DoctorPaul's Guitar Emporium

1987 Jaydee 'Hooligan'

"Angus"

#77248

 

John Diggins.

 

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You know ... John Diggins.

 

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JOHN DIGGINS? ... John ... THE John Diggins?  What do you MEAN "Who?"

 

Come on then ... hands up if you don't know who he is.  Be honest.  Anyone ever heard of him?  Maybe that's the problem.  Whereas most modern luthiers generate business by getting out there and stirring up the shit about how awesome their gear is, Mr Diggins does no such thing.  If you ask him nicely (and throw a briefcase stuffed full of used cash at him), he'll build you a guitar.  And it will be very nice.  But he'll do it on his terms, which is fine ... you've gotta respect that.

 

In the past few decades, some quite renowned folks have asked him nicely to build them a guitar.  They include Angus Young (AC/DC ... duh), Malcolm Young (also AC/DC), Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Geezer Butler (also Black Sabbath), Mark King (Level 42), Tony Clarkin (Magnum) and Brian Tatler (Diamond Head).  So we're in good company here!  Oh, and Roy Orbison.

 

I've read up on the history of Jaydee, and it appears that John used to work for Tony Iommi, and, after fixing God-knows how many of his guitars, ended up making him one from scratch ... on his kitchen table of all places.  Anyway, it must have been BLOODY good, as Iommi has used it ever since ... callign it his "Old Boy".  It's been retured for a few years now (from touring duties at least), as Iommi says it is "too precious" to mess about with.  Praise indeed.  Similarly, John repaired a few of Angus' guitars, and ended up undertaking a full rebuild of one of his favourite SGs ... the one with the lighting bolt inlays.  The extent of the rebuild was apparently quite severe, to the extent that the only thing that was saved from the old guitar wa the headstock veneer and the Gibson logo ... Angus played that Jaydee guitar at the 1984 'Monsters of Rock' festival at Donnington, five minutes after being handed it by John.

 

So, he makes great guitars, but he certainly doesn't make MANY guitars, which is why these things are as rare as rocking-horse shit sprinkled with powdered unicorn horn. Now don't misunderstand me here, I absolutely will not buy a guitar just because of rarity ... far from it ... some guitars are rare because they were shit and therefore sold very poorly.  But this?  This is rare for an entirely different set of reasons.  This has lineage.  It has pedigree.  It's a proper thoroughbred amongst guitars. 

 

Jaydee have confirmed that this is real.  By that I mean they have confirmed that John made it ... it's obviously a real guitar.  They also reckon that it was finished on 10 September 1987.  I guess that is pretty inpressive book-keeping, when you consider that he made it nearly 30 years ago.  Excellent.

 

So, it's a bolt-on affair, with a maple neck and a thick slab rosewood board.  The headstock is pretty individual, and is marked "Jaydee Custom Guitars" and "Hooligan", with a logo of some cartoon geezer playing a guitar ... maybe I'm reading too much into it, but the logo is kinda reminiscent of the 'Angus' logo on his signature Gibson.  Whatever.  The tuners are old-school Schallers, and do the job (but look a little odd next to a Floyd lock nut). There's a traditional Strat-type neck joint, and the fit of the neck heel in the neck cavity is as tight as Cameron Diaz's g-string.  The body is a lovely sculpted Strat-ish shape, although altogether less angular and clunky ... rather like a more 'refined ' Strat.  And LOOK at the forearm contour ... very aggressive and swoopy ... I like it.  I like it a lot.  The body wood is mahogany by the way, and the maple neck has a VERY pronounced 'V' profile, reminiscent of old Fenders. 

 

The setup is simple ... two humbuckers with master volume, master tone and a three way.  Easy.  The pups (Christ knows what they are) sound STELLAR ... not too powerful, but certainly enough to drive a valve amp front end, and RAMMED to the rafters with mids and harmonics.  Very nice.  Everything looks to be original in the control cavity, so it is staying exactly as it is. 

 

The Floyd?  Well, I was a little perturbed looking at the photographs prior to delivery ... the saddles have a chamfer at the rear edge, which points to it being an import (non-German) Floyd ... probably meaning that some bugger had swapped out an 80's German Floyd and replaced it with a cheaper one.  When it arrived, however, it became clear that the chamfers are HUGE ... way larger than you'd ever see on an import Floyd.  Very odd.  Regardless, the trem is VERY solid and holds tune perfectly, so I suppose that the details are little more than garnish.

 

This is a WONDERFUL guitar to play.  It's light and responsive, and the frets and fingerboard are smooth as silk.  Fantastic.  It is very, very tempting to throw an order for an SG at Mr Diggins ... but the reality is that they're completely snowed under with back-orders (with a 16 month waiting list!), and I'm far too impatient to WAIT for gear.

 

I can see now why Angus and Iommi are so fond of these things!