Jackson JS30

2008 Jackson JS30. I have two, one red with jacksons floyd lic trem, and one blue nonetrem with string thru body tune-o-matic bridge. Body is indian cedro which is actually from cedar fam. Cedar wood is most used in classical guitars. Pups are Jackson humbuckers. Dinky body style. Neck is maple with rosewood fretboard. 22 jumbo frets. Excellent fretwork. Reverse headstocks. Chrome hardware on both. Jackson tuners. Single volume and single tone controls. 3 way pup selector switch. Came with trussrod and trem adjustment wrench for the trem bersion, trussrod wrench for nontrem version. Gets an 8 for rating due to just one master vol instead of seperate vol controls.

Sound is very good to me. Excellent harmonics, more so then most guitars Ive owned. After adjusting the pups was able to get more articulate neck pup then most guitars and nice bridge pup sound. With little more tweaking of pups was able to get excellent combined neck and bridge sound. Sound reminds me more of cedar, not as dark as mahogany, richer sounding then alder, not as overly bright as maple body guitars. For main sound I use both pups with vol full up and tone slightly rolled down. For lead sound mainly uses both pups with vol and tone full up. I was little hesitent of guitar only haveing one master vol instead of two. Since for lead voice ussually likes to roll neck pup vol down a little. But the body wood tone combined with pups char gives nice comprimise for settings I mentioned.

Excellent sustain. My blue nontrem one has little bit darker tone since I glued and rebolted the neck to give it closer to set neck tone char. The trem is stock bolt on and slightly brighter tone.

I use my guitars mainly for guitar add in electronica trance music. And finds these Jackson JS30 work better for that then my previous pref BC Rich.

Guitars go thru upper end Zoom multi effects for ready for recording tone, then to mixer then to PA or powered studio mmonitors. For the latter I use KRK rokkits and alternately Klipsch's top of line computer monitors with subwoofer.

Set up off store floor was very good. Tweaked action slightly for my pref extra low action and adjusted pups for best to me sound. Build qaulity is excellent imo even compared to much more expensive instruments. Price is kept down largely imo via no neck binding, simple dot fret markers, chrome rather then black hardware, and unpainted neck. Myself, I prefer unpainted necks, and smaller fretboard markers like this has. Chrome hardware goes very well with both the red and blue finish versions imo. While neck binding can be nice and Ive owned guitars with, I certainly fine with unbound neck.

Necks are Jacksons famous compound radius which does make for faster easier playing. The unpainted necks also add to faster playability imo.

Its a Jackson so of course they are very reliable. The Jackson floyd lic trems are also better then real floyds to me since the real ones add too much treble zing to the sound due to the metal formula used in them and their overly heavy trem arms cause small tuning changes depending on wether trem arm is forward or rearward. Tuning stability of the Jackson trem is also excellent. My nontrem one has slightly longer sustain due to non trem and glueing then rebolting the neck into body.

Been a long time since I dealt directly with Jackson, was excellent back then, havent dealt with Jackson with its new owners so no opinion for that.

I give both of mine an overall rating of 9 due to single master volume but ability to get the small tone changes I want via tone control use with both pups on. Would have given them a ten rating if had seperate vol controls though.

If you dont need or want neck binding, painted necks, large fretboard markers, and black hardware, then this series is excellent choice over Jacksons orther higher priced import dinky versions. I do also like the reverse headstocks which most of the higher price jackson models dont have.

It's a Jackson JS30WR, made in India, 24 frets, tune-o-matic bridge, 1 tone, 1 volume pot, 3-way switch, 2 humbuckers.

This guitar is definitely for people who want everything fast and cheap. This guitar is CHEAP - word cheap definitely suits it.

I play Heavy, gothic, power, symphonic and other kinds of metal, also worship music, folk, medieval and renaissance music. I don't use it for any kind of these styles. Maybe it would fit to early punk or garbage metal scenes, but if you want to sound better then just BAD, than this guitar is not for you. Someone will definitely say that "hey, it's not so bad!", but it is. It is good just for practice. And even then, just not plugged in.

