Jackson USA
Jackson Soloist Custom:
If you know anything about Jackson guitar history and some of their early players, you know what this is (almost what this is). I met Jeff Hanneman during some radio contest deal my then girlfriend brought me to in 1986. I was 15 – couldn’t even drive to the concert. This was the Reign in Blood tour, and Slayer had Motorhead and Overkill on the bill (I met Lemmy that night too – he was way cool). While I was backstage meeting Slayer, my brother was stabbed leaving the show by some a-holes that wanted his newly purchased Slayer concert T-shirt. 40+ stitches and a night in the ER, and probably a few years off my mom’s life due to her worrying, but he was fine.
Anyway, when I told Jeff I was going to order a Jackson like his, he was pretty indifferent about it, but then I was just some punk kid at a radio station meet-and-greet. WTF did he care…but Slayer was my favorite band. I did get a Soloist Custom that year, but opted for red instead…loved the guitar but eventually hated the color and sold it in the 90’s.
20 years later I made contact with Jeff’s manager through a mutual friend, and through him I sent a very, very high offer to buy his Jackson, but he wasn’t selling. Later, I read that his Jackson was ruined during the making of the “Bloodline” video when they dumped fake blood on it. I don’t really care for replicas but since I couldn’t buy his…
This guitar came up locally 5 years ago as just a black San Dimas Soloist Custom, so I grabbed it. My intention was to have a replica like Jeff’s built. It already had the Kahler, and I had plenty of EMG’s…but no time to find all those damned stickers. I paid someone to take care of it for me. This guitar is the finished product. The stickers aren’t stickers, and the work is protected by clear coat of some sort for a smooth finish that will last a lifetime. The total to make it a very, very close replica cost me nearly 3x what the damn guitar originally cost, but to me it was worth it. Slayer was the band that got me into extreme music, and Jeff wrote their best stuff. RIP Hanneman.
