Influences

[DK2M92]

What or who made you pick up a Jackson or a Charvel?? For me it was Dave Mustaine, and his original 86' Custom King V w/ the Kahler trem.

[eakinj]

I think it might have been Vinnie in the Lick it up video. I saw that weird offset V and wanted one from that day forward. That V turned out to be the Rhoads model. The sad part about it was I didn't even hear a song with Randy on it until the tribute album came out. So I fell in love with his guitar long before I had any idea who he actually was.

[EvileMatt]

I played a performer kelly in my local music shop GTR in Huddersfield in 1999, the feel of the neck had me hooked. Until then i had my first guitar, some bizarre dark blue strat copy with a custom humbucker shoved in it, it was great, it had no serial number, no markings whatsoever. When i played the jackson kelly it made me feel like an actual guitarist, the neck was unbelievable. Thats the main reason why i play jackson, the necks.

and they look fucking COOL.

[Super_shredder]

randy

[damagedjustice93]

Adrian Smith from Iron Maiden. i remember watching footage from the VHS Maiden England on youtube and i loved the guitar he had, which is now is signature model

[toejam]

Scott Ian's RR. Though, the first Jackson I got was a Kelly Standard in the early '90s.

[Mr.Shreddy]

Jake E. Lee and Chris Holmes

[Confuse-a-Cat]

It's interesting that everybody says that they were influenced by famous guitarists playing Jacksons, because I wasn't. I hadn't really looked into Jacksons at all, then a friend of mine bought an RR24, and I thought "Hey, that's a pretty cool guitar" and looked into them. Then a year and a half later I bought my first Jackson, my white DK2M.

That same friend who made me look into Jacksons in the first place loved my DK2M so much that he went out and bought one himself a couple of months later, even in the same colour as mine. We meant to get some photos of the two of us brandishing identical, awesome looking guitars but we haven't gotten around to it yet.

[Tommie]

I think it might have been Vinnie in the Lick it up video. I saw that weird offset V and wanted one from that day forward. That V turned out to be the Rhoads model. The sad part about it was I didn't even hear a song with Randy on it until the tribute album came out. So I fell in love with his guitar long before I had any idea who he actually was.

VV for me too, although not on video, it was a live show - Lick it Up tour. I brought home the tour programme and puzzled over his guitar for months before I saw one in a magazine and learned in was a Jackson. Then it took about 3 or 4 years for them to be available in UK without a Kahler! We couldn't get them with a Floyd until the JT6 came out.

[Robert Hendrix]

Just about everybody I was listening to at the time was playing, and in some cases endorsing either Jackson or Charvel.
Jake E Lee
Vinnie Vincent
Mark St. John
Amir Dirkah (or however the hell is name is spelled)
Chris Holmes
Warren Demartini
The list goes on....

[Musician78]

For me, the first time I ever saw a Jackson was in the booklet for Iron Maiden's A Real Live One, and seeing the guitarist with his Jackson Strat. I didn't know much about guitars then, but knew that everyone had a Fender Strat... and I have never been a crowd follower. I knew I wanted one.

Then I got into Megadeth and knew I had to have one. Eventually I did.

[FunkyApocalypse]

I saw an RR3 at GC once, played it, fell in love.

[Giant]

i saw an old video of Kirk Hammett playin one of the Vs and the headstock hooked me. silly i know, but what can ya do? i traded some other guitar for a performer and have been happy ever since.

[Spivonious]

Definitey Mustaine here. My first Jackson was a King V Std.

[fullmetalguitar]

The one that put me over the edge was Phil Collen when he started playing Jacksons with the release of Hysteria. In the first video for that album, Women, he played a cool silver/black Jackson with a Kahler. That was it for me.