Likes and dislikes? This guitar is a DISLIKE itself. I'll give it 4, instead of 3, because of those humbuckers. They're better then Stagg, Harley benton or Apollo ones.

This is the saddest thing in my whole review (and actually this is the main reason I'm writing this). Please don't trust all those people, who give it marks over 5, because it definitely isn't worth the money. Those people mostly are beginners themselves and\or don't know much about good guitars.

first of all - the neck is horrible. Nut is made from some kind of plastic, that was so terribly damaged after just a year of playing, the neck wasn't straight anymore after just a half of a year, all the electronics are cheap and so is the hardware.

Bridge looks like plastic, painted in silver. Of course it's not plastic, but the metal, used there, is low-quality and really bad made and finished.

THE FINISH. This was the most curious part of this review. In my whole life I haven't seen SO CARELESS FINISHED (or better would be "unfinished") guitar. there were places, where the wood was not sanded before painting, the corners are ... (*()@#&!^T !#^!!!), even the contours of body weren't straight. This is the WORST FINISH, I've ever seen in my life. definitely.

It's not reliable and I would never use it live. I have a feeling that those people who made this guitar don't even know what a guitar is.

the only thing that does what is has to are the pickups - at least they send sound to my amp.

as I mentioned before - finish is the WORST ever.

Come on the neck could be used as a bow, there is fretbuzz all around and the action (i would't call it so on this guitar, but I have to) must be about 8mm-10mm to be playable.

The only support this guitar needs is a heavy truck to roll over it. At least the sight could be fun.

I've been playinf about 2,5 years and I've had a lot of guitars, because I'm buying, testing and selling them. I also repair and make guitars myself. At the moment I have 8 guitars, including Ibanez, Gibson , Hohner and some custom made axes.

I was expecting A LOT MORE from Jackson. This guitar made a horrible first impression of their guitars. Even cheap guitars don't have to be sh*t. Look at Ibanez - they can make high quality instruments for the same price.

PLease don't buy this guitar. It's not worth anything. If you don't want to spend a lot of money for a guitar, buy Ibanez RG321. it's made of mahogany and has 24-fret Wizard II neck, finished really carefully, and it feels and plays like a dream. Change the pickups and you'll have a professional axe.

class guitar (pro pack) better than any of my ibanez and deans

brilliant for every thing but when you want to do dime squeels i dont thiink the sound opens up too well for it either wise everything else is perfect if yre planning on keeping this guitar switch to a emg 81 and aseymore duncan dimebuker best setup going

the switch was abit meh but what guitar doesnt have it

well i got it two months back and have played about 15-25 gigs and thisguitar is just as solid as my bros esp viper and thats been through hell

jackson guitars really helpful great people had my guitar out in 2 weeks and i live in ireland

playing 2 years the guitars better than my dads(prs)and my two brothers guitars(ltd bcrich ibanez&dean)but thats my style jackson guitars are legendary if you dont own one buy one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This guitar was from older stock and Made in Japan. Ii is very resumble Indian guitar but only from outside. The differences of Japan guitar is that there is a stick on fretboard "Made in Japan" and small cap R that is written on headstock of word Jackson is far away from letter "n" (on Indian made guitar R is closer body of letter "n") and also guitar that is made in Japan is not heavy as is Indian model.

I have owned both Indian and Japanese Jackson JS30 and can say that Japan model sownds very good, warm, have a good sustain. It sounds as good as other more expensive that I had. It rocks!

Action is normal it is nice that there is only two pickups both hambuckers. They sound almost good as original Seymour's.

This guitar is simple and seems to be faithful. However I have played for only about a 4 months and can't say anything more.

Never had troubles.

I am playing for 23 years. I have owned different kinds of guitars but mostly Jackson's, Ibanez and stratocasters. This guitar is inexpensive but I am very glad with it it sounds very nice. I reccomend it for rock but it sounds very nice and in clear sound. So it is versatible. But this is only that this guitar is made in Japan!

