Bring Me The Horizon guitarist Lee Malia has teamed up with Jackson to champion the rise of the metal offset by releasing the highly anticipated Pro Series LM-87. Offering vintage-modern aesthetics courtesy of its Surfcaster DNA, the new signature guitar, Malia says, provides a tonal versatility unlike any guitar he's ever played.
Notably, the LM-87 continues a growing affection for offset body shapes from metal guitarists. Mike Stringer’s custom Jackson models seemingly started a trend that Misha Mansoor, Whitechapel’s Alex Wade, and now Malia – whose own Jackson Custom Shop creation drew eyeballs last year – are pushing to new heights.
“I'm beyond excited to bring my Jackson LM-87 Surfcaster to life,” says Malia. “It's the guitar I've dreamed of making for years and we've made sure it's super accessible for a wide range of players.”
Beyond its okoume body, three-piece okoume set-neck, and Amaranthe fretboard – which has a comfortable 12”-16” compound radius – there's a Jackson TOM-Style adjustable bridge with an anchored tailpiece and fine tuners, and Jackson-branded locking tuners at the other end. A truss rod adjustment wheel is situated at the body end of the neck for easy action adjustments on the fly.
Built to a 25.5” scale length, it's decked out with 22 jumbo frets, eye-catching but old-school block-style inlays, and there’s an almost Rickenbacker-like quality to the pickguard that sits beneath the two top hat-style Volume and Tone controls.
Its pickups are Jackson-made and voiced to Malia’s custom specs. There is an LM-87 humbucker in the bridge with a push-pull coil-split, and a P-90 in the neck.
Elsewhere, the guitar has been bestowed with a black open-pore, semi-gloss treatment that will relic faster than usual finishes, letting players get a worn-in look that’s unique to their guitar in double-quick time.
Speaking to Guitar World ahead of its launch, Malia ensures that though “it looks vintage, it's still a modern guitar you can play whatever you want on”, and a host of features are geared towards channeling that versatility.
For example, Malia tasked Jackson with “modernizing” the custom pickups from his range of Epiphone signature models, resulting in an “open sound” that pulls away from super high-gain flavors.
Of the P-90, he adds: “I always like it really clean. So with a P-90, when you put it in the middle position with the coil split, it’s such a nice clean pickup sound. If you use it on gain, it doesn’t get too muddy because there's much less bottom-end where it can get muffled with a humbucker.”
With that recipe nailed, he's found the guitar to be his ultimate weapon
“It’s my go-to at home now,” he says. “As soon as I’ve got an idea, I grab it straight away; I know what it's gonna sound like. When something plays that easy and sounds great, you just want to sit and play it.”
For Malia, his Jackson collaboration represents a powerful full-circle moment. His first proper guitar was a Jackson Warrior, bought after a guitar store visit with his dad when he was 15, and it even featured on BMTH’s first European support when they opened for Killswitch Engage.
“I was super into metal and loved anything shreddy and pointed,” he says of 15-year-old Malia’s tastes. “If I'd known about this then, I would have gone crazy!”
The Pro Series Signature Lee Malia LM-87 is available now for a very tidy $899.
Head to Jackson for more details.
Guitar World's full interview with Lee Malia will be published online in the near future.
This release is the latest example of Jackson committing to the Surfcaster's revival, after the firm brought back the cult classic offset in a number of accessible formats earlier this year.
