Influences

[mr426]

Good question here.I don't know who I saw first with one. I know VV had to be one of the first in 1983 on the Creatures of the night tour.His gold RR with the non fine tune Floyd. Then he had a pink RR too. By 1984 everyone was plying them.I know Ratt's Lay it down video was a major pull for me to get one. Gene Simmons axe bass was an huge influence for me too. I liked Jakes blue and purple ones, Robins Firebirds and KV's, VV's VVV, Warrens anything, Genes axe bass, and also I had a Jackson catalog from 1985 or so that I stared at 24/7 back in the day...

[Bri]

Randy got me curious about Jackson. I was a bich and explorer guy so as cool as the RR looked, it wasn't for me. I kept hearing about the amazing Jackson neck so I kept an eye out. The headstock and cool graphics were a draw as well. Then I saw Chris Hager playing a kelly and I knew that was the guitar I had to have. It's not so much about playing the guitar someone I admired played. I just like Jackson speed necks and they also have the coolest "explorer like" guitar.

[Carl Mustaine]

I bought a charvel model 4 because it was the cheapest pro type of guitar I could afford. I pushed pizza leaflets through letterboxes in the summer of '91 to raise the cash. It was £235 (about $420). It seemed a fortune at the time.

It was a custom sprayed bright green colour, which the guy couldn't sell. I took that guitar and put some cartoon transfers on it and it looked OK. I sold it because of the Kahler trem. The top E used to slowly unwind around the ball end and would just ping off at random. I used to solder the string to stop it happening.

Funny thing is, the neck on that guitar was amazing, and I wish I hadn't sold it.

Hindsight is a marvellous thing!

As for who influenced me to play a charvel/jackson, no-one really.

regards

Carl

[Newc]

I was never a Rhoads fan until years later, after his death and I was bombarded with Over the Mountain and Crazy Train by all my friends. To me, Iommi and Page were the only two people who could play the guitar correctly, and I knew Ozzy was going to be a flop after he left Sabbath, and Sabbath was going to die without Ozzy.

Then MTV came around in 1980 (I was THERE to see the first video - appropriately enough, "Video Killed The Radio Star" by The Buggles )

I saw various people on there playing various guitars, of course - Gibsons, Fenders, Ibanezes, Jacksons, Kramers. Always wanted a Les Paul and SG, though. Fenders looked ok, but I thought the Telecaster was a half-baked Les Paul ripoff, and Strats just looked funny. Like a molar with a neck on it.

Then I saw the Scorpions and Accept videos, and wanted a V and Explorer. Wound up buying an LP copy from my best friend.

Then I hit the local music store and they had a Jackson of some sort (Soloist IIRC, in some sort of burst/graphic - white on the edges and purple/pink towards the middle IIRC - or was that the Ibane RoadStar another friend had?)

Anyhoo, this thing played itself! You could literally fret the strings by blowing on them.

$1600 was WAAAAAAAAY too much for me to come up with, and no way was Mom and Dad gonna cut me that much cheese, so I walked away in love but heartbroken.

Went to the same store a couple of years later to get strings for the LP copy and they've got a Jackson on a stand in the doorway (door propped open, no less) that says "Sacrifice: $600"

It was a yellow-orangeish crackle bolt on with a black neck (painted back). This was like '85 or '86.

I begged and pleaded but there was no way Mom was gonna drop $600 on "just a guitar". I dunno what it was, as I had no clue about Jacksons at the time other than "everyone" was starting to use them, and had read a few interviews in Hit Parader and Circus with various players and Grover himself. I just knew that $600 for that guitar was a steal.

So I had the LP copy for years until another friend sold me an Aria Pro II XR - white pearl body, "sharkfin" inlays, Kramer-pointy headstock, maple/rosewood bolt-on neck, locking whammy - it was "Jackson-enough" for me

Then he sold me a Salmon Pink Kramer Focus 1000 - single-hum and OFR.

Traded that to the other friend for a '76 SG and a Kramer Striker 300 with original single-locking Floyd (think Vinnie Moore).


Then the bassist for my brother's band in '88 had a Jackson Concert bass - black/blue old-style Bengal (not Lynch) with piezos only. That thing was orgasmic.

Moved to TN in '89 and stopped in the one local shop and they had a Rhoads of some sort (still wasn't into them at the time). As I recall, the neck was fat (like JCF-01 came out) but very playable (still had the LP and Aria at the time, so I knew fat necks from thin necks, plus I'd played an original LNG Jem, so I knew THIN necks - this was nowhere near the RR1/Rhoads USA neck).

My guess is it was a mid-80s San Dimas, not a newer/pre-"production" model.

$900. No job, and nothing to trade, so it went home with someone else sometime later.


Fast-forage to 2000 and my old band (off and on from '92-'97) is getting back together, and my Ibanez EX350 (bought new in '93) needs a new trem, as that's my Whammy Geetar.
Long story short, that's where my Ibanez boycott started and I traded the EX350 to another shop straight up for a Kelly (KE3 or KX10D, whatever it was).


So it was a combination of seeing/hearing bands I liked play Jacksons (Chris Holmes mostly - never got too much into the other Hair Bands like Ratt and such, though I did like Robbin's "giant red V" (we were the same height/weight when I was 16, and a Gibson V felt small, and I read that he had the same problem and that's when he got the Jackson "King V"), and didn't hear/see Anthrax enough to know what they played, except for Scott's NOT Soloist and Danny's TMNT Rhoads), playing that first Soloist and driven to orgasm by the playability, and having to pass up the one for $600.

I should send a thank you note to Ibanez for not shipping the replacement trem I ordered faster. Had it not taken them 3 months, I wouldn't have traded it off for a Jackson, and I'd be stuck with an inferior brand churning out inferior products and laughing at you guys for being stuck in the 80s playing them pointyheaded Hair Band geetars.
I might have even sunk to the level of playing an ESPee.

Ewww, the thought makes me puke in my mouth a bit.

[SEEGERMANY]

The Firebird is actually a Japanese market guitar... it says "FUCK TOEJAM" after the logo.

Fixed!

[VitaminG]

[toejam]

Sweet! :ROTF:

[marnold]

Probably Randy Rhoads, followed by a ton of people I saw on Headbanger's Ball.

[cvansickle]

Chubtone was my enabler!

[chrisolson]

Warren & Robbin for me.

[lynchfan6]

Oz Fox and Michael Sweet from Stryper! I was real young and just got MTV, and the Free and Calling on You videos were in heavy rotation,,,,,and I became a huge Stryper fan. They always had the black and yellow Jacksons. Those guys can really play.....I just bought that Stryper live DVD from a few years ago,,,and they are excellent guitarists.

[Brooke]

I think it was Kirk Hammett RR

[MartinBarre]

Dan Spitz RR. Funnily enough, although I've always been a huge Leppard fan, I hated Phil Collen's Jacksons - the only one's I really like are the PC-1 models. All the older ones look gay, Steve Clark's Les Pauls were the real cool guitars in Leppard.
And Sav's basses.

[Guitar Lawyer]

Vivian Campbell, Robbin Crosby, Warren DeMartini, Jake E. Lee

[streetbob]

Jake E. Lee! on the ultimate sin tour.