The whole thing has been refinished, headstock included, thus losing the original hand painted gold logo. We can also discount the pickguard, trem and pickups as non significant, they are all "movable estate".
What can't be disputed however are several things:
- the guitar is undoubtedly ex VV, as it's the same one as he had at the Expo's
- the fret ends have binding nibs like on a Gibson Les Paul, which Jackson only did until 1986
- the shoulders of the body join between the 18th and the 19th fret, and this is a feature of only the first few guitars from 1983, subsequent examples have the shoulders joining nearer the 20th fret. Check the Cardiff pics against any 22 fret Rhoads from later in 1983 onwards and you can see this (I copied a later 83 black Rhoads and a 1985 red one below to show that the body meets the neck at a higher fret).
- the mother of pearl inlays have the same dark and light "fingerprints" depending on the angle the light hits them, as I've tried to portray on the pics below. I know there's debate over whether the 83/84 Rhoads has rosewood or ebony, as the Cardiff guitar is clearly rosewood, but again, the old pics speak for themselves - it's Rosewood on the other pics below, Ebony is jet black, not that dark brown colour. And also, Jackson copied the original spec for the First Five reissue Gold sparkle - including the rosewood and reverse shark inlays.
![Image](http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv242/marshallhead/neckcompare.jpg)
![Image](http://themusicianlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/vinnie-vincent.jpg)
![Image](http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/23000000/Vinnie-Vincent-kiss-23038498-1024-768.jpg)
![Image](http://liveassets.rationalpathinc.netdna-cdn.com/usercontent/gear/2831862/p1_uvnknhldg_so.jpg)
![Image](http://liveassets.rationalpathinc.netdna-cdn.com/usercontent/gear/2816586/p1_uux2oehcm_so.jpg)