On December 23rd 1980, Randy Rhoads contacted Grover Jackson, then with Charvel’s Guitar Repair department, and presented a sketch of a radical new guitar body design. The resulting instrument was dubbed “the Concorde” because of its futuristic shape. This was first time the Jackson logo appeared on a guitar’s headstock. The Concorde has been called the heart from which the Jackson bloodline was created. In Guitar World Magazine’s 25 Anniversary readers poll the original Concord was voted the most iconic electric guitar ever. In celebration of Jackson’s 30th anniversary, Jackson has produced a limited edition of the Rhoads’ Concorde that replicates this historic electric guitar down to the finest detail. This was the first time the Rhoads family has actually allowed the original to be examined and measured. A number of details were revealed that were different than previously believed. The headstock and pinstrips on the Randy Rhoads guitar are actually deep metallic blue – not black, and the binding was white – not cream. The back of the original Randy Rhoads Concorde guitar was covered with black tape for the Diary of a Madman tour in which the band needed to be invisible to the audience. This run was limited to 60 guitars and I was lucky to get one reserved early on.