I’ve often thought of Randy Rhoads as the Robert Johnson of heavy metal. Such a diminutive man cast such a long shadow, influencing generation after generation of metal players with a very short body of work.
Apart from Randy’s incendiary playing and molten-metal lead tone, his other big legacy is in the form of the Jackson Rhoads V. The radical shape, supposedly inspired by that of the Concorde supersonic plane, and its shred-ready high performance set the standard for 80s lead guitar and beyond.
Jackson have expanded the Rhoads V brand into their Minion line, with this lovely short scale guitar built for traveling players or junior shredders ready to embrace Randy’s legacy with both hands.
Sneak Peek
A short-scale Rhoads V that looks wild, plays fast, and bends like butter on lighter strings. Clean tones are relatively weak, but with distortion it delivers a fun, shreddy sound — especially on the neck pickup.
Diary of a Shredman
First things first: when I picked up this guitar, it looked positively ridiculous. I’m a little over six feet tall, a little over two hundred pounds, and this short scale guitar looked like a toy on me.
It’s quite the opposite effect to how Randy Rhoads used to look, where the guitar was comically big on his diminutive frame. I felt like reverse Randy!
The 22.5 inch scale length is noticeably shorter than that of the full size Rhoads V at 25.5 inches, the same as that of a Stratocaster. I’m mostly used to the Gibson’s 24.75 inch length, so wrapping my hands around this little guitar felt more than a bit silly at first.
Once I passed that initial hurdle, however, I was very happy playing this guitar. The Rhoads V, with its shorter lower horn, is more comfortable to play while seated than a standard Gibson Flying V. You still have to play somewhat “classical style” with the guitar more vertical than horizontal, however, if you want to play while sitting down.
The frets are much closer together than I’m used to. On one hand, that means it’s possible to do some truly incredible stretches. I managed to play some of Randy’s tapped licks like on “Mr Crowley” with one hand!
On the other, as I get further up the neck, the frets are so close together as to become almost unplayable. It took a lot of concentration to accurately hit the notes I wanted to past the fifteenth fret. The whole point of a V-style guitar, for me, is upper fretboard access, so this almost defeats the purpose.
However, for those with smaller, more nimble hands than mine, I can’t see this being an issue.
The intonation and action on the guitar were just fine when I picked it up, which is a great sign.
The shorter scale length did have one other major effect on my playing: the strings felt much, much more malleable than I’m used to. I put on a set of .10 gauge strings and they felt like I was playing cooked spaghetti.
On one hand, I could deliver some crazy wide bends and super aggressive vibrato. On the other, it made bending strings out of tune by accident much too easy.
However, I managed to solve this problem by switching to .11 gauge strings, so it’s not insurmountable.
All about the Sound
I’ve played a few Jackson guitars equipped with the in-house pickups, and they all have similar tone profiles.
Jackson RR Minion JS1X - Pickups
In short, the clean sound is nothing to write home about. It’s not terrible, but I certainly wouldn’t gig or record with it. The neck pickup offered a smoother response, but the low end was enough that I could barely make out any notes in a six-note chord.
You certainly couldn’t do elaborate extended chords with this guitar.
However, this guitar isn’t built for clean playing: it desperately wants to turn up and rock out!
With that in mind, I cranked the drive, and got what I wanted. The pickups are noticeably noisy, but the dirty sound is much better than the clean tone. It’s still a little muddy for my liking, even on the bridge pickup. I tried out a few riffs in Drop D and too much of the note got lost for my liking.
The neck pickup, however, was a joy to play for leads. I actually found that this little guitar sounds best with a distorted tone, playing the neck pickup but picking nice and hard close to the bridge.
This technique adjustment helped balance out some of the inherent muddiness of these Jackson pickups.
Build Quality
Overall, the quality of this guitar is what I’d expect for the price point. It’s an affordable instrument. It’s not supposed to compete with top-of-the-line Jacksons.
Compared to other guitars in this price range, it plays better. It stays in tune, the intonation is right, and the action is comfortably low for fretboard fireworks.
One of my major issues, however, is the quality of the screws! I figured with a guitar like this that I might swap out the stock pickups for Seymour Duncans like Randy used. However, upon inspection, I found that the screws were very soft, and taking a screwdriver to the head started to strip the metal.
Guitar players like me who appreciate the value of upgrading a guitar beware: stripping the screws, and possibly damaging the wood or the paint on the RR Minion, is a very real risk.
Use a screwdriver carefully, and consider replacing with higher-quality stainless steel screws if possible.
Where’s the Case?
My only other concern with this guitar is largely hypothetical.
Shorter scale guitars like the RR Minion appeal to guitar players who have to travel a lot. They’re often described as a travel instrument, often ready for inclusion on a flight, or to go in the back seat of your car.
Unfortunately, this miniature Rhoads V doesn’t have a guitar case. It won’t fit into the standard-sized Rhoads V case, and the available Minion soft case doesn’t offer nearly enough protection to safely travel with the guitar.
As a result, I’d be hesitant to take this guitar to a gig or to rehearsal. It’s just too vulnerable! It’s a shame, since a guitar this visually striking deserves to be played in front of an adoring crowd.
Obviously, custom cases are out there, but it feels like a major oversight.
My Verdict
Overall, the JS1X RR Minion is a great guitar for the money. It looks cool, sounds good enough with distortion, and it plays well. It’s built to shred, and it feels like the vanguard in the new generation of high-quality intermediate guitars.
Jackson RR Minion JS1X - Headstock
The shorter scale and lack of a case will likely turn off regularly gigging pro guitarists.
However, any budding metalhead, whether they want to emulate Randy Rhoads or not, who isn’t quite grown enough for a full-scale instrument will really appreciate this guitar.
My Final Word
If I had a kid who was listening to my old metal records and trying to jam along, I’d buy them the RR Minion in a heartbeat.
