The Demmelition Mark III
So I was thumbing through my email contemplating whether or not I’d ever have the time to read the ocean of emails I’ve apparently accrued over the years this one popped out at me. The Jackson Phil Demmel PDXT King V. Well, Phil Demmel is quite the guitarist and I do love to write about the guitar every now and then. It seems the stars have aligned to beam down upon this topic. So here we go. Let’s rock.
Phil Demmel’s signature Jackson
Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel has been playing Jackson guitars for a long time and this isn’t the first custom design he’s had. Take the Demmilition for example. An older King V signature model, the Demmelition had an alder body and a Floyd Rose tremolo. There have been some other models since this, but this one’s one of his bar setting designs. However it seems Jackson’s aiming for variety. Or at least more accessibility. The PDXT is the third version of Demmel’s original Demmelition that has been made available to the public. Following the PDX 2, this model model bails on the Floyd Rose in favor of a string-through-body design. The body’s also been swapped from alder to basswood.
Probably the biggest tonal contrast comes from the change in pickups. The Demmelition offered an EMG 81 and an EMG 60, two widely used pickups that have become iconic in the heavy metal genre. The newer PDXT, however, swaps them out to the passive EMG HZ pickups. Now comes the acidic topic of the HZs. For some the HZ pickups may be a bit controversial, but honestly I think they sound fine. Compared to other pickups I don’t really think good or bad, but rather just different. They’ve got a solid and deep sound, and along with the basswood body it’s a good setup for some head-banging heavy metal.
Or rather, perhaps a better way of putting it, for a guitar with a suggested retail price of $866.65 I’d say you’d be hard pressed to find a guitar with that much bang for buck. And for the aesthetically aware, the PDXT King V comes in two colors including black with silver bevels and red with black bevels.
For more info on the Phil Demmel PDXT King V you can swing by the proper page on Jackson’s web site.
