Adrian, Janick and Dave's guitars and Steve's basses

[Batman]

Yup, still - that doesn't feel right.

Yeah signatures are mostly a rip-off.

I feel pretty good about the Jim Adkins signature I have, though, especially since it was only like $700.

Yup, that's why I'm happy that Adrian has cheap one and, some time ago, richie faulkner had epiphone signature.

 

[Kalata]

I have never seen the black SG before. A studio guitar, maybe?
View attachment 44802

Niiice. 1983 photo, when Adrian started playing the brown SG live. Probably a studio guitar, never used live(?). It's interesting to see The Three Amigos' studio guitars over the years (not used live). Do we have a full list of them?

 

[matic22]

I have never seen the black SG before. A studio guitar, maybe?
View attachment 44802

That's an SG Junior with a single P90. Probably wasn't useful for the stage due to hum.

 

[Spaldy]

 

[Ascendingthethrone]

Despite being an avid bass guitar player, I am so glad that I have no interest in collecting instruments let alone ones from my favourite band. I can’t believe the prices of these. I think I’ll just stick to my Stingray.

 

[Mandume]

I think those could've been Jackson humbuckers, same as on Adrian's Jackson. The black-humbucker cream Strat had JB-59 for sure.

I think the Les Paul Axcess still has this combo, while the HSH Strats have 2 bridge JB's.

No. I have/had a picture of Dave's CAR Jackson and the SD Logo(s) were pretty clear. It'll take me ages to dig that photo up again though, as it's on my old desktop which is currently in another country than where I'm at right now though, lol.

 

[Mandume]

It's cool that they're doing a new set of signature models, and congrats to Janick for getting one, it's well deserved. Like others mentioned, it's a shame that you basically pay a premium for the signature at the back of the headstock, as it's pretty much identical to the Vintera series in every other aspect (save for the pickups).

The Dave Murray signature is somewhat "odd" in the sense that at first look, it kind of looks like his 64 strat (which had a Lado flatmount trem back in the 80s), but unlike his 64 (which now has a Floyd Rose on it) , the headstock has a truss-rod cavity, so you can adjust the truss-rod from there (like certain Mexican Strats), which the original doesn't have (the OG also had Dimarzio Super Dist & PAF pickups, whilst this one has Seymour Duncans, but that's a fairly easy & cheap retrofit though).

 

[sea.of.madness.1986]

A question, does Jackson custom shop make San Dimas models? I would like to build a Dave Murray CAR Jackson inspired guitar (HSH, maple fretboard, black pickguard, Floyd, chrome hardware, SD pickups) but I don’t know if they make San Dimas.

Other option I have is buying an Adrian Smith Signature Jackson, paint it CAR, convert it to HSH, put chrome hardware on it, and put SD pickups on it. Is it suitable?

 

[mihai]

You should probably go with the second option. With Jackson CS, even if they do it - although I have doubts - the price would be obscene.

A question, does Jackson custom shop make San Dimas models? I would like to build a Dave Murray CAR Jackson inspired guitar (HSH, maple fretboard, black pickguard, Floyd, chrome hardware, SD pickups) but I don’t know if they make San Dimas.

Other option I have is buying an Adrian Smith Signature Jackson, paint it CAR, convert it to HSH, put chrome hardware on it, and put SD pickups on it. Is it suitable?

 

[Mateus256]

A question, does Jackson custom shop make San Dimas models? I would like to build a Dave Murray CAR Jackson inspired guitar (HSH, maple fretboard, black pickguard, Floyd, chrome hardware, SD pickups) but I don’t know if they make San Dimas.

Other option I have is buying an Adrian Smith Signature Jackson, paint it CAR, convert it to HSH, put chrome hardware on it, and put SD pickups on it. Is it suitable?

