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By 1989 the Jackson Guitar company was the foremost producer of the world’s most wanted guitars. Drastic and unparalleled, the Jackson superstrats were mimicked by every guitar manufacturer, including B.C. Rich, Kramer Gibson, Fender and Ibanez.

The original founder of the Jackson company – Grover Jackson – wasn’t the designer of the Warrior guitar, having left his company in 1989. Instead it was an R&D designer named Mikey Wright who produced the new guitar. It was a design that was a drastic change from Jackson’s superstart design. This was a risk when you consider that the superstart had taken the world by storm during the 1980s and put the company into the guitar hall of fame.

Released to the public in 1990, the Warrior was a markedly different design to the Jackson’s previous Dinky and Soloist designs. Instead, this guitar was obnoxious and aggressive – in no way pretty. It had 5 points that stood out and was very much the heavy metal’s guitar.

There were two types of Warrior produced. Both the Warrior and Warrior Pro were the same except that the Pro was made in Japan and the plain Warrior was produced in America.

Jackson offered the following paint colors on the Pro models: Snow White Pearl, Ferrari Red, Pearl Yellow, Candy Blue and Midnight Black. The USA models offered a bigger options base: Fire Crackle, Snow White, Candy Red, Metallic Black, Eerie Dess Swirl, Pearl Yellow, Pearl White, Midnight Black, Tie Die, Metallic Electric Blue and Ferrari Red.

Ten years after the last Warrior was made, Jackson decided to release a new version of the guitar in 2001. They currently retail for around $1,200.

The new American made Warrior comes with Floyd Rose tremolos and Duncan pickups but no longer has the active circuitry, slanted pick up and slanted fingerboard of the previous Warrior. The models built overseas are bolt designs coming with all sorts of pick ups that Jackson makes. These overseas design retail for about $400.

These new Warrior are of excellent quality. Even though there has been some small changes to the original design, the US models are competitive with the original Warrior models.