Any Rhoads with vintage trem besides LTD?

[toejam]

I think some of the polka dots ones had V trems and some others Floyds. Actually, never mind. I'm thinking of the V replica and not a Rhoads.

[ November 17, 2003, 01:56 PM: Message edited by: toejam ]

[shreddermon]

Re: Any Rhoads with vintage trem besides LTD?

Originally posted by L:
I assume there were never any production guitars w/ a vintage trem...are there any custom shops?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yeah, Randy's. [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Seriously, I'm sure there were some vintage trem customs ordered over the years. Which ones they are would be quite the research project.

[BLOOD SPLATTER]

Re: Any Rhoads with vintage trem besides LTD?

Rob Lane had a black RR that was supposed to go to Randy that had a V-trem & reverse inlays [img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img] !!Other than Randys original & the LTDs,I've never seen another with a V-trem!! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Chucksplatter

[sully]

Re: Any Rhoads with vintage trem besides LTD?

nobody has guitars that were supposed to go to randy. those mythical guitars are just that; myth.

sully

[BLOOD SPLATTER]

Re: Any Rhoads with vintage trem besides LTD?

Hey Sully,there was a write-up about this axe on Robs old site,I guess he got the guitar from Grover & had Mike Shannon finish the axe,or somethin like that,I'll look around & see if I still have a pic or any info!! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Chucksplatter

[brett8388]

Re: Any Rhoads with vintage trem besides LTD?

The owner of Rob's RR V trem guitar is a member of this board. Maybe he can share the history of the axe?

Brett

[sully]

Re: Any Rhoads with vintage trem besides LTD?

Originally posted by BLOOD SPLATTER:
Hey Sully,there was a write-up about this axe on Robs old site,I guess he got the guitar from Grover & had Mike Shannon finish the axe,or somethin like that,I'll look around & see if I still have a pic or any info!! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Chucksplatter

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">hey chuck, here's the info... [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] from some idiot's site...i don't remember whose.

There were plans for three more to be made. As legend tells it, one was sold at a NAMM show by accident. Grover Jackson has told the story a few times, and it sounds like there were a few guitars made and waiting for Randy, but his death prevented him from receiveing them. This is both true and misleading.

According to Mike Shannon (the man who built Randy's guitars with Grover), there were indeed plans for three more to be built after Randy got the black one. However, they were wating to start production on them because they wanted to give Randy some time to finalize what changes he wanted made. Keep in mind that although we've been familiar with the Randy Rhoads V for years now, at that time, there was only one model in existence, which would be the black one (The white pinstripe guitar was a prototype).

When Randy died in March of 1982, all that they had were three body blanks; raw hunks of wood. No headstock, no paint, no nothing. Randy was gone, and they did not have any finished guitars for him waiting to be picked up. Months later, Grover Jackson and Mike Shannon finished two of the body blanks that they had. One guitar was ivory with brass hardware, had reversed sharkfin inlays on the fretboard, a string thru the body tailpiece, and had cream and black (zebra) pickups. The other one was black, with (I believe) the same specs. It was not necessarily finished to Randy's specifications. This was the guitar accidently sold by Joanne Jackson (Grover's wife) at the 1983 NAMM show and has not been seen since. Since the guitars were not necessarily finished to Randy's specifications, they're not really the finished Rhoads models that Randy never got. Instead, they were simply guitars made from neck blanks originally intended for him.

A little side note:

In 2001, Jackson guitars made a limited run of 25 guitars for the Jackson/Charvel Forum. These guitars (known as the Jackson Charvel Forum Yearly Collector's Edition, or JCF-YCE for short) were to be replicas of the "missing NAMM Rhoads" As part of this project (and owner of #12 of the 25), we went through painstaking measures to have this replica made. Sifting through a lot of hazy memories, and stopping just short of Sherlock Holmesian detecivte work, we were able to figure out the specs of the guitar and have it made.
Now, back to the story.....

The third guitar had a flaw in it; it had a bad neck angle, so it was not finished. It was instead delegated to the life of a case template. In other words, it was unplayable in the state it was in. Years later, it was sold to Rob Lane of charveljacksonworld.com. Rob later had it corrected and finished by Mike at Jackson, and it looks just like the black one.

Finally, some more food for thought: if there were guitars waiting for Randy at Jackson, Dee would have them. That design was a collaboration between Randy and Jackson, so an agreement had to be worked out between Jackson and the Rhoads estate so that the model could be made in production.

sully

[ November 17, 2003, 06:42 PM: Message edited by: jsullysix ]

[L]

Any Rhoads with vintage trem besides LTD?

I assume there were never any production guitars w/ a vintage trem...are there any custom shops?

[BLOOD SPLATTER]

Re: Any Rhoads with vintage trem besides LTD?

Wow!!Thanx for the info Sully,you're the man bro!! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Chucksplatter

[BLOOD SPLATTER]

Re: Any Rhoads with vintage trem besides LTD?

I guess I should have said that Rob Lane had a RR on his site that was "made from a neck blank originally intended for Randy" that has a V-trem & reverse inlays [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img] !! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Chucksplatter

[L]

Re: Any Rhoads with vintage trem besides LTD?

Well who is the owner then? I would like to see pics of the plank of wood intended for RR.

[sully]

Re: Any Rhoads with vintage trem besides LTD?

[img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] glad i could help....

sully

[diego_inc]

Re: Any Rhoads with vintage trem besides LTD?

Here you go...

The BLACK NAMM Guitar


The White NAMM Guitar - What the JCF's were modeled after!


Me holding THE GUITAR in QUESTION


The Headstock


How it was found by Rob in Grover's House - This guitar was sent to the case manufacturer to mold the case


Another Shot



BTW, Randy DID make it to the factory to see the guitars when they were plain wood and did inspect the blanks. The state of the blanks is unknown.... this topic is still being researched.

Diego

[L]

Re: Any Rhoads with vintage trem besides LTD?

WOW! Thanks Diego. Great info and guitar.

[RacerX]

Re: Any Rhoads with vintage trem besides LTD?

Yeah, that was an awesome trip through time!