1997 Jackson Roswell Rhoads - Aluminum - RSW101 - Mint - Collectors Condition
The guitar is in mint unplayed condition. Collector owned and kept in its case its entire life. If you are looking at it I am sure you know what it is and how rare these are to find in any condition let alone mint.
I changed the strings on it to verify all the LSR tuner are in working condition which they are. I have included photos of the guitar without the strings as well. I checked the electronics and they also are in perfect working order.
Included with the guitar is everything shown: Original Jackson case with key, Owners Manual, warranty card with matching serial number, Jackson tag with serial number and manufacture date of 2/7/97, D'Addario hang tag, LSR tuner instruction sheet, strap locks and adjustment tool.
As a bonus you will also receive a Jackson catalog from 97 featuring this model, an original ad from Guitar Magazine featuring this model, and 5 Roswell Alien picks from EBE Universal celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Roswell incident in 1947.
Weight at 9 lbs 4.2 oz
The cost for UPS shipping within the Continental U.S. is $250
Worldwide shipping is available. Please contact me for an exact shipping cost prior to making a purchase.
Please note that this listing may be removed at any time if the item is sold on my website or other online marketplace. Thank you for your understanding.
I welcome offers on all listings. For any inquiries, trade proposals or any other questions, please feel free to reach out to me directly at kevin@kevinswallofsound.com. Thank you!
Return Policy
We strive to ensure your complete satisfaction with your purchase. If an item arrives damaged or does not match the description provided, we will issue a refund for the purchase amount upon receipt of the returned item.
To facilitate a smooth return process, we kindly ask that buyers inspect the item within 48 hours of delivery to confirm its condition and accuracy. Thank you for your understanding and support.
Below is taken from Music Zoo, A History Of The Jackson Roswell Rhoads Guitar.
Alien abductions. They always seem to happen the same way. You are tucked safely into your bed, drifting off into dreamland then… WHAMMO! your body is strapped down to an examination table inside a spacecraft and you’re face to face with a weird, glowing humanoid holding a probe. Uh oh. Wouldn’t it be nice if instead of scars and life-long nightmares, the aliens brought us awesome new guitars? Enter the Jackson Roswell Rhoads, the legendary all-aluminum guitar from the 1990s that is as rare as a real UFO sighting. It’s unlike any guitar you’ve ever seen before.
We’d like to share some history with you on this crazy guitar that has become implanted in our imaginations at The Music Zoo (we’ve even built some of our own Jackson Roswell-inspired guitars). In the mid-1990s, Charles Perrino – marketing director for Jackson/Charvel at that time, as well as a huge alien and sci-fi buff – woke up one during the night with a clear vision of a brand new guitar design. It came from a dream, he said. A lot of the information about the creation of the Roswell is anecdotal, and we owe a big thanks to Tim Wilson who was instrumental in putting together this history. Tim began his career at Charvel/Jackson in 1979 as Grover Jackson’s primary woodworker, eventually rising through the ranks to become the plant manager of US operations from 1992 until his retirement in 2007. He now builds instruments in his own shop for Sugi Guitars of Japan as well as making his own brand of ‘TP Wilson’ guitars.
Now, we are going to reveal some of the secrets of this infamous guitar that came to us from a mysterious, faraway place. Tim provided us the following transcript of a conversation he had with Mike Johnson, who was Charles Perrino’s assistant in the mid-’90s:
[TW]: Do you remember what he told you about the dream?
[MJ]: Not really… it was something about a futuristic guitar floating in outer space.
Did he sit down and draw a sketch or something?
No. He just told me about his idea. Kind of described it to me. I had just gotten Autocad on my computer, so I started designing stuff.
So the shape of the body was your idea? It looks a little like the old Star Trek logo that they had on their polo shirts, you know, the old show from the Sixties. Was that intentional or did it just pop out that way?
It just came out like that. There was a sports show on ABC that had something similar in the corner of the screen. Maybe it came from there.
What about the pickup? It was a Tom Holmes, wasn’t it?
Charles had this pickup sitting around with a nickel cover, so we stuck it on there because we thought it looked cool. There really wasn’t much thought about whether or not it was a Tom Holmes.
That pickup turned out to be the right choice, it was a high output design that really lent to the ‘metal’ image of the guitar. What about the tuners?
Yeah, we put LSR’s on it because the were so space-agey, it really fit the vibe.
Who came up with the idea for the inlays? I know they were done by Dwight England of Custom Inlay in Kentucky. I seem to remember sitting down at a computer downloading pictures of crop circles from the internet and sending them to him…
I don’t really remember, that’s kind of vague. You know, this was just meant to be a concept guitar at first. Kind of like those cars that Detroit puts out for a trade show, never really intending to actually make them. We put it on the cover of the catalog and took it to NAMM. We were blown away by the response, everybody wanted one. So yeah, we thought if people were willing to pay for it, we should make a few.
I remember we made them in small batches, like 15-20 at a time. We’d finish one batch and have to make another. In the end I think we made about 100 of them.
Really? It was that many?
Yup. Do you remember that teenage band in the nineties, Hansen? I remember seeing pictures of them playing one at a show.
No, I don’t remember the Hansen thing. But we did give one to Marty Friedman…
Tim also provided us with the following technical information about the Roswells:
The aluminum bodies and pegheads were CNC’d by a company called Numericon in the San Fernando Valley. The inside is hollowed out to reduce the weight:
In spite of the aluminum design, the guitar weighs in at around 8-1/2 pounds, about the same as a Les Paul, so it’s not as bad as you might think. The large back plate was glued in with silicone, not meant to be removed. You could do some damage if you try to take it off. After getting the bodies from Numericon, they were scuffed to remove as much of the machining marks as possible, then they were sent out for clear anodizing. Aluminum will give off a black smudge on your hands if you don’t do that. All the guitars were done this same way except for one– #RSW057, which was gold anodized instead of clear… sure would like to know where that one is! The necks were made in-house at Jackson, and the peghead was attached with a clever tongue-and-groove system: