If Randy were alive today?

[eakinj]

So, had Randy not died in a plain crash and had become a Gibson endorser later on down the road, would the rhoads model be discontinued because it's an artist similar?

[MetalHeadMat]

If he became a Gibson endorser then ya, but I highly doubt he would've.

[Grandturk]

Nah - he'd be playing Jackson... no ESP... no Dean...

[Newc]

Actually he did say in his last interviews that he was thinking of getting out of Rock once the next album was finished and going on to more in-depth Classical studies.

Given his reported passion for music, I have no doubt he would have stayed with Classical, possibly even helping to revive general interest in it, but either way I have no doubt he would've left rock and roll behind completely.

And I doubt Jackson would drop the very model that put them on the map to begin with.


Now, the real question is: Had Grover taken the chance and put a Charvel logo on it, would the Rhoads model even exist? Remember, after his death, there was not another one built until the 83 NAMM show - so that means the NAMM Rhoads' were built sometime between October and November of 1982 - 7-8 months later.

[bombtek]

If Randy were alive today, that would mean it is still 1982 and I would only be 12!!!!

That would be AWSESOME!!!

[Spivonious]

If it was still 1982, I'd only be a couple of months old!

[StukaJU87]

If Randy were alive today, that would mean it is still 1982 and I would only be 12!!!!

That would be AWSESOME!!!

If it was still 1982, I'd only be a couple of months old!

If it were still 1982, I'd be graduating high school in a couple weeks.

[sixx_ gunner]

this is a good post.

even if he did walk away from rock n roll, how much more of an impact would he made?
I'm just getting going with learning so I can't yet appreciate what he brought to the table.
Ozzy has had some amazing guitarists, namely Brad Gillis, that have kinda faded into obscurity. I saw Nightranger at a Rib Fest in Canton a few yrs back and he was wailing, but nobody is talking nuch about him.

[eakinj]

I'm just curious because that guitar is what created jackson, how do you discontinue "the bloodline" as it were. Would they have just renamed it, or would Randy have been able to sign off saying "Sure keep making it as this model" or something else.

When I think Jackson I think Rhoads. King's V and the Kelly but it's always Rhoads first.

I wonder how that would have changed Jackson.

[roodyrocker]

Thats thing, you just don't know what would have happened. Maybe he would have persued classical and stuck with it, maybe he would have gone on to other forms, maybe he would have got the itch to go back to Rock, or maybe he'd be on the Ozzy 30th anniversary tour soon. I'd like to think that he'd be at the Jackson booth at Winter NAMM each year graciously saying thank you to people like me as we meet him there and tell him just how incredible his guitar work was on the last album and what an inspiration to the rest of us he is

[Rupe]

Much like none of us can say what he would have done (all we know is that he planned to leave Ozzy to pursue Classical Guitar...no telling where that may have ultimately taken him), we can't say what type of business arrangements would be made either.

The Rhoads Model was made possible postumously by an agreement with Randy's estate. Had he lived, we have no idea who would have retained ownership of the design and what it would be called (Randy wanted it to be the Concorde), or if Randy would have comtinued playing that design for any length of time. Seeing as he did the bulk of his recording and performing with the Les Paul, it's not unrealistic to consider that he may have eventually endorsed Gibson...but we'll never know.

[Tekky]

Randy's original "Concorde" has some pretty noticable differences from the Rhoads models we know today, doesn't it?

**forgive me if I'm wrong, I am not a Rhoads player. I have one but I rarely play it.

[AK47]

Just like Cliff Burton would have left to do other projects.

[Newc]

Yes, the Concorde definitely has a different design, not only the body and headstock, but the body/fretboard connection.

I've always thought the Concorde was a morphed Les Paul - like you take a Les Paul and destabilize its molecules to the point that the body becomes malleable and you push and tug and shape it - look at how far the fretboard extends into the body, the location of the toggle, the white body with multi-layered pinstriping - it looks like it could lay on top of a LP Custom and everything would line up.

However, the PCS came next, which was a design revision that's closer to the current/final design. It's been said they were discussing one more revision before his death, but no wood had been cut, it was merely discussed. How much was discussed, no one knows, but logic would dictate Randy would defer to the experience of a luthier for the final design to be both playable and radical, and we'd end up with the design we have today.


Had he stuck around Ozzy long enough to see Danny Spitz's XTRR, maybe he would have switched to that model? Weren't they both about the same height?

[Grandturk]

I think he probably would have stayed with Ozzy until the relationship stopped working - and it would have eventually - especially around that time. I doubt he would have really gone classical. He was probably just saying that to try and lend credibility to what he was doing with Ozzy.