• Syndication
• Oct 9,2008
• In: Featured, Guitars

AXL Jacknife Review

AXL Jacknife

Looking a bit like Flying V that was given a makeover by medieval armorers, the Axl Jackknife ($299 retail/$224 street) sports decent fretwork, a good setup, and feels surprisingly light and nimble for a guitar of its proportions.

It’s a good sounding guitar, too, with a voice that’s as fat and squawky as you’d expect from a slab-bodied P-90 ax. The Jacknife is a good rock guitar for the money, and the fact it’s almost impossible to play sitting down shouldn’t be an issue to the players who will be attracted to it. The only weirdness we encountered was a reversed pickup selector, which activates the neck pickup when switched to the “down” position. Light, simple, and easy to play, the Jacknife cuts the cost of wielding a quality stage guitar right to the bone. And talk about attitude–even the cutout on the end looks like the neck holder from a guillotine! axlguitars.com.

CONSTRUCTION. Decent fretwork, though the ends are a little rough past the 12th fret. Sharp corners on nut should have been rounded off. Well finished. Solid hardware. Reversed pickup selector is confusing.

PLAYABILITY. Neck feels great and the setup is good. Light and well balanced.

TONES. Sounds fat and squawky. Stays crisp when turned down. Nice frequency spread to Tone control. Pickups sound very ballsy and deliver good sustain.

GUEST REVIEWER COMMENTS. The sounds are classic and solid. Not comfortable–the shape of the body forces my arm up too high for good right-hand control. Flying-V-with-neck-holder body doesn’t work aesthetically for me.

SPECS

AXL JACKNIFE

* 25″ scale

* Rosewood-on-maple bolt-on neck

* Tune-o-matic-style bridge

* Die-cast tuners

* Solid alder body

* Through-body stringing

* EMG-designed alnico-magnet pickups

* Volume and Tone controls, 3-way selector

* 6.8 lbs

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