Jackson Pro Series Signature Mick Thomson Soloist SL2 - Arctic White Reviews

I bought this guitar in 2019, so after four years I consider myself experienced enough to adequately speak for this thing. It is awesome. This is the best guitar I own. Out of the box, the action and setup were perfect. To this day I will not touch it because it was so good already. The fit and finish is very very good, the craftsmanship is obviously high quality. The neck feels great, the frets are super smooth as your hand slides up and down with the binding. The neck is just the right shape and the neck-through construction makes for a very comfortable and smooth transition to the highest frets, even without more modern ergonomic cutaways. The bridge is so cool, it's a hardtail so you don't need a big routed out area but it retains the very nice feel of Ibanez Edge style saddles and the nice functionality of locking tuners and a locking nut. Admittedly I don't really use the nut but the fine tuners are nice. The Jackson tuners don't strike me as amazing but they do their job. This guitar stays in tune for months on end, without the locking nut clamped. I keep it in Drop C and occasionally switch to D Standard. Now the best part: the pickups. These are easily my favorite thing about the guitar. They sound better than any EMGs I've had the chance to play, if you like metal styles from 2004 and on (metalcore and more modern stuff) you will probably love these. But fair warning, they are very hot. To this day I cannot get a fully clean tone out of them, they are slightly overdriven straight out of the output jack. When I first got this, I didn't use the bridge pickup at all because I considered it too powerful. By the way, the neck is still very good for rhythm tones as well as leads. Once I adjusted my amps and tones properly for this guitar, there was no going back. The one thing that annoys me about this: the battery. I don't think mine came with a TRS jack, so the battery only lasts about a month. You start to notice the power die off. Worse yet, the battery box and connector of are questionable quality. My connector broke a few times not too long into my ownership, and the fact that the battery and connector just barely fit in the box didn't help the situation. At some point I got tired of this and bought an adapter to connect the 9v cord you'd use for a pedal to the battery connector, and I drilled a small hole in the corner of the battery box cover. Now it's all good, I get a consistent powerful tone without worrying about batteries. Of course, if you hate the battery box's cramped space, you could probably rewire it to put the battery in the control cavity. There's more room without a tone pot (which I initially thought I would miss, but I apparently don't at all). All in all, an excellent guitar.

It's exactly the sound I've always wanted to hold in my hands. Amazing!

The fit and finish on the guitar are seriously good. The frets are well manicured and level, the neck is straight and rock solid as well. the neck profile is nice and thin but not too thin that it causes tuning or stability issues at all. the neck joint is really fantastic and allows effortless access to the higher frets. I personally picked the heaviest guitar available at the time of purchase at 8 pounds, 3 ounces and love the weight. The weight with the neck through gives it incredible sustain. you can feel the energy and vibration very well. the fixed Floyd Rose style bridge really helps with the sustain as well and is rock solid. the fine tuners work as they should and allow for quick tune ups. The finish on the bridge is really nice as well unlike some of the cheaper Floyd Rose models. The Mick Thomson signature pickups are absolutely made for high gain and really push the amp. They sound incredible with mid to high gain and do clean up really well with the Alpha 123 500k linear pot installed. The bridge pickups is ideal for those high gain rhythm parts and the neck does really well at nice round leads and for fat cleans. The locking nut is really high quality and very solid. Now the only thing I personally do not like on the guitar are the tuners. They are the standard jackson die cast tuners and seem to have a lower tuning ratio. I have upgraded to Gotoh 1:18 ratio tuners and it is a massive improvement. That being said the Jackson tuners do get the job done fine without an upgrade. Overall it is a guitar very well worth your time and money if you are into hard rock or metal.

If you like playing in drop C, B, and A tunings then this guitar could be your new best friend. The dual compound radius neck is practically effortless to play even with heavy gauge strings on. Especially if you have big hands. This guitar is totally setup for us bigger handed folks.
Tuning is a snap with the fixed Floyd Rose style bridge. This thing holds a tune beautifully once you stretch the strings out. It has sustain for days and with the active custom EMG's, pretty much blows the socks off of any amp you plug it into.
You don't have to be a Mick Thompson fan or even a Slipknot fan to enjoy this amazing guitar. You can play any hard rock genre with this beast. We'll done Jackson and shout out to Mick for combining so many solid features into an affordable package. Happy playing everyone….!!!…

Jackson has made me very proud with this !! I have owned shark series Jackson's in late 80's early 90's...this blows them away !! 36 - 37 yrs playn rock and metal...yeah that qualifies me to give this axe a 5 star !! Fret leveln,,low action,,tearn it up !! Bought mine when first came out, white and black binding,,Jackson is my guitar of choice, have played and owned lots of makes but realized Jackson guitars is all I need !!! Jackson #1

This guitar is just great. I have not owned many, but I feel like I made a great choice with this one. Aesthetically I love the white with black binding. The inverted headstock is nice, and the ebony fretboard goes great with all the black hardware. The Mick Thomson Blackouts are an AWESOME set of pickups. The bridge has plenty of bite and the neck has plenty of warmth. I've tuned it a few different ways from standard down to drop B. It sounded great in all of them and performed really well in low tunings. The special bridge is also nice. I'm not a floyd rose guy, but I like being able to lock in a tuning so I might be in the future.

