NGD - and it's going back! LTD MH-1000 Baritone

[Bardagh]

My last 3 Jackson are Cort Indonesia and great other than one of the tuners was kind of loose. They are X series, not pros though. I've seen models made by Samick, too. Not sure if it's a model to model thing on where they get built. You may want to check out FGN (FujiGen's own brand). I feel like I've seen the mystic or mythic model in a 7 with a 1996, iirc and were in the same range as a bunch of Korean built similar models, although bolt on.

I've also been wanting to check out Jackson's new baritone range Looking at their website on the back of one of the headstocks it says KWJ as the beginning of the serial, so possibly Korea World Jackson would be my guess. I know there is another Korean manufacturer that starts with a W, but can't think of it off the top of my head at the moment. Still going to guess it's world.

I’m pretty sure the new baritones are all made in Indonesia except that one signature model from that guy in Jinjer(?) who I have never heard. That one I think is made in Korea. It is a cool color and has a better Gotoh bridge but surprisingly some kind of Jackson branded pickups.

 

[NowYou'rePlayingWithPower]

I’m pretty sure the new baritones are all made in Indonesia except that one signature model from that guy in Jinjer(?) who I have never heard. That one I think is made in Korea. It is a cool color and has a better Gotoh bridge but surprisingly some kind of Jackson branded pickups.

Okay, yeah I see that now. Must be like Napalm was saying due to the ash body. Sorry if that info was already said. I didn't see that post before responding.

 

[Rex Rocker]

To be completely honest, I've never had an LTD (or a Korean guitar for that matter) that was 100% defect-free. Usually very minor and purely cosmetic, but the chewed up bindng wouldn't make me return a guitar.

The fret thing... that I totally get. The one thing that I love about LTD's is that they consistently play great in my experience. Never had a bad one. But if it's going to be like that, yeah, fuck that. Send it back.

 

[ChuggNorris]

Looks like a low specd model.

The quality control isn't as good as it could be. I'd expect since those are also less desirable than 7 strings... they probably shoed it in and said okay. Here you guys go. Let's see how many buy them. But if they aren't big sellers then they probably aren't a priority line in production like the more popular models aka EC1000.

 

[Bardagh]

To be completely honest, I've never had an LTD (or a Korean guitar for that matter) that was 100% defect-free. Usually very minor and purely cosmetic, but the chewed up bindng wouldn't make me return a guitar.

The fret thing... that I totally get. The one thing that I love about LTD's is that they consistently play great in my experience. Never had a bad one. But if it's going to be like that, yeah, fuck that. Send it back.

No I wouldn’t return it for the chewed up binding, although the finish flaw where the spot of paint is missing by the binding would bother me. But like I said, if it played well I’d keep it anyway and just ask for a small partial refund or something.

The reason I won’t take even more of a partial refund and just have the frets refinished is I am not confident that it’s just a fret problem. For the thing to buzz so bad all the way up the bass side of the neck, even when I raise the action and relief is a red flag to me.

I’ve definitely had Korean guitars that were defect free and had great fretwork out of the box.

 

[napalmdeath]

Yeah I would look at the Japanese stuff but I have never got along with Ibanez necks and ESP Japan isn’t really making anything extended range that I like the specs of. It’s also crazy some of the new E-II models are over $3k.

Obviously Korea can make very good guitars, I’ve had a number of them - but some manufacturers (Schecter IME) have always kept costs lower with looser QC so even their higher end Korean imports are more of a gamble. My guess things may be going more that direction due to the difficulties of keeping up with demand or to lower costs.

I’m not totally put off of stuff from Korea, it’s more a question of how much emphasis is the guitar company putting on QC from the WMI factory. I have no experience whatsoever with Jackson’s imports so I don’t know what the deal is with that reliability.

I've had the best luck with Schecter when it comes to Korean. Their guitars are some of the best imports I've owned. Not familiar with their extended range/baritones, but I've had 3 or 4 different SLS Elites, and they were flawless, (though I did get a PT Elite with a dead Fluence pickup once, but it was quickly handled).

 

[Bardagh]

I've had the best luck with Schecter when it comes to Korean. Their guitars are some of the best imports I've owned. Not familiar with their extended range/baritones, but I've had 3 or 4 different SLS Elites, and they were flawless, (though I did get a PT Elite with a dead Fluence pickup once, but it was quickly handled).

Granted, I haven’t bought a Schecter guitar since the 2000’s (I did get a Km6-II for free though) but I had a couple bad experiences and they were with Korean made ones from what were their “higher end” models at that time. It’s also just a lot of what I heard from other guys over the years.

The worst I had was a C7 Blackjack I ordered from zzounds and the first one came with a nut cut so badly you could barely even fret the first fret and that is not an exaggeration. They sent me a replacement and its nut was not as bad but still unacceptably high and the wiring was bad (no sound on the bridge pickup and reduced signal on the neck). At that point I just asked for my money back and decided to find something in person.

 

[Rex Rocker]

No I wouldn’t return it for the chewed up binding, although the finish flaw where the spot of paint is missing by the binding would bother me. But like I said, if it played well I’d keep it anyway and just ask for a small partial refund or something.

The reason I won’t take even more of a partial refund and just have the frets refinished is I am not confident that it’s just a fret problem. For the thing to buzz so bad all the way up the bass side of the neck, even when I raise the action and relief is a red flag to me.

I’ve definitely had Korean guitars that were defect free and had great fretwork out of the box.

Yeah, I totally agree.

But yeah, all of my LTD's have had the best fretwork out of the box than any of my other guitars. I'd even say as good or maybe even better than my Gibson which was supposedly Plek'd. But you're absolutely right. I had an Ibanez SZ some time ago that even after a fret job just didn't wanna play nicely with low action.

I guess it's luck of the draw. I've had great luck with LTD's. People seem to rave about PRS SE and how they're amazing value, and honestly, I've had a bunch and all of them had flaws. Some of them, plain unplayable.

 

[Bardagh]

Yeah, I totally agree.

But yeah, all of my LTD's have had the best fretwork out of the box than any of my other guitars. I'd even say as good or maybe even better than my Gibson which was supposedly Plek'd. But you're absolutely right. I had an Ibanez SZ some time ago that even after a fret job just didn't wanna play nicely with low action.

I guess it's luck of the draw. I've had great luck with LTD's. People seem to rave about PRS SE and how they're amazing value, and honestly, I've had a bunch and all of them had flaws. Some of them, plain unplayable.

I have a Les Paul that was factory Plek’d too, but the nut still wasn’t good enough to not have horrible tuning issues from strings binding up. No complaints about the frets but I wasn’t blown away or anything.