Editor's Rating A plain, yet high-quality guitar with a fast and comfortable neck, a seemingly rock-solid tremolo-system and an awesome sound right out of the box. 6.5 Looks 8 Quality 7 Playability 8 Sound 7.5 Price

I guess most of us know Chris Broderick as „the guy who played in Megadeth“ and a few really trve Metalheads know him from Jag Panzer, too. So … two classic 6-string-bands. But he also played in Nevermore for brief periods and he utilizes 7-strings in his new project „Act of Defiance“, so its only natural that Jackson is offering a 7-string-model of his signature Soloist-model.

Today I am talking about the Soloist Pro 7, the indonesian-made version of Chris’ signature guitar.

Specs

Mahogany body with arched top

3-Piece maple neck with graphite reinforcements

25.5“ scale

Rosewood fretboard

Fretboard- and Headstock-binding

Floyd Rose® Special 7-String Double-Locking Tremolo

3-way Pickup Selector, Volume- & Tone-Knob + Mini Toggle Kill Switch

DiMarzio® CB 7 – Chris Broderick signature-pickups

comes in gloss-white or matte-black

Impressions

My review guitar came in plain matte black – I personally would have fancied the white version, but thats just me. After having owned quite a lot of matte black guitars over the last few years, I just kinda grew tired of this finish. Yet I have to add that it feels relatively robust for a matte finish.

When I took the guitar out of the box I noticed that one of the tremolo-springs must have jumped out of the claw in transit and I immediately got kinda nervous that I’d have to set up the whole tremolo system before I’d be able to play the first notes.

Luckily, the Floyd Rose® Special seems to be a very stable and forgiving tremolo. I was even able to tune the guitar down to Drop A without messing up the whole setup. It’s not a crappy tremolo system by any means – it’s still working fine and still goes back to being perfectly in tune after heavy divebombs.

The thin, D-shaped neck feels very comfortable and with the matte finish it’s also really fast – the Broderick Soloist Pro is a perfect match for shredders like the guy it was built for.

I had to doublecheck the specs on the Jackson website, because I expected a regular brown rosewood-fretboard, yet the guitar came with a nicely dark black and shiny piece of wood that almost looks like ebony. Jackson apparently dyes and laquers the fretboards on the Broderick Pro to resemble the look of the more expensive US models. Good job, Jackson!

The fretboard- and headstock-binding on the black model is … well … also black and thus barely visible. Judging from pictures they used an off-white material for the white model, which should make it more noticable. In my opinion this is „understatement gone wrong“ and therefor kind of unnecessary – at least on the black model.

The fretjob is good, albeit not remarkable. The edges of the jumbo-sized frets are rounded off very evenly and – as you would expect from a Jackson – there’s no string buzz going on.

Unfortunately the nut has – typical Floyd Rose – kinda sharp edges, which is a bit uncomfortable.

The slightly skewed shape of the body – an even more extreme version of the Jackson B-shape – is polarizing, I know. But I really like it. I’m relatively conservative when it comes to „different“ body shapes, but Jackson somehow always hits the spot for me. With its belly cut and the slightly arched top, the Chris Broderick Soloist Pro is very comfortable, too.

The recessed controls are easy to access with the 3-way-toggle being placed near your picking hand for easy pickup switching. Luckily they went with a 2-way Mini-Toggle as a Killswitch as opposed to the hideous red button on the DKA8.

The Sound

The Chris Broderick Pro 7 features Chris’ Signature-Pickup, the DiMarzio CB7. I guess it’s an offspring of the D-Activator, the pickup Chris Broderick used before they introduced the CB7 in his newer signature models. It also sounds pretty similar to the D-Activator and as you might know by now – the D-Activator is my favorite pickup and it pairs really well with the mahogany body. The Broderick Pro 7 sounds chunky with a nice growly midrange and neither too much high- nor low-end.

The Verdict

With a street-price of $ 999 / € 931, the Jackson Chris Broderick Pro 7 is a direct competitor to various other guitars we reviewed in the past. It’s a high quality guitar with a fast and comfortable neck, a seemingly rock-solid tremolo system and an awesome sound right out of the box. But, while the white model is a puristic beauty, the black version is also a very plain looking instrument without loads of features. A few more color options or a laminated quilted- or flamed-maple top would spice things up a bit. I’d also love to see a hardtail version of the guitar – you hear me, Jackson? 😉

If you’re a minimalist when it comes to color options and you are a tremolo player, you should definitely check out the Jackson Chris Broderick Soloist Pro 7.

Gallery

This is an unbiased, but sponsored review. Our thanks go out to Fender Germany for the test-guitar.