Superb JACKSON King V Model Review

The King V is an electric guitar made by Jackson Guitars based on the Gibson Flying V. The Jackson King V was originally designed for Robbin Crosby of Ratt and he popularized the guitar throughout the 80s. Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine eventually became the guitarist most identified with using this model. After creating a custom King V for Mustaine (completed October 10th, 1986), the company later began mass-producing a Dave Mustaine Signature Series King V, which would become one of their best selling guitars. This line continued into the early 2000s, when it underwent massive changes and became the Y2KV, a guitar based much more heavily on the Gibson Flying V. Mustaine then sold his entire personal collection of Jacksons, and subsequently signed endorsement deals with ESP Guitars then Dean Guitars.

Variants of the King V

Listed below is the range of King V models.

King V Custom

From start to 1990 this was the name for a King V with sharkfin inlays, neck binding and ebony fretboard. Pickup and bridge options were anything the purchaser wanted.
  

King V Student

Same as above, but with dot inlays, no binding, and rosewood fretboard.

KV1 (no longer in production) 

The KV1 is a Dave Mustaine signature model and is the first commercially-sold model of the King V. Previously known as the King V Pro, the KV1 supersedes the King V Pro and eliminated the Cherryburst finish in favor of a natural Korina wood finish. The tuners were replaced with LSR locking tuners as well. The end-points were shortened from the prototype created for Robbin Crosby as it was created as a "Double-Rhoads" which has a longer point than this model (The "Double-Rhoads" has 2 equal length long points). All other variants below stemmed from this design. USA-made versions of this guitar are highly-coveted by metal guitarists and are typically difficult to locate for sale.

Y2KV (no longer in production)

The Y2KV is a Dave Mustaine signature model and differs from all other King Vs in that it has rounded ends which seem similar to that of the Gibson Flying V.

KV2

The KV2 is a variant of the King V which comes under the 'USA Select Series' of Jackson Guitars. The body is made of alder and is intersected by a neck-thru quartersawn maple neck with ebony fingerboard. It has Neck and Bridge humbucking pickups, both from Seymour Duncan, which are both the JB model. This model has 24 frets and a 2-point double locking Floyd Rose tremolo and is constructed in the US. The KV2 is one of the 2 USA Select Series guitars (alongside the KE2) built with the "Jackson Speed Neck" profile, a slim neck thickness for a fast playability.

KV2T

The KV2T is a variant of the King V which comes under the 'USA Select Series' of Jackson Guitars. The body is made of mahogany and is intersected by a three piece neck-thru quartersawn mahogany neck with ebony fingerboard. It has neck and bridge humbucking pickups, both from Seymour Duncan, with a JB in the bridge and a '59 in the neck. This model has 24 frets but what is unique to this particular model is that it has a string through body, 'shark eye' fretboard inlay, an abalone Jackson logo on the headstock, the headstock itself is an SLS type rather than the traditional concorde Jackson headstock and has Sperzel locking tuners. Also to note is that the body is a flat top and lacks the bevels of the other Jackson King Vs. The guitar is also a 24 3/4" scale rather than the 25.5" scale that other Jackson King Vs have, though it was originally produced in a 25.5" scale.

KV3

The KV3 was produced in 98-01 in Japan. Features Duncan Designed pickups, Jackson JT580LP Tremolo , 22 frets, 1x volume, 1x tone, 1x 3way toggle, sharktooth inlays, bolt on maple neck, poplar body. Mother of pearl inlaid rosewood fret board. The jack output was situated upon the upper wing, just like in more expensive series.

KV4

Since 2001, features Seymour Duncan pickups, Jackson JT580LP Tremolo, 24 frets, 1x volume,1x tone, 1x 3way toggle, sharktooth inlays, neck-thru body.

KV5

This is a Japanese made 'mid range' variant for the King V. The body is made of Alder and is intersected by a neck-thru quartersawn maple neck with rosewood fingerboard. It has Neck and Bridge humbucking pickups, both from Seymour Duncan. This model has 24 frets and a 2-point double locking Floyd Rose tremolo.

