Jackson Virtuoso – Inspiring The Next Generation

Jackson Guitars have been synonymous with heavy metal since their inception in 1980 when Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist, the late great Randy Rhoads approached Charvel about developing his own individualised guitar, The Concorde, an innovative revamp of the Flying V.

Over the next four decades Jackson Guitars have innovated and evolved, developing a slew of iconic guitar models to arm metal musicians the world over with the instruments best suited to help them push the boundaries of the genre, and have done so again with the introduction of their new line of American made guitars, The Virtuoso.

Wall Of Sound were fortunate enough to be invited to a “Shop Talk” that called upon the expertise of Jackson’s VP of Product Jon Romanowski, as well as five of heavy metal’s most innovative and hard working guitarists, Marty Friedman, Misha Manor (Periphery), Dave Davidson (Revocation), Debbie Gough (Heriot) and Clint Tustin (ERRA) to discuss this next step in Jackson’s evolution. A solid display of talent on show for sure, and maybe a little fanboying showcase on my part, given that Marty Friedman played on one of my desert island albums, Rust In Peace by Megadeth.

Given the huge cross section of styles of the five musicians and the gruelling touring schedule each musician undertakes, the key drawcards for The Virtuoso were it’s comfort, durability and versatility. Clint Tustin spoke of the feel of the guitar, stating, “I was just really stoked on the neck and how it felt”. Debbie Gough, whose biggest influence is Mark Morton of Lamb Of God, reiterated that sentiment saying, “that was immediately the standout thing. Sometimes when you pick up a new guitar, you know within the first five minutes if you’re going to get along with it or not, because of the neck.”

When asked if the Virtuoso would be part of his regular set up moving forward, Marty Friedman said “Oh yeah it’s definitely going to be something that I’ll be using a lot in the future. When you pick it up, you know you’ve got a fantastic work tool in your hands.” Regarding the instrument’s durability, specifically when being used heavily in the studio and on the road, Marty states that “You can literally throw this thing out of an airplane and it stays in tune. This is a characteristic of Jackson Guitars. I think they’re at the top of the world with this thing. I don’t know if it’s because it’s primarily a brand that goes for metal playing, aggressive playing, but they’re just such highly crafted instruments that they can withstand the kind of beating that goes on in a professional metal concert.”

Discussing the vast array of styles in heavy metal these days and it’s evolution from the early days, Debbie Gough reflected on her own journey. 

“I think in general, metal is a genre that has such a wide reach to different people and I think identity within metal has really evolved, especially over the last 5-10 years. But the sub-genres that have evolved, like black metal, doom and sludge, have allowed us to expand our horizons with metal and just keep it fresh and entertaining. It was amazing for me personally to realise that metal was THIS big (holding her hands far apart), rather than THIS big (now holding her hands closer together) and there was so much more to dive into and draw inspiration from and then to take all those things and build your own kind of interpretation of that collection of metal.”

Given the long list of sub-genres, the countless bands crossing over different styles and the endless sound possibilities that could potentially be achieved with guitars in heavy metal, it’s paramount that the Virtuoso be versatile, as well as durable, as voiced by Misha Mansoor.

“Metal is this umbrella term for so many genres and sub genres and there’s so much creativity out there these days. It just seems younger and younger musicians are making more and more incredible music, especially as opposed to when we were coming up.”

“One thing is just the versatility. It’s actually a hallmark that this was designed by guitarists. If you guys aren’t aware, there’s a lot of really really talented guitarists that work at Jackson, that play these things. It has to meet their standard. The artists are the same way. We like a lot of different genres. I mean Dave (Davidson) is one of the greatest jazz guitarists, and he also plays in an extreme death metal band. We want to have guitars that can genuinely do everything. That sort of pushes what we require out of guitars and this guitar was designed with versatility in mind.”

As the longest serving metal musician and Jackson artist on this panel, I had to ask Marty Friedman, what has it been like watching the guitars evolve as heavy metal evolved from a handful of sub-genres in the 80s to the now seemingly millions of sub-genres on offer.

“I just think it’s great unexpected kind of success. When I first started playing, I wanted to do the most extreme music I possibly could, and I knew that there’s no way this music was ever gonna make it into the mainstream.

When Metallica came out with an album that made it into the mainstream I thought it was the end of the world. I could not wrap my mind around the fact that mainstream people were gonna start getting into metal. The fact that it became more and more popular over the years and now it’s branched into so many other kinds of music like a disease, and even more so in Japan than anywhere else.

In America, there’s a lot of festivals and concerts and there’s a lot of people going to see metal shows, but if you look on the charts there’s not a whole lot of evidence of metal over there. But here in Japan, even on the charts in the pop songs, there’s always a guitar presence in it. There’s guitar solos. Sometimes there’s like metal breakdowns. And very modern, not dated kind of metal cliches, but there’s just a presence of metal. It’s growing and growing and growing so I feel it’s like a bonus.

It’s very happy to watch unfold and it’s happy for me to be a part of it, and because that’s what I set out to do. I wanted to play this kind of rebellious music, but of course we all want as many people to hear it as possible so it’s a wonderful thing to watch.”

So if any of you gearheads are looking for the next evolution in metal guitars then suss out the new line of American-made Jackson Virtuoso’s. How can a panel of metal juggernauts be wrong?

Words by Duane James @duanejames666

Learn more about the Jackson Virtuoso series here

Specs:

• Alder body
• Bolt-on five-piece multi-laminated caramelized maple/maple neck with graphite-reinforcement rods
• 12″-16″ compound radius streaked ebony fingerboard with rolled edges, 24 jumbo frets, and offset mother-of-pearl dot inlays
• Seymour Duncan^® JB^™ TB-4 bridge pickup and Seymour Duncan ’59^® SH-1N neck pickup
• Five-way blade pickup switch, single volume control, and single tone control
• Floyd Rose^® 1500 Series double-locking tremolo bridge system
• Luminlay^® side dots
• Heel-mount truss rod adjustment wheel
• Dunlop^® dual-locking strap buttons
• Gotoh^® MG-T locking tuners
• Available in Mystic Blue, Satin Black, Satin Shell Pink, and Specific Ocean with a color matched, bound Jackson pointed 6-in-line headstock and black hardware
• Jackson Foam Core Case included