Jaden Rose – Original Series Wenge Top Guitar Review

This review was submitted by Guitar Jar contributor: Anonymous

This guitar came designed with a perfect spec sheet and look for me.  Modern styling with exotic tone woods.  Like a kind of PRS for the new generation of modern players but with classic craftsmanship intact.

…excellent access to upper frets and awesome neck feel…

The lines on the Original Series Jaden Rose guitars are killer alien-like curves. They fit the hand and body well in all playing positions and look like art work on a stand – but not to pretty to play rough.

I’m fascinated by the Ebony, Wenge and Purple Heart tone woods used by Jaden in my Original Series.  A guitar mag made me aware of his work when I read a very good review of the new more austere Series 2 which shares the same lines but I opted for the Original to get all the specs I wanted and the cool wood combo.

Jaden is easy work with to get the specs you want – he picks up the phone personally and he is a great UK craftsman / guitar player. I like supporting the UK entrepreneurs propelling forward the the fine British history of creating ultimate rock gear.

Features:

• Mahogany with Book matched wenge top
• Pickup layout: humbucker – humbucker
• 3 laminate wenge and purpleheart Neck
• 24 jumbo frets
• Ebony fingerboard with offset MOP dots
• Original Floyd Rose trem – ruthenium
• Original Floyd rose R4 nut
• Gotoh Tuners – Cosmo Black
• Gotoh Knurled Metal Knobs – Cosmo Black
• Bare Knuckle Pickups (BKP) – Nailbomb Set (replaced D-Activators)
• 500K Volume – 1 Meg Tone Controls
• DiMarzio3 way DiMarzio toggle

Ease of use:

Straight forward simple controls positioned intelligently for quick and easy access while playing.  Cool side jack for cable – routes it toward strap button to keep it in control/out of way.

Sound Quality:

The unique tone woods are well chosen as the foundation for a rock/metal capable guitar. Hybrid string set adds more impact on bass end.

The BKP Nailbombs (Alnico bridge) have the power and clarity to send the vibrations slamming into the amp (using Marshall DSL and MG15fx, Mesa Roadster, Splawn Quick Rod).

Tone has depth, tightness, note articulation and is balanced across strings even with very high gain providing both singing lead sustain and good chug ‘n palm muted chording.

Reliability:

Rock solid proven components and guitar build quality.  Should take abuse better than most given hardy (not fussy) design/finish.

Overall Rating:

Extremely pleased with the purchase and find it difficult now to think of another guitar that could take the place of my JR given the abundant qualities it provides.  Way more soul than a mass produced Asian super-strat and far easier to aggressively thrash it than a top of the line PRS or Gibson without concern about ruining the prime woods and finish – the JR is durable.

One may feel quite “inhibited” rocking a GBP3000+ tiger eye quilted maple PRS or Suhr Modern flame maple top for fear of dinging the finish, etc. The Jaden has very high build quality, more modern than PRS, more unique tone wood choices than PRS or Suhr – the JR wood/finish seems better able to take an accidental impact with the corner of an amp and the JR’s wicked design is well suited to modern/metal/Djent type players.

Excellent access to upper frets and awesome neck feel.

This review was submitted by Guitar Jar contributor: Anonymous