Custom shop flawed guitar, looking for help!!!

[Mike73]

That's not a bad thing. I hate that they will drill holes into a guitar that costs thousands of dollars just to hold a 50 cent piece of plastic.

Well, that's down to preference... I would to highlight this missing item was another evidence of the careless they had.

[Mike73]

Was this "statement" directly from Jackson to you, or to the dealer from Jackson, and the dealer passed it along? I want to know what guitarist at Jackson says a high E string is just fine when it slips off the board unless you have flawless fretting technique. Last I saw, there was only one Yngwie Malmsteen.

That's what I got from the dealer, but if you have ever tried to contact Jackson through the official channel, they just bounce you to the dealer. I guess they want the dealers to manage contatcs with customers. I'll have a talk with some employee soon, but since this situation was getting bad, I preferred just to focus on how to get back my moneys.... If/when I'll be able to ask direclty to Jackson I'll let you know. I had a reply from a Jackson guy which was really surprised the guitar was less than perfect, but this is just his opinion not the company's one.

[Mike73]

To me Jackson just thought they wasted enough time and resurces and they decide to quit. They had to strip the paint down three times,
the first they forgot some control holes on the top (despite I warned them while the body was still natural), the second they made a mess with
the color and forgot some couturs, the third they forgot the coutors again. I guess this pushed the amout of working time over the top,
and after all I'm just a couch player...

About the CNC thing, is just BS. The body shape was absolutely standard (dinky), thicker ok, but the size was the same. So the position of
the bridge and pick-up routes should be well known by them. The routes are made by milling cutter, so they are not made by hand, but of-course
the guy which have to position the tool have to make the marks in the right position, and this is where they made it wrong. That's it!
If the stament is true, then there should be at least 50% of inaccurate instruments from the CS out there which is not. And if they are basically able
to make a flawless guitar only when everything is standard except the color or the pick-ups brand, then it's a joke to pay such a difference against
the production models. Anyway, if those acclaimed luthiers are not able to carve an instrument by hand with out such rought errors then, they
have to change their job or just retire.

[pro-fusion]

What the heck is going on down there in Corona?

I'm more forgiving than most about cosmetic problems on guitars, but a $4,000 instrument should never have a structural problem. There's just no excuse for it. It almost sounds like FMIC would rather not make custom Jacksons at all.

[leftykingv2]

I gave you the phone number for the head of custom shop sales Robert Maywalt. Did you try calling him and if so what did he say?

[Chad]

Some new Jackson Custom Shop taglines:

"If you dream it, we can build it with missing frets and crooked routing."

"A relentless pursuit of poor quality."

[leftykingv2]

Some new Jackson Custom Shop taglines:

"If you dream it, we can build it with missing frets and crooked routing."

"A relentless pursuit of poor quality."

I pray it doesn't come to this. I am hoping these are two very isolated incidents and we don't see or hear anything else like this for a very long time.

[Newc]

See, that's what I wanna know. If the production line crew can turn out USA Selects without these errors, why is the venerated Custom Shop having problems? Too much reliance on CNC on the Production Floor, thus no one has the hand-tool skills? Did they burn all their Dan Erlewine books? Doesn't that book show how to locate a bridge route? Are their straightedges not straight? Or is this all an internal conspiracy to devalue the brand so that FMIC dumps them and they can go independent again? If it's the FMIC bean counters, there's a time and a place for counting beans. You do not sacrifice your customers for beans.

[Chad]

Also, why did they have to strip the paint three times on this build? This points to a clear lack of focus and attention to detail.

Are they doing drugs before they start working on custom builds? Can they not read (and refer back to on a regular basis) work orders? I understand they likely have several builds going on at once, but is it not prudent to spend five minutes or so reviewing the work order EVERY SINGLE time you switch to a different project? Especially before doing major things like routing, drilling, etc.

[leftykingv2]

It probably has something to do with so many orders and not enough guys with the skill to fill them. If there are only 3 or 4 guys doing custom shop work now it's no wonder the wait is 2 years+. Also the bridge and pick up routes being off is just unbelievable to me. Don't they have templates for every guitars body style that shows specifically where to route each model for whatever hardware the guitar calls for? I would think they do which makes this even more unacceptable. My dad always told me when in doubt always ask someone else or consult the manual! Also this being a custom shop guitar would make you think whoever was building it should have known exactly what to do but it certainly doesn't look like they did.

[leftykingv2]

Chad I don't think looking at the work order would've helped whoever routed this guitar unless said work order called for an off center bridge and pick ups. But I do agree with you that's like what I said about consult the manual. Look at the fucking work order before you do anything that's irreversible.

[Newc]

The 2+ year wait can be explained by all the exclusive dealer runs (Music Zoo, etc), and the constant NAMM builds. Then there are the artist builds, and the do-overs. I'm sure they're not running a 24/7 continuous operation, more likely an 8-hour 5-day week, with a 30 minute meeting in the morning, an hour lunch, and a 30 minute cleanup at the end, plus Monday and Friday are your start late/finish early days, with Wednesdays being Titty Bar Lunch Hour Day.

I'm seriously hoping they didn't get the body contours carved before trying to route the bridge. It seems to me you'd route first, then shape, since the center is almost always untouched. As well, the routing templates are made for flat surfaces, so logically you'd want that done first since trying to balance a flat template on an arched surface while you chased it out with a router would simply be stupid.

And he did say why it was stripped 3 times - because they couldn't get the contours right.

[leftykingv2]

Another question arises why couldn't they get the contours right?

[Chad]

And he did say why it was stripped 3 times - because they couldn't get the contours right.

Actually, he said they didn't even get to the contours until the 3rd stripping.

[MetalDaze]

Titty bar Wednesdays.... why didn't I think of that?