Jackson Rhoads Custom Shop Polka Dot V

All right, shit is just getting out of hand here. People keep e-mailing me wanting to know all about my SIGNATURE Randy Rhoads Jackson V. Like I don't have anything better to do than sit here and write reviews? Fuck that. When I'm not pulling double shifts at Walgreens, I'm spending my time the way any true rocker knows how -- banging HEADS and banging SLUTS, with some quality brew time with my good buddy Dino on the side. Whether it's shredding out with my new band SLUTBANGER, or my side project LETHALICON, I always keep the intense metal mayhem BURNING like the crotch of a Vietnamese whore. You know what I'm talking about.

Anyways, I'm not going to tell you all that technical bullshit that you don't want to hear. All that shit about double-locking tremoloes, humbuckers, strings, and all the stuff that dudes who liked Slayer's "Diabolus In Musica" better than "South of Heaven" probably care about. If you don't own "South of Heaven," then give me call so I can come over and beat you senseless with my SIGNATURE Randy Rhoads Jackson V, because you're about as metal as that kid whose ass I stomped at the last Insatanity show because he asked me if i liked the latest GORETICIAN disc. On the other hand, if you didn't know that "South of Heaven" is a Slayer album, then you should probably call your mom or whoever it is that kept your crib too close to the microwave and thanks them for fucking up your BRAIN so much that you're totally ignorant of the most savagely INTENSE metal album since Blizzard of Ozz.

As for my Signature - you bet your ass - SIGNATURE Randy Rhoads Jackson V, it used to be all polka dot and shit, but Dino hooked me up with this wicked artist named Arturo who works down in Romeoville. He did a sweet-ass painting of a wolf pack hunting at night. Even though I had to stop playing with Rabid Wolf after that fuckhead Jimmy actually asked me to turn it DOWN one day at practice, probably because he's what we true metal maniacs like to call "a pussy assed bitch," it's still a killer wicked paint job that I'm gonna match on my Camaro hood once I finish up my neighbor's lawn.

You want to know what the SIGNATURE Randy Rhoads Jackson V sounds like? Let me introduce you to a little something called UNCAGED METAL DESTRUCTION. When I first got my V, I went down into my basement, plugged it into my EVH 5150 custom half-stack with a 300-foot cord, and then I climbed up into my attic and stood in the window, looking over my neighborhood and wondering if they had any idea that there was about to be a full-frontal metal assault rolling straight through their homes. As I hit that first power G chord, I felt my house rumble as the sonic metal INVASION trampled its way through its walls and loosed itself upon my unsuspecting neighbor, who was stupid enough to come out from his backyard and ask me what was going on. I mean, by now the neighbors know that when I'm standing in that attic window, they should watch where they step because their BALLS are about to be rocked off.

So ANYWAY, there I am, giving my neighbor a good look at what it means to be a true rocker, and just for fun I start practicing some killer Maiden licks when he tries to tell me to turn it down or he'd call the police. Do I look like I have time for his rules?? I'm fucking rocking out, man! I unzipped my pants and told him what he could do with his police.

Anyway, the point is, the SIGNATURE Randy Rhoads Jackson V, if you're lucky enough to own one, will grab you by the throat and spit nothing but pure, UNADULTERATED METAL TONE in your face. Why am I telling you this? If you haven't heard this guitar by now, then you obviously have no concept of what true METAL is all about. You've heard what I've said about Mexican Stratocasters? I bet you play one, don't you, you little bitch? That's what I thought. The Randy Rhoads V gives you maximum tonal definition while acting as a massive slut magnet at every show you bring it to. Just keep a rag handy, because chicks get so wet around this baby, they might end up dripping all over the EQ knobs, and that can seriously fuck up your electronics

Does this guitar have any flaws? Maybe the fact that you'll have to waste more time kicking the asses of punks that come over and hang around in your basement trying to get a look at it. Like when I came home one day from Dino's, and I heard some totally un-metal, pussy-ass, limp-wristed NON-POWER-CHORDS coming from my basement. I kicked open the door with my boot and found my fucking little brother Randy actually trying to PLAY MY FUCKING GUITAR. Now as you know, this was just one of the many occasions that I found Randy fucking with my shit. Mom says that I should be nicer to him because he looks up to me. Fuck that! I was the one who named him Randy (after you-know-who), in the hopes that he might end up being a brutal demon of speed metal and we could rock out like true brothers of doom, but instead he's just a snotty little punk who likes to get his grubby little hands on my shit. So I had to teach him a lesson.

