Steve's Music Center wants to be your dealer for Jackson USA Guitars. We obtained the following story from an old Jackson catalog. However, we have been informed that it contains many inaccuracies. We will leave it up as is while we wait for the corrections to be made. Charvel began hot rodding production guitars by replacing their stock hardware with heavier duty components. These "souped up" models were sonically superior to their stock counterparts and their necks were incredibly playable. Like all good things, Wayne's reputation started spreading like wildfire as players such as Eddie Van Halen, Jeff Beck, Steve Vai and Allan Holdsworth started flocking to Wayne's shop. In 1977, Grover Jackson began working for Charvel and in 1978 he bought the company. Jackson realized early on that there was a market for custom "made to order" instruments. The first Charvel guitars were built in 1979. These instruments featured 22 jumbo frets, wider nuts, hotter pickups and killer paint jobs. In 1980, Jackson moved to a larger facility in San Dimas, California and met a diminutive and gifted guitarist who would solidify and showcase the professional quality of Jackson guitars - Randy Rhoads. After coming off a British tour with Ozzy Osbourne, Rhoads wanted Jackson to build him a guitar that - according to his drawings - incorporated an offset V-shaped body. Originally, it was to be named the "Concorde" and would include two humbuckers, a neck-thru body design and Jackson's now famous shark fin inlays. Being so radically different than previous Charvel guitars, Jackson decided to put his name on the headstock. With the Jackson Randy Rhoads  model, Jackson had created the definitive heavy metal guitar. Few guitarists have impacted rock music as much as Randy Rhoads. During his days with Quiet Riot and Ozzy Osbourne, Rhoads lit up the heavy metal world with his bliteringly-fast solos and intricate rhythm work. Although he was smallish in size and painfully shy, when the lights went down - Rhoads was a monster. Before the days of twin-guitar glam bands, Rhoads' endless bag of tricks and classical guitar mastery laid all other "guitar heroes" to waste. In 1983, Jackson produced its first Jackson Soloist , Kelly, and Jackson King V models. Jackson Soloist  guitars featured a more traditional offset body with unlimited hardware and pickup choices. The Soloist continues to be the standard by which all other guitars are judged. It sports a neck-thru design and the most playable neck on the market. It's the perfect tool for articulating lightning-fast licks and amped-up arpeggios. It all begins with a form-fitting contoured alder body and a heel-less neck. USA Soloists are then topped off with the blackest ebony and shark fin inlays. The Kelly and Jackson King V  models were radical departures from traditionally shapped guitars. The Kelly and King V guitars showcased supercharged electronics, lightning-fast fingerboards and the most stunning paint jobs in the world. These custom paint jobs began to define the Jackson brand as no other guitar builder could match Jackson's creativity and craftsmanship. In 1985, Grover Jackson sold the business to International Music Co. in Fort Worth, Texas and in 1986 the factory moved to Ontario, California. Fender acquired Jackson in 2003.