Jackson reveals 12 new custom shop designs, celebrating the brand’s 40th anniversary

Jackson is celebrating 40 years of the brand with 12 custom shop models, first showcased at NAMM 2020. The collection shows off Jackson’s Custom Shop’s signature eye-catching take on it’s metal focused (and often very pointy) axes. Take a look at them below.

Jackson Custom Shop J0001 40th Anniversary

This V’s alder body is loaded with a Seymour Duncan Custom Trembucker TB-5 humbucker in the bridge and Seymour Duncan ’59 humbucker in the neck. It also sports a quartersawn maple through-neck with a rosewood fretboard, and comes finished in Snow White Pearl.

The original J0001 design was for a while attributed to a request from Judas Priest guitarist K.K. Downing, however as Jackson master builder Mike Shannon explains this turned out to be apocryphal: “[The original] J0001 was in the logbooks written in as K.K. Downing’s guitar,” explained Shannon. “And I had (Megadeth bassist) David Ellefson verify with Downing that he actually never had or played this guitar. How it got in the logbooks that way, I’m not sure. But the player, as far as I know who has it, is a guy named Jay Reynolds.”

Jackson Custom Shop Randy Rhoads

Honouring Randy Rhoads, who led Jackson to the iconic Rhoads V, this guitar comes in a White Sparkle finish with chrome hardware and a chrome pickguard. Chrome covers also adorn the TB-6 and SH1N Seymour Duncan pickups. For some dive-bombing tremolo action, there’s a Floyd Rose Original tremolo.

Jackson/Charvel 40th Anniversary Double Neck Hot Rod Flame

It’s impossible to think of a gig situation this guitar wouldn’t suit. Joining together a Jackson Soloist and a Charvel San Dimas, it comes with a spark;y hot-rod finish and, of course, two necks. The Jackson side of things is neck-through, sporting a compound radius and 24 frets.

The Charvel half is a bolt-on maple neck topped, also with a 12”-16” compound radius fingerboard but only 22 frets. The Jackson is HH, while the Charvel is HS.

Jackson Custom Shop Limited Edition Signature Phil Collen PC1 Black Walnut

With a slightly more restrained design sensibility, the Jackson Custom Shop Limited Edition Signature Phil Collen PC1 Black Walnut sports a mahogany body capped with an eighth-inch claro walnut top. The caramelized bolt-on maple neck is topped with a 24-fret compound radius ebony fingerboard. The guitar is loaded with a DiMarzio Super 3 humbucker in the bridge, a DiMarzio HS-s single-coil in the middle position, and a PC1 Sustainer Driver pickup in the neck.

Jackson Custom Shop Limited Edition Signature Adrian Smith San Dimas

This guitar, built by master builder Dave “Red” Nichols, has been and painted by Craig Fraser with a 2 Minutes To Midnight graphic from Iron Maiden’s 1984 album Powerslave.

Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith explains,“When I was standing here at NAMM last year, me and my missus were talking and thought it would be fun to something with an Iron Maiden theme. I’ve never done it before. We do a song 2 Minutes to Midnight and that seemed like a logical thing. I love the guitar. I call it my hooligan guitar because it is stripped down – no nonsense, one pickup. Sounds great, actually plays great. I just wish I could use it for one more song. Of course it’s got the 2 Minutes logo, beautifully painted on there, and I just love the guitar – apart from the fact that it looks really cool.”

Jackson Custom Shop Limited Edition Signature Mick Thomson Carbon Fiber Soloist

This guitar has been on tour with Slipknot guitarist Mick Thomson, in support of their latest album We Are Not Your Kind. His signature Jackson Soloist comes in a custom Carbon Fiber finish, recreated by Mike Shannon here limited edition run.

It also features a mahogany Soloist body, through-body maple neck, a 12”-16” compound radius ebony fingerboard with 24 frets and block side markers. It’s driven by Thomson’s signature Seymour Duncan EMTY Blackouts in the bridge and neck.

Jackson Custom Shop Limited Edition Signature Misha Mansoor So-Cal HSS 2PT

Designed by Periphery’s Misha Mansoor and built by Dave “Red” Nichols, this So-Cal HSS guitar features a heavily relic’ed Daphne Blue finish and a classic white pickguard. The caramelized flame maple bolt-on neck comes with a 20” radius caramelized flame maple fretboard, with maple inlays outlined in ebony and 22 jumbo stainless steel frets.

In the bridge position is a Bare Knuckle Ragnarock humbucker, while the neck and middle are loaded with Misha Mansoor single-coils.

Jackson Custom Shop Limited Edition Signature Chris Broderick CB2 Diabolic

Chris Broderick’s signature creation sports a mahogany body topped with an eighth-inch flame maple cap, finished in a Trans Black finish with flame maple binding and pinstripes. The 24-fret quartersawn maple neck comes with a 12”-16” compound radius and an ebony fingerboard. Broderick’s own custom pickups, Planet Waves Locking tuners and a 7-string Floyd Rose tremolo complete the guitar.

Jackson Custom Shop RR27 HS FR Galaxy

The last Rhoads of the collection, this guitar boasts a 27-fret through-neck, and a nebula-esque finish, also found om the sharkfin inlays.

It’s loaded with Two Bare Knuckles, an Aftermath humbucker in the bridge and a Trilogy Suite single-coil neck pickup for a mix of aggression and vintage snap.

Jackson Custom Shop Warrior HT 7-String Multi-Scale

This custom creation by Joe Williams is a neon-pink multi-scale 7-string might make a perfect gift for a guitarist, as it’s pretty unlikely they already have anything remotely matching that desription close. Its alder body comes with a 24-fret quatersawn maple neck, an ebony fingerboard, and a HH configuration of a DiMarzio The Tone Zone 7 and Air Norton 7 pickups.

Jackson Custom Shop Hellion Bass

Williams continues his multi-scale streak, also introducing a brand-new bass shape in the form of the 5-string, multi-scale Hellion Bass, finished in neon yellow.

He explains: “I thought having multi-scale on a five-string bass would be a good idea because when you get to that low B string, it’s such a thick gauge of string and low tuning that it flops around a lot. The idea of the multi-scale aspect of it is to balance that tension so that you have an instrument that plays, feels and performs better.”

The 24-fret bass comes with a single Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Jazz Bass bridge pickup.

Jackson Custom Shop Soloist SL2 Exotic

Williams also added an exotic wood model with this Custom Shop Soloist SL2. Its cooked ash body comes with a ziricote top and titanium hardware. The guitar is set-neck, and comes loaded with maple-bobbinned Guitarmory Orian Pickups. An inlaid maple Jackson logo on the headstock and ziricote reverse sharkin inlays on the ebony fingerboard complete the guitar’s flairs.

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