If they give out medals for being brand loyal, I'm overdue...

[Forrest]

Hey guys, about this finish. When you say "standard finish" do you mean approximate? I just did another brief search and I see similar guitars but none have my finish. Here's a better shot of mine. It has a lighthouse on it.



Here are the only other examples I've been able to find:



They're definitely similar, but not the same image.

[steve304]

So your saying that is some kind of laminated print and not hand painted on each guitar? Airbrushed beach scenes like that are relatively easy to paint, and anyone that has worked as an airbrush artist has probably painted more beach scenes than anything else. lol. It would make more sense if it was hand painted because even though you can tell by the style that it was likely the same artist, they pretty much never come out identical, and there is alot of room to play around with different ideas when your painting them. I guess they could have taken a few beach scenes and printed runs of each to laminate so when they were hanging next to each other in a shop they looked more "custom". Interesting.

[steve304]

Oh yeah, lets see these.

I would bet its a standard USA finish. I have a 2- 1990 fusion soloists with a bikini beach graphic. One is a chick lifitng her bikini bottom so you can see her shaved beaver and tan lines, and the other the chick is obviously pleasureing herself with her hand in her crotch and the other in her hair with her head thrown back.

[Newc]

It was not uncommon for Jackson to bring in various artists to paint similar scenes.

[steve304]

I wasn't saying it couldn't be different artists, just that certain sections look so similar in style that it is fairly likely thos two from the same person. A decent airbrush artist could paint 3-4 of thos an hour. But even if that speed if it was a production model they would have to have multiple artists. The way it was being discussed above I thought you meant it was some kind of laminate top graphic.

[Forrest]

I'm a little confused...weren't all USA guitars from the custom shop in 1991? Did they have "production" lines like the Select Series back then?

[pro-fusion]

Jackson instituted regular USA production models in 1990. Any Jackson with a "U" serial number is a production guitar, not a custom order. It's a bit confusing, because they all come from the "custom shop" and are built by the same people, but some of them are made to standardized specs and sold for a lot less money.

Even back in the '80s, when every USA Jackson was technically a "custom", there was a list of standard model types and features, with pretty much the sky being the limit above and beyond that, so long as you were willing to pay for it. Also, many of the bigger Jackson retailer ordered guitars with fairly standard specs to have as stock on hand. I'm guessing that the majority of the Jacksons sold before 1990 were bought that way rather than specifically ordered by the customer.

I believe that there is more separation between the custom orders and production guitars now that they are all made in Fender's Corona facility (different personnel and parts of the facility), but that wasn't the case in Ontario.

[Forrest]

You have entered...the sharkfin zone.

[BallooTheBear]

Welcome to the forum.Sweet guitars.