This is a 5 star guitar for sure. I would recommend it to anyone playing any kind of metal or rock music. It exceeded every expectation I had. You will not be disappointed.

The guitar is set up nicely right out of packaging and plays like a dream

This has been the metal guitar I have been looking for. I have always been mostly an Ibanez player but I have owned some older Jacksons as well such as a Dinky DXMG, RR3, and Dinky 7 string. This has been the best one out of them all and is tied as my favorite with my Ibanez Prestige.

The neck has a very similar thin profile akin to an Ibanez but the compound radius makes it a tad more comfortable in the first 5 frets. Fret ends are cleaned up very nicely and bound. The neck thru access is shaped very nice giving you an easy reach to the higher frets. It has a very minimalist control set up and I particularly really like the volume knob far out of the way. This has been a chief complaint of mine with Ibanez RG's, while playing really fast aggressive riffs, my hand used to hit the volume knob, this is not a problem with this guitar. The Floyd Rose-esque bridge is very cool, super comfortable and provides solid tuning stability. The Mick Thomson Seymour Duncan EMTY Blackouts are my new favorite active pickups. Coming from a EMG player, these sound a bit beefier and less compressed but still have great clarity and note definition. One more feature to point out is the large side blocks instead of dots for the fret markers. It makes it very easy to not get lost during fast runs and riffing, especially if this is your first guitar with no inlays like me.

Overall this is a solid metal guitar created by a metal guitarist. Even if you don't like Mick Thomson or Slipknot, you are doing yourself a disservice by not checking one of these out.

I love metal. I loved my harmony, before I saved up and bought my MIM FENDER STRAT. (Bought it for that sick fender look at the time.Did not kno? It doesn't matter the music u play? Fender rips). Then I bought my Jackson DKMG,wit A FR. def metallier.(learned lots

If you are on the fence about buying this guitar do yourself a favor and buy it. This guitar is awesome. And the sweet water guys are awesome as well.

This is an amazing guitar and a great value at its price. I was a little hesitant to order online at first, especially since I wasn't able to play any Jackson SL2 models at any local shops. After reading about Sweetwater's liberal return policy, I gave it a shot. Within a couple minutes of playing, I fell in love with this guitar. I have 10 other guitars, including a Japan model Jackson RR3 from around 10 years ago, a new Pro Series RR3, and a 1981 Gibson Les Paul custom. The ease of playing and feel of the neck blows all of these away. I love my RR3s, but this soloist has an entirely different feel to it, and the quality feels comparable to my old Les Paul. That's a bold statement to make, but it's true. While the price point is the same as my Pro Series RR3, this guitar feels like it is on a whole other level. I had thought about buying the American made model instead of buying both this and the Pro Series RR, but after playing this guitar it's hard to imagine it being any better. I had watched an interview with Mick Thomson in which he said that the neck on this guitar is made to match a neck on his old favorite guitar, and this neck does indeed have an entirely different feel to it. It is just so smooth to play. If the price were doubled, I'd still feel like it is a great value. This guitar is just amazing.

Fantastic Rhythm Guitar! If you're into metal and playing Rhythm, you should DEFINITELY consider this guitar. The special "Floyd Rose" bridge is great for tone and sustain. It's a smooth, fast-playing "Thinner C" neck, which is great for shredding and speed metal.

On the guitar (yes, the import models also) are some of Mick Thomson's signature "Blackout" pickups by Seymour Duncan. They are perfect for playing in all tunings from E Standard to Drop A.


However, it has a recessed 1/4 in input jack; not all cables and plug-in equipment will be compatible. Be careful what you use to plug in.

There's only 1 control knob: the Volume Knob. This isn't ideal for players who want to play around with the tone of their instruments.

The pickups are VERY sensitive. Even the lightest touch on 10% volume will register on the instrument. If you do a lot of recording, be careful how you handle the guitar.


It's a wonderful instrument to play and just own. If you love metal, please consider this guitar. I rate it a 9/10.