Daion Mark-XX

The wonders of Ash,ebony and brass.

It says it all. Want a bitch howl as winter ends or a slinky sqwaking yip. Mine coil splits to do what west texas used to. I bought it new and it has worked and worked through old Fender Pro reverb, Traynor Stage Mate and old Super reverb. and oh does Ani sink jazz so fine.

Antelope head engraved in each tuner and oh so slinky. She hold just right and is fast when I am slow.

She outlived a Rick, a Tele and even a white falcon (the falcon was a royal pain) and now a strat who went an blew her neck tonepot and just a little checkering on her body and slight wear in the wood tone knobs,,, and who else has wooden tone knobs.
OH, she was in her case when the firemen failed to put our my home burning to the ground. She survived fir and flood

the up and died

Next to a DOT or a White Falcon or a Gold Top or a white stat..... She is the best lady to live with. Smarter, tougher, sassier in the night and Oh she talks pretty for a girl that started out with so little.

This guitar has a very unique look. The through-body neck, and the lamination of various woods makes it a beautiful work of art. I own the green version, (it is also available in a browny-red). It does not have a tremolo system, but has all brass fittings. The through-body one-piece design allows your easy access to the highest frets! I bought it new in the 80's. It spend about 13 years under a bed at my parents place until I reclaimed it, had it set up, and now it is my favourite guitar. It has two humbucking pick-up, that can each be turned into single coil with the flick of a switch. This alows you a total of 8 different pick up configurations. (Lower Humbucking, Lower Single Coil, Lower Humbucking plus upper single, Lower Humbucking plus Upper Humbucking, Lower Single Coil Plus Upper Humbucking, Lower Single Coil plus Upper Single Coil, Upper Humbucking, Upper Single Coil) The variety of sounds is fantastic. The volume and tone dials are both well positions, allowing you to continue playing and adjust the volume with your pinky finger at the same time. Very useful live, and also allows you to get a violin feel by picking the note with the volume at zero and then quickly turning up the volume. It's a nice effect that some guitars can not reproduce due to dial position. The dials are make of dark wood.

The sustain is very good, and with the variety of pick-up configs, you can get pretty much any sound you want, from screaming metal leads, to deep full-bodied jazz.

After having it set up, the action is great. The tuning pegs are smooth and tight. The brass nut helps keep it in tune.

The finish is high gloss meaning that dents are unfortunately easy to see. I have a few scratches and knicks in mine, but given it's age it has held up very very well.

No problems.

The company is long gone, but guitar techs will love working on this baby if it needs some tlc.

This work of art is a true collectors item. It's rarity, and resonable price new have allowed it to be overlooked for a long time. Anyone seeing one will comment on it's beautiful appearance, and anyone playing one will not soon forget the experience. It is better that a Gibson Les Paul of any year. Sustain, looks, sound.

My guitar was made in either 1981 or 1982, in Japan by the now defunct Daion company. It's a solid bodied neck-through, with two passive humbucking pick-ups(which I believe are made by Daion), two tone and two volume controls, 3-way toggle switch, and coil-taps for both of the pickups. The neck is a nine piece laminated neck(consisting of maple and rosewood) with an ebony fretboard(22 frets, brass dot inlays). The body is made of both ash and rosewood (the rosewood being sandwiched between two pieces of ash). The shape of the body loosely resembles that of a double-cut PRS-style guitar. It has Daion non-locking tuners, a Daion string-thru bridge(with brass saddles) and a brass nut. I got it including its original case.

Because of its coil-taps it can sound like both your basic humbucking guitar and your single-coil guitar. It was noisy when I got it, but some simple shielding realy did the trick. The sound can be both thick and full, and bright and thin. I play jazz and rock, and this guitar suits that fine. Because of the brass saddles and nut it has excellent sustain. The only weakness is the slightly weak sounding single-coil mode. I play it using no effects through a Fender Ultimate Chorus combo.

I didn't have to change or set anything after I got it. The action is nice and low. And the wood figuring is nothing short of fantastic. It simply feels and looks great.

