“Delivers on all fronts heavy and looks phenomenal whilst doing so”: Jackson X Series Rhoads RRX24 review

Despite its ergonomic shortcomings, if you want a fast-playing guitar that looks great on stage, the Jackson X Series Rhoads RRX24 is excellent value for money. A fast-playing neck and ultra-high output pickups make it a proper modern metal machine.

Despite a fleeting career in music, Randy Rhoads had a huge impact on the guitar as we know it today. His technical prowess, influenced by his early days in classical guitar made him a defining figure of shred guitar, helping to massively influence the genre alongside contemporaries like EVH.

The original Jackson Rhoads was actually the first guitar sold under the Jackson name but was still in the prototype stage when Rhoads died, so he never got to give his feedback on it. His idea for the elongated, ‘shark fin’ top horn of the V-shape remains and the overall design is his, but the regular humbuckers have been changed and there’s now a locking tremolo where Randy had a vintage-style tremolo, or just a plain hardtail.

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Matt is a Junior Deals Writer here at Guitar World. He regularly tests and reviews music gear with a focus on guitars, amps, pedals, modelers, and pretty much anything else guitar-related. Matt worked in music retail for 5 years at Dawsons Music and Northwest Guitars and has written for various music sites including MusicRadar, Guitar Player, Guitar.com, Ultimate Guitar, and Thomann’s t.blog. A regularly gigging guitarist with over 20 years of experience playing live and writing and recording in bands, he’s performed everything from jazz to djent, gigging all over the country in more dingy venues than you can shake a drop-tuned guitar at.