Jackson Roswell copy

Bueller

I'm a sucker for 'futuristic' shaped guitars and have the 1983 Gibson Heritage re-issues of the Flying V and Moderne. About 18 months ago I wandered into GAK in Brighton and saw a Jackson Roswell for the first time. I thought all the truly iconic guitar body shapes had already been created so I was amazed to see something new, a bit different, and, IMHO, elegant.

The Roswell design was created in 1995 and originally featured a hollow aluminium body and headstock. Only 142 were made and the last 16 were made with wood bodies and some variations in body shape (Roswell Star). The Jackson Custom Shop did a new run of Roswells a few years ago with basswood bodies. It's difficult to get much solid information on this but as I've seen serial #150 advertised for sale, they probably did a few hundred over a 2-3 year period (2012-2014 ?).

I couldn't justify spending £2,600 on the Roswell that GAK had for sale but then I discovered that there are eBay listings for Roswell 'replacement' bodies starting at a very reasonable £100 (plus shipping from USA, VAT, and handling fees). These are made by Perle Guitars and can be ordered in different tone woods and pre-routed for different pickup configurations.

My plan was simple enough - a Perle 'replacement' Roswell body and a second hand neck. Screw them together, job done!

Of course, it's never that simple...

12 December 2014 - Second hand 24 fret neck arrives from USA

17 December 2014 - Perle Guitars Roswell replacement in hard ash arrives from USA

A trial fitting of the neck revealed a significant problem. Jackson uses a 25 1/2 inch scale and makes both 22 fret necks and 24 fret necks. I assumed that the necks were interchangeable but they aren't. The Roswell uses a 22 fret neck and the neck pocket in the body will only accept a 22 fret neck. Well, you can physically fit a 24 fret neck but the nut to bridge length is 26 1/4 inches!

So, either I had to remove 3/4 inch of the heel from the neck or the neck pocket had to be lengthened by 3/4 inch. Whilst I could have tried doing this myself, I decided to leave it to a professional and took the neck and body to James Collins at 12th Fret (http://www.12thfret.co.uk/) who did a very neat job on the neck pocket. This wasn't easy because the front of the body is a carved into a pronounced convex profile so James had to make up a rig to place against the body to give the router a flat surface to sit on. He also did a full test assembly including wiring up the electrics.

31 March 2015 - Test assembly at 12th Fret

4 April 2015 - Testing

Once it was back with me, I played it in its unfinished state for a few weeks to get a feel for whether the pickup was giving me what I wanted. It also gave me a chance to think over how I wanted it finished.

I had assumed that I'd go for a lurid metallic finish and surprised myself by deciding on a slightly off-white colour to match the Jackson logo on the headstock. The body spent about six weeks with Bow Finishing in Godstone and when it came back it was stunning. The photos don't do justice to how good the finish is.

26 July 2015 - Final assembly

A few minor glitches in the final assembly but nothing too difficult to resolve.

I managed to get a reasonably good setup on it but I was sure that James at 12th Fret could do better so it went back for a final tweak.

It now plays very well and sounds unreasonably good. Even James was surprised at how well it turned out considering that it's just a second hand neck screwed to a CNC'd block of wood.

I don't really want to muck around with it now as it's turned out so well but I do think it'd sound better with a Bareknuckle Mule rather than the Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates. There's nothing wrong with the Pearly Gates, I just think the Mule would give me a bit more of the tone that I prefer.

Specifications

Jackson 24 fret shark fin inlay neck (from a Jackson Dinky)
Perle Guitars replacement Roswell body in hard ash
Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates bridge humbucker
Gotoh stop tailpiece, bridge, and machine heads
CTS stacked volume and tone pots
Sprague orange drop cap

A few small finishing touches:

The neck plate that came with the neck has the Jackson logo and a serial number on it and I decided I wanted to keep it. However, it was finished in black paint and I wanted all chrome hardware. So, I grit blasted the paint off and took it to a local plating company who polished and chromed it.

The neck strap stud is on the top left neck screw (looking at the back of the guitar) so that the stud doesn't spoil the look of the guitar.

Andyjr1515

Somehow missed this at the time, but just spotted it on the 'finished projects' section. Lovely job and stunning design...one I don't recall having seen before. Great job

eSully

What a blast from the past. I remember seeing an advert for the Roswell in guitar world when I was a teenager and absolutely loving it despite usually not liking pointy guitars. In fact I ended up building an electric guitar for my final year woodwork project based on the Roswell. I'll have to see if I can fish out a picture of it. anyway, that looks great. Well done

Roland

Nice looking guitar. How much did it cost?

SquireJapan

Awesome ... makes me want to try making one myself (I won't ...)

Very cool!

Bueller

Thank you for the positive comments.

Cost ? Hmmm, I've tried not to think about it too much. I could have done it cheaper by:

1. Using the cheapest wood option on the body which is basswood but I opted for hard ash.

2. Going for no-name brand hardware but I went for Gotoh machine heads, bridge, and tail.

3. Buying a second hand pickup but I bought a new Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates.

4. Finishing it myself. Bow Finishing in Godstone, Kent have done an superb job on it and everyone who's seen it in the flesh has been bowled over by the quality - it's flawless. But it wasn't cheap (around £240, IIRC).

The body was around 120 USD and the neck (off eBay) was around 80 USD. But there was shipping and VAT and handling charges on these.

The bottom line is that I probably spent around £700 but I think it's possible to build something similar for £300-£400 if you do the finish yourself, buy a s/h pickup, use cheaper hardware, etc. etc.

On the plus side, it plays extremely well and the sound is great so I'm not too unhappy with the price.

I've been hassling the guy at Perle Guitars to do me another body in korina but no luck so far. He says he can't get a big enough blank in korina. That's a shame because I think a korina bodied Roswell would sound fantastic.

gubble

Wow - loved the original Jackson Roswell Rhoads. I remember seeing one of the originals and being in awe of it.

A very cool replica

Here's a cool link to some info on the original for anyone interested.