Hey all,

I recently purchased a Jackson SLAT3-6 soloist with a Floyd. I love the guitar and my reason for purchasing it was to try working on Kirk Hammett licks as well as general soloing. I find I'm having a problem though.....I can't play the guitar! I have ended up with quite a few electrics over a ten year period including a Gibson Explorer, Gibson Les Paul Studio, Schecter C-1 Classic, Fender Telecaster (USA), and the latest is the Jackson. I'm finding the guitar difficult to play for some reason. My first thought was because of the Floyd Rose. I'm used to stop tail bridges and I find my hand ends up all over the place an can not find a comfortable position. I dismissed that because it sounded like I was "blaming" the guitar for my apparent failure. The more I played the Jackson though the same issue occurred. So then I thought I was losing it and maybe since lately I haven't been practicing anywhere near as often as I should maybe I just lost something. Then tonight I played my Les Paul (My go-to guitar since I got it in 04) and I'm playing great. So my thought is do you think the problem may well be I have too many different style guitars and all the differences are screwing with me? I seem to have the most issues lately with the Jackson and the Explorer. Has anyone else had an issue like this? Any Advice? I apologize at how long this post is, but this is really starting to bug me. I can't move forward with what I want to do with the Jackson until I can freakin comfortably play it without sucking!

Thanks for reading.

I recently bought a Schecter Hellraiser solo and had similar issues.
My KV1 has the kahler bridge with the fine tuners and the solo 6 has a straight bar type bridge. Neither is a tremolo but nonetheless it took a while to get used to the bridge(muting, etc) and the neck too. I would have never thought a bound neck would make much difference but it does. After using my KV1 for all those years as my primary guitar I had grown more used to it than I knew and the primary reason for buying the schecter was to save my KV from the wear and tear of being a primary guitar. I miss playing it primarily but it is still in great shape and I want to keep it that way. My advice would be to give it time and see what happens. Good luck.

Practice on the guitar you want to play best. There is a huge differance in feel between manufacturers.

I was going to suggest that maybe it was the scale length 25.5 vs. 24.75 but the Jackson (25.5) and Explorer (24.75) are both of these respectively. So that theory may be out. I know I have a lot of guitars and when I switch back and forth a lot it makes it hard to forge that "relationship" with just one. I find myself confused as to which one I like best. In fact, Im in the process of preparing to thin the heard by selling about 4 of them to have one custom shop made that encompasses most of my favorite specs all into one guitar. That is why I am here. I know it wont be the same as each has it's own unique quality but, I'm gonna try to have it all on one strap. Then.. adapt and accept it for what it is. CUSTOM SHOP BABY!!!

I don't have the kind of funds required fro doing a custom shop, but that idea you are contemplating has crossed my mind as well. Maybe when I have the funds i may do something similar.

I recently bought my first Jackson, a KV2T! I have been a gibby player for almost 20 years now. It always takes awhile for me to get use to guitars with tremelo's being that I dont really use them anyway's. I recently played an 80's charvel that a shop owner was bragging about and like fenders and other super strat's ive tried, I just cant get comfortable enough with bridges or trems. So being a explorer/lp guy, when I found the KV with a tuneomatic bridge! That was the missing ingrediant for me. It was easy to get use to all the other little changes. But I have played many guitars that I sucked on!