22 frets,black,large frets,straight bridge,no whammy,factory jackson pickups,1 volume,1 tone,3 way switch,made in india

I play from old time bee-bop to steve via,country and just plain old rock & roll

the strings were a little high for me ,I like them almost buzzin and hair sting 7's I put on and lower the strings,everything donr exactly what I wanted it to do for as setting it up my way,not a lot of people like 7 gauge and low to metal but who likes to do a bunch extra workd yanking on strings all nite ,I think a guitar is supposed to be played not beat the hell out of it just to sound like you doing something with a ton of effect boxes. I run my effects thru my Alesis multimix 8 and get every kind of effect you can ever get.I've gotten more action now that there lowered than any body can imagine,I've been playing 42 years and never have I had one I just opened the box and played until you reliaze you've been playing for 2 hours.If you just started playing or have been a couple of years you probably don't have the slightest idea what you really have in your hands.I'm not one to believe you have to beat the crap out of a guitar to call it playing,it's more like you really don't know what the crap your doing in front of people so you beat the crap out of it and certain audiances go for it,more power to all of you who make money doing that,Now back to guitar,I can bend a string up 3 frets,can get more harmonics in places you didn't evn know they were on a guitar with just the slightest effort of moving your pick slightly one way or the other.If you have a gripe or can't play this guitar,you need to go take lessons and learn how to play it ,not beat the crap out of it!Steve Via uses 7 gauge strings and very effortly doen't hit the sring with his pick and out plays 90% of people who think picks were made to try to cut the strings with.My jackson came straight out of the box with just of my playing style adjustments and have yet to wonder how in the hell am I getting the tone from clean to Via or satch with a 50 watt tube marshell and a 4-12 compact marshall stack.Everything was packed and looked like they took extra care in packaging,stared playing right out of the box,took me about 30 mins. of setting up for me and it hasn't lost a tune yet so crap on all you whammy beaters,get a life if you think a guitar is a punching bag.

I've had it for about 7 months and all I do is studio work in my studio.Do a gig every now and then,straps holdgreat,doesn't have that paranoid feeling your straps fixing to fall off at any minute.I would take this won only to any gig,of course with a set of strings and play from Merle Haggard to Joe Sat. or any other,one of the most versitle guitars that have come out in many a year.I have the Jem Steve Ibanez ,sorry but the Ibanez is second to getting where you want to go on that kneck than that cheaper Jackson.I don't know if I just got a excellent ,everything went togather rigbht guitar or this is just one heck of a guitar.At first I didn't know when I ordered it, that it was a 3/4 size,that kinda threw me for a loop till I started playing it and have gotten used to it now I dont think I will buy another full size as long as these type guitars keep coming out this good.

Never had to call them for anything.

I've been playing 42 years(don't let that fool you,I'll stand next to the best,no bighead,just fact).I have a Fender jaguar,an ESP(LDT) M300,a Ibanez Steve Via edition and a ovation acoustic,and have a cheapo bass I use in my studio,it's not a customer studio,most of the time I play everything (drums,guitar,keybrd,etc) to any song or tune that drops in my head.Comparing this jackson to any other,NO comparism at all,Jackson wins Hands Down,even the great steve via Ibanez.That flyod Rose ain't nothing more than something else to go wrong,sorry you floyd lovers but I call it the way I see it.If you play the guitar and not have a wrestling match with it,your guitar will stay in tune way longer than you think.The only neg.I have which was my fault is I got it in gloss black,enough said as for as keeping it clean and shiny all the time.The one thing that blows my mine is the tone you get with it,nothing but pure tube while no other I have gives a true blue sounding tube amp even off the marshall head to a Orange Amp to a Fender Stage or Marshall Valve,no solid state sound at all,hard to believe I know but its sound like a lie but is as true as sure as a bently is a bently.Even the Ibanez can't do it and I have tried a lot of amps just experimenting.From my Marshell,Orange amps come in second but the Orange is just not as tubest all the time as the Jackson on the Marshall head.

I'm sure you can find this information yourself...

