Guitaripedia

Every guitar has a story.

Jackson

Warrior

Four points, a neck straight through, and no polite angle anywhere. Some players see it once and that’s that.

A guitarist about to leave for Berklee gets a graduation present: a Ferrari Red USA Jackson Warrior, the whole family chipping in. He’d seen the shape once and thought, “That’s so badass.” Years later his name is on one.

Introduced
1989
Type
Solidbody electric
Class
Production
Read the story · 3 min

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Jackson Warrior solidbody electric with active Bartolini pickups, isolation
Photo: Styroks / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0Jackson Warrior isolation; pointed Warrior body and Bartolini actives visible.

The short version

  1. 1989

    Designed

    Jackson’s R&D debuts the Warrior as thrash runs into death metal. Two accounts credit Mikey Wright.

  2. 1990

    In the catalog

    The first Warrior, with an angled fretboard and angled rail pickups.

  3. 1991

    Dropped

    One account says it didn’t sell and went in 1991. Another has it running to 1992.

  4. 2001

    Back, straightened out

    The Warrior returns with a straight board and two humbuckers.

  5. 2005

    Ben Varon’s first

    A Ferrari Red WR1, the start of fifteen years and seven or eight Warriors.

  6. 2008

    Antithesis

    Origin’s record, which Paul Ryan says his Warrior “Action Jackson” appeared on.

  7. 2016

    A signature, with seven strings

    Dave Davidson’s Warrior is the only 7-string Warrior in Jackson’s lineup.

Side A

A1

That’s so badass

A young guitarist is about to leave for Berklee, and his family has chipped in on a graduation present: a Ferrari Red USA Jackson Warrior. Dave Davidson tells it simply: “My parents bought me a Ferrari Red Warrior.”

Why that one? Not because of a record, or a hero, or a spec sheet.

“The Warrior just caught my eye the first time I saw it. I just thought, ‘That’s so badass.’”

That’s the Warrior. Nobody ends up with one by accident.

A2

The shape that was left

By the end of the 1980s Jackson had used up most of the obvious ways to sharpen a guitar. Randy Rhoads’s offset V was the brand. The Kelly was the pointed offset with the long lower horn. The King V had two equal points. The Soloist was the neck-through superstrat. What was left was an X.

As thrash ran into death metal, Jackson’s R&D debuted the Warrior in 1989, and one history called it “a specialist’s instrument.” Jackson’s own history page goes further: “the most outlandish body design.” Four points on the body, plus the pointed six-in-line headstock the whole brand already wore. One telling has the body as four Jackson headstocks laid over each other. Another repeats it with an “apparently” in front. Take the “apparently” seriously.

The design credit goes to Mikey Wright, Jackson’s R&D manager, by a Jackson Custom Shop master builder’s account. That same builder dates it to the 1990 catalog. Another telling has it designed in 1989 and built from 1990. Both fit.

A3

Slanted, then straightened

The first Warrior is not the one you’d buy today. By the builder’s account it had an angled fretboard, angled rail pickups, and a short 24.75-inch scale. Other catalog readings put the Japanese Warrior Pro at 25.5 inches, with a midrange sweep knob in the circuit. One book calls the pickups single coils; another calls them rail humbuckers. Keep all of it. Two scale lengths, two pickup stories, one very strange guitar.

It didn’t last. One telling has it dropped in 1991 because it didn’t sell. Other dates run to 1992. Either way, the Warrior went quiet for most of a decade.

It came back in 2001, and this time it was straight: a straight board, two humbuckers, no sweep knob. That’s the Warrior people mean now. A year later Fender bought Jackson.

Flip the record · By the numbers

  • 4

    Points on the body, before you count the pointed headstock.

  • 24.75" / 25.5"

    The first Warrior’s scale, depending on who you ask. Today’s is 25.5".

  • 1989–90

    Designed in one year, in the catalog the next.

  • 2001

    The year it came back, after most of a decade away.

