By far my favorite and the one I’ve put the most miles on, this 1986 Jackson “San Dimas” Soloist started out Candy Apple Red with all gold hardware, and I bought it from Marguerites Music in Moorhead, Minnesota.
It cost around $2,500, and at the time that was more money than I could dream of. But after scraping together every dime and nickel I could from gigs, odd jobs, giving blood, and being nice to lonely old ladies in their 40’s, I brought it home with me… and hated it!
It sounded awful and was so hard to play that it was relegated to being my spare guitar. One night I had to use it, and as I picked it up, I knocked a big chunk of paint off it. I was so mad that my expensive, useless guitar was scratched, that I beat the hell out of it while I played it for the rest of that set.
Afterward, Geno the sound man came up and said “Holy shit, that is the best-sounding guitar I have ever heard!” I thought he was giving me crap until I listened back to the tape and there it was – a sound like no other guitar. I just had to play it like an angry madman.
Over the years it got new EMG pickups and electronics, and it has been re-fretted three times because I wore them out. The headstock was broken off twice while doing on-stage acrobatics, but I swear it sounded better after it was glued back together.
I probably played this on more recordings than any other and it’s just been my bud for all these years.