Owned from new since October 2005. I play mostly death and thrash metal and this guitar does both very well. I am very happy with the sound considering it's all stock. Obviously a bit noisy with high gain but since I don't usually crank the gain this isn't a problem. It has a quite bright sound as far as humbuckers go. The trem on it is *really* good. I rarely have to tune the guitar at all, even with the fine tuners and considering I am always taking it to practice I am quite impressed. This is obviously subject to setting the guitar up properly when restringing. I love the fact that the strap buttons are huge.

The factory setup was excellent. I have played some more high end gear and this guitar has *really* surprised me in it's quality since it's a "Crafted In India" guitar. No finish flaws. I opened up the back and all the electronics were clean.

It's not dead yet! I obviously take a backup to gigs because a broken string on a floyd is quite bad news... No obvious flaws have developed over the 6 months I've been using it so far. It's become my main guitar.

N/A

Been playing 7 years and owned various stuff over the years... This guitar is probably my favourite.

jackson js30 dinky. that's it

if you play mostly metal, nu-metal and all those very distoriton types of music, you will not enjoy these pickups, they really suck for metal styles! buy another guitar or you'll have to change the pickups if you want to play something you can hear clearly

note: i play it through a roland cube 60

i love everything in the guitar, except the pickups. not a scratch and its very pretty, not heavy and easy to play

nothing wrong til this day. have it for about 4 months

never needed

it is a cool guitar, but after a while you'll start noticing the pickups' problems. this is my first guitar so i'll buy a decent one next time (soon, i hope :P) now that i know what i'm looking for

I have this guitar about a year now, so I'll write review. I bought it at the end of 2004. This is review for JS 30 Dinky, for RR, KV, Kelly, Warrior you have different sections, so please don't put them here :)
My guitar is made in India. At the time I bought it on Jackson website was written body was alder, but I think it isn't correct, all Indian guitars are made of indian cedro (which isn't bad thing, I will comment on that latter). So here are specs:
Super strat body (indian cedro)
bolt on maple neck with indian rosewood fretboard
22 jumbo frets
dot inlays
1 ton, 1 vol pot
Licenced Jackson floyd rose (JT500)-recessed
top lock
2 Jackson CVR2 humbuckers
rear loaded electronic
reversed headstock
Jackson tuners

For the features, I don't need anything extra. I'm fine with only 1 hum and 1 vol pot. I wish it had 24 frets though, and ebony fingerboard, but then it would be more expensive. For this price it is OK. I made some improvements to guitar, but about that later.

First of all, I play metal (all sorts), some rock and punk...anything with lots of distortion. With stock pickups it was OK sounding, guitar was bright sounding. It was because cedro body (which is similar to alder). Cedro is in the sam family as mahagony, but totaly tonal different. It is bright, mahagony is dark sounding. Also cedro has light weight. If you look at colour of wood in screw holes you can see it is brown (similar to mahagony). So it's not alder, as it writes on Jackson site. But cedro is also very good, guitar resonates in your handes like motherfucker! It is not well known wood for guitars, but certanly is very good.
OK, sound was just OK, nothing to drool on, so I slapped EMG 85 in bridge position. 85 is bassy pickup so it balance the bright sound, and guitar sounds great now. I don't use neck pickup, maybe one day I'll put EMG 60 in that position, but I think I'll leave it like this. I love 1 hum guitars! Btw. I wouldn't recommend putting EMG 81 in the bridge, cuz it would sound too thin (bright wood, and guitar has FR). Guitar now is very quiet, also was with stock pickups. I kept it for long in D tuning, as I got EMG I tuned it back to E to give it more highs, cuz 85 is pretty bassy pickup. Reason I put EMG actives is that they pretty much sound same in every guitar. So there is not much difference between this and Gibson Les Paul with EMG's. They ignore tonal quality of wood. Although wood on this Jackson is OK, surely it isn't in 3000 $ price range.
Overall, great guitar for killing riffs, even more if you invest in it a little.

