The "W" neck stamp situation

[Zoner]

So, back in my youth I used to frequent a large store here in Minneapolis that specialized in liquidating inventory from other businesses/manufacturers,and one day their sign outside said something to the effect of "Zillion's of $$ in musical instruments this week". Being a bargain shopper, I had to check it out and I found they had a bunch of gear in big piles in the basement. Among the piles were a number of Jackson and Charvel guitars (literally stacked on top of eack other - many uncased) and a BUNCH of Jackson amps. There were piles of necks, bodies, and completed guitars without hardware, and a few inside cases that were complete. I opened a bass case and there was a WWII Bomber graphic never played. The next case had a San Dimas Reissue in it with a HUGE chunk missing, but otherwise complete. I looked around and found nothing priced reasonably so I left. These items were sold off slowly over the next several weeks and there are still Jackson amps all over town here(I have owned 3 personally), but one thing the guitars had in common was a small "W" stamped on the fingerboard after the serial #, or on the ones with the # elsewhere, the "W" was all by itself. I asked the store manager where this stuff came from and was told it was from the Manufacturer and they were sold off because the whole lot had been exposed to water ("W" = water? wholesale?). Anyone have some of this "W" stuff, or have another explanation? The reason it came to me to ask is I just bought what I think is a JJ model that has the "W", and I would like to know if there is any other explanation.
Thanks. Z

[toejam]

Re: The "W" neck stamp situation

I had a red '94 Professional Dinky HX (string-thru with TOM bridge) and it had a W stamped on the very bottom right of the board... another board member found it for me in a pawn shop in Oklahoma. I've got the same model in black and it's not stamped. The serial numbers on both were on the neckplate. I thought maybe the store had stamped in the W or someone did it somehow to show it's used. I've got no idea. [img]graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]

Oh yeah, the guitar wasn't water damaged at all and had the original pickups and push/pull pot like my black one, and it played perfectly.

[mr426]

Re: The "W" neck stamp situation

Hey hey. I'm from MPLS, you must meen Banks on Hennipen. I was working there then. All those guitar and basses hit the basement at 75% off eventually. They had some good stuff there sometimes.
LATER!!!

[Zoner]

Re: The "W" neck stamp situation

Just to clarify - the whole "water damage" angle was put forth by the manager of the store liquidating these pieces, but nothing I saw looked to be damaged by anything other than careless morons stacking stuff up on top of other stuff unprotected. I picked up and played one of the San Dimas pieces (a Koa topped one with a standard 2 post trem and 2 hums) and the guitar was fine except the strings were literally fuzzy with rust, as were most of the surviving strings on the pieces. Maybe a fire resulting in a light sprinkling? This liquidator was big on buying stuff from insurance companies, so a fire would fit the profile. Anyone ever hear of a blaze at Jackson back in the mid-late '90's?

Z

[Zoner]

Re: The "W" neck stamp situation

Yep, Banks was the place. I assume that you saw the crime of all those fine axes stacked like firewood? The horror.

Z

[Newc]

Re: The "W" neck stamp situation

He said he worked there - which means he may have been the one doing the stacking [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/poke.gif[/img]

Newc

[ejpii]

Re: The "W" neck stamp situation

I heard about a roof problem they had in Texas that might have resulted in the water damage but thats all I know. A friend of mine was a rep for them at the time. Kevin might actually know more.

[sully]

Re: The "W" neck stamp situation

yep, and i'll be seeing him in an hour. i'll try to remember to ask.

sully

[Spaceace]

Re: The "W" neck stamp situation

I have Joe's Red HX and I noticed the W.However the guitar plays as straight as you could hope.So it could not have been too major,BTW Joe wait until you see it,you wont recognize it. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[The Eristic]

Re: The "W" neck stamp situation

Originally posted by ejpii:
I heard about a roof problem they had in Texas that might have resulted in the water damage but thats all I know. A friend of mine was a rep for them at the time.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yep. Building flooded. A local dealer told me the story when I asked if they had any J/Cs. She said several years ago, the distribution building flooded and they had to stamp all the inventory with a W, even if it had only minor exposure. The store had purchased a HUGE stock of the W stuff for next to nothing, and sold it all as dent and scratch.

[toejam]

Re: The &quot;W&quot; neck stamp situation

Originally posted by Spaceace:
I have Joe's Red HX and I noticed the W.However the guitar plays as straight as you could hope.So it could not have been too major,BTW Joe wait until you see it,you wont recognize it. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Oh yeah? Cool!! Can't wait to see what you've done to it. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Spaceace]

Re: The &quot;W&quot; neck stamp situation

It should be finished in a couple of weeks. We'll post pictures when it is done. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

--Robin

[toejam]

Re: The &quot;W&quot; neck stamp situation

Sweet! [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]