Side B

B1

Not the Star

Here’s where people mix things up. Gus G’s signature Jackson is the Star, a shape that dates back to 1979, when the Charvel name was still on the door. It’s more curved. The Warrior is all corners. They sit next to each other in some shop write-ups, and they aren’t the same guitar.

The Warrior isn’t a Rhoads, a Kelly, or a King V either. Same factory, same headstock, same habit of running the neck straight through. Different outline.

B2

Weapons of choice

The people who play Warriors tend to stay. Ben Varon of Amoral got his endorsement in 2005, tried the Warrior before he bought it, and kept that Ferrari Red WR1 as “my first (and dearest).” Seven or eight Warriors since, custom shops and Japanese models among them. In 2021 he called it “my weapon of choice for the past 15 years or so.”

Paul Ryan of Origin left Dinkies for the Warrior shape and ended up with five, all of them, as he describes them, Japanese. His road guitar, a bolt-on he calls “Action Jackson” and dates to about 2007, “appeared on Echoes and Antithesis.” Antithesis came out in 2008. Echoes of Decimation came out in 2005, which is before he says the guitar existed. He said it anyway. Put on Antithesis.

B3

The only one he wanted

Davidson never pinned a Revocation album to that red graduation guitar. What he did was keep the shape. When Jackson gave him a signature, it was a Warrior with seven strings, and in 2016 he called it the only 7-string Warrior in the lineup.

On tour in 2018 he was playing a Custom Shop prototype and a Pro Series 7, both Warriors. He went with the standard Jackson headstock, because “with the warrior just how the angles are moving” he liked it better. He’d clearly thought about how the points line up.

You can buy a new Warrior tomorrow, in several versions. Jackson doesn’t say how many it’s made. It doesn’t need to. The ones that matter were bought by people who saw it once.

Put this on

You’ve read about it. Now hear it. Here’s what this guitar sounds like, and what to listen for.

  1. Origin · 2008

    Antithesis

    Paul Ryan says his Japanese bolt-on Warrior, “Action Jackson,” appeared on this record. He dates the guitar to about 2007, so this is the one to hear it on.

    Find it on YouTube

  2. Revocation · 2018

    Dave Davidson backstage, The Outer Ones tour

    Filmed 16 November 2018. Davidson plays his Warrior 7-strings, a Custom Shop prototype and the Pro Series model, and explains why he prefers a standard headstock on this body.

    Watch it on YouTube

The cast

The people, and the specific guitars, that made the legend.

  • 2016

    Dave Davidson

    Ferrari Red USA Warrior, then signature Warrior 7-strings

    Revocation. The six-string was a graduation present before Berklee. His signature Warriors are 7-strings. No Revocation album is pinned to the red one.

  • 2005

    Ben Varon

    2005 Ferrari Red WR1

    Amoral, later Oceanhoarse. Endorsed in 2005, tried the Warrior before he bought it, and has had seven or eight since. Calls the 2005 WR1 “my first (and dearest).”

  • 2007

    Paul Ryan

    Japanese bolt-on Warrior, “Action Jackson”

    Origin. Left Dinkies for the Warrior. He credits Action Jackson on Antithesis, and thinks another, “Luscious,” did Entity.

Liner notes

Specs, construction, rarity, value, and every source we used.

Four points on an X, neck through the middle — Jackson’s Warrior, not a Rhoads, and not the Star.

