Jackson guitars ruled metal and hair bands of the 1980s.

Grover Jackson started Jackson guitars in the late 1970's in southern California. He originally worked for Wayne Charvel. In late 1980 he was contacted by a relatively unknown guitarist at that time, Randy Rhoads who played with Quiet Riot then joined up with Ozzy Osbourne to form Blizzard of Ozz. Randy and Grover sketched a prototype of the guitar Randy had in his head.

It was a sleek white guitar with a vee shaped neck through body construction with Jackson's name on the headstock. This instrument was called the "Concorde" due to its futuristic shape.

This guitar was rejected in favor of a second version that incorporated many of Randy's features. Since Randy Rhoads had quite a following at this time the guitars were highly sought after.

Jackson axes in general have favored the Gibson Explorer in resemblance. This created a number of lawsuits by Gibson and even Fender. Jackson lost these suits and had to change the body style.

Heavy metal history from the '80s on was created with many a Jackson guitar. Models such as the Kelly, King V, Double Rhoads, Soloist, Dinky and Concert filled the bill.

It seemed like every metal, hair, thrash band at that time had a guitarist playing a Jackson.

Jake E. Lee (Ozzy), George Lynch (Lynch Mob), Warren DeMartini (Ratt) and Vivian Campbell (Dio) all played some version of this guitar.

In 2002, Fender purchased the Jackson/Charvel operations and moved everything to the Fender plant in Corona, CA. The prices dropped, quality suffered and most of the influential artists on the company roster fled to endorse other guitar companies.

Although Jackson continues to be a quality guitar, most musicians seem to view the brand as an obsolete relic from the hair band days.

Jackson guitars still has a lengthy list of endorsers among them Phil Collin of Def Leppard, Mark Morton of Lamb of God and Adrian Smith of Iron Maiden.

Randy Rhoads

If you're into heavy metal, thrash, whatever, check out a Jackson. They're sleek and elegant and some of the designs have the appeal to the hard metal style of playing.

Maybe, just maybe you will channel the late great Randy Rhoads and wail away at "Crazy Train" or "I don't Know"!

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