Kelly designer passes away.

[Burger666]

This info also:

http://au.geocities.com/heavenaustralia/HEAVEN/Kelly.html

[RacerX]

That was fascinating!

[m2pmd70]

Crazy that such a talented guy can just disappear like that. RIP Mr. Kelly, and thanks for the sweet guitars.

[Burger666]

Thanks to Rich at the Kelly Cult website, the audio from the above interview can now be heard here - http://homepage.ntlworld.com/richand...lyBradford.mp3

Cheers,

Brett Kingman

[guitarzan2]

Wow, very cool.

And now for the rest of the story:

Back about 9 or so years ago when Rob Lane's site was the hangout for the few Jacksonheads, somebody posted up on the Forum about a black Kelly at a music store in Australia. There were pics of the guitar on the music stores website. Curt D. must have been the first person to see the post. He contacted the store in Australia and found that yes, it was the original J0029 Kelly. Curt bought it and brought it back to California. Curt posted up pics and I remember the Yamaha Floyd Rose. I do not remember though anything being posted about he neck being f'd up. Curt held onto it for a bit and eventually sold it to Rob W. and Jacksonmuseum.com.

[Hellraiser6502]

Wow, very cool.

And now for the rest of the story:

Back about 9 or so years ago when Rob Lane's site was the hangout for the few Jacksonheads, somebody posted up on the Forum about a black Kelly at a music store in Australia. There were pics of the guitar on the music stores website. Curt D. must have been the first person to see the post. He contacted the store in Australia and found that yes, it was the original J0029 Kelly. Curt bought it and brought it back to California. Curt posted up pics and I remember the Yamaha Floyd Rose. I do not remember though anything being posted about he neck being f'd up. Curt held onto it for a bit and eventually sold it to Rob W. and Jacksonmuseum.com.

That's pretty accurate, but not quite the full story. At the time, yes, I was the first (but certainly not the ONLY!!) to get in touch with the store in Australia (GuitarCrazy) and bought the guitar within 3 minutes after asking the owner for a hands on inspection over the phone.

The next day I called the store back to ask him a couple of further questions and he told me he had been contacted by lots of people regarding the guitar including one VERY persistent well known European collector...who said to him 'Well, if the deal 'falls through' I'll give you twice what he was paying you if you call me back first'...a thinly veiled attempt to get him to reneg on the deal and sell to him instead...the store owner told me as much on the phone.

The store owner was true to his word and assured me that, although he had probably underestimated the guitars' value and could easily cash in with the other offer, the guitar was paid for and we had a deal. I paid him $1430 US including overnight shipping to the US from AUSTRALIA! A great deal for sure.

At the time it was not known what the original factory bridge configuration was....from the pics I assumed it was a factory Floyd. It was impossible to tell from the pics and his description that the Floyd was a Yamaha Floyd, which does not match regular Floyd post spacing and was a total piece of crap. In addition the routing job was pretty poor.

The neck had NO issues that I could see and was straight with no fretting out or dead spots. It was strikingly narrow at the nut.....reminded me of a violin or something similar.

When I opened the box at the LAX cargo terminal...in the parking lot actually!! I was depressed that it had been modded but still a great deal for a special piece of Jackson history.

I kept it for at least a year IIRC. It played great and sounded great but I couldn't get past the hack job mod with the Yamaha Floyd so the well known European collector & I eventually made a mutually beneficial trade deal. From what I understand he had the guitar sent back to GMW to be re-topped, refinned and restored with the original bridge configuration....a Schaller fine tuneable. If the guitar had been original and un-modded I would have never let it go. I don't regret trading it. The guitars I got in trade, I still have and still love.

Very sad story about Brad Kelly. He should have been compensated...If he had pursued it with a good attorney, he surely would have been.

[shreddermon]

From what I understand he had the guitar sent back to GMW to be re-topped, refinned and restored with the original bridge configuration....a Schaller fine tuneable.

Interesting. So this is where the bridge spec for the 25th came from, then? I always thought that bridge was a weird choice for that run before, as I couldn't ever remember seeing another Kelly with it.

[Hellraiser6502]

YEs

Yes, limited run 25th Kelly's were exact copies of J0029 as originally built.

From the pics I've seen Jackson really paid attention to detail on those....the bevels were much sharper (i.e. they were steeper in angle) on J0029 than usual kellys and the pinstripe was also unique.

I've never played one and I've always wondered if they duplicated the narrow neck width at the nut.

Anybody got one of those that can say?

[shreddermon]

I think the official specs for the 25ths listed 1 & 11/16ths for the nut, so doubtful.

[guitarzan2]

Very sad story about Brad Kelly. He should have been compensated...If he had pursued it with a good attorney, he surely would have been.

I guess that puts Bradford Kelly in the same boat as Robin Crosby. Two guys who designed the guitars, got them personally from Grover, played them live and on records and whom never got any financial compensation for what they created. The Kelly got named after Bradford and the King V got the "King" part from Robin King Crosby.

Additionally, both guitars got downsized twice each into what I like to call the current Dinky Kelly and Dinky V. And lastly, both creators are no longer with us.

How's that for a parallel universe?

[RacerX]

...as is Randy Rhoads, designer of the Rhoads. Is there a Jackson designer curse?

Should Mikey Wright be looking over his shoulder?

[guitarzan2]

...as is Randy Rhoads, designer of the Rhoads. Is there a Jackson designer curse?

Should Mikey Wright be looking over his shoulder?

Amir Derak ?
Phil Collen ?
Scott Ian ?

At least Jackson still gives credit to Randy today. Actually, still pimps Randys name and pictures as much as possible, even recreating the LTD guitars they said they would never do again.

Have you ever seen a pic of Bradford Kelly in a Jackson catalog or advertisement? Ever seen Robin Crosby in a Jackson catalog in the past 20 years?

[Sunbane]

I guess that puts Bradford Kelly in the same boat as Robin Crosby. Two guys who designed the guitars...

Except that I've read someplace (Witte's site?) that Robin didn't design the guitar that later bore his name - he just made it famous. According to that source, the "double Rhoads" (the original "KV") was credited to Dave Linsk (later with Overkill).

[Firebird V]

RIP BK. I always loved that shape and have owned 3 USA moels in the past.

[RockTheBoy]

kelly is my favorite guitar body shape.thanks for interivew man.

Rip B.Kelly