Body
Poplar; X-shaped Warrior
Neck
Neck-through maple with graphite reinforcement and scarf joint; satin color-matched
Fingerboard
Bound laurel, pearloid sharkfins, 24 jumbo, 12"–16" compound (304.8 mm to 406.4 mm)
Scale
25.5" (64.77 cm). Mix flagged.
Pickups
Jackson high-output humbuckers, HH
Hardware
Floyd Rose Special double-locking trem (recessed); Jackson sealed die-cast; pointed 6-in-line; black
Electronics
Volume, tone, 3-way toggle
Finish
Satin Black
Nut
Floyd Rose Special locking, 1.6875" (42.86 mm)
Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

Current typical = X Series Warrior WRX24 (jackson.com, 1 October 2026). Catalog $799.99. Living non-signature neck-through Warrior — not JS bolt-on, not a 7-string signature, not leftover USA Select WR1, not the 1990 slanted original. Factory scale: 25.5" (64.77 cm). Radius and nut also print millimetres. The French product page prints 25.5" (648 mm). A Reverb dealer paste of the same SKU prints country ID. Mix flagged. Do not average 64.77 cm with 648 mm. WRX24M is the maple-board sibling on this plate, $749.99, Racing Red, not a second slug. JS32 is the bolt-on volume sibling. No American Series Warrior this pass.

Construction

The V was already taken. Randy’s offset was the brand. Kelly was the pointed Explorer-ish offset. King V was both horns equal. Soloist was the neck-through superstrat. The job left was an X.

Guitar World (Jonathan Horsley, 22 December 2020): as thrash ran into death metal, Jackson’s R&D debuted the Warrior in 1989, “a specialist’s instrument — metal or GTFO — and another neck-through.” Jackson’s own history page files it later in that decade, “the most outlandish body design,” X-shaped, after Kelly, King V, Soloist, Dinky, and Concert Bass. This plate starts in 1989.

Who drew it is not on that history page. Custom Shop master builder Joe Williams (Instagram, 18 May 2022): designed by R&D manager Mikey Wright; first appeared in the 1990 catalog. Mark Murray (GuitarGuts, 13 May 2025) tells the same name, designed 1989, into production 1990. Keep both years. No factory drawing in hand names Wright. The catalog date is Williams’s.

The outline is four body points, plus the pointed six-in-line the whole brand already used. Murray: the body is four Jackson headstocks laid over each other. guitarguitar (Ray, 26 August 2026): “apparently, each ‘section’ of the Warrior body is made to resemble the Jackson headstock.” Same claim, two tellings. Not a template in this file.

Not a Rhoads. Rhoads is the offset V — one horn long, one short, jackson-rhoads. Not a Kelly. Kelly is the pointed offset with a long lower horn, jackson-kelly. Not a King V. King V is two equal points, jackson-king-v. Not a Soloist. Soloist is the 1984 neck-through superstrat, jackson-soloist. Same factory, same pointed six-in-line, same neck-through habit on the USA and X guitars. Different outline. Do not hang a V, an offset, or a double-cut on this plate.

Not the Star, and not Gus G. Wikipedia’s 2021 model list prints Star and Warrior as separate names. Horsley: the Star dates to 1979, Charvel still on the door, and it is Gus G’s signature. guitarguitar (Ray, 26 August 2026) puts Gus G in a “Warrior/Star” section, then says the Star is the more curved one and the Warrior a stylised take on it. The Star, he writes, is “somewhat based” on a guitar Eddie Van Halen made at home. That chain is Ray’s. The mash is handing Gus G this X. Ultimate Guitar (19 May 2026): his Jackson signature is the Star. No Gibson SKU. An Explorer is not this outline.

The first Warrior is not the table above. Williams: 24.75" scale, angled fretboard, angled-rail pickups, offered only two years, back in the line in 2001. Blue Book cards the same recipe twice and does not print a scale. Warrior Pro: poplar, maple through, 24-fret bound ebony, pearl sharkfins, double-locking vibrato, Gotoh, three “single coil” Jackson pickups, volume, tone, 5-position and a midrange sweep; finishes Candy Blue, Ferrari Red, Midnight Black, Pearl Yellow, Snow White Pearl; mfg. 1991 only. Warrior USA: that same paragraph, “circa mid- to late 1980s.” Axebition’s Warrior Pro card does not agree: Japan, Chushin Gakki, 1990 to 1992, 25.5" (648 mm), three single-coil-sized rail humbuckers (Jackson J-200R), JE-1500 midrange sweep, neck-through. Murray says it did not sell and was dropped in 1991. Keep 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, and 2001. Do not average 24.75" with 25.5". Do not decide “single coil” against rail humbucker. A Reverb seller’s “short scale 24.75"” line is the listing repeating Williams’s claim, not a measurement made here.

