Understanding Jackson Indonesian Import Factories

[lepard]

I'm trying to get a handle on just where all these imports are being made. For the past few years with the Japanese plant now gone, the "Pro" Series has been made in Indonesia. In 2014 on the neck-thru's, I see "IWJ" and "ISJ" serial numbers. All the 2015's I have seen have "ICJ" serial numbers. My best guess at what these serial numbers mean is:

IWJ: Indonesia World(Musical Instruments) Jackson
ISJ: Indonesia (Samick ???) Jackson
ICJ: Indonesia Cort Jackson

Anybody else have a better guess or better info ?

[wrldeatr7]

That's pretty much it, except W is Wildwood not World Musical Instruments. As far as I know, Jackson isn't working with Wildwood Indonesia anymore. I believe Wildwood has a plant in China that makes most JS models (code CWJ). All X-Series, some JS, and some Pros (Monarkh) are made by Cort. The rest of the Pros are made by Samick.

[lepard]

Interesting. Do you have a feel for which are better built guitars ?

Guitar companies go through this crap all the time. Dean going from World to UnSung and now using both. DBZ going from China to World. etc. etc. etc.

[lepard]

Hmmm, looks like this Wildwood also makes ESP/LTD and Schecter guitars. Check out this interesting shipping record page.

http://www.usimports.info/suppliers/P10/PT-WILDWOOD.htm

616 LTDs
1212 Schecters
348 Jacksons

I found 2 more pages where they are making Indonesian PRS guitars too.

[mungiisi]

Did I get this right; there's no more MIJ Jackson's made today?

[rjohnstone]

Did I get this right; there's no more MIJ Jackson's made today?

Yep. No more MIJ Jacksons.

[Mudlark]

Japanese production stopped in late 2011. Mexico (bolt ons) and Indonesia (neck thrus) for the Pro series since then.

[wrldeatr7]

Yup, Wildwood is perhaps the least known of these but are actually quite significant. I like the Wildwood Jacksons because they used a very nice dark rosewood. Cort uses a very light and uneven-colored rosewood and tried to dye it but it left fretting fingers stained. In turn Wildwood's ebony was a very unusual rough grain as opposed to the super smooth ebony that everyone else uses. They also used a three-piece neck construction. Everyone else is doing now a one-piece neck with scarf joint, I take it at the request from Jackson. And Wildwood also used only alder for their Pros. Again this must be a Jackson decision, but now a whole lot of Pros are made in mahogany. Personally, at a certain price-point I have a preference for alder-maple, it seems to me like a classical Jackson spec, instead of mahogany-maple or mahogany-mahogany, even though I understand mahogany is a more expensive wood.

What I find odd is that for some reason it's as if Jackson had recalled certain Wildwood-made guitars. You can find a lot of Pro King Vs and Rhoads sold as "no repairs made - refurbished". There's no way to know why all these new guitars were send to the refurbishing facility only to be stamped as used guitars.

Cort gets positive and negative reviews. Jackson must be happy with them that they transferred most manufacturing to them. Presumably they do more CQ than other companies. Cort Jacksons have 2 "inspected by" stickers on the back. Cort has been making Kellys for a while and people seem to be happy with those.

Samick is the largest guitar manufacturer in the world and from what I've seen, their Jacksons are well made. So I would rank them above the other Indonesian companies.

But as you point out, guitar companies are constantly switching their manufacturing for some reason.

[rjohnstone]

Samick is a Korean company with plants in S. Korea, China and Indonesia.
They've been making Epiphone, Squire, Ibanez, and a host of guitars for other companies for decades.
I remember their early 90's Samick branded LP's were fantastic. So good that Gibson threatened to cancel the Epiphone contract if they didn't "reduce the quality".
Point is, Samick has the skill set to make great guitars. On par, if not better than World.

[wrldeatr7]

Interesting. I knew that Gibson had the "problem" of too high quality imports, but I didn't know they were Samick.

[rjohnstone]

This was in the 90's. Not sure if Samick still has the Epiphone contract today.
Based on what I've seen of current Epiphone guitars, I wouldn't be surprised if they were using someone else.

[wrldeatr7]

I guess in the end, all of these companies can make excellent guitars--if the customer company is willing to pay for it. But then there's always a chance they'll mess up on some guitars. If the B-stock over at Rondo is any indication, World Musical Instruments still deals with paint and finish issues. Japanese ESPs also can have problems with frets.

[eaeolian]

I don't know why they just don't move all the Pros to Mexico? Seems to me the quality of those has generally been higher than the Indonesian Pros.

[rjohnstone]

I don't know why they just don't move all the Pros to Mexico? Seems to me the quality of those has generally been higher than the Indonesian Pros.

Simple... $$$

[eaeolian]

Simple... $$$

Then why not make the bolt-ons there? I actually suspect it has something to do with FMIC's Mexico plant only making bolt-ons, historically.