Jackson DK1

Jackson DK1 Dinky Graveyard. 2007 Model, USA made. Strat style body. Emg 81/85. Real Floyd. Ebony fretboard, mother of pearl inlays in fretboard and Jackson logo on headstock. Bolt on maple neck, as it is a DInky. Soloists hve neck through. Jackson machine heads. Proper, designed for this guitar Jackson hard case. Sample guitar polish and cloth came in hard case, which actually leeked in it's plastic bag, luckily not harming anything.

I play METAL. EMG 81/85 set. Unbeatable. Period. I have had SD JB's, Live wires, Gibson 496t's,500r's, you name it I have had the pickups. If you play Metal, EMG's are it. I have read other reviews about how these things sound distorted/clean - they do it all within the genre. If
I want a really nice clean sound I borrow an acoustic (I couldn't bring myself to buy one).

Here I will say a bit. The action on this guitar was astounding from the get go. I bought it brand new, got it out of the case and it had the most perfect, low action. The neck is perfect. I deliberatly chose the Dinky for it's natural finish neck. I have read here and there that because it is a bolt on that it would lack sustain. Bullshit. I have owned 3 gibson Explorers and a couple of Jackson and ESP neck throughs, and this thing has sustain for days too. The finish is incredible, with an airbrushed graveyard on the body. I wouldn't have chosen this finish if I had a choice, but it grows on you, and the limited numbers of the graveyards might see them grow in value. The workmanship on these is flawless and beautiful. The mother of pearl inlays and logo are beautiful. I have read reviews of Japanese Jacksons and they have said that they are as good as the US ones. Again, bullshit. These guys have never laid eyes or hands on a US one. No comparison. Also, People say that since fender took Jackson over that the quality had dropped. Guess what? BS. I have owned Jacksons from the 80's, 90's and now. This is the most perfect of the lot.

Again, i have owned a lot of Jacksons, and they were designed for a genre of music where guys beat the shit out of guitars whilst wind milling? What can I say tough music, tough guitars. however,only a fool would pay a coupla grand for a guitar and not put strap locks on it. I have to mention the way this thing stays in tune, under the reliability heading. This thing holds perfect tune once you stretch the stings in. The floyd is genuine and unbeatable.

As you are probably aware by now I have a long standing love of Jackson guitars. I have sent Jackson a few emails and letters over the years, enquiring about parts and things. Never had a reply. They must think that because they build a quality product that they don't need to hear from you. Customer support is non existent.

I play Metal. This guitar is the ultimate metal weapon. As I said earlier, I have had Gibsons and ESP's, but keep coming back for Jacksons. If this guitar was stolen, I would replace it with exactly the same thing, or maybe a neck through V with a natural finish neck. I should knock off a point for the crappy after sales service, but these things are weapons, and I was just chasing different parts anyhow. I have given this a "fantastic value" rating, which may seem odd as it is not at all cheap. If I had found these US Jacksons before I went through the ESP's and GIbsons that were cheaper, I would have saved a fortune because I wouldn't have bought them.

The guitar we're speaking of here is a 1997 Usa select series Jackson dinky. It has a quilt maple top in hershey burst finish with gold floyd and machine heads.

It was tuned to B-standard with .012 gauge strings on it when i got it a few days ago, and still is for now.

It has a H/S/S pickup configuration, the humbucker is a Seymour Duncan TB-4, i don't know what type of single coils they put in there yet.

The floyd and pickup configuration make this to be a very versatile guitar.

The TB-4 in bridge position obviously is the most tight one and has the most output of the three, but i find it to be a bit too sloppy for playing in B-standard, you'd have to get an EMG or likewise.

When you play the bridge and middle pickup simultaneously the sound gets a tiny bit fatter but loses some of it's definition.

I haven't played the singles enough to give a fair judgement about them, but i imagine they'll sound very well used for clean picking patterns.

The difference in output between hum and singles is quite big.

The guitar sound great even when playing unplugged, you really hear it sing and feel it vibrate throughout your body, make sure you put a little cloth or something in between the springs of your floyd and the body, it tends to resonate.

The sustain is great, the bolt-on neck and floyd rose don't seem to affect it at all, really terrific!

I'd say using .012 strings in B-standard is a bit sloppy, i'll tune it some higher later on and probably put light top heavy bottom strings on it, see how that works.

Still the action was very good, and the neck! Don't get me started! What an incredibly smooth satin neck this guitar has, awesome! It feels quite wide, and -as you'd expect- very flat. I believe it's just an tiny bit thicker than the neck of a Ibanez RG1570 for example.

Don't let the wide part scare you off though, i find it to be very comfortable actually.