Guitar from factory was OK, nicely adjusted pickups and floyd, action low. Finish is flawless. It is deep metallic blue. I LOVE THAT COLOUR.
Neck is thin as I like it, plays really easily. Only flaws are that E strings (1st and 6th) flip easily of fretboard. There is little of fret buzz. Also pots were noisy, and vol pot loosed contact if I hit him while playing. Also one of the locking screws fucked up, when I screwed it too hard. Guess it is my fault...
Guy bellow me said frets are short. It depends on lenght of the scale, so frets are normal 25.5 " scale frets. Guess he isn't that experienced with electric guitars...Fret wires are jumbo though.

Ok, when I bought this guitar I knew I had to make some adjustments. So I replaced pot and jack (although jack was OK) with ones I got with EMG. So electronic is completely new. I will say this guitar is more than reliable now.
Also I changed tunings a lot, adjusted floyd and truss rod, and everything works OK. I even put 12-56 gauge strings in D tuning and floyd and neck took that easily :)
One silly thing...I gave my friend to carry guitar while we were in bus, and he got stuck in a bus door ?!? Guitar neck was stucked between. I almost cried...but after 5 mins bus driver opened door and we got out...I opened gigbag, and saw guitar was flawless. GO JACKSON!

Beside that "incident" I baby my guitars, but I think Jacksons can take serious abuse. They are metal guitars!

This is where it all sucks. Company has no contact with customers, and in store where I bought guitar work asshole. When I had problem with screw on locking nut, I came to the store and they were: "We can't help you, we don't know where will you find it, fuck off". That is lame. Luckily I found that part (after a lot of pain). They have one year waranty, but they cover nothing.
Never, ever bought anything else from them. Now I'm only buying used Jacksons/Charvels.

This is my second guitar. From now on all my guitars will be Jackson/Charvel. Maybe I'll make some custom hand made guitar (I know good/cheap luthier). But I plan on buying used 80's Jacksons.
This guitar will not be stolen or lost :)
Of course there are a lot of things I'd like this guitar to have, but I spent about 370 euro on it with all modifications, and now is screaming metal riff machine. For that money it is pretty good. Even without modification pretty good guitar. Next in line is MG series and they are about 500 euro, and only differences are cosmetical and they have EMG-HZ pickups (which suck ball). EMG's active kill HZ's, and now this guitar is better than any of MG serie.
If you're in this price range I sincerely recommend this gtr, invest in it a little, and you'll have nice keeper guitar. Never gonna sell it.

Cheers!

Made in India.
24 Frets.
Solid Top.
2 Jackson brand CVR2 Humbuckers, passive.
3-way pickup selector.
Maple bolt-on neck, alder body.
"Transparent" red. Just a dark solid red to me.
Kelly body style(similar to Gibson/ESP explorer, but more curves).
Tune-O-Matic Bridge with String-thru body.
Jackson tuners...
Neck: Thin! Medium frets(can be nnoying on upper frets if you have big hands/long fingers). Rosewood fingerboard.
Allen key and warranty were included.

I play -for the most part- thrash and death metal in the vein of: Morbid Angel, Death, Kreator, Sodom, Vader, Behemoth, Decapitated, Immortal, Bathory, Venom, Megadeth, Sepultura, Suffocation and the like. I also play stuff like Iron Maiden, Manowar, Helloween and Judas Priest which this guitar is marvelous for. The guitar's sound is more suitable for music that demands a little less grind and distortion(rock and 80's metal), but it can play some brutal stuff well. It's built more for rock, hard rock, hardcore, and 80's metal and thrash, but none of that pansy-ass emo or pop punk. It's definately geared for rock and metal, but I see no reason why you couldn't be able to play jazz or blues on this thing. Playing some blues stuff with a friend works out pretty well. It doesn't have a "twang" - which is good in my opinion, but maybe not for jazz guitarists.

The pickups mediocoreness can be easily remedied with new pickups and electronics. I'm getting a Dimarzio X2N and PAF Pro(or a FRED) - $120 + new electronics(pots and wires) + $10 + a Boss NS2 noisegate to reduce any noise - $60. So for $190 you get the greatest pickup combination for all sorts of metal plus a noisegate pedal, so virtually no noise and awesome tone. Don't throw some EMG pickups for $200 into this guitar unless you really like the sound of EMG's.

