How did the love affair start for you?

[Bumblebee1]

I'm new to this forum, so please forgive me if this has been done before.

It all started for me when I saw Steve Vai in the movie "Crossroads" in about 1988. Within a year I had two Charvels (Japanese Model 3 and Model 5), in 1991 I bought a USA bolt-on Jackson, and in 1992 I bought a San Dimas (Strat headstock) Charvel. When I saw Vai in the guitar mags with his Green Meanie Charvel, I just HAD to get the San Dimas, but it was hard to get Strat headstock models in Australia -- still is.

Being in Australia, all that was readily available in the late 80s were the Japanese Charvels. A lot of people "bag" the Japanese models, but I loved the necks. Unfortunately I sold both the Model 3 and the Model 5.

Apart from the Vai thing, I've often wondered why I became a Charvel man and not a Kramer man.

[markD]

Re: How did the love affair start for you?

i bought a cheap model 1 and thought it kicked ass. i figured if a model 1 rocked then a real made in the USA guitar would kill. i was right and now that's what i play...but jacksons, not charvels.

[TheSteveMan]

Re: How did the love affair start for you?

There has been such a thread before I think, but no big deal [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
After I had been playing guitar for a year, I was in the market for a nicer guitar than what I had at the time.. I was browsing around guitar center and there was a trans green DR-3, and I totally dug it, had to have it! I got the axe... Sweet guitar! Unfortunately one day parted with it (because I ended up developing a distaste for rosewood fretboards, and also because I wasn't liking the trem on it so much)
But these days I have a half-Jackson and a Jackson Stars as my main axes, and I definitely plan to get more Jackson stuff when my budget and space allows!

[kmanick]

Re: How did the love affair start for you?

Back in the day (81-82) my best friend scored a Rising sun graphic strathead, maple neck Original Floyd, single hum and it was all over for me. Up to that point in my life it was the best playing ,sounding metal guitar I had ever played.

[STLKINGV]

Re: How did the love affair start for you?

Welcome to the JCF. [img]/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img]
It started for me in 1984 after I saw the Ratt "Round and Round" video.... At 17-yrs old I went out and sold vacuum sweepers door to door to afford J1370 King V. It's been a sickness that I've had for 20-years. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Adrian

[noodlesatf]

Re: How did the love affair start for you?

I had been playing for about six years, and I was definately a Strat and Les Paul man. I had a buddy with an import Rhoads that I just loved the neck and frets on. I started surfing E-bay, and wound up with a Model 5 that I still have. Needless to say, I only have one Les Paul and no Strats left, and a bunch of Jackson/Charvels hanging around. It's a disease, man... [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: How did the love affair start for you?

I saw the Jackson Zoraxe in the Nintendo Power magazine contest for the game "The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask" for Nintendo 64 way back when I was still playing acoustic guitar. My first Jackson sighting and it was an outrageous custom shop model, one of three ever made or some number like that. My first real Jackson sighting was probably Ratt's video "Lay It Down", where I had to learn Warren's solo for my guitar lesson that week.

I then checked out Jackson's website, joined the old EZBoard message board back when the Jackson site was still run by Kevin Easton, and it wasn't long before the forum switched to the UBB format. With that evolution came my interest in Jacksons and Charvels, and although I think they're cool, I am still not a 100% J/C man. I don't see the point in restricting myself to one company or one label when it doesn't offer me all that I would need for my ideal guitar collection.

My first Jackson was a 1996 KE3 Professional which to this day is still the best sounding guitar I owned. I sold that and got a 1998 Shannon Soloist, my first USA Jackson and probably my last too, unless I feel like ordering a custom in the future or start to hunt older Jacksons/Charvels, neither of which sound probable right now.

[jgcable]

Re: How did the love affair start for you?

Eddy Ojeda's pink and black bullseye did it for me.

[thetroy]

Re: How did the love affair start for you?

For some reason Guitar Center had a really low price on an SL3 (it must have been there a long time or something). I had only been screwing around with my no-name strat copy for like a month but I took the plunge and bought it. I started playing seriously the day I got that guitar, and here I am 6 months later as an infinitely better guitarist (not that I'm all that good, but compared to most other people at 6 months of playing I like to think I'm decent) and shopping around for a USA Jackson.

[mattsmusiccenter]

Re: How did the love affair start for you?

I was working in a guitar shop in 86 where a customer had traded in a Kramer Baretta. I liked it so I bought it off the wall at wholesale from the store owner for $200.00. A few months later Chuck (Bloodsplatter) came in, saw me playing it and asked me if I'd trade my Baretta for his black Jackson single hum, bolt on, maple board. I knew another guy that had a Jackson and it was the most rippin' guitar I had ever played, so I was like... uh, sure I 'll trade with you!

It ended up being my only guitar for 15 years and came with me when I was in Adam Bomb, when I went to GIT, when I auditioned for Dio... I did a ton of gigs and recording with that thing! I sold it back to Chuck a few years ago and he parted it out. By that point the only thing original on it was the body anyway but I wish I still had it!

[sully]

Re: How did the love affair start for you?

matt, that adam bomb story still kills me. i remember sending away for an adam bomb 45 of a song called "i want my heavy metal" and "SST"

sully

[guitarsjb]

Re: How did the love affair start for you?

For me, I used to be a Fender player...had a Strat Plus. Then I went through a phase of wanting a different guitar. So I bought an Ibanez RG350DX..didn't like it, sounded like crap. I got a BC Rich JRV..just didn't like it at all. Then, I got a Jackson RX10D, and everything about it felt right. Like I found an old friend...Then I got the RR5. Next is a RR1. I bought a Charvel 375 DLX, and it's a great guitar also. Now, I'm stuck on Jackson RR models. I love em. BTW..the Fender, Ibanez and BCR were sold long ago, as I never played any of them.

[Jim Shine]

Re: How did the love affair start for you?

When I started playing guitar, Jacksons were the hip guitar at the moment. They were selling for almost full price used as the only way to get them was finding one on the rack (rare) or ordering one and waiting a year plus for it. I finally got one used in the early 90's. I was heavy into Fender though. Had a Strat Plus and some vintage ones come and go. Loved it, sold it, missed it. I found the JCF when I bought an '85 piezo Bass neckthrough. I was given a cheap Soloist JB player knockoff at the time and really missed my real one, so I replaced it. I think I have replaced it 20 times over now.

[Inazone]

Re: How did the love affair start for you?

The first time I really noticed Jackson was because of a D'Addario bass string ad picturing David Ellefson playing his Jackson bass, right around the time Megadeth's Countdown to Extinction came out. I was playing bass at the time, and was a big Megadeth fan, but none of the local shops carried Jackson basses. Years later, when I was back to playing guitar, I bought a $200 JS1 Dinky import at Guitar Center and was totally hooked. I'd played in bands with guys that had Charvels, but I didn't know at the time that the two brands were essentially the same.

Years later, I own several Jackson guitars and a couple of Charvel basses. The only other brand to impress me as much has been Hamer, but since dropping the USA Californian, they hold no appeal for me.

[dinkyjacksonman]

Re: How did the love affair start for you?

When I first saw WASP's video in 84.
Then Ratt and Dio to follow right after.

Schenker made me to play guitar when I was 14 and bought a Gibson copy V and my first Jackson/Charvel copy model was a Fernandez's Robbin Crosby Firebird copy model(1hum White Firebird with Locking trem) in 86 or 87.
Then my real Charvel/Jackson was a Charvel Model 5 because I saw Scott Ian was playin a 1hum Soloist type guitar by ESP and wanted something similar and the model 5 was something very close to what he was using.