Any information on this mysterious Jackson?

[saintrico]

Greetings fellow Jackson slingers!

I just bought this Jackson USA from a Craig's List buy and am having trouble identifying it. The serial is Ontario 001141, which puts it at 1991. I looked up the 1990-91 catalog from Audiozone.dk and the closest thing is a Fusion, judging by the body style.



Here's the weird stuff:

1. It has three mini-switches rather than a typical 5 position blade switch I've seen on Fusions. The knobs are volume, tone, mid-boost.

2. The pickups are Reflex. They have the silver dot on them. I'd never seen Reflex pickups before.

3. The case (which I am told is original) is the chainsaw-style, and has the indented Charvel logo on it.

Hopefully this guitar isn't too mysterious to the experts on this site. Any help identifying it and getting information on it would be greatly appreciated. It plays like a dream!

Thanks!

[tonemonster]

I have a 1991 soloist with Reflex actives in it like that. I think they are british pickups. not certain though. and They are kinda cool. differnt. kinda bright. I will say this about them, they really sound awesome with a clean sound, especially the neck and middle pickup. very clean. mine has the 5 pos blade pickup switch though.

here is mine.

[neilli]

The red guitar looks like a Fusion, but for the 3 mini-toggles - I thought the Fusion had a blade switch and just one mini toggle between the vol / tone to activate the mid-boost?

What's the scale length?

[ejpii]

It looks like a bolt-on neck. Early Dinky????


EJ

[Newc]

Could be a Fusion. The Fusion was replaced with the Dinky right around 001200 based on the Dinkys and Fusions I've had on either side of that number.

The 3 mini toggles is a bit odd though, unless that's a body from the late 80s, or an import Charvel Fusion body.


Take off the neck and see what's in the pocket.

[zeegler]

Easy to tell if it's a Fusion or Dinky. Measure the scale length.

[ulijdavid]

The Reflex pickups were designed by John Oram. He also custom designed the pickups for Uli Jon Roth's Sky guitars.

[saintrico]

I took the neck off and there is a Jackson logo stamped in the pocket and a date of 4/3/91. So it's a Jackson body for sure.

I was sure it's a Fusion because I haven't seen that body style with the recess on anything else. BUT I just measured the scale length and it's 25.5 from nut to saddle. Aren't the Fusions 24.75?

[diablomozart]

it's a dinky...one of my friends had a lefty in natural that was almost exactly like that one...not everything jackson made in that era ended up in catalogs...some pretty cool stuff (oddities) floating around...always keep in mind...jackson was a custom shop first and foremost and sometimes these models appeared in public before being refined to the actual models most know today...oh...my friend loved the reflex pickups and said they worked great thru his ada mp2...d.m.

[toejam]

I was sure it's a Fusion because I haven't seen that body style with the recess on anything else. BUT I just measured the scale length and it's 25.5 from nut to saddle. Aren't the Fusions 24.75?

Then it's a Dinky. There's been plenty of Dinkies with that scalloped horn, not just Fusions. And not all Fusions have it either.

[Brooke]

Looks like a Dinky then... What ever the case my be, you've got a nice guitar there! A little custom piece that only you will have..

Nice score.

[saintrico]

Wow...weird. So does that make it custom shop if it's not a regular production piece? A stupid question, but legit all the same.

I worked for a Charvel/Jackson dealer back in 1990-91 and never got to see anything other than the pro series. We didn't have license for the USA models.

[Laars]

My 1985 soloist has toggles. I put the PJ Marx pickup in it. My Case is an old Jackson case with the metal logo on it.



Laars

[Newc]

Yeah, but 85 makes it Custom/Pre-Production-Model, so there were more possibilities available.

Once the production models came out in 1990, they had everything pretty much standardized based on the most common Custom Shop options - H-S-S, 3 mini-toggles, etc etc.

Later, there was more interest in the blade switches (5-way, 3-way) so they went to those.

[DonP]

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