1992 Jackson Soloist rare paint job?

2

2ninety

Member
I bought this Jackson Soloist new back in 1992-ish. The store I got it from had tons of high end graphic Jacksons. Recently pulled it out and when trying to look up info on it I've noticed I can't find this paint job anywhere. It wasn't an option in any of the catalogs from the early 90s. There is a skull option, but it's nothing like this. How would I tell if this is possibly a custom shop? The "U" serial number puts it at 1992. It was expensive for the time at $1850 before tax. For perspective on how expensive that is for that time, other guitars I bought new at that time: My Ibanez RG550 was about $900 and and my Universe UV7bk was only $1300.

Anyone have any ideas how I can tell if this is a custom shop?

Update: Got an email back from Dan Lawrence. He didn't paint it, but it sounds like it definitely left the Ontario, California shop with this paint job and it wasn't common or one that was an option to choose. His response below....

"Good morning Ray,

For sure an Ontairo built guitar. This style of skulls would not be one I painted. I've seen a few done like this but as you said not the standard " pile O Skulls like shown in the Catalog. I did all of those except for the imports. Looks to be in great shape..enjoy!

All the best,

Dan"
 

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Looks like the "Pile O' Skulls" graphic they did back in the day, but it was usually only on the bottom third of the guitar kind of between the forearm contour and volume/tone controls. The skulls look a little cartoonish for a factory Jackson graphic though. Not saying it's not legit, but I almost wonder if the store commissioned someone to add graphics to their guitars after the fact. Cool axe though, none the less.
 
2ninety said:
I saw a couple but the skull pattern was different. Full body but skulls in different places. They didn't custom paint each one did they?
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AFAIK they would have painted each one. They might have used stencils, or other things like that to make it easier or more uniform but each guitar would have been done individually. I tried to get a closer look at the graphic and try to find a "name" or initials of who painted it, but I couldn't see anything. I don't know if Jackson would have allowed their artists to put their "stamp" on it but I had a GMW "Crossed Swords" that had Dan Lawrences' initials on it in the "ball" at the end of the hilt of one of the swords. It was very small and only had "DRL" on it, easily missed if you weren't looking for it.
 
Legit real graphic. I’ve seen a couple like that. Fairly rare compared to the other one that also wound up on the MIJ DK2’s.

Very cool…
 
War_in_D said:
AFAIK they would have painted each one. They might have used stencils, or other things like that to make it easier or more uniform but each guitar would have been done individually. I tried to get a closer look at the graphic and try to find a "name" or initials of who painted it, but I couldn't see anything. I don't know if Jackson would have allowed their artists to put their "stamp" on it but I had a GMW "Crossed Swords" that had Dan Lawrences' initials on it in the "ball" at the end of the hilt of one of the swords. It was very small and only had "DRL" on it, easily missed if you weren't looking for it.
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Interesting you brought up Dan Lawrence. I found his website last night and emailed him a pic to find out if it was his work. Haven't gotten a reply as of yet. Apparently he's painted a LOT of guitars for just about every big name guitar player you could think of.

I'll have to look closely to see if I can find any initials hidden anywhere.
 
2ninety said:
Interesting you brought up Dan Lawrence. I found his website last night and emailed him a pic to find out if it was his work. Haven't gotten a reply as of yet. Apparently he's painted a LOT of guitars for just about every big name guitar player you could think of.

I'll have to look closely to see if I can find any initials hidden anywhere.
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I wonder if Dan Lawrence still paints Jacksons?
 
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