TRASH OR TREASuRE
Fusion Blues Jazzbox
ZACHARY FJESTAD
Hi Zach,
While trolling my local music store, I
stumbled on a jazz box I had never heard
of before: a Fusion Blues. It looked,
played, and sounded fantastic, and had a
$239 price tag. Although I was not in the
market for yet another guitar, I couldn’t
leave without it. It blew away a number of
other used electrics I played in the store,
all made by the big boys. Finding info on
this brand is like finding a banjo in a philharmonic! I’m not as much interested in its
dollar value as its backstory, since I have
no intention of parting with it. Can you fill
in the blanks? Thanks.
Carl
Dallas, Pennsylvania
Hi Carl,
Some of my American guitar-building colleagues hate to hear this, but sometimes
a great playing guitar has one of the least
expensive price tags. This guitar, like many
others on the market today, was built in
China, and I’ve noticed that Chinese and
other Asian-made guitars are becoming
increasingly well built. There’s no question
that information is scarce on this brand—as
it is with many other Chinese guitars—but
this makes the chase more thrilling.
64 PREMIER GUITAR NOVEMBER 2010
I encounter a lot of guitars every year,
whether at trade shows, in catalogs, or
online, so it is difficult to remember or
keep them all straight. I have to be honest
that I started with an internet search, since
I couldn’t find anything under the “Fusion
Blues” trademark in my archives. I found
two reviews on Harmony Central that pretty
much reiterate the same thing you said—it is
a great playing guitar. However, I saw some-
one mention Switch Music being the distrib-
utor, and lo and behold I had a catalog from
Switch Music about the Fusion Blues from
the 2006 NAMM show.
According to the catalog, you have a model
FB600 (also called the Metropolitan Deluxe),
which was built in China during the mid 2000s.
The guitar’s features include an arched Sitka
spruce top, flamed maple back and sides, two
bound f-holes, faux abalone top body binding,
maple side and back body binding, a maple
neck, rosewood fretboard with faux pearl/aba-lone block inlays, Grover Imperial tuners, two
Alnico 2 “Cool Blue” humbucker pickups, two
pickup volume knobs, a master tone knob,
a master volume knob, a rosewood-based
Tune-o-matic-style bridge, a trapeze tailpiece,
and gold hardware. The finish on your guitar
is called vintage sunburst, but a natural finish
was also available.
Fusion Blues was a trademark of
SwitchMusic.com, Inc., and it appears that
Switch is no longer in business, meaning the
Fusion Blues brand probably went away as
well. The last time Switch Music exhibited at
the NAMM show was in 2006, their website
is no longer active, and most reviews I’ve
read online indicate the company was out of
business by 2008 or 2009. Switch started out
by importing the Switch brand of electric guitars that used Vibracell technology—a resin
used in the body and neck, different from
wood, designed to increase sustain. Later,
they introduced the Fusion Blues brand of
electric archtop “jazz boxes” and the Cedar
Ridge line of flattop acoustic guitars.
Along with your guitar, Switch also offered
a plain version called the Metropolitan
Special (FB500), an oval-soundhole model
with a Florentine cutaway and single floating
mini-humbucker pickup called the Villager
(FB400), three versions of the semi-hollow
ES-335 called the Beale Street Collection
(FB100, FB200, and FB300), and two top-of-
the-line models called the Soho (FB700) and
the Manhattan (FB800).
Unfortunately, I was unable to obtain any
kind of price list showing Fusion Blues guitars while Switch Music was still in business,
but based on Switch’s other brands and
what I’ve read from reviews online, I suspect
the retail price for these guitars ranged
somewhere between $400 and $700. With
the amount of ornamentation this guitar
has, as well as the attention to detail, it is
easily worth the $239 you paid for it, and
I wouldn’t be surprised to see this guitar
worth up to $500 in the future. You wouldn’t
be able to touch an American-made guitar
like this for less than four digits—making it
an instant treasure, since it plays so well.
Many players and collectors are afraid these
Chinese-built guitars are going to take over
the entire American market, and I share
some of this fear. However, it is all an example of how we must remain competitive and
stay one step ahead of the next person to
survive in this volatile guitar market. There is
a fine line between tradition and moving forward that many guitar builders struggle with.
Competition among builders—regardless if
they build in America or overseas—allows
the player to obtain the best possible product out there for a reasonable price, which in
my mind is another treasure onto itself!
Zachary R. Fjestad
Zachary is the author of the Blue Book of Acoustic
Guitars, Blue Book of Electric Guitars, and the Blue
Book of Guitar Amplifiers.
For more info, visit bluebookinc.com or drop an email to
guitars@bluebookinc.com. You can submit questions to:
Blue Book Publications
Attn: Guitar Trash or Treasure
8009 34th Ave. S. Ste #175
Minneapolis, MN 55425
www.premierguitar.com
