Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith has explained how he became enamored with Jackson Guitars, blaming one fundamental flaw for ditching his Gibson Les Paul.
The guitarist has been part of the British metal heavyweights since their second album, Killers, but has since come to stand as one of Jackson’s biggest-name artists, resulting in a series of signature guitars.
It turns out he was headhunted by the firm’s founder, with Smith’s growing discontent about his electric guitar’s suitability for touring the final straw for the pivot.
“What happened originally was Grover Jackson himself used to come down to [Iron] Maiden shows when we played in California,” Smith tells Guitar World. “He was a really lovely guy, and he is very easy to get on with, very easy to talk to.
“I was using a [Gibson] Les Paul at the time, and I had so many tuning problems with it that I’d get very frustrated,” he continues. Jackson, ever the businessman, saw his opportunity.
“Grover Jackson used to bring down these guitars, but some of them weren't even finished,” Smith recalls. “It was just like raw wood, and he’d change the pickups backstage. He’d say, ‘Try this,’ and I’d go out and try it on that night, you know?”
With Smith well and truly on the hook, he was invited to the Jackson factory where the seeds for his Stratocaster build – which uses a Charvel San Dimas body – were planted.
“He brought me to the factory, and I copied a neck off an old Strat. That's basically the guitar but with a few refinements. The truss rod was more accessible, so you could adjust the truss rod without taking the neck off. It’s just a superb, easy-to-play, great-sounding, reliable guitar.”
He admits that the guitar has seen “a few little mods over the years,” but has otherwise stayed true to its original Strat-gone-metal template. A quote from Smith on the Jackson website says, “if I have to mess around with a guitar too much, I kind of lose interest in it,” and so it was vital Jackson nailed the recipe at the first time of asking. His first signature model arrived in 2007.
Adrian Smith has also revealed how he pushed through the pain barrier to track a Powerslave solo while hungover as the band completed their transformation from punk band to world-conquering metallers.
Looking forward, Smith is readying another guitar duo record with ex-Poison and Winery Dogs guitarist Richie Kotzen, the project rather creatively named Smith-Kotzen, having swapped signature guitars on their 2021 debut LP.