The tone/vol. knobs are a bit crackly. I plan to replaced them anyway too. The 3-way switch hasn't died on me so that's a good thing.

The sound is... just normal I guess. My amp really gives most of the sound. It can't take much gain or bass because it sounds way too muddy. The pickups are already somewhat bassy and unbalanced. You'll probably need to set the neck PU lower than the bridge PU. With some new strings, it gives you an awesome bright, clear, full, grindy sound with a lot of balls. But some better pickups will give you even more clarity and definition

The sound is great for stock pickups. Not a whole lot of noise, the crappy wires are probably the cause of that. My only complaint is that when using the two pickups simoultaneously, the guitar simply CANNOT pick up a pinch harmonic. I don't know why. But I don't mind since I only use 1 pickup at a time. Usually the bridge PU cause it sounds better than the neck PU(which is the same one, but is rather lousy in the neck except for cleans or having that extra "chug" for palm-muted riffs and breakdowns).

It's hard to get a smooth lead out of it, the pickups are to blame. However, using the clean channel on my amp makes the guitar sound very nice too. Just roll the volume down a little bit and cut down the gain nearly to 0 and use just the clean channel with neck pickup. Sounds surprisingly nice, clear and warm.

The bridge was set a little too high, so the action was high, but I fixed this quickly with a flathead screwdriver on the bridge's adjustment screws. Didn't ship in tune... didn't expect it to.

The pickups' adjustment sucked! One was slanted inwards and the other was also crooked iwards at a weird angle. But this was fixed in 5 minutes with the help of a good ol' Philips screw driver. It may be confusing at first how to adjust and align the pickups right, but you might not get them all jambled up like I did.

Frets were fine. Bridge was fine. Tuners and nut were fine. The neck was straight. Very thin and nice to play on. One of the tuning pegs seems to be weaker than the others but this hasn't given me any problems. I knew what I was buying, so everything came as expected, except slightly better.

The strings it came with were flimsy and floppy, couldn't even hold good tension in standard E tuning. So I got some .12 guage Earnie Balls which are quite nice for my needs(C, C#, D, Eb and sometimes even Bb tuning).
Again, the tone and vol knobs fizzle whenever I jizzle them up or down.

It holds a tuning quite well, it'll probably do very well in a live situation. The guitar seems strong, just don't drop it, the neck might crack. The finish is solid, but I wish I had gotten it in black instead of red. The strap buttons are solid though a bit small. They guitar is a little unbalanced(neck tends to dive when you let go of the guitar), but I got used to it within a week or two.

It's the only guitar I have so of course I depend on it. :P I wouldn't gig without a backup unless I didn't have a backup. But you probably wouldn't absolutely need a backup for this since it's a fixed bridge, so your tuning won't suddenly die on you. I've never broken a string before... really.

Never had to contact customer support. But it's a big-name brand like Jackson, so I figure that they care about their customers. The instrument has a limited lifetime warranty.

This is my first own electric guitar, purchased 3 months ago. I have over one year of experience with an acoustic(a Washburn D-10 with unbelievably high action), and I've played a couple of electrics. This is one has one of the greatest feels I've ever played, I actually enjoy playing this more than my friends Gibson Les Paul custom. I knew what I was buying because I had done a lot of research on electric guitars beforehand, so no second thoughts here. I've been planning on changing the pickups from the start. I did not play this guitar beforehand, but I was not unpleasantly surprised.

I love the feel of the neck and how it simply plays. The look is awesome too, I just wish I had gotten it in black(hence why my 2nd guitar is definately going to be black).

If it were stolen or lost, I probably would not buy another(except maybe the RR, V or Dinky shapes of this model). Why? Because -as a new guitar- the price tag is just a little too high for what this guitar is. It's great and all, but not worth $300. If you want to buy this guitar I highly suggest buying it used and knock off at LEAST $60 from the original price, especially if it's your first guitar, like mine. Also check out the other JS30 models, which are the exact same as this guitar except in diffent shapes: Dinky(strat with a floyd rose bridge), Warrior, RR, and Flying V shapes. All the other specs remain the same, as well as the price.

