USA J50BC p/u craze

[Soloist-USA]

OK, maybe not a "craze", but a lot of my students are fascinated about my HB on my '93 USA Soloist. Most of them are Laiho fans. There's a perception that they're active electronics on the older USA Soloists. I try to tell the Laiho fans that there is a pre-amp board named the JE2000 and that the J50BC is NOT active. But no one listens to me. And good luck (Laiho fans) trying to buy a JE2000 preamp on ebay.

Rant done.

[jdr94]

Ha ha u must be captain les. Yeah i guess if they want somethin similar it would probably be this http://www.guitarelectronics.com/c=c...r-Circuit.html

[Axewielder]

The J50BC is a cool pickup, but I don't think it would do the CoB vibe all that well. :think:

[jdr94]

Yeah he uses them hz's w the afterburner or somethin right?

[Soloist-USA]

HA!!! I AM Captain Les! Good call my man! Blew me away. Wow. Really freaky. Now I can't sleep without one eye open. Thanks.

[Soloist-USA]

I do have an EMG HZ for sale. Brand new. Never installed. A student gave it to me - I swear...

[Soloist-USA]

Yeah, apparently Laiho asked Jackson to make him a custom axe in a similar fashion to Randy's. But they said it would take 6 months to a year. So, he contacted ESP Japan and they said "Give us 3 months". They copied the JE2000, named it the Afterburner (though it's a pre-burner) made an Alnico 5 and shipped it. ESP is a joke with Jackson in the same sentence.

[jdr94]

But the afterburner is a emg product, not and esp product right? It is an afterburner as its after the pickup but i guess thats subjective. It can be seen as boosting the pickup or driving the amps input. Hmm now that i think about it, what came first the dkmg or the alexi? Anyone know?

[VitaminG]

Yeah, apparently Laiho asked Jackson to make him a custom axe in a similar fashion to Randy's. But they said it would take 6 months to a year. So, he contacted ESP Japan and they said "Give us 3 months". They copied the JE2000, named it the Afterburner (though it's a pre-burner) made an Alnico 5 and shipped it. ESP is a joke with Jackson in the same sentence.

the issue was that Alexi's RRs were stolen. Both old Custom Shop 24 fret single hum Rhoads. I believe he got one of them from Roope. Something about these Finnish dudes and 24 fret Rhoads... we have a few Fins on the JCF with the same disorder

He had a Jackson endorsement deal with the Finnish distributor and asked them to rush him some replacements. When Jackson couldn't (or wouldn't) build the guitars in time for Alexi, he went to ESP. That's when they created his sig model.

Alexi used to use the J50BC which came with his old US Customs and fired them up with the onboard preamp, as Soloist-USA stated. A lot of the old Alexi fans were chasing that pickup, either not knowing about the preamp or not realising how important the preamp was to his tone. Obviously when he went to ESP, they weren't going to use Jackson electronics, which is why he started using the EMG gear instead.

[jdr94]

ah i see. i was never a COB fan so i know nothing of his stuff really. thats why i like this place. always somethin new to know.

[Soloist-USA]

Actually, Laiho said almost all of his recorded material was a J50BC on a custom Rhoads V. He had one in his white Vs that was stolen and he borrowed his bandmate's Jackson V with a J50BC for a subsequent tour. He has recorded a lot with the EMG HZ ESP, but his earlier stuff and the entire newest album was done with the Jackson set-up. I'll try to find a link, but I subscribe to GP and GW, so I think it's in one of them. If you know about the earlier USA Jacksons, they all had the JE-2000 preamp (I'll include a link to a pic of mine) and the p/us are passive. And "jdr94" is correct, the ESP copy of Jackson's JE-2000 is call "the Afterburner" - stupid name for a pre-amp, but...

JE-2000 image, '93 USA Solist: http://s1237.photobucket.com/albums/...nt=JE-2000.jpg

Peace.

[VitaminG]

ah i see. i was never a COB fan so i know nothing of his stuff really. thats why i like this place. always somethin new to know.

I'm not a COB fan either. Like his stuff in Sinergy, but COB never did anything for me. I've just been a member here for a long time now and remember when the guitars were stolen. A lot of people at the time thought Jackson dropped the ball by not getting Alexi some new guitars ASAP. He didn't even have a proper endorsement deal at the time and the theft lead directly to him getting a sig model with ESP.

Actually, Laiho said almost all of his recorded material was a J50BC on a custom Rhoads V. He had one in his white V that was stolen and he borrowed his bandmate's Jackson V with a J50BC for a subsequent tour. He has recorded a lot with the EMG HZ ESP, but his earlier stuff and the entire newest album was done with the Jackson set-up. I'll try to find a link, but I subscribe to GP and GW, so I think it's in one of them.

Peace.

He actually had two guitars stolen - the white Rhoads and a black one with yellow bevels. Both had Jackson pickups. One of them used to be Roope's. The guys were playing together in Sinergy before Roope joined Bodom

[charvel750]

The active circuit was NOT the JE-2000, that was for bass guitars, but the JE-1200 mid boost. Big difference, although you could run lead guitar pickups with the bass circuit, it wouldn't give the right tones for that application.

[Soloist-USA]

Yeah that's it. It was Roope's guitar. As I said, I only know of CoB through students and an interview here and there. Yeah, ESP ran with it after Jackson said it would take them 6 months to a year to produce a signature. ESP said 3 months. That's great for him and ESP is a decent company, but Jackson was giving a lead-time for something great (possibly).. Hell, my custom shop order (for just candy-apple-red finish and gold hardware took 3 1/2 months). Laiho shouldn't have been so impatient - ask EVH!

[Soloist-USA]

The active circuit was NOT the JE-2000, that was for bass guitars, but the JE-1200 mid boost. Big difference, although you could run lead guitar pickups with the bass circuit, it wouldn't give the right tones for that application.

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