What known info is there on "Kelly", the man?

[KE2KV2Rules]

i'm wondering about the australian guy, or rather guy from an australian band named Kelly who is from what i understand directly responsible for designing the Kelly body shape. what was his whole name? what band did he play for? are there any pics of the prototype? Charvel750 told me that the original shape took some changes since the first design. any and all info on him would be appreciated.

[Newc]

Re: What known info is there on "Kelly", the man?

Bradford Kelly, I think, played for Heaven.
One of the original Kelly designs had sharp cutouts on the bottom and rear, but they were too fragile. Also the originals were bigger than today's (and Marty's) Kelly.

Newc

[BLOOD SPLATTER]

Re: What known info is there on "Kelly", the man?

Hey,check out Rob Wittes site,WWW.JACKSONMUSEUM.COM, he has 3 or 4 King Kellys on there [img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img] !!Killer eye candy for sure!! [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img] Chucksplatter

[Metalcop]

Re: What known info is there on "Kelly", the man?

Yep, Bradford Kelly, from the Australian band Heaven. They had a couple of very minor hits in the early 80's "Rock School" and "Where Angels Fear to Tread". The 'Angels' video Brad is actually using his namesake guitar, and the rythym guitar player is using a matching black and white tele w/hardtail bridge. They were originally called Special Explorers, due to their offset hourglass shape. Kind of like taking an Explorer and Jacksonizing it, making it pointy and very metal, like the King V to the Flying V and the Soloist to the strat. But, I digress. The very first Special Explorer was J0029 and Kelly actually sold/traded it to a guitar dealer in Australia, Our former admin, Curt, bought it for $1000 (!) if I'm not mistaken. It is currently owned by Rob Witte at the Jackson Museum. She is black with white pinstriping, and she now sports a Yamaha Floyd, she was originally a hardtail. Brad explains that the guitar was completely his idea, cutouts and all, but Mike Shannon helped to refine it quite a bit, so that it could actually be a playable and buildable guitar. Bradford Kelly doesn't get anywhere near the credit that he deserves for the design of this guitar, he and his band just went away without so much as a whimper. Kind of like anything Jackson with the name 'King' associated with it (King V, King Kelly) should be credited to Robbin King Crosby, but he never got even the tiniest bit of credit, and he and his band made Charvel/Jackson in the 80's. Check out jacksonmuseum.com, he has a really cool history section on the Kelly and its progression.

[Genebaby]

Re: What known info is there on "Kelly", the man?

Yeah, Heaven did ok in the early/mid 80's. Toured with KISS and became very good friends with Judas Priest. So much so that they reformed the other year (Bradford Kelly nowhere to be seen unfortunately, original singer though) and opened up Priest's Sydney show. They were due to depart for the US and play again with Priest on their tour there. They were good old school metal/rock.

I think I found out about Brad's guitar being sold and going overseas just after the fact, otherwise I'd have been all over that one!!

Anybody know who put the *cough* Yamaha trem on her?

[Jim Shine]

Re: What known info is there on "Kelly", the man?

I have no old pics of Marty, did his Kelly's have 22 or 24 frets?

[BLOOD SPLATTER]

Re: What known info is there on "Kelly", the man?

Jim,I remember reading that Martys first Kelly was 22 fretter & his second was 24,can't find any pics at the moment,Later,Chucksplatter