Gear

The Weigh-Up: Jackson Pro Series Signature Roman Ibramkhalilov MDK HT6 Baritone (Gear Review)

Aug 7, 2024

7 min read

Call me old school, but I’m a sucker for a baritone six string guitar. The modern guitar market is littered full of seven string, eight string and multi-scale guitar models these days, but not a great deal of long scale six string models. It seems that Jackson were determined to fill the gap in that market as they recently announced a number of new Pro Plus Series baritone models and a signature baritone model for Jinjer’s guitarist Roman Ibramkhalilov. The latter of which, I am lucky enough to have sitting beside me in my studio and it absolutely kills.

Let’s dive into the fun stuff then. The Roman signature features an Ash body, Ebony fretboard, 3-piece Maple/Wenge neck with graphite reinforcement, Luminlay side dots, stainless steel frets, Gotoh® 510FX-6 fixed bridge, Jackson locking tuners and a set of custom voiced pickups Jackson have produced specifically for this model. All of these features combined provide you with a rock solid, high specced baritone that’s ready to hit the road and take a beating.

Naturally, the first thing I did was switch over to my favourite 5150 patch and put this thing through some soaring gain. I was blown away at how huge it sounded from the jump. Intricate riffs sounded snappy and aggressive, while big chord voicings sounded rich and clear. Switching over to my go-to clean patches and I was really impressed with how warm it sounded. While Jinjer are well known for their frenetic and technical riffs, it’s nice to know that this guitar wasn’t built for simply that. I easily lost two hours from just riffing around and basking in how good it sounded, but also in how easy it was to play. It has a thin and comfortable neck profile without being too thin and felt super-fast, despite the long scale and super heavy gauge strings.

You can tell that this guitar was meant for the heavy-handed player and the road warrior. The Gotoh bridge is built like a tank and felt really comfortable under hand. Stainless steel frets, locking tuners, Graph Tech nut and a graphite reinforced neck ensure insanely solid stability, so once you’ve got it dialled into your liking, it’s certainly gonna stay dialled in.

Jackson made a lot of great choices with this guitar. In my opinion, the 3+3 Jackson headstock that you find on the Misha Mansoor models and is easily the coolest headstock in the Jackson range and it’s nice to see another model with this one. The lack of tone control rules because tone pots are a blatant waste of time on a guitar like this. It’s all about cranking it to ten and ripping. The custom voiced pickups are solid, but I can also see players swapping them out for something more specific to their liking in the long run.

The one pitfall for me is the gig bag. It’s not at all fitted to the guitar's shape and not particularly padded, so the first thing you’d be doing is buying yourself a fitted hard case to keep this axe safe and sound. Not a make or break thing by any means, but I’m that guy who’s always way too cautious about keeping my gear safe.

All in all, I love this guitar and I don’t think Jackson will be getting this one back at all. The Emerald Green colour is lush and such a breath of fresh air in a corner of the market that often features the blackest of black guitars and not much else. The combination of the dark green finish, blank Ebony fretboard, black hardware, contoured body and simplified control layout gives you a streamlined, no frills rich machine that is bound to catch the eye of many a player. If you’re like me and have been patiently waiting for a high octane six string baritone that isn’t jet black, then Jackson have you covered.

Review by Nicholas Simonsen @blackechomusic