Jake E. Lee explains why his Ozzy-era “white pearl” Charvel guitar was not used on ‘Patina’ album

Jake E. Lee explains why his Ozzy-era “white pearl” Charvel guitar was not used on ‘Patina’ album

Red Dragon Cartel and former Ozzy Osbourne and Badlands guitarist Jake E. Lee was recently interviewed by Ultimate Guitar.

Lee was asked whether he used his classic Ozzy-era white pearl Charvel guitar during the recording of Red Dragon Cartel‘s sophomore studio album Patina, which was released via Frontiers Music Srl yesterday. Lee advised:

“No. We recorded all this in Pennsylvania on Anthony‘s ranch studio, and I didn’t bring it. I don’t really bring that out. It’s actually kind of unplayable these days.

“It was probably unplayable back in the ’80s, but it was just the guitar I was used to. It has a really narrow and skinny neck.

“I dealt with it back then because it was my main guitar, but on that guitar, it’s hard to play an open D chord on it, because the neck, it got shaved down by Charvel way back when, and it’s so narrow at the nut that if you play to play an open D chord and you’re fretting the G string on the 2nd fret, the open D won’t sound.

“You really have to know exactly how you’re going to finger it for it to work.”

The interviewer then seemingly joked that it was good to know that only Lee could play that guitar to which the Red Dragon Cartel guitarist replied:

“Since I put it into retirement and I haven’t played it a lot. For me, it’s a really hard guitar to play. I showed Charvel, because they wanted to make a replica, but no, you can’t make a replica; nobody’s going to want it, nobody’s going to play it!

“They said, ‘Sure they will,’ and I showed it to them, and they went, ‘Holy shit! How in the fuck did you play this thing?’ But anyway, to answer your question, no, I didn’t even bring it out to the ranch.”

You can read the rest of the interview with Jake E. Lee at Ultimate Guitar.