First Jackson Guitar

[JasonSD22]

I posted this once, but it didn't show up so I'm trying again. I bought a Jackson Guitar on Offerup. I've owned a lot of guitars but never a Jackson. It looked like a Charvel Model 4 which I've always liked and it was only $60 so I went to check it out. Turns out the guy spray painted it red. It appears to be a Fusion. Says FUS on the end of the neck. The paint on the back has been worn off and the original finish was Transparent Blue. I removed some more paint from the front and the original finish looks in pretty good shape so far. Might just need a light wet sanding and buffing.

Neck is in great shape. The only electronics in it was 1 humbucker that isn't original, it's a Duncan Performer, a volume pot and knob, the toggle switch, and input jack. It's missing the tone pot, the 5 way switch, and from what I read on the web it should of had a JE-1500 tone circuit. I'll need to pick some new pickups for it. Any suggestions? I'm not sure if I want to replace the Je-1500 or wire it a little different. How useful is the JE-1500?

The trem is in good shape. I need to find a trem cover. It came with the metal cover for the electronics access.

I'll post some pics when I figure it out. Can I use Imgur? or does it need to be on like photobucket?

Thanks.

[Number Of The Priest]

For an image host, try http://imagebucket.net/. I would normally recommend Photobucket, but in good faith I can currently not recommend them because they recently forbade third-party linking, akin to Photobucket holding everyone's images for "ransom": https://www.google.ca/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=...obucket+ransom

[JasonSD22]

Well let me see if this works

[toejam]

Definitely a Fusion with that mini toggle switch, but I thought all solid color Fusions had the scalloped horn on the lower cutaway, but yours doesn't. From what I remember, only the ones with trans colors didn't have the cutaway.

[JasonSD22]

Definitely a Fusion with that mini toggle switch, but I thought all solid color Fusions had the scalloped horn on the lower cutaway, but yours doesn't. From what I remember, only the ones with trans colors didn't have the cutaway.

Yeah this was originally trans blue, the last owner painted it red. I'm trying to get the red off now without doiing too much damage to the original finish. So far I got about 50% of the red off and it's working pretty good.

[JasonSD22]

Here's how it looks now

[JasonSD22]

I posted another pic of how it looks now, but needs to be approved. The first one took a couple of days. And most of the red paint is off the back.

[toejam]

Oh, cool. I approved it for you. The forum has some type of spam filter in place that sometimes filters out pictures from new members, not sure if the forum owner did it or it's just part of the board software, but it's approved now.
It's looking really good, not sure why someone would paint over a nice flamed top like that.

[mgregory]

WOW! Thats gonna be a nice guitar when you're done. Hard to believe someone would paint over that. Keep posting updates on here.

[DanzoStrife]

Dude, i swear where do these idiots come out of the wood work from? Man that original finish was awesome! Trans blue, but someone had to haphazardly spray paint it a bumpy brick red? It looks like (the lighting?) that the gloss finish has been rubbed off and it's satin now. I guess if you're cool with that, keep it, but for me I'd like to have it glossy. But anyways, 1000x better than that other kids paint job!
How did u remove the paint? Oils, paint thinner, sand paper?
I'm glad u got a steal on it!

[Number Of The Priest]

Excellent work so far! Your labor is rewarding you with a beautiful trans blue flametop. Looking forward to the full restoration!

Good to see the photo host worked for you, and congratulations on only paying $60 for the Fusion!

[JasonSD22]

I think the last owner gave it a light sanding to get the paint to stick. I'm going to try buffing it after I get the red paint off. I might need to set sand it smooth first though.
I've been using laquer thinner to get the paint off. It works good, but its slow going on the thicker painted parts, so I'm doing a light sanding on those parts before the laquer thinner.

I'm in arizona and if I use the laquer thinner outside it just evaporates. So I'm doing it in the house, but can only work on it about 10 minutes at a time before the fumes are too much. What you see is only about 30 minutes of work.

[DanzoStrife]

Oh yea that makes sense why he would have sanded to get paint to stick. So are you going to regloss it? It will take some wet sanding afterwards using high refined sandpapers and re polishing, then waxing but it might be worth it if you're a sucker for high gloss finishes.
Really nice how it's coming out

I think the last owner gave it a light sanding to get the paint to stick. I'm going to try buffing it after I get the red paint off. I might need to set sand it smooth first though.
I've been using laquer thinner to get the paint off. It works good, but its slow going on the thicker painted parts, so I'm doing a light sanding on those parts before the laquer thinner.

I'm in arizona and if I use the laquer thinner outside it just evaporates. So I'm doing it in the house, but can only work on it about 10 minutes at a time before the fumes are too much. What you see is only about 30 minutes of work.

[Vass]

$60 may be the best deal I'm aware of across all deals I've heard of. Top 10 without a doubt. Got a blue one just like yours. Great guitars.

[JasonSD22]

$60 may be the best deal I'm aware of across all deals I've heard of. Top 10 without a doubt. Got a blue one just like yours. Great guitars.

Well, I watch craigslist and offerup regularly so I have found quite a few deals.

Does yours have a the je-1500 circuit in it? I'm trying to decide if I want to add one to mine. I don't think I would use it much so might just add a second tone knob, not sure yet. Have to decide on pickups as well, hopefully something not too expensive.