Custom shop flawed guitar, looking for help!!!

[Ward]

Bad joke time- "oh I guess that's how he got around artist similar!"

That was actually pretty good.

[Mike73]

If the dealer is trying to tell you there's nothing wrong with that guitar he might as well have told you to go fuck yourself! It's quite obvious to everyone who has seen the pics that there's more than one issue with this instrument. Also why would he need your address to send you a check back? You ordered a custom shop guitar off of him and he doesn't know where he's shipping it to? I don't care who the dealer is EVERY USA or custom shop guitar should come with a hang tag. If he ships or shipped it to you without a hang tag I would not accept it. Also just to let you know Mike Shannon does not put electronics in guitars. They have people who do that and they make a lot less money than a Masterbuilder does. Mike Shannon does the actual building of the instruments. Do you think they're going to let Mike Shannon waste his time wiring guitars up when they can pay some monkey to do it for ten or twelve dollars an hour? Not only that do you think Mike Shannon wouldn't have noticed the problems on that guitar if that was him holding it? I am not a Master Luthier and I noticed them.

You are right, at least there couldn't be room for 'miscommunication' excuses... You are right for the tag as well, but as far as I could see on dealer's site all the jacksons are showed with a black background without tags, case, keys what else... If one day I'll get the guitar I hope I get the tag, the case and the Floyd arm as well... About Mike I guess it was him because I got a picture of the guitar when it was still naked wood and the very same big hand was in the pic. The dealer told me it was Mike taking care of it... If it's true then I cannot find any good reason why he didn't notice the flaws (the routes were already there...). But the guiitar has passed through several hands and nobody noticed the miss truss rod cover (which by the way was a custom one so would deserve some attention at it). The only fact here is they didn't put the right care and attention they claim made the custom shop a legend. As far as I know every single custom order is followed by a single guy which take care of the build, true or not, I have evidences that this guitar has been managed by different persons. What I guess probably they started the build then they stand-by for some months then restart again loosing the way... For sure they were in a hurry!
About the address thing I guess they want to be sure I didn't move else where, after all 30 months are quite a nice amount of time... What makes me unhappy about this I paid the deposit via a wire transfer, which is safe and fast... Why should I wait for a check instead of a tranfer back to my account? This would take up to 3 months to be done and by the way it's not really safe...
I didn't mention the dealer's name yet also because along all this time I dealt only with one guy, at the music shop. I don't want to ruin the dealer's reputation just if only one was involved. On monday I'll probably have a talk with the owner of the music shop and we will sort this story out... I hope!

[Mike73]

Maybe try sending a PM to forum member Mike McGregor who works at Jackson... his screen name is Bionic. Maybe also try Brian McDonald whose screen name is McD.

I'll do, thankyou for the info!

[leftykingv2]

I wish you nothing but the best Mike73. I hate seeing people getting the shaft and to me it really sounds like the dealer is trying to put the screws to you.

[leftykingv2]

I am confused about this whole thread, I can see the flaws in the guitar but have you touched and played the guitar in question and ship it back to the dealer or have you only seen pics of it and noticed the flaws. You say the guitar is at the dealers now right? Is the dealer offering you a full or partial refund at all? This whole thing sounds off to me. I own a couple of custom shop Jacksons and the quality of the craftmanship is unmatched to anything I own let alone in comparison to other brand guitars, Even in the wiring, the wiring on mine is so impressive I would disagree that they are paying someone $10 - $12 an hour to produce that high end of quality work. It is a shame to see such work done on a USA Jackson let alone a custom shop model. It is a custom shop and not a select series right? I just hate it when I see crooked trem routes on the USA models, the neck though models are pretty much fucked but the bolt-ons can be tweaked alil bit from what I experienced, But... nothing you can do about the pick-up alignment though. So it is definitely screwed. Good luck with the process on getting this all worked out. I feel for you!!!

This definitely gives me second thoughts on placing a custom shop order for sure!!!

I have no idea what the people wiring pickups make and that was just speculation. I am sure they're very talented people as well but there is no way that Mike Shannon is installing pickups in guitars. His rate of pay is entirely to high for it to be economical. I am sure his days are spent wood working and building guitars not on hardware installation. I have a friend who is a Master Luthier his name is Jack Cuda and he was a senior builder for Washburn for a number of years. He told me when he worked for Washburn in the mid to late 80's he was being payed an hourly rate of $55 dollars so just imagine what Mike Shannon is commanding salary wise now. Entirely too much to be wasting his time doing pick up installations. I am sure you have a number of Jackson guitars. Check your hang tags and see if you can find one that has Mike Shannon's initials under wiring.

[Dave Rocks]

to me it really sounds like the dealer is trying to put the screws to you.

