Author Archives: Jim Fusco

About Jim Fusco

Jim Fusco is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and all-around musician. Learn all about him and his creative works at http://jimfusco.com!

Gibson Les Paul Standard 60s

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This is a hands-on review and video demo of the Gibson Les Paul Standard 60s — my 2019 model in iced tea finish with a flamed maple top. In the video below, you’ll hear the guitar played live on camera: clean tones, crunch, and lead playing through the dual humbuckers, plus a close-up look at the fit, finish, and feel of Gibson’s flagship after its 2019 back-to-basics revamp. If you’re shopping for a Les Paul or just want to hear what a non-weight-relieved Standard 60s sounds like in real playing situations, this page is for you.

Feel and Specs

This particular model is from 2019, the year that Gibson was bought out and revamped their lineup. They brought things back to a simpler time, a time without robotic tuners and other

modern improvements. The body isn’t weight-relieved (that’s on the list!) and that’s okay! Mine is in the amazing iced tea finish- and just look at that unique flamed maple top (on the list!) with those streaks of dark and light in the wood that you don’t usually see.

Join me as we dive into one of my “signature” guitars here on the Guitar Bucket List!

The Demo

The Verdict

This Les Paul has become one of my signature guitars here on the Guitar Bucket List: classic looks, a flamed maple top in iced tea, and the back-to-basics 2019 build with a non-weight-relieved body. If that’s the formula you’re after, it earns its place on the list.

More Guitars Like This

Watch the full Gibson Les Paul Standard 60s demo on YouTube, and keep exploring with two more Les Paul reviews: the Gibson 1959 Les Paul Standard Reissue Murphy Lab Ultra Light Aged and the Gibson 1968 Les Paul Custom. You can also browse every review in the Guitar Reviews hub.

J Fusco Guitars “Partscaster”

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Hello everyone! I’m back after a holidays-related absence (it gets busy this time of year!) to bring you the next installment of the Guitar Bucket List. In this episode (6) we look at the guitar I made, a “Partscaster” (a Fender Stratocaster copy that’s made from various parts). My brother bought me the guitar body as a gift (in that amazing green sparkle) and then I added the wenge wood neck, the locking tuners, the moto pick guard, the chrome hardware, and the Fishman Fluency active single coil pickups. And let me tell you, these things sound great! You have to watch the video to appreciate all of the usable sounds on this guitar – if it doesn’t make you want to get a set of these pickups, I don’t know what will.

I hope you enjoy this episode- we’ll be back to the big name brands soon enough, but who knows- with how great this guitar came out, maybe “J Fusco Guitars” will become a big name someday, too!

Watch the video demo

More guitars like this

Watch the custom green sparkle Partscaster video demo · Fender Deluxe Player’s Stratocaster · Fender Co-Cal Speed Shop Stratocaster · Guitar Reviews

Gibson Explorer

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This is a hands-on review and video demo of the Gibson Explorer in Antique Natural — the regular mahogany production model with a nitro finish, slim neck, and BurstBucker 2 and 3 pickups. In the video below, you’ll hear it played live on camera and get a close look at the feel and fretwork that might make it the best-playing guitar I own. If you’re curious what makes this radical shape so playable, start here, then read on for the backstory.

The Gibson Explorer is an iconic guitar. After flopping with its 1958 release, this guitar gained notoriety decades later with the metal movement. However, I don’t play metal (as mentioned with the Epiphone Prophecy SG video), so why did I need to have this in my collection? Well, with the Explorer was created, it wasn’t meant for metal- it was meant for rock’n’roll! And it came in a very plain package- just some korina mahogany and an unbound fretboard.

Feel and Specs

Fast-forward years later and we have the regular mahogany version finished in “antique natural”. This guitar looks the part of a vintage instrument and the nitro finish feels great. The guitar is so easy to play- the slim neck is what does it for me. And the sound from the BurstBucker 2 and 3 pickups? Unreal. It’s one of those guitars that makes you a better player when you pick it up. It just exudes cool…even when I play it!

Check out the video for all the details to see what this checked off the guitar bucket list!

The Demo

The Verdict

For a non-metal player, the Explorer turned out to be a perfect fit — easy-playing, great-feeling, and full of unreal humbucker tones. It earned its place on the list.

More Guitars Like This

Watch the full Gibson Explorer demo on YouTube, and keep exploring with two more related reviews: the Epiphone Prophecy SG (mentioned in the video) and the Gibson Les Paul Standard 60s. You can also browse every review in the Guitar Reviews hub.

Epiphone Prophecy SG

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Here on episode 4 of The Guitar Bucket List, we discuss my Epiphone Prophecy SG. This guitar’s greatness comes down to two main things: its looks (I mean, is there a nicer color?) and its pickups! We’ll get into all of that here.

The guitar features a beautiful feeling satin finish. But it doesn’t feel “unfinished” by any means. It just feels great- everything is so smooth and it’s easy to play. It feels like the same “aged” effect that Epiphone was going for on my 59 Les Paul.

It has a slim neck but also a little beef on one side, which is supposed to contour to the hand better. It has these HUGE jumbo frets that I’m not a big fan of. If the frets were lower, I think this might be the perfect guitar.

Aside from the color, the flamed maple veneer, the dyed abalone inlays, and (my favorite) the Les Paul Custom headstock design, the best feature of this guitar has to be the pickups, which are the Fishman Fluence set. These things ROCK. They have a hot humbucker setting, a PAF style setting for old school humbucker sounds, and a voicing that’s supposed to sound more like a Stratocaster. It has so many usable sounds and is such a great recording guitar due to the fact that it has no noise or buzz whatsoever. I can’t say enough about these pickups.

But I sure do try to say enough in the video! Check it out:

The Demo

The Verdict

So is it more than just a metal guitar? Absolutely — the Fishman Fluence pickups cover hot humbucker, PAF-style, and Strat-like voicings with no noise, making it a great recording guitar. The satin finish feels great, though the huge jumbo frets might not be for everyone.

More Guitars Like This

Watch the full Epiphone SG Prophecy demo on YouTube, and keep exploring with two more solid-body reviews: the Gibson Explorer and the Gibson Les Paul Standard 60s. You can also browse every review in the Guitar Reviews hub.