I grabbed that Jackson V out of his hands and twisted the guitar strap around his neck while it was still on the guitar, and then I put the guitar on his shoulders, strapped his hands to either end with a couple spare cables I had lying around, and I pulled off my belt. Man, could he scream! After five or six whips across the back with my studded Motorhead belt buckle, Mom came down and started yelling at me. She started unstrapping him from the guitar, and I only got a couple more licks in across his shoulders before I had to stop my axe from hitting the ground. That paint job was fucking expensive, you know? Mom kept screaming and Randy's blowing snot everywhere because he was crying like a fucking little mama's boy. I mean, if he's not ready to face the lion, then why'd he walk in the cage? That's what I say. I tried to explain to my mom that, quite obviously, Randy had not grown up to be as metal as we both had hoped, but she totally didn't understand. But I'll tell you one thing - it was a lon time before Randy fucked with any of my shit anymore.

Have you ever grabbed your axe by the neck and clocked some punk in the teeth with it because he said that "Powerslave" is a better album than "Seventh Son"? I have, and let me tell you, my SIGNATURE Jackson V split his face without picking up a scratch. This baby has taken more beatings than Cannibal Corpse's drum kit on "The Bleeding." As for reliability, do I sound like the kind of poser who would play anything but the BEST guitar for hours upon hours of thrashing metal annihilation? Not ONCE has my V let me down, not even when I got so overwhelmed by its killer tone that I had to climb up on my 5150 half stack and jump onto my lead singer's back, guitar and all. I mean, sometimes there's just so much metal pounding through my brain that I just have to let it out, you know? Anyway, after I started chewing on his ear, he threw me and my Jackson V on the ground, but the V never once stopped ejaculating its hot metal love juice all over me.

Dude, haven't I told you that I NEVER, EVER TALK TO CORPORATE NON-ROCKERS about my gear? You might as well just buy yourself a pretty little keyboard and start up some pussy dance pop band, because those are the only people who would actually call somebody in an OFFICE and ask them how to rock.

This guitar cost about five times more than my car, but it's worth every penny. Do you want to get swallowed up by a WHIRLWIND OF BRUTALITY, not to mention by all those metal sluts who will be dropping to their knees for you when they see you walking backstage with that alligator-skinned guitar case and a pair of electric blue spandex pants? If not, then stay on your couch and strum your Simon and Garfunkel songs on whatever lame acoustic guitar you just found in your closet. But if you're ready to get sweaty with the hottest metal sluts this side of Gary, Indiana, then grab your wallet and stop acting like such a bitch. Once, when I hit a particularly animalistic harmonic on this baby, I heard this ear-shattering screech. It wasn't coming out of my amp, but from the alley behind my dad's garage. When I walked out back, I found that my precisely honed chops, when matched up with the SIGNATURE Jackson V, were enough to induce seizures into the family of raccoons that live in our dumpster. So don't buy this guitar if you're someone who only goes halfway, because the SIGNATURE Randy Rhoads Jackson V will know. So if you try to plug this thing into a Fender Blues Combo or some other pussy piece of shit amp that isn't ready to unleash an unrelenting METAL STORM on the world, it will probably just stop working, or maybe even attempt to choke you to death with the guitar strap. Don't ask me how. This thing is fucking brutal.

Manufactured in 1997, number 146 of a total 159 produced world-wide. Made in the Ontario Custom Shop in CA. 2-vol 2-tone, awesome solid chrome three-way selector (the feel of the selector is just amazing!!) Dual Hums, passive electronics, finished off in Randy's infamous Polka Dot design with Bow-Tie fret inlays, orig. made by Karl Sandova. Equipped with a orig. Floyd Rose Double Locking trem in chrome, an uncommon Jackson fatter/rounder neck more like Randy's specs. Thin fret wiring also. Hard-shell case wrapped in synthethic alligator skins and finished off with purple fur inside.

I own six other guitars besides this, so it gets very little play time...but it sounds decent running through a 5150 half stack. I didn't buy it for sound capabilities.

The guitar was mint when it arrived...Killer paint job and clear coat finish, no probs at all, like all Jacksons I have owned. The action was a little high for me, but the routing, finish, and craftsmanship were incomparable....My hat's off to all the boys at the Custom Shop....Although I was a little disappointed when I plugged it in the first time and received no signal. I opened it up and had to bend the input jack a little back to properly catch the cable for the signal.

