Jackson Adrian Smith San Dimas DK

90 Guitarist July 2009
JACKSON/FENDER IRON MAIDEN SIGNATURES
£1,139-£1,799
ELECTRICS/baSS
and, with a more subdued tone,
the guitar certainly possesses a
number of more subtle voices
even though no pickup
combinations are possible. The
use of a five-way switch would
have increased that number.
Compared to the Jackson,
tuning is obviously more of a
potential issue here due to the
lack of locking parts – Murray
enjoys his strenuous dive-
bombs too – but take the
customary string-stretching
steps and the guitar will be
with you every step of the way.
Fender Steve Harris
Precision bass
With two great guitarists
swapping licks, Iron Maiden
require a rock-solid foundation
and Steve Harris has
continually provided that with
his trusty Fender Precision.
The choice of hardware and
pickups on this signature are
more in keeping with Steve’s
own preferences than on
previous signature models and,
as a result, this one will
certainly stand out in a crowd.
Harris insisted that this should
be a heavy bass with a chunky
one-piece maple neck that
nicely fills the hand. Naturally
it’s loaded with his Signature
Series Rotosound Flatwound
strings – the West Ham United
colours of claret and blue in the
silk windings at ball and tuner
ends easily identif y these.
The eye-catching pickguard
is chromed to a mirror finish
and surrounds the well-chosen
Seymour Duncan SPB-1
vintage-correct split coil
pickup. The practicality theme
continues with the Badass II
bridge, with its sleek looks and
great intonation, and yet more
chrome. On the headstock the
trusty ‘elephant ears’ tuners
have the more ungainly modern
day long shank and are not
reverse action. Steve’s signature
is at the back of the headstock.
All in all we get a great looking,
and very practical P-bass.
Sounds
Even without plugging this in
you can tell it’s going to perform
well as it’s been set up for hard
rock playing – a good action, but
a little higher than you might
expect. Tight and tough, this
invites you to get stuck in, and
when you hear the sound that’s
exactly what you’ll want to do.
Harris is a finger player and
likes working the strings at the
bridge end for a tight sound and
punchy delivery, but he
sweetens up for chordal stuff by
playing over the pickup. This is
the simple beauty of the
Precision – it always sounds
great wherever you shift your
playing position to.
With his low-slung playing
style and ‘fast fingers’ action,
Harris is one of the most
inf luential players of the heavy
metal world and the SPB-1
pickup is what he currently
uses on his own bass. We feel it
works a lot better with the
flatwounds than the SPB-3
Quarter Pounder used on the
earlier signature model. This is
a really great combination that
offers a pleasingly vintage
element to the sound, which
should also appeal to far-from-
metal Motown lovers. The
flatwounds do suffer from
individual note clarity but
provide a superior thump and
tonal fatness than the more
common roundwounds do. In
the right hands, this is a
formidable instrument.
Verdict
Bass guitars are rarely flashy
looking but with its blue sparkle
finish and mirror scratchplate
this Precision is a real attention
grabber. It has a great feeling of
‘rightness’ about it when you
play it and the set-up is far more
‘on the road’ than ‘in the shop’.
That may take the less
experienced player by surprise
but, of course, it can be easily
tweaked to your own style;
likewise the strings.
The six-strings too offer a lot
more than guitars for Maiden
fans. They are both great rock
axes that have quality oozing
from every fret. A high-end
electric is still the dream that
players aspire to and, if you
enjoy full-blooded rock
combined with more subdued
styles when the occasion calls
for it, either model will suit you
down to the ground.
Yes, both are pricey, but we’d
suggest that each offers enough
of its own merits and exclusivity
to be worth it: these are
high-end US signature guitars,
after all. The same applies to
The mirrored scratchplate houses a Seymour Duncan SPB-1 split-coil
GIT317.rev_fender 90 20/5/09 6:12:53 pm