As for brand, i'm not picky, 12 gague flatwounds is what i use, and i don't really check the name. They're good for playing real book standards, and in terms of fusion, well for mellower stuff like chick corea, they're great, but if I were to play mike stern, I'd want a solid body electric with thin strings u know? It's better if you have multiple guitars, i've got a strat that i'll use if I want to do more funk/rock oriented fusion, and that has 10 gague roundwounds, but when i play jazz, which is most of the time, 12 gague flatwounds on an archtop with humbuckers is the sound i like.