KVX10

Made on Basswood. the pickups are Duncan Designed HB-103B in the bridge position and an HB-102N in the neck position. The standard model has 24 frets and a Floyd Rose Licensed Jackson low profile tremolo. This model is built in Japan.

JS30KV

The JS30KV is a variant of the King V which comes under the 'JS series'; the entry-level series of Jackson Guitars. The body is made of Indian Cedro, connected to the maple neck, which is bolt-on. The fingerboard is made from Rosewood. The guitar has 24 frets and Jackson humbucking pickups. The bridge is an adjustable string-through-body, Jackson JT390 specification. This model is built in India.

Jenna Jameson Model (no longer in production)

The Jenna Jameson model is an altered KVX10. The model is limited edition and features a Jenna Jameson graphic on the body, her signature below one of the humbuckers and a copy of her 'Heart-breaker' tattoo inlaid at the 12th fret. This model features an adjustable string-through-body bridge and slightly superior humbuckers like the older KVX10 model (pre-2006).

25th Anniversary Model (no longer in production)

The 25th Anniversary Model was announced to coincide with Jackson Guitars' 25th Anniversary, 2006. Two guitars were released, one a limited edition Kelly, the other a limited edition King V. The King V comes in Mercedes Silver only and is hand-signed by Mike Shannon, Senior Master Builder at the Jackson Custom Shop. The body is made from Poplar and is intersected by a quartersawn maple neck-thru three-piece neck. The fingerboard is made from ebony and has 22 frets. The guitar has neck and bridge humbucking pickups, both made by Seymour Duncan. The bridge is an original Floyd Rose 2 point double locking tremolo. This guitar was built in the Jackson custom shop and only 25 units were made.

Demmelition King V

The newest guitar in the King V line and the first signature model since the KV1, the Demmelition King V is the signature guitar model for guitarist Phil Demmel of Machine Head. Demmelition King Vs however are not built like traditional King Vs, as they have two cutaways in each wing on the guitar (designed by Demmel himself). The guitar has an alder body, a maple neck, a 24 fret ebony fretboard with mother of pearl sharkfin inlays, an original Floyd Rose tremolo, EMG 81 active pickup at the bridge and an EMG 60 active pickup at the neck. The Demmelition King V is also factory tuned to Drop B tuning, the same tuning Demmel uses on most Machine Head songs (some are in C# Standard, such as Aesthetics Of Hate). It is available in three color schemes (black with silver bevels, white with black bevels, and red with black bevels).

Jackson Randy Rhoads ( former Ozzy's Guitarist )

The Jackson Randy Rhoads was the electric guitar that was originally commissioned by guitarist Randy Rhoads, and is now produced by Jackson Guitars.

Originally, this guitar was to be called The Original SIN. His second Flying V, which was black with a silver pickguard and string-thru body bridge, was going to be called the Concorde. Randy re-designed these newer 'Concordes' or production models with a longer "horn" because he felt too many people were relating his white Pinstripe V to a Flying V; he wanted to produce a guitar that bore more resemblance to a shark's fin. His V's both had maple bodies with maple thru body necks. Also, the smaller amount of wood on the treble side of the strings could be shaped to give more treble to those strings. This guitar features Grover locking tuners and a pair of Seymour Duncan humbucking pickups, a TB-4 (bridge) and a SH-2 (neck). The SIN had a standard blocked vintage-style tremolo. The vibrato is of very high quality; and the pickups are designed to capture the treble more efficiently than a normal guitar.

It features a pair of humbucking pickups (not always the case, as seen on the Kevin Bond Signature model and new RR24 model), and often a Floyd Rose tremolo. The fingerboard has flattened frets, to ease the user's playing if playing fast. The guitar usually has 22 frets, but in certain series, it is featured as a 24 fret model for an extra pitch range. The headstock is typical Jackson and some series have a reversed headstock for a slight upcharge.