One little thing that's also very nice is that the neckplate is angled a bit, and 'sunken' into the body a few millimeters
so that a: you can reach the higher positions on your fretboard more
easily.
and b: it rests on it's entire body when you put it flat on the
table, really nice and well thought of!

When you hold this guitar in your hands it feels really 'finished' so to speak. Everything feels solid and durable and it really gives you the feeling this is a quality guitar. Everything seems thought-of.

I own nine guitars, amongst them an LTD M-1000, a Fender strat and Epiphone Les Paul. The strat has always been my favourite, but the Jackson.... it's just a class apart (i.e. USA's). The DK 1 immediatly gave me the feeling this would be my main axe, which it pretty likely will turn out to be.

I haven't found any flwas on this guitar exept for the little fact that the high E string tend to detune pretty fast, but i guess (and hope) that this is just a temporary problem and will settle down once i've played the guitar for a while in the tuning that i'll finally put it in.

No clue whatsoever.

I have basically been playing almost all my free time since i got this guitar.

Since it's build quality is so superb and it feels so very well to play, you literally don't want to put the guitar down at moments where you would with other guitars, this is what i experienced as well as a friend of mine playing it, i think this goes for everybody.

If it were stolen, i'd definitely consider getting another one since i know they're great guitars. But i might as well look for a neckthrough with sanded neck, just to try out new things.

I rarely use them but for the few occasions that do occur i'd like to have a 23d and 24th fret which they do produce them with now.

Overall this is a truly great guitar, a guitar you really wanna play. When i lay in bed at night i just can't sleep because i'm thinking of this guitar and get so excited i wanna play it, really good!

2005 maybe,USA made, 24 frets, master volume and tone, 3-way toggle, 2 Humbuckers EMG 81 bridge and EMG 85 neck (on the 85 the EMG logo is in gold)and both are active with the 9v battery found easily accessible on the rear lower bout of the guitar.

Alder body with transparent black finish, not flamed, quartersawn bolt-on maple neck, ebony fretboard, laminated headstock that also features the transparent finish with the Jackson logo in Mother-of-pearl just as the sharkin inlays on the fretboard are. Neck binding, Original Floyd Rose in chrome as are the tuners and knurled knobs. Bolt-on plate features serial number and the back plates (that cover the pots and tremolo springs housing) are brushed black metal.

Dinky body style (like a contemporary strat) with fine tuners and a locking nut. Long scale, fast neck with a round and full feel. Came with chrome tools, hard case, and Fender (Meguairs)Mist and wipe sample kit (that I haven't yet used).

It's perfect for my Heavy music style: Great heavy sustain giving chords authority and notes scream on ebony fretboard definition.

I'm playing it through a Crate MX65R and playing through it's distortion, the EMG's are fat and heavy sounding... graet for heavy rock. The guitar is not really noisy. This is not a terribly bright axe, but has great balance of lows and highs.

The DK1 is not big on frills specwise or hardware wise, just a hard rockin' axe good for just that.

I like Jackson Dinky's mainly the DKMG and the DK1. It's straight on hard rockin' electric guitar with a heavy duty Floyd Rose and top notch everything... I'm very impressed with my purchase. It stays in tune well and is very solid feeling. I also like the unfinished necks' feel and wiile this isn't Jackson's fastest neck, it's still fast but being more round in feel, so you'll feel more in your hand.

The transparent black finish didn't knock me dead, but whatever... I bought it for a songwriting tool. It does look cool on the headstock as the background to the M.O.P Jackson USA logo, though.

I like the easy access battery compartment though the cover seems a bit flimsy. That's pretty much it.

Factory set up was great-- I just fine tuned slightly and was impressed as it met my hopes to feeling like the DKMG, but being somewhat different. The only difference in feel is the DK1 is more solid feeling due to higher qualities and the ebony fretboard, that on mine doesn't look so black.

The pickups were both angled perfectly, there was a little glue from some of the frets on the fretboard, but that doesn't bother me. The inner cavity walls were messy, but those are unseen.

This guitar is seriously one of the most rock solid purchases I've ever made.

13 years writing songs with a guitar and I'd buy this product again.

I love it... compared it to my Jackson DKMG and it came through. Buy it.

Finish was to fancy for me. EMG 81 and 85, perfer 85 and 60. two humbuckers. Shitty design. Way too much for a bolt on neck, and the factory specs on this guitar are way off. The neck fells like a Les Paul neck from the 50s. Alder body and maple neck are nice, but bolt on. Floyd made it worse. Came with a case.

I play rock, mostly metal, but i still know what a good sounding guitar is. This is not a good sounding guitar. It has horrible sustain, and crappy tone. The 81 makes it too bright, like for soloing. I like the neck 85, sounded good. Very little variety, bright sterile bridge, with a little more rich neck. Not even a neck pickup. The 85 is a bridge pick up.

