Phil Demmel’s first-ever Jackson guitar has a hell of a backstory – and he’s just honoured it with a Polka Dot King V signature model
Former Machine Head and Vio-lence guitarist Phil Demmel has partnered with Jackson on a new Polka Dot-finished signature King V model, which pays tribute to the first-ever Jackson guitar he owned.
That guitar – an early Randy Rhoads signature model – was acquired via some “sketchy means”, as he explains.
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“It was the Randy model, the first Randy Rhoads model, the white one, and there was one available,” Demmel recalls. “We did a trade, but evidently he owed some money or something.
“So I ended up [playing a] sold-out show in Oakland [with] Vio-lence. I get called off the stage, and the guy whose guitar it was had the cops pull me off and get his guitar back.”
He goes on: “My dad, who was a cop back in the day, came up to see what had happened. The kid got his guitar back, they let me go, the band is already playing without me, they don’t care. I stage dive, get back on, grab a guitar and finish the set.”
While Demmel lost possession of that white Randy Rhoads model, he later acquired another, the RR1 in black, which he says he still owns to this day. I’ll never forget my first Jackson,” he says.
Credit: Jackson
As for the specs of his new Jackson signature model – the Phil Demmel KV King V – the guitar features a mahogany body with a three-piece through-body maple neck with graphite reinforcement, a 12”-16” compound radius ebony fingerboard with 24 jumbo frets, a Floyd Rose double-locking bridge and a set of EMG 81/60 humbuckers.
Other features include pearloid sharkfin inlays and a black-and-white Polka Dot finish which wraps the entirety of the body including the neck and headstock.
Credit: Jackson
“I’ve always been a King V guy,” Demmel says. “The departure into the Fury was something super cool. Creating the tribute to Randy Rhoads with the polka dots back in 2009 was something special, so it’s nice to be able to pay homage with this limited series to share that with everybody.”
The Phil Demmel KV King V has an MSRP of £1,499. For more information, head to Jackson.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
