Rhoads was the first Jackson

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I was looking into history of rhoads style v and found out a few things. I guess Jackson worked for charvel and the rhoads was his first guitar that he put his name on the headstock. The double rhoads was their first flying v style, and they made a smaller version for smaller bodied people: the king v. Overall very interesting. If anyone else has any corrections or anything to add, i am interested.
 
I love RR but the first two Jackson Vs looked kind of goofy. But they got it spectacularly right with the third one, the black/gold one:

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Cliff notes version.....

Grover Jackson was a partner to Wayne Charvel, Wayne was having some financial distress so Grover bought him out for 40K I believe. Of course that's a lot of cash back in 1978.
Grover kept putting out Charvels as bolt on strats until he met up with Randy, and yes the Concorde (Rhoads V) was born...and from then all neck throughs had the Jackson name while the bolt on strats continued as Charvel labelled until 1985-86 when everything USA made started getting Jackson on the HS; the Charvels were then made in Japan as the model series.
 
Racerxrated said:
Cliff notes version.....

Grover Jackson was a partner to Wayne Charvel, Wayne was having some financial distress so Grover bought him out for 40K I believe. Of course that's a lot of cash back in 1978.
Grover kept putting out Charvels as bolt on strats until he met up with Randy, and yes the Concorde (Rhoads V) was born...and from then all neck throughs had the Jackson name while the bolt on strats continued as Charvel labelled until 1985-86 when everything USA made started getting Jackson on the HS; the Charvels were then made in Japan as the model series.
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That makes sense. It is funny how much i dont know. This is very helpful. Thanks.
 
Smashedguitaris⸸ said:
That makes sense. It is funny how much i dont know. This is very helpful. Thanks.
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When Grover bought Wayne out, there weren't that many new Charvels produced. This pace continued even after Grover purchased Charvel, but by 1980 he started ramping up production. That period pre 1980/81 is known as the 'pre production' time frame, and the limited number of guitars made makes the 'pre pros' worth 5 figures in some cases.
But, they can also be faked so one must be very careful.
 
Smashedguitaris⸸ said:
I was looking into history of rhoads style v and found out a few things. I guess Jackson worked for charvel and the rhoads was his first guitar that he put his name on the headstock. The double rhoads was their first flying v style, and they made a smaller version for smaller bodied people: the king v. Overall very interesting. If anyone else has any corrections or anything to add, i am interested.
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I could be wrong, but I think the King V was actually bigger, and the first one was made for Robin Crosby, because he was a pretty big dude.

thegame said:
I love RR but the first two Jackson Vs looked kind of goofy. But they got it spectacularly right with the third one, the black/gold one:

View attachment 225217
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That first guitar definitely had a more "squat" shape to it. Jackson did a limited run of those that the called the "short wing" back in the early 2000's if I remember right. I believe they were supposed to be limited to 200 pieces, 100 were string thru and 100 with trem. I think the majority of them went to Japanese collectors, so if you see one in the US they are pretty rare.
 
War_in_D said:
I could be wrong, but I think the King V was actually bigger, and the first one was made for Robin Crosby, because he was a pretty big dude.



That first guitar definitely had a more "squat" shape to it. Jackson did a limited run of those that the called the "short wing" back in the early 2000's if I remember right. I believe they were supposed to be limited to 200 pieces, 100 were string thru and 100 with trem. I think the majority of them went to Japanese collectors, so if you see one in the US they are pretty rare.
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I always thought the rhoads was a king v with a short wing. Aparently the short wing.is the size of the king v? And the double rhoads is longer.
My previous assumptions were baseless assumptions. So now finding out all this is cool
 
Smashedguitaris⸸ said:
I always thought the rhoads was a king v with a short wing. Aparently the short wing.is the size of the king v? And the double rhoads is longer.
My previous assumptions were baseless assumptions. So now finding out all this is cool
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The Rhoads (as we know it today) came first from a production standpoint. The King V was them taking the one longer point, and mirroring it on the other side to make the V. The short wing was only the original, and the reissues or maybe some custom shop pieces later on.
 
How on earth did Randy play that guitar to the far left in the above image with the upper neck access cut off from around the 15th fret up until the 22 or 24th fret .

The black polka dot has great upper fret access compared to it.
 
"The whole center block was solid maple," he explains. "The wings were also maple. It was a big hunk of tree. This thing was going to weigh a ton."


Sustain for days lol.
 
that Charvel Doc I posted ..... has all the info you guys are talking about in it ..... some of the interviews are " meh " but they go into a lot of detail how the Rhoads guitars came to be and what not .... over all pretty decnt doc .
 
The original V was named the Concorde V after Jackson made the next prototype which is the shape we all know today. and they did limited runs of those Concorde guitars as early as 1992. The guitar on the right was from that run of 200. For every five they did with a Floyd they did one with a standard trem. They all had gold hardware except for the one in the pic which has chrome. I custom ordered it that way and was somewhat friendly with the production manager so they did it for me. Many years later they did another run which was more accurate to the original and came with the R.R. flightcase. Not sure of the numbers but i'm sure that info is out there. They also made a ROSWELL Rhoads that was supposed to be a spaceship look from the R.R. design. It was kinda goofy but they used to demand high dollar on the used market. Ed Roman used to have a bunch of them, but who knows if they were original! LOL

The King V had both sides the same length, whereas the RR had the offset on the one side. The first person I saw with a King V was Robin Crosby and Mustaine, and at one time it was a sig for him, but I never followed that one too much. The ones I saw in person didnt seem any bigger than a standard R.R. except for both fins being equal.

The other early Jackson shape was the Kelly Explorer, which was designed by the Grover and the guitarist for a band called Heaven, Brad Kelly. The Black guitar in the middle is a limited repro Jackson did, and made 25 of them. I "think" there was only around 25 made originally and I have only ever seen one in person on 48th st. in NYC waayyyy back in the day.
45.jpg
 
I prefer the look of the Concorde to the standard RR, personally. The RR is too small.
 
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