Jackson Guitars: A Brief History
Published on 27 November 2024
Sharkfins.
Randy Rhoads.
Pointed headstocks.
Jackson guitars have brought us so many of the things we associated with awesome hard rock guitars. They’ve been a mainstay for moshers since the 80s and their story is an interesting one.
It’s actually entwined with the stories of Charvel and Fender, so if you’re into these Californian brands, take a seat right here next to me, because we’re going for a scenic drive through the suburbs of LA!
Contents
Eddie, Randy and Birth of Jackson
The King V, the Kelly & the Dinky
Grover Leaves Jackson, and the 90s
Fender Buys Jackson, Jackson Today
The 70s
Our tale today begins with Wayne Charvel, father of Charvel guitars. Before they were ever a brand in their own right, Wayne imported parts to upgrade and repair Fender guitars. He was early to understand and take advantage of this area of business, and brought Warmoth bodies, Boogie Bodies and Gotoh hardware to the California scene in the mid 70s.
Working out of a garage in Covina (an Eastern Los Angeles suburb), Charvel built a reputation for excellent work, and expanded into offering fully built instruments.
By this point, emerging superstars of the nascent hair metal scene were frequenting Charvel for their fixes, mods and new guitars, and so Charvel took on more staff. One such man was a certain Grover Jackson…
Enter Grover Jackson
Grover Jackson started his professional guitar building career a few years prior to meeting Wayne Charvel. After making his first guitar repair in 1960 (at only eleven years old!), Jackson moved to California in 1973 to make his name as a guitarist. Whilst pursuing that, he supported himself by making repairs and working for Anvil cases, before working with Charvel as Wayne’s business partner in 1978.
Guitarists in the late 70s and early 80s were increasingly finding that ‘stock’ guitars were not giving them what they needed, and that hot-rodded modifications supplied by companies like Charvel were able to supercharge their axes to more adequately serve them.
At this point, Wayne Charvel’s business was actually in financial trouble, and Grover bought the company from Wayne, before beginning the Charvel brand of guitars in 1978. Yep, it was actually Grover Jackson who officially started the Charvel guitar brand!
From the beginning, the ethos was to provide for the specific needs of these new ‘gunslinging’ guitarists, as told by this cool quote from an early Charvel catalogue:
"Charvel Mfg. believes very strongly in individual tastes... absolutely no color or design limitations."
This set the entire tone for the company: it was whatever the player wanted, not what they were offered.
Eddie, Randy and Birth of Jackson
In 1979 with Charvel guitars in full swing, Grover built returning customer Eddie Van Halen the famous Bumblebee guitar, replicas of which are still made today by EVH.
A year later, Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Randy Rhoads approached Charvel guitars to build him some custom instruments for touring. Rhoads collaborated with Grover to design an asymmetrical V-style guitar, which they called the Concorde. The shape actually came from a drawing Rhandy had scrawled onto a napkin of a guitar shaped like a shark fin.
The initial build - a through neck style with body ‘wings’, all made from Maple - was further refined, sharpened and worked into what we know today as the Jackson Randy Rhoads. This new design took the headstock from the Gibson Explorer, sharpened the end, and became a whole new concept in guitar design.
Significantly, the Concorde (the name didn’t last) marked the entry point for Jackson guitars as a brand. Grover had concerns that the guitar’s radical shape would be offputting to his customers, so he decided to put ‘Jackson’ on the headstock rather than Charvel.
The Soloist
The 80s were the era of ostentatious shred, and Jackson were one of the dominant forces. After establishing the brand, Jackson were run in tandem with Charvel, with both companies sharing a certain sense of style and vibe but remaining distinct: Jackson moved towards a slightly more ‘out there’ identity, with exaggerated body shapes, sharkfin inlays ( a nice nod to Randy’s original ideas) and that distinctive headstock, which was already becoming iconic.
Rhoads tragically died in 1982, but his influence was such that guitarists were demanding Jackson guitars, including Jake E Lee, his replacement in the Ozzy Osbourne band. Lee was a Charvel guy and wanted to use Jackson, like many influential US shredders.
