Grover Jackson merged his namesake company with International Music Corporation, a Texas-based importer, in 1986 and then left the business in 1989. IMC continued to introduce new designs, including the Stealth series in 1991.

IMC aimed at affluent buyers with the American-made Custom Shop series and a US Series featuring airbrushed finishes, but the Stealth models kept Jackson’s within the reach of the majority of players.

They featured bodies of ash or basswood with the typical Jackson pickup and vibrato options. This Stealth TH2 from 1996 shows that IMC was not afraid of trading off one of Jackson’s most identifiable elements, the angular pointed headstock, in exchange for a new headstock shape that provided straight string pull (a trademark feature of 1985 upstart Paul Reed Smith).

The Stealth Series last until only until 1996, and IMC lasted only until 1997, when it sold Jackson/Charvel to the Japanese-based Akai company. Five years later Akai sold the brand to Fender, where such classic Jacksons as the Soloist, Rhoads and King V live on today.