Charvel/Jackson guitar & accessory database project

[Crumbling]

Yea, that's the one, says KE-185 at the bottom. The RR has a discrepancy between the RRP and model number that's a misprint, listings has it as the RR-185.

I saw a 2001 catalog once on Yahoo Auction while searching for Jackson Stars. We currently have info up to 1999, which is the transition period between the GJ and Jackson Stars branding, and 2004 which saw them fully transition away from the RRP-based naming scheme. I've been digging through archive.org, but the site is poorly backed up because the entire menu in done in macromedia flash.

[Crumbling]

Ok, found it, and info about the C.u as well.

https://web.archive.org/web/20021208...gu%20risut.htm

J.I Series - Japan Identity, flagship. Impression/J1 equivalent?

J.S.B - Japan Spirit Bridge. TOM Bridge variants of J.S.

J.A. - Japan Aim. Seems to be lower end, with a single TB-5 in the bridge. Not sure if that means its a single hum setup, or something like the Grover Jackson Delight series, where it has a TB-5 in the bridge and a stock PU in the neck.

J.P Series - Japan Pride.

J.S. Series - Japan Spirit. Still can't tell you what's the difference to be honest. Notably, Schaller bridge isn't an option on the JS, but OFR is available on both.

SB - Super Bolt-on Neck. Key feature is the full cut heel.

And here's the hilarious stuffs. Sold under the Grover Jackson branding

C.u. - Classic but Unconventional. But by 2002, the bolt-on are discontinued, leaving only the higher end neckthrough with midranged specs, no bindings, simple finishes, etc... Basically, the KE5/RR5/KV5's daddy.

M.F.T. - Maximum fun through neck. ??? Consist of:

SL.A.M.F.T.-90HHH
SL.A.M.F.T.-95ssH
ASL.A.M.F.T.-90G
ASL.M.F.T-80G

The A stands for Ash body.

The model list page is archived as well, but kinda badly. I'd be happy to go through it at some point and return it to you as a spreadsheet. Although seeing all these models for the domestic market, and the barebone for international, Jackson really shot themselves in the foot oversea. Like take the Warrior. There's only 2 models in 2002, a WRMG equivalent, and a WRXT equivalent. But they had bound neck, neckthrough construction, real Duncans for the WRXT (but the WRMG still had EMG-HZ), and a Schaller Floyd.

[Mechayoshi]

Thank you!!! I will correct what I have on the webpage and dig through those archives starting tomorrow! The spreadsheet would be wonderful if you would be so kind. I never thought about using web archive on some of these websites.

[Crumbling]

I hit up archive first when I did my research on the Grover Jackson a few months back, but Jackson Star switched to the awful ass flash site in 05 that's unbrowsable, so I gave up on it, and never bothered to check the older 2002-era site. This now fill in the gap between the 1999 catalog and the 2004 catalog nicely, we're just missing a few one offs model (i.e. RR-J2SP, which is our RR24), or the 1100 series, which has a J and A subtype. I can't find info about them, and their specs differ a bit, I've seen some with bound board and some with unbound boards.

[Mechayoshi]

I'm trying to grab model numbers off of that page but it's too broken up for me. So I googled for example "SL.A.M.F.T.-90HHH" and the only internet result was linking to this very thread and your post.

[Crumbling]

Use the picture's filename.

Here's what I've got so far.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

EDIT: And done. With the inlays, only the Soloist specified if it was Pearl or not, so I'm assuming everything else is MOTO, since the cheapest J.P Soloist didn't specify Pearl while the other 3 did. Also the MFT don't specify neck binding, but I've seen them with binding.

[Mechayoshi]

Use the picture's filename.

Here's what I've got so far.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

EDIT: And done. With the inlays, only the Soloist specified if it was Pearl or not, so I'm assuming everything else is MOTO, since the cheapest J.P Soloist didn't specify Pearl while the other 3 did. Also the MFT don't specify neck binding, but I've seen them with binding.

