Binding fret nibs

[shramiac]

Would it be at all possible that an '87/88 Rhoads would have been made with fret nibs?

[sully]

Sure.

[shreddermon]

This has always been an option on custom orders.

[shramiac]

Cool, thanks for that. I also meant to add whether it was also possible that it would be made without a serial number?

[dg]

I think the most likely reasons for a Jackson from that time frame to have no serial would be:

1- re-fretted, and the serial was sanded away when the board was being prepped. Most of the time, re-fretted guitars won't have the binding nibs, but sometimes they do if the owner wanted to keep it 100% as it was.
2- employee project
3- stolen guitar

[shramiac]

Thanks again............now the reason for asking! Along with Genebaby, as one of the Vinnie "tragics" and with Vinnie recently auctioning off gear at Julien's in New York, I managed to get a few closeup shots of the pink Rhoads Vinnie donated to the Hard Rock Cafe. The guitar sat on the Cardiff, Wales HRC wall for a few years until it closed in 2010 and was then sent to the Hard Rock Hotel in Pattaya, Thailand. No doubt it was the same guitar Vinnie used in the 1996 KISS conventions he attended but it seems unlikely it is one of the original '82 gold ones upgraded with newer Floyd posts. What is unusual is the lack of a Serial No., the Floyd posts and the locknut. Anyone think this is just an '87/88 with the regular nut/Kahler locknut refitted with a Floyd nut?

The display with what is probably misleading info?


Dodgy nut setup???


Correct spot for the neck/body join for an early 80's model Rhoads???


No Serial Number.


How it's mounted...WTF!?!?!?

[pianoguyy]

It makes more sense to me, that VV donated a cheap one so that he could sell the good one.
But, as far as Thailand goes --- it wouldn't surprise me that the Chinese Government took the real one and replaced it because the peasants wouldn't know the difference.

That looks like rosewood. Or is it just the picture?

[neilli]

Matching head, rev inlays and rosewood on a custom would take it out of the regular '87/88 Rhoads' category, plus it doesn't have oversize pickups..

[Banjowarrior]

It's definitely had a Floyd nut retrofut as you can see the holes where the 'behind the nut' one was. That and half of the nut doesn't seem to be in contact with the neck...

[xenophobe]

What are your real concerns though? There could be a bunch of reasons why it doesn't have a serial. Maybe it was a proto for a 2nd batch for Vinnie. Maybe he just asked for a guitar "really quick". Maybe it didn't pass inspection.

It's most likely 87/88 as mentioned. The modded nut and the JT6 posts are pretty indicative. Pickups have been changed. Neck pickup ring looks right, bridge looks replaced.

Just a 22 fret custom Rhoads from 87/88-ish.


Maybe it's weird because Jackson decided to build Vinnie a new Rhoads with their "new" JT6 to see how he liked it, and the fact it has a replaced nut and maybe was only used for public appearances, that he never really liked it all that much? Also a good excuse to donate? I dunno, it's easy to speculate.

Who really knows... Well, Vinnie and his tech probably. If you're really that curious it probably wouldn't be impossible to find an answer....

[Zedder]

It's definitely had a Floyd nut retrofut as you can see the holes where the 'behind the nut' one was. That and half of the nut doesn't seem to be in contact with the neck...

Those extra holes were for a string retainer bar, Vinnie had those on his sparkle gold and refined pink rhoads.

[Banjowarrior]

I sit corrected.

[pianoguyy]

Well....
A string retainer bar may have been there at one point. But is that because the new nut wasn't sitting properly and the holes were already there so he added the bar, or is that just because he used a retainer?

I don't care either way. I am just posing the question.
It is one of those chicken/egg scenarios.

[shramiac]

Yes, they're too far back to be the screw holes for a Kahler nut and could only be for a string bar but... this also adds to the mystery! Were they drilled after the the Floyd nut was fitted to give the illusion that the guitar is as it says on the display, one used when he played in KISS? You can see that the truss cover has a mark where the screw turned on it but the cover is such a bad fit, it looks like it was just roughly cut out and stuck on the guitar. In Vinnie's defence, like a lot of touring guitarists, the truss cover is removed and the original may have been lost? Another point is that Vinnie did smash a Rhoads when making the first VVI album and this rough fit Floyd nut may be a result of a quick fix to get the guitar back to finish recording? Sadly the HR staff aren't allowed to open the case, as doing so could have seen the back of the neck to see if the nut was held via rear bolts rather than top mount screws as would have been if it is an '87/88 build...I presume?

And just to add more sugar

Here is a comparison between its and one of Vinnie's original gold (repainted pink) frets inlays....





Sadly, I think it's reasonable to lean to the side of the story that this isn't any sort of guitar Vinnie used in KISS but still begs the questions, why would he get a late 80s Rhoads? How on Earth was he lucky enough to pick up 2 of them with no serial numbers (the Julien's auction guitar also had no serial number) that he could fob off as genuine?

[pianoguyy]

Yes, they're too far back to be the screw holes for a Kahler nut

Sure, it is too far now. But if you add in a nut, and then the lock, it becomes much closer to where it could have been.

But those two fret markers would be hard to fake. So those two guitars are probably one and the same.