It's a realy solid built guitar, which will easily cope with my onstage antics(nothing too flashy). The tuners hold realy well, so that's not a problems. I haven't had any problems with it to date, but knowing that I've got another guitar at the ready is always reassuring, this just for string breakage

Since the company is no more, I can't comment on this.

I've been playing for about 6 years now and this is my first 'real' guitar. I've also got a cheap acoustic, a Les Paul copy and a Strat copy. And the Daion sounds and plays far better than either. It;s great, and I would be devistated if it were stolen. Plus they are really hard to come by. If you find one by it.

Made in Japan in the earlier '80s.
22 frets, all natural finish, 2 Humbuckers, 2 splitswitches for each humbucker, neck-thru- & string-thru body, original daion tuners, etc(see bolow).
Body and neck consists of the same wood and there are quite a few other woodtypes along the neck and thru the body. The scale is ebony.

I bought this goodie in superb condition which means that this guitar wasn't used formerly.

The sound of this baby isn't comparable to any other guiar i know.
It has lots of high frequencies and fat sustain. Like others desribed, its possible to reach nearly every sound you want...from tele to paula to $?$?%?. The humbuckers are not noisy at all.
I play kind of tool,kings'x,earthtone9 and this guitar is very good for this style of music. I love the crytal clean sound of it.

The playability of this guitar especially the neck is perfect.
The pickups were not adjusted but that is solved.
The finish of the guitar is ...WOW!
My only compliant is the oxidized hardware, but that's common.
I have another guitar(Yamaha rgx tt) and the feeling when i hold this guitar in my hands is much better.

There are no problems to discuss. I can depend on it in every situation.

daion company = RIP

I have been playing guitar for 10 Years now. I also played classic guitar for 6 years in a musicschool and i am playing bass in a prog./melodic deathmetal band and also have a tool/kings's style band.
Because of i saw this guitar on ebay i wasnt able to try this guitar but the risk was worth it. If you find one, buy it!!!!!!!!!

I have owned a Daion Mark XX since I found it in a pawn shop in Hudson, Florida in 1987. When I purchased it it was in total diserepair, the strings were 1/2 " above the frets, the volume and tone pots junk, and generally dirty as a barn. It cleaned up to being my favorite guitar displacing my 1968 Les Paul Deluxe with a SOLID mahogony body under the maple top (no split back thing) and a fret job from Dan Erlewine (you hep?).

It has 22 frets, 2 PAF style pickups (covers removed), cherry laminate color, gold tuners with a harp on the back of them (don't know about that), a brass bridge with individual string saddles that adjust for intonation AND tilt control provided by two hex-serews that support them vertically.

About the laminate: this guitar has a cherry wood (or some other red wood) sandwiched as the bread top and back with maple in the middle. Now imagine this: it also has a laminate neck that runs from the head to the base of the guitar with six different laminates with hairline separators, that runs through the entire guitar top to back. The fretboard is ebony or rosewood, and standard frets. This guitar is incredible in it's ability to hold tuning, even after being dropped, even when tuned to a low B. It is extremely resiliant to shock as it has been dropped more than once, and the first time I dropped it it put a big dent in the body, which still remains.

It has a 3-way switch and two volume controls and two tone controls in the Les Paul traditon and single/double coil switches.

Don't know what pickup configuration means, but it is similar to my Les Paul with an addition of the single/double switches. It has passive electronics. The body style reminds me of a PRS but it also has a rib cut-out in the back of the body for comfort. It is about half the weight of my Les Paul. Finish is like an acrylic that shows the natural grain of the wood. Tuners are non-locking, but extremely reliable and accurate. No tailpiece. The neck is about like a strat and is comfortable playing any style of music. I had to buy a fender case for it.

I play rock and roll, jazz rhythm and pop music. My son uses it for extreme metal and rock (the hardest stuff going). He tunes it down to a B frequently and it holds tuning tremendously. String configuration is .010, .012, .015, .026, .038, .046. The main amp is a Musicman 212-HD, Twin Reverb clone. It is effective, not noisy, even with effects engaged. Great variety of sounds available, all good. It can sound like an old strat (but it doesn't have the out of phase sound), a SG, Les Paul, or any other rock guitar. It doesn't have an acoustic sound at all, totally solid body sound. It doesn't kill my shoulder after 4 hours, and it never quits until I do.

