Jackson Guitars has finally answered the call for an eight-string version of Misha Mansoor’s Juggernaut signature guitar.
The Pro Plus Series Limited Edition Signature Misha Mansoor Juggernaut ET8 picks up where last year’s Juggernaut HT6 left off in uniting a fairly-priced guitar with stock pickups and an EverTune bridge. But, this time, you get two more strings for added djent factor.
Available exclusively in a gloss Nardo Gray finish, it features a poplar body blended with a bolt-on graphite-reinforced caramelized maple neck, oiled for speedy play. That, in turn, is capped with a 20”-radius ebony fingerboard with rolled edges, 24 jumbo stainless steel frets, and Luminlay side dots.
An EverTune F8 bridge is in place to keep tuning tighter than a corset on a sumo, with Jackson sealed die-cast tuners at the other end to help. It also ships with Dunlop dual-locking strap buttons.
Last year, Mansoor worked diligently with Jackson to craft the “phenomenal” MM1 humbucker pickups as a suitable and more affordable alternative to the Bare Knuckle Juggernaut 'buckers, without losing their cutthroat edge. Here, they’ve been reconfigured to have extra girth, physically and sonically.
“These super-charged humbuckers produce a balanced sonic landscape with plenty of dynamics,” says Jackson. “And by leaving them uncovered, there’s an added and distinct brightness that remains articulate under heavy picking.”
They’re paired with a five-way switch and volume and tone controls, the latter featuring a Push/Pull select. That means tone parameter changes only come into play once the knob has been engaged. It’s a clever way to avoid accidentally hitting and tweaking the dial while playing.
A black plastic nut has been employed as one of a few cost-cutting measures – the pickups being another obvious example – to offset the price the EverTune will add to the guitar’s sum total.
It does, however, feature an ever-handy heel-mount truss rod adjustment wheel and ships with a gig bag.
“I’m so excited to finally have an eight-string signature model, and it’s a special one, too,” Mansoor delights. “We have been working on the design for a while now, and I think the Evertune was the final piece of the puzzle.
“Periphery uses eight strings quite a bit, and both live and in the studio, the Evertune has made it so I can focus more on my performance and tone and let the bridge handle the tuning stability.”
The Jackson Pro Plus Series Limited Edition Signature Misha Mansoor Juggernaut ET8 is available now for $1,899/£1,699.
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Elsewhere, Mansoor recently recalled how he was reunited with his first Juggernaut guitar in unlikely circumstances.
