The Jackson X Series Soloist™ SL4X nabbed a rave review from Total Guitar magazine with reviewer Jonathan Horsley showing particular appreciation for the axe’s pickup configuration and shred-worthy neck.
“Dear reader, cast your eyes upon those pickups, aligned in elegant SSS formation,” wrote Horsley. “How dainty, and yet these Duncan Designed™ pickups are single-coil-sized stacked humbuckers, promising warmth, width, depth and a hotter output.”
“Played through a valve amplifier with a hot distortion in front of it, this thing screams, yet there is detail and clarity,” noted Horsley.
Horsley also applauded the SL4X’s maple neck-through-body orientation for making performances comfortable at every fret.
“Pick it up and it feels like a Soloist all right, the svelte neck-through construction solid, thin, speedy, with a dramatic contour at the heel to let you access the top end of the board,” wrote Horsley. “It’s remarkable how short the journey feels from 1st position to a 17th to 20th-fret pentatonic box pattern when the neck is this thin.”
Closing thoughts?
“Is this where the evolution of shred guitar has taken us?,” said Horsley. “If so, we’re all in and suspect that some other shred-adjacent players are too.”
Read Horsley’s Total Guitar review of the SL4X here.