This model was Jackson Guitars' first model. It was, and still is, a very popular model that put the Jackson name on the map. When Rhoads commissioned his guitar from Charvel, company president Grover Jackson had his name put on the headstock of the custom model instead of Charvel. Grover originally produced two prototype Concordes that Randy received (the first white Concorde and the Black and Brass Concorde). Randy had ordered 4 in total but died before receiving the other two (another string-thru (accidentally sold at NAMM) and another black-and-brass Concorde (pictured at right) with a tremolo and reverse inlays (the first to have reverse inlays)). These other two Concorde's were held in an incomplete state waiting for Randy to give feedback about the tone and play of the prototypes before completing them. Tragically, Randy was killed in a plane crash before he could give Grover any feedback about the guitars.

Users

Vinnie Vincent of Kiss was the first guitarist to be offered an early Rhoads guitar by Jackson after Rhoads' death (Rhoads had received two of his own models, one in black and one in white (with gold hardware), and never really became famous for it at the time), Vinnie Vincent used it on the Kiss Creatures of the Night and Lick It Up tours from 1982 until 1984. Once Vinnie left Kiss he modified the Rhoads V design, adding a second shadow V at an offset angle behind the front V. Jackson made at least 3 of these Vinnie Vincent modified Rhoads Vs from 1985 to 1988 for Vinnie (and about 25 others were custom ordered and sold) and later the design was copied by Carvin, Ibanez and Washburn Guitars for Vinnie Vincent.

In 2001, Alexi Laiho and Roope Latvala (currently guitarists of Children of Bodom, but at the time Latvala was in Sinergy alongside Laiho) had a deal with Jackson to produce their line of signature RR's, which had specs of alder bodies, bolt-on necks, 24 frets with a rosewood fretboard, black with yellow bevels, and a Jackson JT580LP Floyd Rose bridge. This guitar was called the Jackson Randy Rhoads L/L (L/L stands for Latvala/Laiho). However, neither guitarist was allowed a guitar for his own use, and both only got to play the guitar for promotional purposes.

Other noted users of this model include:

• Randy Rhoads (of Ozzy Osbourne)
• Kirk Hammett (of Metallica)
• Claude Robberts (of Killatoria)
• Phil Demmel (of Machine Head)
• Matthew Tuck (of Bullet for My Valentine)
• Mille Petrozza (of Kreator)
• Corey Beaulieu (of Trivium)
• Matt Drake (of Evile)
• Galder (of Old Man's Child and Dimmu Borgir)
• Silenoz (of Dimmu Borgir)
• Alexi Laiho (of Children Of Bodom)
• Roope Latvala (of Children Of Bodom and Stone)
• Phillip Ponomar (of The Crusade)
• Al Corpse (of The Crusade)
• Phil Campbell (of Motörhead)
• Adrian Smith (of Iron Mairden)
• Dan Spitz (of Anthrax)
• Enrik Garcia (of Dark Moor)
• Marty Friedman (former Megadeth) though he is better known for the kelly model
• Kevin Bond (of Superjoint Ritual)
• Silvio Stefanucci (of Clown)
• Sam Totman (of Dragonforce)
• Daron Malakian (of System Of A Down - only in the studio)
• Mikael Akerfeldt and Peter Lindgren (of Opeth) - on Orchid, Morningrise and My Arms, Your Hearse
• Samoth (of Emperor and Zyklon)
• Mauro Zuccaccia (of Meuroz)
• Kristian Ranta (of Norther)
• Hamish Glencross (of My Dying Bride)
• Mike Mahoney (of Free The Fallen)
• Pat O'Brien (of Cannibal Corpse)
• Jason Gobel (of Cynic)
• Oscar Dronjak (of HammerFall)
• Matt Bellamy (of Muse) - he only used it for one gig to play Stockholm Syndrome, throwing it into the crowd afterwards.
• Andy Bolzenthal (of From a Tyrant)
• Swad Akram (of Abhijukto)
• Michael Bohlin (of PAIN)
• Lord K Philipsson (of The Project Hate MCMXCIX)
• Ryan Crowder
• Michael Ray (of Drawbridge)
• Tim Dailey
• Michael Sweet (of Stryper)
• Ashmedi (of Melechesh)
• Christian Muenzner (of Obscura)
• Oni Hasan (of Warfaze)

Models

Jackson currently has 12 different models in production. Below is a list under the Series which Jackson Guitars has classed them.

