NGD! Jackson Phil Collen Pro Archtop!

[MartinBarre]

Its not so much that Phil needs to set up his own guitars, because trust me he has some of the best tech's in the business on stage right waiting to hand off another guitar.

Its more to the fact that he felt that bolt ons just rang better and sounded better. His opinion, thats all.

There can be a deadness to a set neck that a bolt on my not have. Taste and tone is subjective as we all know.

I even find my PC1's to be more shall we say, crisper than say my neck thru's.

Subjective is the word :-) I definitely prefer Phil's tone from 25 years ago to the "wasps in a bottle" sound he's been getting recently. I'm sure that's down to his use of modelling software rather than bolt-on vs neck-thru though lol

I'd still love a black destroyer like his Pyromania one.

[Newc]

30 years of playing arenas world-wide has probably left him with damaged hearing, so he doesn't hear those excessive highs everyone else does.

And congrats on the Collen - I had one some years ago and regretted selling it, then had a chance to pick one up last year. My old one was white, my new one is white, and yours is white - didn't these come in red and black like all the other Pros?

And yes, the Schaller unit is darker-toned than the OFR. I've experienced this first-hand, having swapped a JT590 Schaller for an OFR (also made by Schaller, of course). Can't say which I prefer, as really it depends on the guitar. I even like the rounder tone of the Lo-TRS units, but just wish they held up better.


And these were a touch more than $1000 new. $1250-$1400+ IIRC - half the cost of their USA counterparts as I recall. That was Grover's original pricing plan - $2500 for a USA, half that for a Pro.
Maybe if you knew a dealer who cut you a sweet deal on one, but the average street price of all neckthrough Pros when new was at least $1250.
The Collen was higher because it cost more in materials and labor to make, which was one reason it was dropped. The amount of work that went into carving the body (top AND back are arched) made it expensive to make, and expensive to buy.