JS32 King V - Cheap Chinese Junk or A Lot of Bang for the Buck ?

[Mudlark]

Nice to hear good reviews of my favorite brand.

I always thought Jackson logo'd tuners were all Gotohs until someone on here suggested many imports use Korean tuners. I removed a tuner from my 2011 DKMGT and sure enough the Jin Ho stamp found on it reportedly indicates Korean.

[BenoA]

Good review! Thanks! If you see another at 50$... Let me know! I'm all in!!! lol

Just put EMGs in it and nobody will care for the country of origin. Congratz for NGD

[toejam]

Damn nice score!

[lepard]

Spent a little more time with it today, just seeing what I can get the guitar to do and setup with the 10-46 strings that are currently on the guitar. After 24 hours of acclimating to the climate here, the trussrod adjustment is dead on. I didn't even have to touch it. I did decide that the Floyd locking nut was a little high on the treble side so I filed that down and got the nut height perfect(low). One thing I did find while adjusting everything today was that all the Floyd saddle screws were loose and 2 of the saddles had moved forward up against the screws.

Neck is still great, fretwork is still very, very impressive. The bridge pickup is a little bit "feedbacky" but not bad. It's a pretty hot ceramic pickup. I can't even begin to tell you how much I hate the Duncan Design and EMG-HZ pickups that have been installed in a lot of import Jacksons over the years. These pickups are so much hotter. The bridge pickup is really ballsy.

Another thing I might comment on is the weight. This one has a really nice, normal feeling weight. It doesn't feel light like basswood(which the Jackson website says it is). It weighs about the same as a USA guitar.

Not sure if I just got lucky with this one but if you have to ability to completely tear it down and do a thorough setup, you can end up with a really nice guitar.

[Mudlark]

I know little of Floyds; so, it's possible to file those locking nut slots down for a lower action?
I was under the impression the bottom of the nut or the nut shelf needed to be filed/sanded in this situation.

[lepard]

I know little of Floyds; so, it's possible to file those locking nut slots down for a lower action?
I was under the impression the bottom of the nut or the nut shelf needed to be filed/sanded in this situation.

Yeah, the nut shelf. Just get a small file and start working it down.

[Mudlark]

Ok, I know what you mean...the string slots. I didn't know the proper term was nut shelf.

Earlier, I was referring to the flat part of the neck in which the nut sits when I mentioned nut shelf. Until now, sanding down the wooden shelf was one of two options I thought available. The other being grinding the bottom of the nut.

I wasn't familiar enough with locking nuts to know they're constructed in a way that'll allow the slots to be lowered.

[lepard]

Ok, I know what you mean...the string slots. I didn't know the proper term was nut shelf.

Earlier, I was referring to the flat part of the neck in which the nut sits when I mentioned nut shelf. Until now, sanding down the wooden shelf was one of two options I thought available. The other being grinding the bottom of the nut.

I wasn't familiar enough with locking nuts to know they're constructed in a way that'll allow the slots to be lowered.

No, you don't mess with the metal slots. You just file/sand the wood down below the nut. It's kind of a tedious process to get it right. You don't want to go too far and then have to shim the nut back up.

[Mudlark]

Now I got it straight!!!
I was right in the beginning.

Yes, I expect one would need to take their time. Slow and steady will win that race.

[Jackson8090s]

Wow what a score... I swear you've got a horse shoe jammed right up your ass.. buy a lottery ticket

[Scream And Fly]

Very nice score, congrats! More than once, my curiosity made me purchase low-end model guitars to see how good they were. When I saw the JS32 Warrior appear, I just had to check it out. I bought the white Warrior with the Floyd Rose. The first thing that struck me was that the bridge is actually made by Floyd Rose. Even the trem block has the "FR" stamping. The bridge says "Jackson by Floyd Rose", and seems like a version of the Floyd Rose Special. The trem posts are Floyd Rose as well. It is rock solid after a usual setup and of course an OFR is a drop-in swap.

I was rather shocked at the quality of the guitar, like lepard. It's made I need China. The neck is fantastic; a perfect profile. Mine does have slightly sharp fret ends, however the fret work itself is great. I too noticed the bridge pickup to have a tendency to feedback sometimes. The pickups sound surprisingly good. They're definitely usable. Power output is not low, but not overly loud and crispy either. The neck pocket is perfect and the string alignment is spot on. The back of the neck is unfinished, and while very smooth, it does not have the kind of silky-smooth feel that a higher-end unfinished neck has. Not a problem though.

I have a USA Warrior I bought new in the late 1990s and the body on this guitar is identical, except for not having neck-thru construction. Interesting to note that the trem cavity has a steel plate that the trem posts are screwed into. I've never seen this before. Could it mean that the trem posts are anchored by that plate and not into the wood? Maybe, but tuning and action have been rock solid. I suppose it would be easy for production to route the body with an empty cavity and install the plate with trem post mounts over it rather than drilling and inserting trem bushings; I don't know. It looks solid.

I did a slight truss rod adjustment in it and it's been perfect. A very good player. I wish I had a guitar this good when I was learning how to play. It's amazing to me how good these lower-end guitars are getting. This guitar is not on par with a Japanese Jackson, but pretty close. It's that good.

I bought this guitar with a coupon I had and ended up paying $270 shipped. It's an insane price for the quality of this guitar. I've had mine for about 4 months now and I'll definitely keep it. I may file the fret ends slightly but that's about it.

[RR4LIFE]

The Chinese JS32's are pretty awesome! I have owned three and the stock tuners are definitely junky. They seem to have a very low tuning ratio. I replaced mine with Japanese Gotoh. I love the necks too! Enjoy!

[wrldeatr7]

Congrats. I always was under the impression that the recent Chinese Jacksons weren't half as bad as some people (most I think haven't even seen one in the flesh) make them out to be.

Is there any reason you prefer to file down the nut shelf instead of the bottom of the nut itself?

[Mudlark]

Id guess it'd be easier sanding wood than metal if you don't have some sort of grinder?

[Guitarkid8]

I'm not sure the nut would still clamp properly if the slots were ground, most of the slots on the fr nut are almost flush with the metal. and it would be hard to smooth out the cuts and burrs would be a problem.