Jackson Custom Shop Soloist

*from Sweetwater

In 1984, Grover Jackson created the Soloist as an evolution of the Superstrats popular among his line of Charvel guitars.

Whereas Charvel was known for its somewhat more traditional, Strat-inspired construction, shape, and feel, the Soloist featured a neck-through construction, deeper cutaways, an uncommonly thin neck, and a 12- to 16-inch compound radius ebony fingerboard. In other words, everything about the Soloist was purpose-built for maximum sustain, enhanced upper-fret access, and lightning-fast, virtuosic playing.

As a testament to the success of the metal-focused design, the Soloist found its way into the hands of many noteworthy heavy players including Gary Moore, Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith, Slipknot’s Mick Thomson, and Def Leppard’s Phil Collen.

These Jackson Custom Shop Tangent Series Soloists were born from an exclusive collaboration between Jackson and Sweetwater, working closely with the Custom Shop’s luthiers to craft an imaginative homage to the ethos of heavy-hitting 1980s models, incorporating select contemporary appointments to meet the demands of today’s players.

Available in an array of finishes that include iconic Jackson colors — over and under black — in evocative degrees of relic’d style, as well as NOS black and white options, the Soloist’s modern features comprise stainless steel frets, a matched-finish reverse headstock, push-pull coil splitting for a broader range of tones, and Bare Knuckle Holydiver humbuckers, which provide a progressive, modern sound with a wide dynamic range.

As a finishing touch, these guitars come with a heavy relic that visually evokes a lifetime of touring and gives each guitar a worn-in feel similar to a comfortable favorite pair of jeans. And since each guitar is relic’d by hand, no two are the same, ensuring a truly one-of-a-kind instrument.

Tone Woods

Longtime fans and followers of the Jackson Custom Shop know the West Coast-based craft house’s penchant for quality, character, and commitment to excellence. For the Tangent Series Soloist, every hand-selected tonewood represents this unwavering dedication to high-flashpoint performance, starting with the foundation. Thanks to its neck-through-body build, this instrument’s aural anchor comprises a caramelized maple core, flanked by alder wings, yielding transparent full-bodied tones, smoldering full-spectrum brilliance, and expedient attack. In the neck, the maple’s inherent note-separating capabilities emerge, ensuring every lick, lead, riff, and chord sings with distinction. An ebony fretboard completes the powerhouse’s tonewood triumvirate, enshrining your sound in near-endless sustain, bell-like clarity, and resounding presence that won’t compromise the punch and precision felt in every register.

Bare Knuckle Pick-Ups and Streamlined Circuitry

With its premium placed on performance, the Tangent Series Soloist eschews the excess interfacing for a scorching suite of streamlined sonic circuitry that pulls no punches. For this solo-ready 6-string, we ditched the tone knob, decluttering the control scheme. The result is a straightforward combination of a 3-way pickup switch and Master Volume knob, with the latter featuring a push-pull to keep coil splitting possibilities at the ready.

Like the Tangent series’ underlying ethos, its dyad of Bare Knuckle Holydiver humbuckers was originally designed as an homage to the historic hot-rodded heat of the Superstrat’s 1980s halcyon days. Each pickup retains Alnico V magnets, supercharging your sonic aperture with an immense dynamic range, shimmering harmonics, robust mids, thundering lows, and searing highs. Collectively, these pickups conjure a mélange of multidimensional musicality, cleaving through the mix with aggressive articulation, versatile voicing, and voltaic vibrance, providing the depth and naturality you expect from a passive-designed pickup without the risk of thinning out, even with the utmost distortion and high-gain saturation.

Prismatic performance abounds

Subtle yet striking Ivoroid binding adorns the fretboard and headstock, with these ethereal details delightfully contrasting the indomitable heavy-metal spirit that colors the time-worn and classic finishes. The fretboard’s compound 12–16-inch radius is the ultimate runway for pummeling riffs, scorching solos, and high-altitude aural acrobatics, backed by the classic Speed neck profile to guarantee an uninhibited access-all-areas pass to the 24 frets sprawling the guitar’s 25.5-inch scale.

Whether on the road or in the studio, the Tangent Series Soloist is poised for serious play, thanks to the increased dimensional stability of its neck-through-body build, as well as the use of caramelized maple. Moreover, the series’ Heavy Relic entries feature sanded satin-finished necks, while the fresh-faced models boast a gloss neck, giving you the reins to play your way. Rock-solid Gotoh tuners facilitate stable tuning, while the polychromic pitch-warping power of the Floyd Rose tremolo unlocks endlessly evocative shades of expression.

Tangent series: vintage metal with modern muscle

The Tangent series is the result of a true collaboration and shared vision brought to life by Sweetwater’s imaginative guitar experts and Jackson’s Custom Shop mastery. Each limited-edition Soloist is a unique variation on a 6-string theme designed to answer one bold question: What would a hot-rodded Jackson from the 1980s look like if built for today’s metal guitarist? From streamlined controls and Bare Knuckle Holydiver pickups to a reversed headstock and an exclusive blend of piranha and shark tooth mother-of-pearl inlays, every detail is purpose-built for maximum impact and volume. Meanwhile, Heavy Relic finishes explode with attitude and vintage flavor, channeling the lineage of heavy metal and the enduring spirit of no-holds-barred performance. Now, it’s up to you to plug in and go off on your own musical tangent, courtesy of the Tangent series from Jackson and Sweetwater.

Jackson Custom Shop Tangent Series Soloist Features:

• Exclusive series collaboration with the Jackson Custom Shop merges vintage and modern metal spirit — available only at Sweetwater
• Namesake inlay combination blends piranha and shark tooth designs for a distinct visual
• Reverse headstock, stainless steel frets, and Luminlay side dots comprise special, exclusive appointments
• Caramelized maple core and alder wings anchor tones to a foundation of balanced sound, full-bodied resonance, and rich harmonics
• Caramelized maple neck elicits full-spectrum brightness and natural note-separating voicing for clear, articulate sound
• Ebony fretboard supplies bell-like transparency, enduring sustain, and precision that punches through every register
• Bare Knuckle Holydiver humbuckers give you an array of Alnico V-fueled sonic contouring, combining ’80s-style voicings and blistering harmonics.
• Streamlined control scheme features a 3-way switch, a Volume control, and a push-pull coil split, for flexible yet focused sound-shaping opportunities
• Jackson Speed neck and compound 12–16-in. fretboard conjure speed, accuracy, and comfort for virtually any playstyle
• 25.5-in. scale features 24 jumbo frets for uncompromising precision across the spectrum
• Neck-through-body construction and use of caramelized maple combine for unparalleled dimensional stability that’s ultra-resistant to warping or twisting
• Ivoroid body and fretboard binding join MOP headstock and fretboard inlays for exceptional aesthetics and performance presence
• Gotoh tuners and Floyd Rose double-locking trem guarantee vault-grade stability and explosive pitch-warping pyrotechnics