Okay I'm working on this now. Thank you again. The only thing I see missing (I think) is whether some of the models have a finish matching headstock. I try to document that when it shows up but I know some of the images are broken so no huge deal. The multi binding thing is interesting because I thought a bound neck always has a bound headstock too by default?

Here is some information on that JE-0005 switch. It shows up as a higher end spec on a lot of Grover Jacksons/Stars I found. Basically you can wire it up to do additional functions.
http://charvelusa.com/charvel_shreds/j0005_switch.html


edit: and sometimes on the spreadsheet I can't tell if a model is bolt-on or neck-thru


edit #2: As a general update, I cleaned up the main page of the database. Need to find out more about those basses.
https://mechas64castles.net/Jackson2.html#JacksonStars

[Crumbling]

Yea that's another semi inconsistent thing. Only some of the higher pricing Soloist mentions multi binding, the rest doesn't. I don't know if its because its only on Soloist, or the webmaster 2 decades ago were incompetent at data entry.

I considered doing Italic being bolt-on, but after going through the entire thing, the only bolt-on in the line is the Super Bolt-On Series (which is surprisingly mid-high ranged specced). Everything else is neck through

[Crumbling]

DX SCS stands for Deluxe Softcase by the way

[Mechayoshi]

Wow all of them except the bolt-on series is neck-thru? Jackson Stars really do have upgraded specs to their normal counterparts don't they??

I knew the DX SCS was referring to a case. Usually I don't specify such stuff in my database but since the info was provided I wanted to throw it in. I know it's kind of silly and redundant looking so I'll probably just spell it all out. I'll leave the binding issue alone. All someone really needs to know for identification sake is that it has binding, multi or not. Unless we can get our hands on these in person that's all we can do! I need to keep an eye on the Japan auctions more and maybe I could find live examples of some of these. After all I will be collecting images to add to the database soon. Anyway, that spreadsheet was awesome. Thanks a thousand.


Edit: As a general update. I'm going to go back to the main Jackson page and separate the main 'classic' models into their respective categories. Example. USA, Pro Series, X Series, JS, MG, Professional, etc... so there isn't one giant sea of information like I have it now.

[Crumbling]

Yea, the early 2000 lineup is pretty weird. The bolt-on GJ-branded C.u. are discontinued, and there's a completely lack of bolt-on aside from the few Super Bolt-on mid-high specced models, and no Dinky. No 22 frets either. But by 2004 the entire line is compressed back down to 1 USA tier neckthrough model, 1 Professional Pro tier, and 2-3 bolt-ons. There's some special models (the RR-J2SP is the most well known, being basically a RR24 with a Schaller Floyd and bindings) that's a bit hard to research since they're not in the catalog, and the entire 1100 series. I'll see if I can find something about them in the Japanese side of the net.

[Mechayoshi]

UPDATE: I've added a few images on the main database and ill keep doing so over the next few days. You might have to scroll a bit. Right now I took some for the SL1, SL2, SLS KE3, KV2, KE4. Random I know. Does anyone think having the pictures open in a new tab is the best bet?

[diablomozart]

the actual name for the finish on the guitar center 25th anniversaries was red and blue eerie dess (notice the lack of the word swirl)...took me 15+ years to find one...mine is 3 of 46...d.m.

[Mechayoshi]

the actual name for the finish on the guitar center 25th anniversaries was red and blue eerie dess (notice the lack of the word swirl)...took me 15+ years to find one...mine is 3 of 46...d.m.

Thanks for that! I see that one's modified or is that a variation?

Site update: Added a bunch more photos but I'm afraid Github is going to be annoying with me when I dump too many photos. It makes me have to split them them up if I have more than 100 at a time.

[diablomozart]

no sir...there were different pickup configs...granted the finish on this one is rough (eerie dess tends to peel with age, so we put some clear over the peeling parts) it came with 1 hum 2 sc...i've seen a pic of a blue one that way as well...i woulda preferred no middle sc but i had to take what i could find lol...thats the weird thing about jackson back then, they kinda did what they wanted...ive seen ltd 88 denims with different numbers of frets scalloped...it's hard to discern anything exact about manufacturing numbers unless you have an electronics plate like this...d.m.