I wish the frets were a little bigger around the frets 17 to 24. A little too cramped up there for me, but I get used to it.

So all in all: a great beginner-intermediate-mid-advanced guitar. Just get it used for like $250 or less and it's an excellent buy. As with most guitars under $500, you'll eventually want to replace the pickups and wiring to get rid of all slight traces of noise and get a better tone.

24 frets, Jackson HB, 3-way toggle, 1 volume, 1 tone.
Tuneomatic, string-through body.
No further accessoires.

Sound is OK for this. Pickup gain is quite high but they tend to feedback with lots of distortion. Clean sound - forget it, sounds cheap and thin. OK for use in Speed- or Death Metal, for players who need a bright tone. Definitely not useable for studio soloing work as intonation on higher frets is very bad. For rhytm, it's quite OK.

Finish is made quite well, seems to be durable. Bridge was set too high by factory, but that's only a matter of seconds. Looks great for a cheap guitar. Flaw: It's a very heavy guitar, weighing twice as much as my RR1.

Looks reliable and will be tested live soon. Stays in tune for a week, not too bad. As stringholder is made of PVC, this might be the only thing that could breake, especially when using very thick strings.

never dealt with Jackson, never needed to.

I took this guitar because it looked good, was cheap and - a Jackson. Mainly, i plan to use it for rehearsals or as live backup guitar. This is nothing for the expert player but beginners will be pleased. Only Metal can be played with this axe, nothing else (Humbuckers not good enough). No guitar you will use in studio, but a nice backup.

2003. Japanese. 22 jumbo frets(icky!). Solidbody. Master volume. Master tone chrome knurled knob. 3-way slider switching. Neck and bridge Hummers. Jackson CVR2 HB pickups. Active with no battery compartment(good). Alder body, Rosewood Fretboard, bolt-on maple neck, die-cast tuners, and JT500 LP DLT floating trem.

It suits my style of music which is just raw, crude rock borrowing from hard rock to grind. The pickups sound great for grind tone since they're crude sounding. I also think the pickup sound gives some edge since I just tuned the guitar down from lo to hi: B,E,A,G.Gb,B. I usually play in standard tuning but I wanted a low end grind tone for an additional guitar track for recording.

I use it with Crate's MX65R through it's lead channel(gain 2). The sound is thin from the guitar but, but it works for me. I use moderate distortion and strings gauged lo to hi: 52,42,30,20w,18,13. This guitar was'nt made for detuning in mind, but that's what I love from this guitar is that it's inexpensive and has the features I need but I can feel free to experiment on any part of the axe and not feel guilty !

The knob pots are scratchy, the pickups are crude... if you play serious lead guitar on the axe, certain note frequencies get artificially spiked and your vibrato is uneven. I found it best playing simple straight up rhythm.

Right now my B string (tuned down to Gb) doesn't sustain well even when I fret it somewhere (I think it maybe due to the 18 gauge string). Make sure the strings clear the higher frets and plastic pickups because if not that's what the axe'll sound like: plastic!

Some tuners get tight when tuning and they all slip (make tuning seem tedious.)

You can play it out live. The hardware sucks and probably die before the guitars finish, but you can depend on it for sraight rhythm on 1 or 2 songs. It would be pointless to gig a superstrat without a backup in the first place but this one... on second thought, leave this axe home.

I've been playing 10+ years and before you say "surely you jest", I have a triple guitar stand and just wanted to fill in the missing rack so just bought ths guitar to fill it. I own all Jackson's ,all low end ,but the JS30 takes the cake in low quality that it's funny.

Any beginner's with patience to learn the tricks of a floating tremolo system, should look into this guitar. It will give you grinding edge to what I insist you learn: power chords.

