a floor full of brand-new, low-priced Jackson guitars. The salesperson claimed that Jackson sold the guitars to them directly, but he didn't mention why they all had little "2's" on the last fret. The bass had a few cosmetic defects in the paint which were, seriously, nearly invisible at a glance or a stare. These were probably the reason behind the 2's and the low price. If anyone knows better, please email me and set the record straight. Despite this lengthy description, it's extremely simple and fun to play. Active basses are overrated anyway. Thus I give high marks for few features.

As far as my playing, I tend to switch styles schizophrenically. I play jazz, a little funk, and every style of rock from the Beatles to Napalm Death. My limited budget forces me to stick with this bargain-basement bass, and you know what? I'm not that unhappy with it! The P/J pickups are quite versatile; I can usually get what I need from them. Besides, tone comes more from the player than anything else. I run it through a 70's Music Man 65 hybrid head and a 1x15 cab. This rig is becoming very noisy but it's due entirely to the amp; the bass is surprisingly quiet. Sustain is average. For rock, I usually play with a pick and this leads to a problem. The sweet spot on the string is directly over the P-pickup. I can't pick there because I hit the pickup and go insane from feeling two clicks for every downstroke. However, given the demands put on it from style-switching, it does just fine.

The bass came with flaws in the paint, on the back and on the lower horn. The paint is raised a little, or rough in spots. I decided I would be putting some marks of my own on it, so I didn't care very much. Also the cable jack was loose, which I didn't pay attention to until it was too late... Other than that, it was fine.

I'm satisfied with this bass' durability. With passive EQ, there are no stupid batteries to worry about. Playing live, I really really beat on this bass hard and it rolls right along with me, holding the tuning well. Being without a five string, I tend to switch tunings often, and I can do it with a minimum of fretboard buzz. After two years of pounding the shit out of this thing, the wear on it is quite minor. I've put a few additional knicks in the paint from dropping it. I can't count the times I've slammed the pointy headstock into a wall, amp or music stand accidently. However, it's still as sharp as ever, ready to slice and dice. The bolt on the E-string tuner loosens periodically and the entire tuner moves. A crescent wrench takes care of that pretty quickly. Jackson tuners have little white plastic washers below the pegs; the one on the E-string broke off. It seems to be fine without it. Once, the cable jack actually fell out (right on the ground; it was pretty damned funny) but putting it back in was really simple and it hasn't moved in many moons (just needed a little torque). The P-pickup for the two bottom strings keeps sliding up and I have to screw it back down. The bass holds it's intonation and action through all the bullshit I give it. Pretty neat!

Never needed it. I could compare the bass to my '69 Chevy Caprice. They were both dirt cheap, way cooler than I expected and very simple to fix and maintain. Chicks dig 'em, too. Of course, my bass doesn't suck gas like a crack baby on a sugar binge.

Of course there are other basses I would dearly love to have. However, since I'm stuck with low-end bass, I'm very glad I'm stuck with this one. Part of the reason I'm stuck is because I'm saving my pesos for a rediculously large Ampeg SVT. I played the bass through one of these heads with an 8x10 cab: I went catatonic with delight and started drooling. To reiterate: I like it because it's so simple. What you see is what you get. Just pick it up, turn every knob up and start hitting the bastard (unless you're a jazz guy). Not bad at all.