benjii_feral

I received this guitar as a 16th birthday present back in 2014. Back then my only 2 guitars were a BC Rich KK Beast V NT, which was good, but I wasn't a huge fan of it, and a cheap strat copy, which speaks for itself really. I consider this to be one of my main and most prized possessions. It has an EMG 81 in the bridge and an EMG 85 in the neck, which are active pickups famously used by many guitarists of all genres. They're very hot pickups which can be used for anything, from Jazz to Death metal, But the general nature of this guitar is metal, which makes it perfect for what its made for, Hard riffs. I consider this to be one of the best import guitars ever manufactured. Now out of production and springs up on second hand markets for around £250-£400, its an absolute steal. EMG active pickups, Locking tuners, and a stunning apparel, this guitar radiates 80's metal, and any metal guitar arsenal wouldn't be complete without a desolation series charvel! Technical info: Model Name: Desolation™ DST-1 ST Model Number: 29314105 Series: Desolation™ Body: Mahogany Number of Frets: 24 Fret Size: Jumbo Position Inlays: Abalam Shark Tooth Fretboard Radius: 12" to 16" Compound Radius (304.8 mm to 406.4 mm) Neck Finish: Gloss Nut Width: 1.6875" (42.8 mm) Scale Length: 25.5" (648 mm) Fretboard: Rosewood Pickup Configuration: HH Bridge Pickup: EMG® 81 Humbucking Neck Pickup: EMG® 85 Humbucking Controls: Master Volume Hardware: Black Nickel Bridge: Charvel® Stop Tail String Nut: Black Plastic Pro's: - Typically very affordable on the secondhand market - Neck through construction + An unpainted neck makes for incredible upper fret access and a speedy playing experience - EMG 81 and 85 pickups deliver an amazing tone for rock, metal, etc. without compromising general versatility. - Simple control layout of just 1 volume knob makes it ideal for live playing. - Locking tuners for easy and quick restringing. - Lightweight given its shape, a lot lighter than a les paul. Cons: - No tone knob might be inconvenient if you plan on using this guitar outside of rock and metal (you probably wont be doing that though) - Has a fair bit of neck dive to it, this can be home remedied by redrilling the front strap button hole to be on the back of the guitar. - The weird location of the strap button can lead to the guitar dropping off the strap from poorer quality / more worn down straps. - Finish gets a bit "Grubby looking" and would require regular cleaning to keep it looking slick and glossy (issue seems to be with Gloss black only however, other colours seem fine)

It's worth noting that this guitar is no longer in production, so realistically, you'll be paying for one with second hand prices, which for this guitar, is a steal. I own the pre-2003 model which featured Duncan designed pickups instead of actual Seymour Duncan's, Which doesn't bother me, as the Duncan Designed pickups in this guitar sound absolutely killer! They were made in japan under a now defunct manufacturing contract, and their quality aligns with other high end production Japanese guitars. The good: The guitar features an amazing neck, which features 24 frets on a rosewood fretboard. This rosewood isn't cheap rosewood either, its more comparable to ebony than it is rosewood. The neck is bound with a cream coloured binding which is also great as it gives off a classic 80s vibe from the guitar. The paintjob is killer, albeit not in line with USA Jackson's with Eerie dess swirl, but this is expected from an import guitar. Its a real head turner that looks even more beautiful under stage lighting. The Alder body is light and very well balanced. It stays in place well on a strap when playing standing up. Cases are regularly available for this guitar. Jackson make both hard cases and gig bags for this model of guitar, so transporting it will never be an issue. Aftermarket modifications for this guitar is also a breeze, as it has a HSS Configuration meaning it will accept almost all Strat pickup sets. There is enough space in the cavity for a 9 volt battery too if you wish to upgrade it with EMG's or other active pickups. The guitar is incredibly versatile too, which is somewhat rare from heavy metal / shred oriented guitars, which have a love / hate reputation for sounding too harsh or for breaking down a clean tone too easily. The H/S/S Pickup configuration essentially makes it a Stratocaster with a ballsier bridge tone. They were produced in numerous different pickup configurations, finishes, and orientations over the course of 10 years, meaning there's plenty of variety in finding the right one for you. From a simple gloss black, a flashy neon orange, 2 different variations of hod rod flames, Eerie dess (As described in the picture) and Crimson Swirls, and even the classic jackson "pile of skulls" finish as made famous by Death metal lead guitarists in the 90's! The bad: I can't comment on the build quality too much as I got mine second hand in a fairly beat up condition. The tremolo is incredibly stiff, however this might not be down to the tremolo itself, more use and possible lack of care from previous owners. It holds tuning fairly well still, but it doesn't bounce around like a floyd should. I believe this could be due to previous use or lack of care however due to my Jackson Pro KE3, which features almost the same tremolo but in black, is fully bouncy as a floyd should be. Other than that, the guitar is essentially flawless from what I can gather. Overall opinion: This guitar is absolutely amazing, and what I've heard and seen, there is a strong consistency in quality from them, as expected from these japanese jacksons. If you want a guitar for hard rock and metal, play lead or solos, and want a sharp sounding, overall ergonomic guitar, without sacrificing versatility like most metal oriented guitars do, Then seek one of these out as soon as possible!

