I have purchased this guitar after Jackson delivered to me a JS22 in unusable out-of-the-box condition. Since I was offered a heavy discount from Jackson (40% off retail in total) I feel like it’s okay to compare those two guitars in this case (keeping in mind that my JS22 unit had some serious QC issues).
R-446 have better:
- paint job
- body shape and finish
- neck finish and fitment in the neck pocket
- fingerboard finish
- better finished fret ends, less sharp ones than in JS22
- much better headstock finish and truss rod cavity
- better nut (still not as good as GraphTec though)
- setup out of the box, much lower action and saddles height, correct intonation (my JS22 came with 3mm action height, wrong saddles height, messed up intonation)
JS22 had better:
- beautifully polished frets
- much slimmer neck, compound radius fingerboard
- much better sounding pickups
- better electronics
- proper jumbo frets (the ones on the R-446 are just slightly larger than the normal ones)
The JS22 is much lighter than R-446. I actually prefer the heavier weight of R-446, it’s easier to hold and handle than the JS22, which at times felt like a toy due to its compactness and weight.
Overall I would recommend R-446 over budget Jackson JS range, even though it lacks the compound radius neck and the pickups are mediocre at best, for that price it’s probably one of better guitars for the beginners, especially considering that it was set up correctly and ready to play straight away.
