Over the last few years, there’s been a huge resurgence in everything ’90s-themed. Whether it’s fashion, music, or in this particular case, baritone guitars. We’re seeing loads of young bands rebirth the down-tuned tones of nu-metal and with many guitarists eschewing the adjustment period of a seven- or eight-string guitar, these long-scale six-strings have found themselves back in vogue.
The Jackson Pro Plus XT Soloist has a 27-inch scale, which allows you to utilize lower tunings while keeping string tension high enough to prevent any extraneous flapping.
Coming tuned to B standard (B E A D F# B) out of the box, this all-black beast is designed to chug and shred, packing some premium specs and a blacker-than-black aesthetic.
The lightweight Nyatoh body makes it feel ultra-nimble when you strap it on. That zippy feel extends to the compound radius Ebony fretboard, which morphs from 12 to 16 inches in radius across its longer-than-usual length. The neck profile isn’t listed on the Jackson website, but we found it to be just as slight and speedy-feeling as other Jackson necks we’ve encountered.
It’s packing some serious hardware, too, with Seymour Duncan Nazgul and Sentient humbuckers for plenty of modern metal grind, alongside an impossible-to-miss, arcade-style kill switch button in place of a tone knob.
A hardtail bridge keeps tuning stable, a necessity if you want to utilize ultra-low tunings, while at the other end, a set of Jackson locking tuners makes tuning solid and string changes rapid.
The real beauty of a baritone is that all the chord shapes and scales you already know will work the same. This means you can chug to your heart’s content in drop A while still retaining your inner library of devilish licks.
Unfortunately, the stock strings on the Pro Plus XT had to be changed to go lower than standard baritone B tuning. Even at this pitch, the D string doesn’t sit quite right, being too thin for a note so low, and we wonder why more baritones don’t ship with a wound 3rd string as stock.
With a fresh set of strings on, the Pro Plus XT really does deliver that modern metal sound. The Nazgul bridge pickup paired with a high-gain amp has plenty of sizzling heft for getting those djent tones or searing leads.
The more vintage spec of the Sentient neck pickup is slightly tamer, making it great for clean passages, although we wouldn’t say it’s quite in PAF territory.
If you’re looking for vintage rock tones, this isn’t for you, but for lovers of all things heavy that don’t want to deal with an extra string, it’s utter perfection.
Specs
- PRICE: $1,399/£1,299
- BODY: Nyatoh
- NECK: 3-piece Maple, neck-through-body with graphite reinforcement
- FINGERBOARD: Ebony, 27” scale, 12”-16” compound radius
- FRETS: 24, jumbo stainless steel
- PICKUPS: Seymour Duncan Nazgul, Seymour Duncan Sentient
- CONTROLS: Master volume, arcade-style kill switch, 3-way pickup selector
- HARDWARE: Jackson HT6 hardtail bridge, Jackson sealed die-cast locking tuners
- FINISH: Satin black
- CASE: Gig bag
- CONTACT: Jackson