This guitar was an absolute dream when I got it at the age of 15. Looked killer, had premium features like a neck through construction, active pickups, an ebony fretboard and a Kahler tremolo. It weighed a ton but that didn’t matter when I was just using it at home sitting down. Later on in life however, I found it to be incredibly cumbersome to lug around, and the paint was fragile. I kind of regret parting with it but I know for a solid fact that if I still had it I’d be trying to get rid of it. I traded it into a shop for a modded Dean Custom zone vandetta which had a floyd rose special and A Seymour Duncan distortion pickup. I’m going to go over some of the specs. The good: This guitar retailed at around £500. For £500, it was a deal and a half on its own. Featuring a rare kahler tremolo which you wouldn’t find on many production guitars nowadays, in fact, the cheapest brand new guitar I know of that has a kahler is the Jerry Cantrell signature G&L rampage. The guitar also featured an ebony fretboard, which is another “premium” feature, despite being solely cosmetic. The guitar was one of the only Kerry king signature models not featuring a tribal pattern, which is great if you don’t want to look like a wannabe Kerry king, but still want his signature gear. The only thing directly linking the guitar to Kerry king was the “K.K” inlay on the 12th fret. The guitar was also pretty well made and solid overall. Rather than featuring the classic and infamous open coil BDSM pickups, these featured EMG styled “BCRA” (B.C Rich Active) pickups, remaining true to the Kerry King style as Kerry is Sponsored by EMG pickups, using the 81 bridge pickup, alongside either an 85 in the neck, or a sustainer, so it remained somewhat true to the slayer sound in that respect. The kahler was a hybrid model, meaning it could be Locked down with an Allen key for restringing or if you wanted a fixed bridge, which was an absolute life saver. It played pretty good too, and although I’m not a fan of glossy necks, this one wasn’t sticky at all. The bad: Ok, first of all, the weight and portability. This thing weighed just a bit more than a Les Paul if I recall correctly. However, this is to be expected from a guitar of this size and shape, so I won’t deduct points for this. The kahler tremolo, albeit one of my favourite tremolos, isn’t without its fair share of flaws. I had to bend the string holder pegs to be wider with a screwdriver to accommodate a set of 11-48 strings, then do so again for a set of KFK signature strings. (11-46 with a 52 string for lower tunings. I used the 52 in place of the 46 for C# standard). The frets flattened within a year of owning this guitar, albeit, never to a point where it became unusable but the sustain on notes around the 9th-12th frets on the low end suffered. The paint, despite being thick, was brittle. The bottom horn of the guitar was completely without paint, and for context, I dropped it once on a rubbery wood effect floor. The kahler tremolo also broke strings on a weekly basis, meaning I had to eventually shell out extra for reinforced strings which lasted 3 months. The stock pickups were incredibly bassy, and growly. There wasn’t much mid range or tone shaping that could be done with it. The tone knob just made the guitar go from growly and compressed to indistinguishable fart sounding. Instead of switching the pickups I ended up getting a guitar with EMG 81 / 85’s for a clearance steal of a price and eventually parted ways with this BC rich. Overall opinion: This was the coolest thing when I was 14. If you want a good guitar for extreme metal ONLY, which specifically has a kahler and active pickups, then I suggest going for this, on the grounds that you can even find one. The only one of these I’ve seen is the one I owned. But overall, only get this guitar if you specifically want this guitar, as even at the time it was made, there were better choices on the market. Whilst this was £500, Jackson had X Series models for £400-£600 that blew this out of the water, same with charvels desolation series. I’d get something along the lines of those x series models over these, but thankfully you’ll probably never have to make this decision as no one ever seems to want to sell them.