1987 Jackson San Dimas Custom Shop Strat

This was my fourth guitar.  I bought it at Hot Licks Guitars sometime around 1987 or so.  Howard was selling these for really cheap - something like half off if you bought the case.  This one came out to $1,000, which was cheap for a totally custom order.  Though it was custom, it was a shop stock.  Having visited the factory a few years earlier, I knew that half off was Howard's cost on this guitar, as I had a copy of the wholesale pricing.

Between the construction of my custom Charvel and this guitar, the Charvel and Jackson name had been sold to Akai.  Whereas under the old ownership, Charvels were the bolt-on custom shop guitars, and Jacksons were the neck-thru custom shop guitars, the distinction changed to Charvel for all import guitars (made in Japan) and Jackson was the name of all custom shop guitars that were made in the USA, regardless of construction.

When I bought this guitar, I had the option of buying either this one, or a radical pink and blue snakeskin.  Part of the reason I chose this one was that it actually glows in the dark.  It was painted with phosphorescent paint, then screened and shot with the black paint for the snakeskin effect.  It was signed by Warren DiMartini from Ratt when he visited Hot Licks, but being a playing guitar, I wiped off his signature a long time ago.

This guitar had a single Jackson pickup, called a J-90C (I think C stood for ceramic, as in the magnets used for the pickup).  It also had the new Jackson bridge, which was a licensed Floyd that didn't have the top mounted fine tuners.  Rather, you would tune with the intonation screws.

This neck didn't get as tinted as my Charvel, as I had played the Charvel much more due to the neck pickup (I love neck pickups).

I sold this guitar to a guy on the Jackson Charvel Forum, I think for about $1,200.