NAMM 2016 – Jackson’s Pro Series and Signature Dave Ellefson, Chris Broderick, and Misha Mansoor Guitars

Jackson’s built themselves quite a roster over the last few years, taking on current and former members of Megadeth (Dave Ellefson and Chris Broderick) as well as some young hot metal celebs (Misha Mansoor of Periphery, Joe Duplantier of Gojira), old guns (Anthrax), and more. So I was excited to speak with their product specialist Peter Wichers, who you may also know as the former guitarist of Soilwork. That’s a whole lot of metal talent.

One of the interesting things I saw on some of these pro series models is something Jackson calls the “shredder’s heel,” which is basically a deeper cut around the higher end of the frets. Ideas like that are the kinds of things I wish were more standard in all guitar production – like moving the volume knob away from the pickups so you don’t hit it with your picking hand.