If I were you, I’d go for a Fender Player Series in CAR (about $500 used). The HSH routs are already there, so all you’ll need to do is install a Floyd, swap the pickups, and change the hardware. And if you really care about the logo, it’ll cost you less to replace it than to repaint the whole guitar

 

[Mandume]

I might have been wrong about Dave's CAR Jackson regarding the pickups. I've googled around a bit, and I've yet to find one showing pickups with SD logo's on them, I must have been thinking about another guitar. During my 15-20 minutes of "research" though, I found out that Seymour Duncan didn't start putting their "Seymour Duncan" logo on the bobbins of the pickups until around 1992-1993, which means that the ones that came before that, had no visible logo on the bobbin (the part of the pickup that you can see, basically) at all.

This means that the pickups in Dave's Jackson(s) could very well have been Seymour Duncans (or any other brand for that matter). The trick here is to look at the pole pieces. JB's have flat-head screwdriver pole pieces on the side facing the bridge, and flat pole pieces(ie non-adjustable) on the side facing the neck, like this SD JB Antiquity Pickup:

 

[Mandume]

In this excellent photo, we can observe that the pickups have no adjustable pole pieces whatsoever, so as Matic mentioned, they could be Jacksons in-house pickups, or perhaps some other brand.

 

[Mandume]

Dave's white Jackson. Note the input jack on the side (like Adrians current Jackson Signature), the smaller Jackson logo on the headstock and the enlarged cavity for the Floyd Rose (allowing one to pull up, as well as push down on it). This is the only guitar I've seen Dave play that has that type of cavity (it's fairly common on guitars nowadays), as his is usually traditionally mounted.

Adrian's holy grail with a cream Super Distortion in the bridge position:

Dave's Lado Strat:

The Ibanez Roadster Adrian Recorded Powerslave (the whole album) with:

Dave and Two of his ESP's

Dave standing next to his World Slavery (Powerslave tour) Tour amp-rig (JMP2204s , ie 50w Master Volume Heads)

Dave Rockin a Gibson SG live:

Dave and his white Fender (Japanese) Stratocaster (By 1985, this had a Lado flatmount Tremolo installed):

Now here's an interesting couple of shots, is this the 57 with a different pickguard or an entirely different guitar altogether?

Dave with his sunburst Squier which he smashed up when they "killed" eddie at the Dortmund gig in December 1983 (This photo is probably from the Bahamas when they were recording PoM. Looks like a Dimarzio X2N in the bridge position, that pickup was released in 1979. In the 2nd pic, it has been replaced with a Super Distortion)

OG 57, notice the non-stock bridge saddles which according to our earlier discussion seems to confirm that the bridge was not a bog-standard fender bridge (notice that the bridge pup is slanted, so that'd make this from aroudn 1980-1981 era):

Adrian (and Bruce!) with his SG(s):

And lastly, a guitar we haven't seen since the Killers era, Adrians Hamer Standard guitar, a really cool axe if I do say so myself:

Fingers crossed that the images are shrunk when I post this, as I don't want the post to take the space of an entire page.

 

[sea.of.madness.1986]

If I were you, I’d go for a Fender Player Series in CAR (about $500 used). The HSH routs are already there, so all you’ll need to do is install a Floyd, swap the pickups, and change the hardware. And if you really care about the logo, it’ll cost you less to replace it than to repaint the whole guitar

Sounds good, thank you for your advice mate!

 

[sea.of.madness.1986]

You should probably go with the second option. With Jackson CS, even if they do it - although I have doubts - the price would be obscene.

Yeah, price would be obscene, anyway, thanks for the advice mate!

 

[Kalata]

Steve with the other Lado bass live:

 

[matic22]

In this excellent photo, we can observe that the pickups have no adjustable pole pieces whatsoever, so as Matic mentioned, they could be Jacksons in-house pickups, or perhaps some other brand.

I'm pretty sure those are Jackson pickups, same as on Adrian's Jackson.

They could've been swapped in the mid-90 when Dave went full Seymour Duncan.

 

[matic22]

Dave's white Jackson. Note the input jack on the side (like Adrians current Jackson Signature), the smaller Jackson logo on the headstock and the enlarged cavity for the Floyd Rose (allowing one to pull up, as well as push down on it). This is the only guitar I've seen Dave play that has that type of cavity (it's fairly common on guitars nowadays), as his is usually traditionally mounted.