I give this japanese guitar a 7 in features for a couple of reasons. Basically because it has a very simple concept, three way switch, volume and tone controls, also two pick ups. But it also has a locking bridge. This is a fantastic edition to it, but the one problem I have with it is the the E string buzzes, which is basicall why it got an 8 and not a 9. But for $260, I'm happy with it,

I'm using a cheap Squier amp and no effects, but even though I am, I still get some great sounds. OK, maby some decent sounds. I haven't been playing to long (abbout 6, maby 7 months) but it is great for what I do, beginner stuff. Also I play metal/hard rock and the locking bridge suits this style great. I'll give it a 8 because it suits me, although others probably won't like it.

This guitar plays great, came from the factory perfect for me.

I have no opinion on the gig stuff because I've just started, but I play about an hour per day, and this guitar is great. The finish is good enough, hardwares lasted me so far so I'll give it an 8.

never needed it.

I've played for 6 - 7 months. This guitar plays fine, sounds ok, etc. If it were lost I'd probably get a Fender or a Jackson but one that was a bit better.

see it above. made in japan.

it has a thin neck. its extremely fast. some players say thin neck gives thin sound. i didtn notice this. soft alder body keeps resonance way good.
double locking tremolo is good enough. never had tuning problems.
although its a cheaper model, it takes place at the top of its category.

sounded ok when i bought. later i replaced the stock pu-s with EMG81/85. now its a metal monster. i can achieve the sound i'm looking for.
gear: js30-crybaby-ada mp1- rocktron hush 2cx-marshall jmp100w-marshall 1960tv greenbacks. so it much depends on the equipment i use.
i had guitars for comparsion. especially a jackson dk2 dinky japan pro series model. i have never been able to achieve even a closer tone to the js30. maybe i got the top notch one from the stock.
i give it a nine due to replaced pickups.

i got this well bulit. replaced the standard 42/9 strings with 46/9. i had to calibrate a lil' on the bridge, but nothing complicated. never had any problem.
i have to say its a very good construction. i feel lucky.

see above

never tried to contact. no needed to.

its my favorite guitar. i'm playing for 12 years. i play rock. i prefer it for metal anyway. its much much better guitar then any guitars i owned. i like it better than the 900 dollars one.

22 fret, coloured black, theres a master volume, master tone, 3 way strat-style selector. 2 humbuckers, bridge and neck, which are jackson CVR2 pickups, which are passive. body wood is poplar, its a bolt-on maple neck and rosewood fretboard. Standard gloss finish, it's a double cutaway, square shape heavy metal guitar to be blunt. With a double locking floyd rose (all hardware is silver). Die-Cast Tuners, neck dimensions: 1st Fret: .775?, 12th Fret: .910? . No accessories.

It doesn't sound all that great, but it's a #300 guitar, so I didnt expect it to. Im currently not using a certain amp, but playing around with different things, mostly a H|H P.A head, and I've got a Boss GT6 effects board. The pickups are quite hummy at loud volumes and scratchy, you get lots of string roar. It's quite a good harsh metal sound on the bridge pickup, although a bit muddy, and the neck PU is the same, just slightly warmer. Basically just sounds like a metal guitar, but not a very good one.

Well, I bought this from a shop so I assume they set it up beforehand, and they did a damn good job, apart from a few things. The bridge was set up nicely, with a good action and a good trem tension, I fiddled with certain strings a bit more to get the action perfect.All the electronics seem fine, bt a tone knob keeps falling off. It plays like a dream, with good bending and vibrato, but theres one MAJOR annoyance. The thin E string is too close to the edge of the fretboard. this means if I pull off a note over a few frets, or to an open note, it comes off the fretboard, either giving a horrible pinging noise, or fretting agsint the 22nd fret for a split second untill the note which it was meant to be pulled off to sounds. but like I said, apart from that, plays GORGEOUSLY.

N/A never gigged it.

N/A

I've been playing 2 years, and I own my beginner guitar, and the Boss GT6. if it were stolen or lost, I would buy something very similar, just slightly better. I love (LOVE) the plability of it, its like butter, but I HATE the damn thin E string problem. I compared it to a red version of the same guitar, and it played much better, so I think I got a diamond in the rough with this guitar. But I think that for the money I had, it was a damn good buy.