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“This is a first-edition Jackson USA Juggernaut HT7,” explains Periphery’s Misha Mansoor as he plays his rare Silver Burst signature model with a fingerboard inlay by Fender Master Builder Ron Thorn. “And it’s a guitar I thought I would never see again.”
Why? Well, it all started out with a kindness. Mansoor “indefinitely” loaned the guitar to a friend, expecting it to be returned at some point.
That didn’t happen.
The “friend” apparently lost or sold the guitar, starting it on a journey that ended up at a Guitar Center in Florida.
“I was pretty bummed out when I discovered my buddy no longer had the guitar,” says Mansoor. “So much for that friend. Then, I was on tour, doomscrolling in my bunk, and I got a targeted ad from Guitar Center showing a picture of this guitar. It’s very unique—there is only one guitar in the world that looks like this. I clicked on the ad and saw it was in a Guitar Center in Florida. I was like, ‘Hey—that’s my guitar.’”
Next, Mansoor contacted a friend who works at Guitar Center Hollywood to see if he could somehow arrange the guitar’s return. The conclusion of the story was a happy one.
“Guitar Center very kindly reunited me with this guitar,” he says.
Mansoor considers the first-edition Jackson USA Juggernaut HT7 as a very special model with a lot of history and incredible mojo.
You can hear why in the video, as Mansoor plays a selection of chunky, aggro riffs and even some gorgeous, reverb-drenched clean licks. Part of the tonal recipe is due to the Juggernaut’s prototype set of Bare Knuckle Ragnarok pickups, which Mansoor says determined the architecture of future Ragnarok models.
“We designed the Ragnarok pickups in this guitar,” he explains. “So, the guitar and pickups all work as one cohesive package. I think it’s surprising that, although I wanted the Ragnaroks to be super aggressive, they also work really well for clean tones.”
Happily, this story of creation, loss and recovery begins and ends with this final “episode.” It doesn’t appear Mansoor will be lending the Juggernaut HT7 to any more friends or even taking it out on the road.
“This is now relegated to being a ‘studio only’ guitar,” he promises.