Don't speculate because you are wrong

[leftykingv2]

Don't speculate because you are wrong

Just stating my opinion here Dave but how do you know I am wrong? Have you spoken to the dealer on his behalf? Enlighten me. I think you should reread his first post. He says the dealer told him he contacted Jackson but then when he called Jackson they said the dealer never contacted them about the issues. He then says the dealer put pressure on him to cancel the order. Then he asks everyone on the forum if they know a way he can contact someone at Jackson and get them to "force the dealer to return it." How do you figure I am speculating Dave? These are the things Mike73 said has happened. It's also definitive proof that the dealer flat out lied to him. I am sure if he does get a refund it will be minus the deposit. Like Chad said that's three strikes against whoever the dealer is. How could this be a "Miscommunication" the flaws are plain to see and according to another one of his posts the dealer said "We all looked at the alignments and checked and everything is fine." Once again like Chad said the dealer is either in denial or blind.

[walshula]

I am sure you have a number of Jackson guitars. Check your hang tags and see if you can find one that has Mike Shannon's initials under wiring.[/QUOTE]

My wife says I have to many and I say I don't have enough, so that is open to debate

I don't have many hang tags but I will check the ones I do have.

[leftykingv2]

You can NEVER have too many guitars!!! Both of my USA Select KV2's were wired by Steve Stern I do believe. The initials on both of my hang tags are "SS" so that's my guess on who wired mine.

[Dave Rocks]

Just stating my opinion here Dave but how do you know I am wrong? Have you spoken to the dealer on his behalf? Enlighten me. I think you should reread his first post. He says the dealer told him he contacted Jackson but then when he called Jackson they said the dealer never contacted them about the issues. He then says the dealer put pressure on him to cancel the order. Then he asks everyone on the forum if they know a way he can contact someone at Jackson and get them to "force the dealer to return it." How do you figure I am speculating Dave? These are the things Mike73 said has happened. It's also definitive proof that the dealer flat out lied to him. I am sure if he does get a refund it will be minus the deposit. Like Chad said that's three strikes against whoever the dealer is. How could this be a "Miscommunication" the flaws are plain to see and according to another one of his posts the dealer said "We all looked at the alignments and checked and everything is fine." Once again like Chad said the dealer is either in denial or blind.

I know the dealer and I've tried to help Mike sort this out, that's all I'm going to say at this point. I said "your speculating" coz this thread does not contain all the information so don't be in a hurry to hang the dealer without all the facts. My post earlier in this thread was also rash and out of line.

[leftykingv2]

That's really cool of you to reach out and try to help him because the guitar is obviously flawed. I hope he gets what he wants. Good luck Dave and kudos for trying to help out another forum member. I PM'ed him Robert Maywalt's phone number trying to help. Also Dave I am waiting to see your guitars so please post some pics as soon as you get them!

[workerunit]

I wonder if the final inspections were signed off by "RK" and "JH" of the FMIC Custom Shop........

[leftykingv2]

I wonder if the final inspections were signed off by "RK" and "JH" of the FMIC Custom Shop........

Jackson Has their own QC people I do believe.

[JCB RR1]

I wonder if the final inspections were signed off by "RK" and "JH" of the FMIC Custom Shop........

And those initials stand for whom exactly??

[Mike73]

Ok guys, I finally have the Jackson official position about that. That means one bad and two good news (not bad after all...)...
Let's come to the bad one, which could be a warn to every one which is going to mess with the custom shop. Here is the final
statement from Jackson:

" They feel that they have done the best they possibly can to produce this guitar and they are actually not willing to build it again.
I’m really sorry to give you the bad news about this… I’ve never had them flat out decline, but they feel in all honesty that this is
the best result we’re going to see.
Essentially, they’ve worked the body a few different times to get it as close to correct as possible. They said that since this is a
completely hand-made guitar (no CNC machine) that there will be some variances in everything. All of the routes are being done by hand.
Nobody disagrees that the pickup alignment is a bit off, but they believe that the string/bridge/neck alignment is in perfect playing order.
They feel the pickups being slightly off to one side is not a detriment to the sound or playability of the instrument.
The bridge placement is where it needs to be to line up with the neck, though again, the hand-made bridge route may be a touch off.
Obviously if the strings/neck/bridge didn’t align, the guitar could not be played, but they do."

I would like to point my custom was an archtop dinky with a slightly thicker body and two custom counturs keeping all the rest standard
(the soft arch I choose has been taken from another custom shop they built in the past). I guess they should arrange accordigngly their
motto 'you dream it, we built it'... and by the way, for a build well above 4K USD is rather unacceptable to me.

Now comes the good ones !

I'll have a full refound (for this I have to thank the dealer) and last but not least, 10 days ago I was really sad about this story, but after
I met you here having your support/efforts and help I can say I feel much much better! Thanks you all!

PS: I've been a Jackson fan/customer for about 20 years owning 5 of their guitars, needless to say now it's over! Cheers