Just joined the club - RR0712 (Student)

[DesolationBlvd]

So there was an '84 Rhoads Student hanging on the wall at my formerly-local Guitar Center for quite a while that I was drooling over. When the price dropped, I started seriously considering it. After finding out it had the case, and feeling how great the neck felt in my hands, I jumped.

Sorry for the cell phone blurry-cam photo, I bought a guitar instead of a proper camera:


Showing the weird non-original knobs and the wear (not shown: slightly beat-up wing tips):


Showing the serial, barely:


As you can tell, she was no case queen.

The finish seems to be some kind of dark reddish color. Not sure if this is the original finish. I couldn't find the RR serial logbooks like I could the J serial logbooks.

The Kahler seems to be original, no trace of string-thru holes. The bridge volume was changed to a push-pull pot. Was the J-80 a four-conductor pickup?


Special note: I have a previous account I want removed. This current account and username are what I want to use from now on. I even bought a Platinum membership for this one and not the old one for this reason. I do not want to publicly disclose the username, but will tell an admin in a private message.

[BLOOD SPLATTER]

Coolness....congrats!!

Original color & Kahler!!

[Hellbat]

I think it'a metallic black. Perhaps it faded to a reddish hue?

[CowboyFromHell]

Welcome to the club. RR's are kickass. My first Jackson was one, I still own another, and I'm gassing hard for a crimson swirl one.

[DesolationBlvd]

Just got around to setup.

Searching around for color names, I see that a "black cherry" finish has been one of the options throughout the years. Not complaining about the wear, I'd rather have a well-worn original finish than a shiny refin. And upon looking under the bridge, it does seem to be the original finish.

The pickups turned out to be Seymour Duncans - bridge has "DDJ" on the bottom, neck is unlabeled. Really nice sounding.

The bridge is in poor shape, the rollers don't spin freely. Looks like an order to Wammi World is in the near future. Having loosened the truss to give the neck a little relief, I couldn't get rid of the buzzing on the lower frets - maybe I play with too heavy of a touch, the lower frets are worn, or the nut needs to be raised. Probably not that last one because I still see original clearcoat around the nut.

[mottobur]

Sweet axe! As a collector of SD Jacksons...I'm loving the G&G maroon interior case! Most of them are blue or black.

[DesolationBlvd]

Bump, I've got more information. Opened it up - found out that the push-pull was not a coil split, but a parallel (which oddly enough was set to down instead of up), and also found a sticker indicating a local luthier worked on it. I contacted him, and he said it was brought in about 22 years ago for the rewire.

Now that I hear what the Duncan Distortion is supposed to sound like - it's magic in this guitar.

I have my doubts about the finish being original. At the chipped areas, I see a layer of white before the bare wood. Is this primer? The luthier also mentioned that there was a skeleton removed from the top.





Either way, I'm considering a refinish in zebra.

[BLOOD SPLATTER]

Yup....primer!!