Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland has long been known for his love of unconventional six-strings.
Well, we can’t even really just say six-strings to be honest, because also been known to use a unique four-string baritone guitar, and he, a couple years back, developed a fascinating four-string guitar/bass hybrid with PRS.
Oddball PRS models aside, though, Borland has long been associated with Jacksons, with one of his favorites being a particular King V with a unique origin story.
In a video interview with Total Guitar in 2013, the nü-metal guitar hero explained that, rather than a top-of-the-line custom job involving the best of Jackson’s best luthiers, his King V was actually a factory floor reject.
“My rep at Jackson had a couple of guitars that had factory flaws in them and had been returned, and he said, ‘There’s a couple of King Vs that I think you’d be incredibly interested in,’” Borland explained.
Borland’s Jackson rep went on to tell the guitarist that one of these had a reverse headstock. “But lo and behold,” Borland said, “when we opened the case it turned out to be a left-handed (King) V.”
Undeterred, Borland was “excited to take it on as a project and turn it into a (right-handed V).”
“I had to take a soldering iron and basically just burn new dot inlays into the side and replace the nut with a right-handed nut,” the Limp Bizkit guitarist recounted.
As for the headstock, not only is the Jackson logo upside down, the company’s name, as Borland explains, is in a smaller font in order to fit the headstock properly.
Interestingly, given their long-standing relationship, Borland has never endorsed Jackson outright, nor PRS.
Star players opening up their relationships with guitar-makers to make room for multiple corporate partnerships is increasingly common nowadays, though Borland has never felt the need to make things official, so to speak.
“I played PRS through the Chocolate Starfish (and the Hot Dog-Flavored WaterLimp Bizkit’s blockbuster 2000 album) era and I’ve started working with them again, as well as Jackson,” he told Guitar World in 2023. “ I’m not exclusive to either one.”
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