The 2001 return is the guitar people mean now. Straight board. Two humbuckers. No sweep knob. Blue Book’s later cards are other factories on the silhouette: WRXT from 2002, bolt-on, Japan in that card; WRMG, Japan bolt-on with EMGs; JS30WR, India bolt-on from 2004. Not a second slug.

USA Select WR1 was the long American flagship: alder, maple neck-through, ebony, sharkfins, Floyd, two Seymour Duncans, volume, tone, 3-way. Spain’s jackson.com page still specifies Invader SH-8 bridge and Full Shred SH-10 neck, 25.5" (648 mm), €4,599. Do not convert that. Blue Book still says “current mfg.” The US collection on 1 October 2026 does not list it. Sweetwater still takes a backorder. Leftover USA, not the living cart, and not a 1990 slanted Pro.

Fender bought Jackson in 2002 (Horsley; Wikipedia). A Reverb spec paste for the WRX24 prints country ID. Not the Chushin Pro.

Classic versus current: a 1990 catalog Warrior — Williams’s 24.75", angled board, angled rails, a sweep in the circuit — against the living WRX24: poplar, 24 jumbo, laurel, Floyd Special, Jackson humbuckers, 25.5" (64.77 cm), no slant. JS32 is bolt-on poplar, amaranth, a Jackson-licensed Floyd, the same scale line. JS32T is the hardtail: the product copy says nato; the variant says okoume. Do not average. Dave Davidson’s living signatures are 7-strings on this outline. Pro Plus WR1A is one Fishman Fluence Modern and a Floyd 1000, sold out. Neither is this table.

Players

Do not recruit a Rhoads, a Kelly, a King V, or a Soloist onto this X. Marty Friedman is jackson-kelly. Dave Mustaine is jackson-king-v. Phil Collen is a Soloist. Gus G is the Star. Guitar World (23 August 2024) has Jim Root’s early EMG guitar as a Jackson Dinky, not a Warrior. Do not hang one on Iowa.

Dave Davidson (Revocation). The guitar this plate is known for now. Jackson’s blog (18 June 2020): “My parents bought me a Ferrari Red Warrior.” “The Warrior just caught my eye the first time I saw it. I just thought, ‘That’s so badass.’” Jackson’s video (18 November 2016): graduation present before Berklee, a Ferrari Red USA Warrior, the family chipped in. He does not pin a Revocation album to that 6-string. The signature that followed is a 7. In that 2016 video he calls it the only 7-string Warrior in the lineup. It is not the only one in 2026. On the The Outer Ones tour stop filmed 16 November 2018 he is playing a Custom Shop prototype and the Pro Series 7, swamp ash, DiMarzio Imperiums, standard Jackson headstock because “with the warrior just how the angles are moving I prefer” it. Those are 7s. Not the WRX24.

Ben Varon (Amoral / Oceanhoarse). His own video (6 April 2021): “the Jackson Warrior, my weapon of choice for the past 15 years or so.” Endorsement in 2005. He tried it before he bought it and kept the 2005 Ferrari Red WR1 as “my first (and dearest).” Seven or eight Warriors since, “a bunch of custom shops, some Japanese models.” No album-to-guitar credit in that video. The 2005 WR1 is the named object.

Paul Ryan (Origin). Rig Chat (4 February 2022): he left Dinkies for the Warrior shape; five of them, all the ones he describes as Japanese; the road guitar, “Action Jackson,” a bolt-on he dates about 2007, alder, “appeared on Echoes and Antithesis.” He thinks another, “Luscious,” did Entity. Keep the “I think.” Echoes of Decimation is 2005. Antithesis is 1 April 2008. Entity is 2011 (Wikipedia’s Antithesis page). A guitar he dates to 2007 cannot be the 2005 record. He said it anyway. Do not move Echoes onto a Warrior he did not name.