USA Select Series

The basic model in the USA Select Series is the RR1. The RR1 is made of alder with a maple neck-thru design neck. The fretboard has 22 jumbo frets and is made from ebony. The RR1 is equipped with two Seymour Duncan humbuckers and a Floyd Rose original 2 point double locking tremolo at the bridge. The RR1 has four variations:

• RR1 : The standard Randy Rhoads guitar.
• RR1T: An RR1 with an adjustable string-through-body bridge.
• RR1 Left-Handed: Left Handed version of the RR1.
• RR1T Left-Handed: Left Handed version of the RR1T.

Pro Series

The Pro series is the medium to high-end series of made in Japan Jacksons. There are currently five different models of the Jackson Rhoads in the Pro Series:

• RR3: The RR3 has a body made from alder and a neck made from maple. The neck is bolt-on and has a rosewood fingerboard with 22 frets. This model has neck and bridge Seymour Duncan humbuckers and a Floyd Rose licensed, low profile, double locking tremolo.

During 2007, a limited run of 200 were made in white with black pinstripes, similar to the finish found on the RR5. These featured the Seymour Duncan pick-ups and Floyd Rose tremolo of the standard RR3.

• RR5: The RR5 has a body made from alder and a neck made from maple. The main difference between this and the RR3 is the neck-thru design featured on this model. The RR5 also has gold hardware and an adjustable fixed bridge.

• RR5FR: The RR5FR is the same as the RR5 except it has a Floyd Rose FRT-O2000 tremolo bridge, black hardware as opposed to gold and comes in black, ivory or pink pearl finishes.

• RR24: The RR24 has a body made from alder and neck made from maple. It has an Ebony fretboard with Sharkfin inlays. This model is mainly different from both the RR3 and RR5 because it is a 24 fret guitar. It has a neck-thru body construction and comes with an Original Floyd Rose. The model has only one pickup (EMG 81) in the bridge position and a single volume control.This model is also a custom guitar that includes a custom color. Eric Dietzel from Massacre has a black with red bovels jackson with the red jackson headstock. This guitar is very similar to the custom made RR-LL models ordered by Alexi Laiho and Roope Latvala, of which only 60 were made and all sold in Finland (excluding to Laiho and Latvala, who both had their own unique custom RR's made). Unlike the RR24, they had bolt-on necks, Mother of Pearlinlays, gold colored hardware and a Jackson JT580LP Floyd Rose bridge. Laiho and Latvala later switched to ESP Guitars in 2003.

• RR24M: The RR24M is the same as the RR24, but has a maple fretboard as opposed to the traditional ebony fretboard.

Pro Series Artist Signature

• Kevin Bond signature. This model has 22 jumbo frets, is made from mahogany and has a neck-thru body. The Humbucker is a Seymour Duncan "Iommi" humbucker. The bridge is an adjustable string-through-body with a Schaller fine-tuning tailpiece. The Jackson logo is blood red.

• Matt Tuck signature. This model has 22 jumbo frets, has a neck-thru body made from alder, and a neck-thru body rock maple with scarf joint head stock . The Humbuckers are an EMG 81 humbucker in the bridge, and an EMG 85 humbucker in the neck position. The bridge is a JT390 adjustable string-through-body with Sperzel locking die-cast tuners. This is the only current model with a reversed headstock.

X Series

The X series RX10D has an Alder body with a maple bolt-on neck. The Rosewood fingerboard has 22 frets. The pickups are both Seymour Duncan Designed humbuckers. The bridge is a Jackson double locking tremolo.

JS Series

The JS30RR is from the entry level group of made in India Jacksons. The body is made from Indian cedro and has a bolt-on maple neck. It has two Jackson pickups and an adjustable string-through-body bridge. The rosewood fretboard has an unusual, for RRs, 24 frets.Also jackson had the JS35RR which was the same as the JS30RR but the only difference was that it had a floyd rose tremolo, but this was discontinued in 2000. There is now a new model similar to the JS30RR but with Sharkfin inlays. It's called JS32T Rhoads