Cheers guys,
so I opened up a thread a few days ago about either to get this guitar or to keep my hands off. In the end my G.A.S. was too big and I must say, I thank god for that. This guitar is one of the best guitars I ever held in my hands and shows imho that the build quality on cheaper guitars was way much better back in the day, this baby is worth to be compared to high end guitars, not the shi**y and cheap made in India, Indonesia and China low budget axes that brands like Ibanez, Epiphone and unfortunately even Jackson produce nowadays.
A brief history of the guitar followed by specs, description of the sound and finally pics:
This is a Jackson Fusion, named like that because of it's shorter 24.75" scale (hence a "fusion" between a Gibson and a Jackson), it is the rare transparent red finish one with a Mahogany body (the other Fusions had Basswood bodys), an Eastern Maple Neck and a Rosewood Fretboard. Production was limited from 1991 to 95, this one is a 93 according to the serial code. Jackson started producing the Japan made Professional series in order to make their guitars widely available since you could only order regular US made Jacksons in their Custom Shop. After visiting the Charvel Plant shop and recognizing that the Japanese luthiers made equally good guitars as the US models, Jackson decided to downgrade the hardware used on the Professional series (cheaper tuners, Pickups, only licensed Floyds (difference between the highly seeked after Jackson "Pros" (pre downgrade) and the "Professionals" (post downgrade))), but thank god the woods used and the craftsmanship stayed the same :)
The stock Jackson pickups sound actually pretty good, however I swapped them out for the Duncan Invaders I had lying around and they sound thicker and better, allthough I wouldn't mind to keep the Stock PUs in it if I didn't have any other option. Note that the Invaders are mounted with tape in the pictures since the screws the stock PUs where mounted with are too big for the drilled holes of the SDs, so excuse my unprofessional solution, but I needed to test the sound of the Duncans. Gonna get new screws today :P
After cleaning the guitar and giving it some TLC, I definitely knew I had made a good deal. The sound is warm with lots of punch and it made me remember why I love Mahogany guitars. Think of a more metal sounding Les Paul ^^
Another thing that is amazing about this thing is the neck: thinner than my Bassists Jackson 2010 DK2M and really shreddy, feels great and the frets are so perfectly finished that I wonder if the previous owner ever has played that guitar before. I set the action ridiculously low and there's no buzzing, no fretting out and no dead frets, everythings perfectly leveled.
What can I say more? I could go on for days praising this guitar, however pics are more interesting.
One last thing: If you ever happen to have the chance to get your hand on one of these, do it! You won't be disappointed :D
p.s.: sorry for the cr@ppy pics, gonna do some better shots when I have the time, also this Baby is gonna get better hardware and of course them Knuckles, thinking about a Painkiller Bridge, Coldsweat Neck
Cheers!