I can't comment on how it was from the factory, as I bought it second hand. I am no genius, but I know how to make it work. I was able to do it myself and get the best guitar imaginable. TO compare it with today's market, you would have to get a PRS, Parker, vintage Gibson, or some comparable buy to match it. Don't ask me to trade it for any of those, I wouldn't. My only question is how the Daion company made any profit on these monsters? It has so much workmanship you wouldn't be able to make a profit on today's market under $3,000 each if you owned the company.

I have played this guitar in conditions that would scare a rock star. In hot gigs outdoors, 96 in the shade, up to 8 hours of playing jazz, pop and occasional slit-throat rock & roll. Cold outdoors with frost on the ground, kept it's tune for 3 hours. Finish didn't crack either although I was PLAYING it, not letting it sit. My kid tortures the strings daily now, since I am currently "between bands". No scratch marks from overzealous youthful picking. Hardware is solid still. Strap buttons are the original ones, no straplock used yet. Works out of the case every time, no back up necessary, just extra strings occasionally.

Can't find out a thing about the company or anything, but they HAVE to be out of business as I've never seen anything about them. Never needed any repair outside of my setting it up.

I have been playing guitar for 37 years, 35 of them professionally. I have a nice early 70's J-200N Gibson for casual use, (no I won't sell that either), and too much other stuff to bother with, time's short. I bought this guitar with no knowledge if it would work or not when it was in trashed condition. It cleaned up beautifuly. If it was gone, there could be no replacement for it as they're not available anywhere I know of. If I needed to replace it and found one for under $2,000, I would finance it to get it. The only thing I could imagine to add to it would be some sort of MIDI pickup, but I wouldn't like it on the bridge and I wouldn't like it separate on the top. I also wouldn't sacrifice the pickups for some combo type thing.

This is a japanese guitar, made in the late 70's i suppose. This guitar has 22 frets, with a slick neck that has small bronze/gold inlay dots. The body is contoured almost like a PRS body but smaller. This guitar has a three way pickup selector, and seperate coil taps for the two pickups. The pickup configuration for this guitar is h/h.I ahve installed a di marzio paff pro in the neck position, and a seymour duncan jb-1 pickup. Both these pickups are four conductor pickups.
This guitar has a clear finish with a maple and redwood(?) body, and has a string through body bridge.
This mark xx is equipped with schaller tuning heads, but i suspect they aren't the originals. The frets on this guitar are medium/ jumbo frets on a rosewood or ebony fretboard.

This guitar is everything i have evr look for in a guitar. It suites my bluesy/ pop/ rock style that i enjoy to play. I run this guitar through a zoom 8080 effects processor, and a silver face fender bandmaster reverb amplifier. It is difficult to tell what this guitar originally sounded like because i never played it with its original pickups installed. Through the use of the coil taps is possible to gain the full, phat gibson tone. However, with a flick of the switch i am transported into strat land. I have finally found a guitar that will allow me to have the best of both guitar worlds.

As this guitar needed some t.l.c. when i bought it, i'm not sure how the original action was. But i have achieved a very comfortable action that can be extremely fast. For a second hand guitar, (after i cleaned it up) it was in immaculate condition. There was only one flaw with the body. The previous owner decided to sand a thumb groove along the back of the neck (for reasons i can't fathom), so i filled it in with some wood putty and refinished one half of the neck. Even so, when performing this defect isn't visible, and when i play it i can't tell that the neck had been butchered.
The bridge piece and saddles are made from brass, which have both appeared to have bubbled slightly.

This guitar is a work horse. It is the only of the many electrics that i own(5) that i am using at the moment. The hardware is magnificant. I can travel to a gig pull the guitar out of its case and it will still be in tune!! I would use this guitar without a backup, and can trust it totally. I would be destroyed if it got stolen.

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I have owned this guitar for 4 months and already know i can't live without it. If it was to be stolen i would think that my chances of finding another would be 1million to one. I love that this guitar is so easy to play and sounds so beautiful.