1984 saw the debut of the Jackson Soloist, a superstrat (the term was new then!) which was built utilising the same neck-through construction that was used on the Rhoads guitar. The Soloist put Jackson’s name on the map for guitarists looking for a blend of traditional and contemporary, and remained one of the company’s trademark designs.
Def Leppard’s Phil Collen took to shine to the Soloist (and continues to have a signature model), as did Scott Ian from Anthrax, who then moved to the King V.
Jackson’s domination of the hard rock and metal worlds was becoming clear.
More Famous Players
Top players took to Grover Jackson’s guitar like ducks to water, Allan Holdsworth goes for a red Charvel-branded model.
Grover lends his sunburst Charvel model to Steve Vai, who according to our recent Steve Vai Interview thought it was a gift! Vai has the guitar refinished in a bright green finish and it becomes known as the Green Meanie. Vai toured this guitar with David Lee Roth, making the instrument very famous indeed.
In 1986, Grover built a very cool Firebird-style Jackson for Slash, and a red Jackson for Vai in his role as Jack Butler in the Crossroads movie.
The King V, the Kelly & the Dinky
Many fans of 80s thrash metal such as Anthrax and Megadeth will be abundantly familiar with guitars like the Jackson Kelly and the King V. They are indelible icons of 80s metal - and whilst essentially being updates of GIbson designs from the 50s, they have their own identity and style.
Jackson King V (1985): A sharpened, meaner take on the Flying V, Jackson’s King V apparently got its name from Ratt guitarist Robbin Crosby, whose nickname was King. He was a visible user of this guitar, as was Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine (his had 24 frets, 2 more than the standard model). The King V’s design naturally facilitated very easy access to the upper frets, making it a perfect choice for lead guitarists.
Jacksohttps://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/jackson/kelly/n Kelly (1982): The Jackson Kelly is an 80s Modernist version of the Gibson Explorer. It has proved a perennially popular design and was huge in the early 90s thanks to very visible use by Marty Friedman. The Kelly and the King V are available today in a number of versions, from extremely affordable JS models to highly spec’d Pro Series models.
Jackson Dinky (1986): Debuting two years after the Soloist, the Jackson Dinky was something of a return to the types of superstrat made in the Charvel heyday. The key differences between the Dinky and the Soloist would be the bolted-on neck join (as opposed to the Soloist’s neck-through construction) and smaller ? body size. The Dinky is Jackson’s most popular guitar style, with a large number of varieties on sale today.
Grover Leaves Jackson, and the 90s
In 1989, Grover sold the Jackson and Charvel brands to IMC (international Music Company) and left Jackson altogether a year later. The brand continues to build guitars based on his designs, including a new range of Performer series guitars built in the Far East.
Jackson guitars were still popular in the 90s, but the musical landscape had been irrevocably changed by grunge. Superstrats were more niche, pointy headstocks were not automatically the coolest thing ever, and graphic finishes were seen as a bit passe.
The metal communities still wanted Jackson, though, and American-made guitars were still being manufactured alongside the Asian guitars.
Fender Buys Jackson, Jackson Today
Fender bought Jackson from IMC in 2002, and moved production of their guitars to Fender’s facilities in the US and Mexico. This has allowed Charvel to use the Fender Stratocaster headstock shape under licence from Fender (since they own them), but Jackson has mainly continued to plough their own furrow in the guitar universe.
Today, Jackson are one of the strongest ‘heavy’ brands out there. Beginners can use the pint-sized Minion guitars (cute shrunken takes on Rhoads models, Dinkies and so on) or the JS range, which is super impressive for the money. The Jackson JS range contains 7 and 8 string guitars too, taking into account the move towards extended range instruments in modern heavy music.
The Jackson X Series and the Pro Series offer a wide portfolio of classic Jackson models and more recent designs such as the Monarch. American Jackson guitars are now available again, with fresh guitars like the American Virtuoso bringing together many features favoured by Jackson fans for decades.
Across the music world, pro players still choose Jackson for their blend of elegantly aggressive curves and high performance. Jackson remain one of the most recognisable and beloved guitar brands in the world. It’s time for you to try one out!
Click to Browse our Jackson Guitars