Rarity

You can buy a new Warrior tomorrow. JS and X are regular production. Jackson does not publish yearly Warrior totals. None invented.

The first run is the thin part, and it still has no count. Williams: two catalog years, then a gap until 2001. Murray: dropped in 1991 because it did not sell — narration, not a sales sheet. Blue Book: Pro, 1991 only. Axebition: 1990–1992. One ended Reverb listing prints U00792 on a guitar the seller calls a 1990 Ontario Warrior. One guitar. Not a census.

USA Select WR1 is off the US collection and still on dealer backorder lists. Blue Book’s “current” is the book lagging the cart. Davidson’s Ferrari Red and Varon’s 2005 WR1 are unique. They are not a vintage Warrior. A Star is a different body.

Value

Informal estimate, 1 October 2026. Not an appraisal.

Ask versus sold labeled. Celebrity lots are not comps. No invented medians or factory counts. A clean Reverb Price Guide dollar band for WRX24 or WRX24M did not print in the static fetch this pass.

New street. Living non-signature neck-through X Series WRX24: $799.99 (jackson.com collection feed, 1 October 2026; the feed marks it available). Maple-board WRX24M: $749.99. JS32 bolt-on: Satin Black $449.99, Snow White $469.99, Black with White Bevels $549.99. The Satin Black HTML also stamps “18% Off” and a sold-out badge on that same $449.99; compare-at equals the price. No higher regular was on the feed. Hardtail JS32T: $429.99. JS is bolt-on import street, not this table.

Signatures and the limited, same pass, not the table. Pro Dave Davidson WR7 E (Racing Red, ebony, 26.5" / 673 mm) $1,499.99. Pro WR7 MAH MPL (Racing Yellow, maple board) $1,499.99. Music Instrument News (2 April 2025) printed the MPL at $1,399.99. That is a launch figure. Do not average it with the October cart. Older Pro WR7 (distressed ash) and WR7 MAH (mahogany, 25.5") sit at $1,449.99, unavailable. Do not average 25.5" with 26.5". Pro Plus Pure Metal WR1A: $1,469.99, sold out.

USA Select WR1 is not on the US collection. Sweetwater’s product page lists Snow White at $4,749.99 on backorder. The reviews URL for that same item prints $4,599.99. Adorama prints $4,599.99. Do not average. Spain’s €4,599 stays in euros.

Used modern. One named sale, not a series: Sweetwater Gear Exchange, a modified Gloss Black USA Select (FU-Tone hardware, Seymour Duncan Jupiter rails), sold 11 January 2026 at $3,150 (asked $3,500). Modified. Not a stock WR1, and not an X. No clean 2025–26 sold sample for WRX24, WRX24M, or JS32 isolated here. Don’t invent a midpoint.

Vintage / collectible. No clean 1990–91 hammer isolated this pass. Named ended asks, not hammers, and not a set to average: a 1991 USA Warrior $1,600 (listing ended; listed about eleven years ago); a 1990 Japan Professional $4,899.11 (ended; listed about seven years ago); 1990 Ontario U00792 $3,566.52 (ended; listed about two years ago). Flag: thin sold-comp access. A 2025 Custom Shop dealer-event ask of $5,499.99, and another shop listing at $4,999 that says “only 5 of each,” are new custom asks. The “5” is that listing. Not a factory total, and not a 1990 comp. Davidson’s graduation guitar and Varon’s 2005 WR1 have no dollar here. They are not comps.

See also

  • jackson-rhoads — the offset V that started the brand; not this X
  • jackson-kelly — pointed offset; Friedman’s guitar, not a Warrior
  • jackson-king-v — symmetrical V; Mustaine, not four body points

Sources

Guitars this one gets compared to, confused with, or descended from.