Grover Jackson founded Jackson Guitars in Glendora, California, in 1980, and the pointed-headstock, sharp-cornered guitars that followed — Rhoads, Soloist, King V, Kelly — became the visual shorthand for 1980s metal almost as much as the music itself. Randy Rhoads' own signature model, developed with Jackson while he played for Ozzy Osbourne, set the template the rest of the range grew from. Fender bought Jackson outright in 2002 and now builds it across Corona, Ensenada and Japan for the higher-end lines, with budget models out of Indonesia and China. New signature guitars for metal players — Misha Mansoor, Jeff Loomis and others — are the backbone of our Jackson coverage. Here's what we've written.
Jackson Pro Series Phil Collen PC1-E: A Mexican-made signature shredder with infinite sustain, DiMarzio pickups, and a factory-distressed finish
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Fender. Jackson began as an independent maker named after the luthier Grover Jackson and was acquired by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation in 2002. Fender builds Jackson models in Corona, California and Ensenada, Mexico, with contract production at FujiGen in Japan and budget models made in Indonesia.
The Soloist is neck-through with a deeper cutaway and typically a full complement of pickups; the Dinky is a bolt-on or neck-through with a slightly reduced Strat-style body, which is where the name comes from. The Dinky is the more affordable and more common of the two.
Broadly: USA Select and Custom Shop at the top, Pro Plus and Pro in the middle, X Series below that and JS at entry level. The series tells you far more about the guitar than the model name does, because a Rhoads or a Dinky exists at nearly every one of those price points.
The offset V shape designed with Randy Rhoads, and the model that made Jackson's name. It remains one of the brand's signature outlines alongside the King V and the Warrior, and versions appear across the range from JS up to Custom Shop.
