Jackson has unveiled the much-anticipated new signature guitar for Lee Malia of Bring Me The Horizon. Inspired by a vintage Charvel Surfcaster, the LM-87 is a sleek offset that presents itself as a do-it-all metal guitar for players who don’t like metal guitars.
We’ve played it and it is incredible. The LM-87 truly looks and feels like something different. Little wonder it turned so many heads at NAMM 2025 when people first got a look at it in person (Malia has been playing on live with BMTH for some time now, and has recorded with it).
Malia operates right out on the frontier of metalcore but his tastes in tone tend to run classic, the good stuff: Marshall JCM 800 guitar amps and Klon Centaurs and electric guitar pickups that aren’t just your common or garden variety high-output active humbuckers.
“I saw a picture of an old Surfcaster that Charvel made and then I spoke to Jackson to see if it was something they could make me,” says Malia. “Mike Shannon built me a couple of one-off versions of this and they were perfect. He got it right the first time. I like guitars that don’t just appeal to metal players. That’s why I like the P-90, and the humbucker not being super-hot.”
On the LM-87 you will find a Jackson custom-voiced P-90 style single-coil at the neck and a Jackson humbucker at the bridge, a three-way toggle switch plus black ‘witch hat’ style knobs for volume and tone mounted on a brushed metal plate.
The tone pot has a push-pull feature for splitting the bridge humbucker.
And this is a light electric guitar. We didn’t get the chance to stick it on the scales but the solid okoume body lives up to the tone wood’s reputation. The neck is okoume, too, and glued to the body. Looking at the pictures you might think it is a lot of neck, but this has a regular 25.5” scale length.
The open-power black finish is cool, too. As Malia explains, it wears in well. Over time, with plenty of action onstage, this will relic itself, the old-fashioned way.
The D profile neck shape is not quite as skinny as some contemporary Jackons but it’s quick, and similarly topped with a 12” to 16” radius fingerboard, seating 24 jumbo frets. The fingerboard is amaranth and has cream split block inlays.
For an electric guitar under $1,000, the spec is stacked. There are locking tuners. The TOM-style bridge has fine tuners, ideal for making quick adjustments.
“It’ the guitar I've dreamed of making for years and we’ve made sure it’s super accessible for a wide range of players,” says Malia. “I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I do.”
Price £849/$899, the LM-87 is available now. See Jackson for more details.
