In July 1979, before he had ever met Ozzy Osbourne, Randy Rhoads paid Karl Sandoval $740 for a black Flying V covered in white polka dots. It had a Danelectro neck, a Fender vibrato that never really held tune, and the pickup selector up on the horn. He dropped it weeks later and split the neck. Sandoval fixed it for $75.

Eighteen months after that, two days before Christmas 1980, he spent twelve hours in a San Dimas workshop with Grover Jackson drawing a different V. Jackson thought the design was too strange for Charvel's regular customers and asked what other name they should put on the headstock. Randy shrugged and said he did not know. Jackson, maybe.

That is how Jackson Guitars got its name, and the shape they drew that night is still in production over forty years later.

The Neurotic Guitarist has already made the definitive video on all of this, and it is genuinely good. He has the archive photographs of the actual guitars, the build details, and the whole chain from the polka dot V through the Concorde to the Randy Rhoads 2. We are not going to rewrite his research when you can just watch it.