Rob Cavestany of Death Angel says from a Guitar Player Interview a while back :
Can you detail your new Jackson Signature Series guitar?
I have two that I’m playing now—the Orange Dragon and the Red Dragon. I’ve played Jacksons ever since I was a kid. I first met Grover Jackson in 1988, when Death Angel was young, and I had already designed a body shape for the guitar I wanted him to build me. Jackson actually made my first signature models at that time, but when Grover left the company, it got sort of lost. Twenty years later, I needed my old metal guitars again, and, coincidentally, Grover was back with the Jackson company. I drew the whole design up myself. It’s based on the Jackson star bodies, but I wanted a horn-shaped cutaway like a Gibson SG so I could reach the high notes easily. That’s what bugged me about the star bodies—your hand would knock against the wing every time you went for the high notes.
It’s funny—I hadn’t purchased a new guitar for years, and I didn’t realize that they build guitars a little differently these days. For example, the tremolo bridges are recessed into the body so that the strings are really flat. On my old Jacksons, the Floyd Rose is not recessed. It’s bolted onto the top, and it sticks up about a half inch off the body. As a result, the strings are at an angle to the fretboard. But I just couldn’t get used to the recessed bridge. I have a really heavy right hand, and whenever I would do some palm muting, I’d smash the strings right against the pickups. I couldn’t play. So on my new signature guitar, I have an original Floyd Rose tremolo, and the bridge is not recessed. I know that would be freaky for some players, but it’s the old-school way, baby! The guitars also have 24 frets, a 3-way toggle switch, one Volume control, no Tone controls, red “blood drop” inlays, and something very unique called a “butt plug.”
I’m afraid to ask, but what is that?
It was Grover’s invention, but the actual thing came from a complaint I had about my original prototype. I loved the guitar, but the balance was a little neck heavy. At the same time, I wanted more sustain. So Grover routed a hole through the butt of the guitar, and inserted a three-inch long metal cylinder inside—right underneath the bridge. It totally gave the guitar more sustain, and the body balanced absolutely perfectly. Grover really believed in the modification, and he tried to market the thing a while back, but the butt plug never caught on. It worked for me, though, so I really wanted it to be a part of my guitar, and it’s now the first mass-marketed Jackson with the feature.