Adrian's holy grail with a cream Super Distortion in the bridge position:

Dave's Lado Strat:

The Ibanez Roadster Adrian Recorded Powerslave (the whole album) with:

Dave and Two of his ESP's

Dave standing next to his World Slavery (Powerslave tour) Tour amp-rig (JMP2204s , ie 50w Master Volume Heads)

Dave Rockin a Gibson SG live:

Dave and his white Fender (Japanese) Stratocaster (By 1985, this had a Lado flatmount Tremolo installed):

Now here's an interesting couple of shots, is this the 57 with a different pickguard or an entirely different guitar altogether?

Dave with his sunburst Squier which he smashed up when they "killed" eddie at the Dortmund gig in December 1983 (This photo is probably from the Bahamas when they were recording PoM. Looks like a Dimarzio X2N in the bridge position, that pickup was released in 1979. In the 2nd pic, it has been replaced with a Super Distortion)

OG 57, notice the non-stock bridge saddles which according to our earlier discussion seems to confirm that the bridge was not a bog-standard fender bridge (notice that the bridge pup is slanted, so that'd make this from aroudn 1980-1981 era):

Adrian (and Bruce!) with his SG(s):

And lastly, a guitar we haven't seen since the Killers era, Adrians Hamer Standard guitar, a really cool axe if I do say so myself:

Fingers crossed that the images are shrunk when I post this, as I don't want the post to take the space of an entire page.

The SG's... It seems like Adrian had 2 SG's by the time of World Piece tour. The woodgrains don't match at all and the 2nd one's pickups are much further apart. They probably both had Bigsbies at that point.

The first one is the one that H played again between 2005 and 2013 and AMLOAD videos. And they can both be seen in the guitar boat during DOD sessions.

 

[sea.of.madness.1986]

Dave's white Jackson. Note the input jack on the side (like Adrians current Jackson Signature), the smaller Jackson logo on the headstock and the enlarged cavity for the Floyd Rose (allowing one to pull up, as well as push down on it). This is the only guitar I've seen Dave play that has that type of cavity (it's fairly common on guitars nowadays), as his is usually traditionally mounted.

Adrian's holy grail with a cream Super Distortion in the bridge position:

Dave's Lado Strat:

The Ibanez Roadster Adrian Recorded Powerslave (the whole album) with:

Dave and Two of his ESP's

Dave standing next to his World Slavery (Powerslave tour) Tour amp-rig (JMP2204s , ie 50w Master Volume Heads)

Dave Rockin a Gibson SG live:

Dave and his white Fender (Japanese) Stratocaster (By 1985, this had a Lado flatmount Tremolo installed):

Now here's an interesting couple of shots, is this the 57 with a different pickguard or an entirely different guitar altogether?

Dave with his sunburst Squier which he smashed up when they "killed" eddie at the Dortmund gig in December 1983 (This photo is probably from the Bahamas when they were recording PoM. Looks like a Dimarzio X2N in the bridge position, that pickup was released in 1979. In the 2nd pic, it has been replaced with a Super Distortion)

OG 57, notice the non-stock bridge saddles which according to our earlier discussion seems to confirm that the bridge was not a bog-standard fender bridge (notice that the bridge pup is slanted, so that'd make this from aroudn 1980-1981 era):

Adrian (and Bruce!) with his SG(s):

And lastly, a guitar we haven't seen since the Killers era, Adrians Hamer Standard guitar, a really cool axe if I do say so myself:

Fingers crossed that the images are shrunk when I post this, as I don't want the post to take the space of an entire page.

Thank you for this, lovely photos

edit: Am I the only one who loves Davey’s white Jackson? It’s a very underrated guitar yet so cool!

 

[Mandume]

Thank you for this, lovely photos

edit: Am I the only one who loves Davey’s white Jackson? It’s a very underrated guitar yet so cool!

I love it too, gotta make a replica of that one, one of these days haha.
When I was googling pics of the CAR Jackson, I came across all these cool pics (Pinterest), so I thought I'd share 'em, it is a Guitar thread after all so I thought; "what the hell"..