Although this guitar will never see the outside let alone live playing...it is built to last a lifetime. This is one solid, well oiled machine that is 100% dependable.

Jackson is a great Company....I inquired about the build sheet for a Custom Shop Rhoads from 1986 and they sent me a copy in a week....Also all emails I have left have been answered superbly....

I have been playing for about nine years...I own an ESP Horizon, an '80's Ibanez Destroyer, and five other Jacksons. I play through Peavey 5150 half and combos. If stolen I would take the insurance check and purchase another from somebody who had one for sale in a heart beat...I have loved Randy since I was ten years old..although I never was able to see him live (I was 2 when he died) I feel like I get to own a piece of the legend. When I heard about these coming out...I popped the biggest wood...then I heard the $2700 retail price and everything came into perspective, but a year and a half later my dream came true.

I have 2, One is a 2nd that is flawless as far as I can tell, the other has the vintage tremblo, they only made 24...so you can figure what it's worth...Every feature is outstanding..the tone is the best out of any of my other Jacksons. The 2nd has the floyd rose..I try not to play it alot...but how can you not.

How does it sound....Ever heard Randy!!! Not that I'm any where close to him..the sound is unsurpassed.

Again..action is incredible...had to do a little tweeking.

Built to last.

Never really dealt directly with Jackson, but a dealer did it for me and they tracked down a guitar that I was looking for that was no longer in production, and gave me a great deal.

Two thumbs and two big toes up! I'm not advertising here..but I have had a few offers on the Vintage and I may be persuaded to part with it. (Remember only 24 were made!)

This guitar is #60 of 159 total guitars made. Made in 1996 (i think) in the USA. Built in the Jackson Custom Shop. It looks almost exacly like Randy Rhoads' Polka Dot Flying V he played with Ozzy. It is a neck-thru body. Pick-up config is 2 humbuckers. I think (IF YOU KNOW PLEASE E_MAIL ME) that the pickups are: neck: Dimarzio PAF bridge: Dimarzio Super Distortion (i am not a 100% sure on that). It has an original Floyd Rose and Jackson Tuners. 22 frets (really small wire- like Randy liked). The case that this thing comes with is AWESOME. Synthetic snake skin with purple fur in the inside of it.

Honestly, I didn't really buy this guitar to play. It is more of a collectors item for me. I had to have it the second I saw it. I don't play it much at all. But, it sounds friggin great. Running thru a JCM 2000 head and full stack (one JCM800 and one JCM900 cab) this guitar sounds really nice. The bridge pickup is hotter than a Seymour Duncan JB (thats why i think it is Dimarzio Super Distortion and not a PAF). I might bust this guitar out and play a gig with it in the future. All of my other guitars are equipped with EMGs. This is a really cool guitar. However, i think it would be stupid for someone to use it as their main guitar and watch it wear away (paint chips, scratches, etc...) It isn't like you can fork out a couple hundred bucks and buy another one.

The set up kinda sucked. However, i bought it used from Guitar Center. I have come to expect a bad setup guitar from Guitar Center. The average salesman at GC is lucky to find his way to work each day-- no way he can even think about adjusting a truss rod or a Floyd Rose. I use "USED" very lightly. This guitar was brand new and had never been played. It was obvious that someone let it sit in the case and never played it. There wasn't a single scratch or nick-- no pick marks. The strings were the orignal set. The finish was flawless. However, I am anticipating a small problem. The clearcoat that is on the side of the neck, up to the fretboard on the rosewood (this is kinda hard to explain) is cloudy. This means it will probably start to flake off eventually. Jackson is pretty good about stuff like this so I might send it back and have them redo the clear coat.

I think I have already addressed this... i could play it live without a backup I guess.. but why? I have several Jackson USAs. Most professionals do. This is an extremely solid instrument.. it should be- it list for like $ 1900 i think. It would make me sick playing this thing live and watching my sweat and run all over it.

Jackson is pretty good. This is a very important guitar to Jackson. I don't anticipate any problems getting it serviced if the need should arise.

20 + years playing.. this is just an extremely cool guitar. It is special to me. It is the only guitar I really couldn't part with. It means something because it is a Limited Edition Randy Rhoads guitar. I saw Randy play live when I was in JR High, to actually own a duplicate of his polka dot v is a trip. Everytime I look at it on my guitar stand I get the chills. I like to play other guitars more than this one- my old ('84) Charvel strat is real player. Overall, I really dig this guitar