Chris Broderick’s Seven Strings of Signature Master-built Sonics
Now at the helm of Swedish death-metal maestros In Flames, Chris Broderick’s illustrious history of axe-wielding wonder includes Jag Panzer, Nevermore, Act of Defiance, and, of course, Megadeth — in other words, his prismatic brace of performance prowess has no shortage of distinct sonic-sculpting needs. The Jackson USA Signature Chris Broderick Soloist 7 marries Chris’s musical madness with the unrivaled craftsmanship of the Jackson Custom Shop’s legendary luthier, Mike Shannon, to create a unique master-built Soloist with maximum tonal tenacity. Chris designed this signature Soloist with an offset archtop mahogany body and an attention-commanding quilt maple top with a neck-through-body construction of graphite-reinforced, quarter-sawn maple, for the ultimate intersection of strength, durability, weight reduction, and sustain. Even the custom DiMarzio humbucking pickups were designed with Chris’s input to suit his insatiable tone, enamoring Sweetwater’s Guitar Shop with the voltaic versatility of the Soloist 7’s suite of coil-splitting and tone-killing capabilities. Handbuilt in Jackson’s West Coast–based Custom Shop, the USA Signature Chris Broderick Soloist 7 is ready to rip, rain or shine.
Mike Shannon–forged foundations: flexible yet ferocious
Jackson spares no effort with any of its instruments, and though you may be familiar with the Soloist design, Chris’s signature Soloist 7 is anything but ordinary. This archtop axe anchors its tonal profile to a quilt-maple-topped mahogany body and quarter-sawn, through-body maple neck. As a tonewood, mahogany is revered for its overall balance, emphasizing robust, powerful mids with brilliant harmonics and blossoming overtones that give your sound immense presence. Maple builds on the foundational mahogany tones, prized for its spectrum-spanning brightness and warmth, alongside its inherent note-separating nature that ensures each string sings with distinction and clarity across chords, riffs, leads, and licks. The ebony fretboard completes the guitar’s tonewood triumvirate, imbuing your sound with bell-like transparency, near-endless sustain, and powerful precision that punches through every register. With its neck-through-body construction, the Jackson USA Signature Chris Broderick Soloist 7 is a sonorous 7-string that maintains flexible yet focused ferocity.
A dyad of DiMarzio humbuckers and serious sonic control
For the Jackson USA Signature Chris Broderick Soloist 7, an equally tailored suite of sound-shaping power brings the guitar’s foundational tones roaring to life, thanks to the dyad of DiMarzio humbuckers. These pickups were custom-designed in active collaboration between Chris and DiMarzio, using the latter’s celebrated D Activator as the blueprint, before refining to suit the raucous riffage, searing solos, and tenacious technicality that earned Chris his well-deserved set of signature pickups — these are only available with his signature instruments! But, if the vividly vicious versatility of the DiMarzio humbuckers wasn’t enough to sate your sonic palette, then we’d humbly request you direct your attention to the circuit sorcery of the Soloist 7. In addition to the 3-way toggle that accompanies the Master Tone and Volume controls, this signature 7-string features a suite of sound shaping. A 2-position mini-toggle serves as a master-output kill switch, while the push-pull capabilities of the Volume and Tone knobs outfit this axe with both coil-splitting and tone-killing capabilities, respectively.
Unwavering support for explosive sound sorcery
When trading in such diverse styles of metal, including thrash, death, melodic, progressive, and power, playability is essential, and Mike Shannon has pulled no punches in crafting an unwavering tapestry of speed, precision, control, and comfort. The near-seamless heel of the neck-through-body build is joined by elegant and comfort-focused contouring on the body’s rear side and dual cutaways, giving you access to all 24 frets that sprawl its 25.5-inch scale. Adding to this, the lightning-fast neck boasts a fretboard with a 12-inch radius that supplies powerful yet pliable performance support, allowing players of virtually any style to thrive. For the road warriors, the choices to both use a quarter-sawn maple neck — a cut renowned for its superior dimensional stability compared to the common flat-sawn cut — and reinforce it with graphite rods collectively safeguard your 7-string via massively increased resilience to twisting and warping, in addition to cutting weight. With the convenience of the 7-in-line Planet Waves Auto-Trim tuners dovetailing into the evocatively expressive Floyd Rose Pro recessed tremolo system, aural augury and sonic spellcasting of the utmost ferocity are yours to invoke, with vault-grade stability to give you plenty of peace of mind.
Jackson USA Signature Chris Broderick Soloist 7 Features:
- Signature guitar for Chris Broderick, built by Jackson Custom Shop’s Master Builder Mike Shannon for uncompromising craftsmanship and character
- Neck-through-body construction anchors tones in a quilt-maple-topped mahogany body and quarter-sawn maple neck
- Mahogany elicits shimmering harmonics and blossoming overtones, giving your sound prismatic depth that’s balanced and thick yet articulate in the mids
- Maple top and neck endow your sound with full-spectrum brilliance and smoldering warmth, with natural note-separating qualities that keep every note singing with definition
- Ebony fretboard supplies near-endless sustain, bell-like clarity, and crystalline depth, punching with precision in every register
- Custom-built DiMarzio humbuckers were codesigned with Chris to evoke high dynamic ranges, hard-hitting tones, and vicious versatility
- Massive sound-shaping suite includes push-pull coil split, push-pull tone kill, and 2-position mini-switch that serves as a master-output kill switch
- Graphite reinforcement rods, quarter-sawn maple, and neck-through-body construction result in a sonorous blend of reduced weight and increased resilience to twisting and warping
- Rear-body contouring and dual-cutaway beveling provide unfettered access to all 24 frets sprawling the 25.5-in. scale and the fretboard’s 12-in. radius
- Planet Waves Auto-Trim tuning machines make easy work of string changes
- Floyd Rose Pro recessed tremolo guarantees wide-ranging whammy-bar wizardry and unmatched sonic stability