Had a great set up. Low acton, in tune, floyd was just right, but the floyd was a turn off for me. I'm waiting to put a kahler on it or just sell it.

The reliablity is low, it has a fancy graveyard finish that scatches and smudges like instantly. Does not deserve the USA Select logo. Paint is very brittle.

Didn't deal with them.

Very crappy to me, overpriced by about $1200 or even more. Not even a good rythym guitar, mabee a soloist, but neck is too thck for me. I have been playing for about 8 years and know this thing sucks. The FEnder Custom Shop '54 reissue is only 200 more but is way BETTER, get a SLS2H for less money.

A 2005 Jackson USA DK1 Dinky, 24 Frets, solid-top, 1 volume and one tone with 3 way heavy duty selector switch, Duel EMG Active humbuckers 85 and 81 (very Zack Wyld) A gravyard scene finish on a strat style body with floyd rose floating bridge tremelo, locking tuners, 25.5" scale with jumbo frets roswood finger board with mother of pearl Sharkfin inlays as well as the jackson logo mother of pearl.
and they gave me a case and some guitar polish and a jackson shirt with Miss Jameson on it :-D!

these pickups are the best with this guitar you can play blues to rock and roll, to rock heavy metal to jazz. goes good with line 6 spider 2, although a little noisey you have to have it on high gain to hear the noise, on clean you put it in the neck pickup and it sounds just beautiful, put it in overdrive and its like its a complete different guitar nice and bright (but not to bright) on the bridge pickup, it makes sounds like "weeee ruuuu voooom krrrrr pliiiing Shhhhh IIIIIIIIoooooooowwwwwwww!" and it can also make sound like "do dah do do do dee bah doo dah dat dada!". you cant help but lve this guitar, a made a Les Paul lover want one, and we all know how stubborn they can be.

was set up very nicely set up the pickups i did have to lower a bit because after using a strat for 3 years i kepped on hitting the neck pickup with my pick. its a proper US made guitar i would expect it to have been set up properly so cuz of that there are no flaws in it at all!!!

well i havent tested it yet live and im very careful about droping it, the hardware is very intensly made to last and i can see that it will, the bridge is one of the most solid heavy bridges ive ever seen all the metal work is unlike my strat, this will last a while. and i probably would take it on a gig without a back up.

well heres the part that did dasapoint me a little... it took a year yes an entire year to get this guitar made, it was possable that fender America (who owns Jackson guitar USA) lost the order for my guitar though, but it was worth it in some ways! and a one year warrenty how bout them apples.

there is only 3 words in the australian dictionary to discribe this guitar: You Bloody Ledgend.

if somebody, some prick who thinks they are better than every body elso who think they can steel this guitar and suceed, i will hunt them don't a beat the crap, snot, pus, and testicals out of them to an 0.000000000001mm of there lives!!

i love the way it feels like a strat but doesn't sound like one!

I have a 2003 USA Jackson DK1 with the USA Flag graphic (Being in the US Air Force, I'm a patriotic guy.) It has a 24 fret wide thin, bolt on maple neck with an ebony board with sharkfin inlays. 3 way selector switch with 1 volume and 1 tone. There is an EMG 85 in the neck and an EMG 81 in the bridge. The body is alder. Solist/Strat style body w/ Floyd Rose. Jackson tuners and jumbo frets. Neck is wide thin. A Jackson hardshell case was included.

The sound is Zakk Wylde in a strat body (with sounds slightly thinner than the Les Paul body). I play through a Marshall DSL 50 Head and 1960b cabinet. I have but don't need effects. My axe/amp combo scream and are very versatile. I can get crisp cleans via the clean channel on the amp and thick crunch on the crunch channel. Volume on the amp makes a difference though. It all starts with the amp though folks... I love this guitar for it's versatility, but I play in the Judas Priest/Randy Rhoades style. Although, I am into Alter Bridge and have tuned my DK1 to drop D. I keep my Jackson USA RR1 in standard tuning.

No guitar is set up faster than a Jackson and this is no different. The neck is perfection. I get some cutting out on the bridge pickup EMG 81, so I am going inside tonight to see if I need to solders a wire down. Jackson paint jobs are so perfect that I am amazed. You can tell that my axe came from the custom shop like all of the USA models.

This is a professional level guitar and it doesn't get any better. Hardware and finish are spot on and I put strap locks on it. Gig with confidence with this axe.

No opinion because I haven't had to deal with them although I wish they had a forum and a color chart on their website.

I have 2 Fender Strats, a Gibson SG, a Custom Shop White 68 Les Paul Custom (my most expensive axe), a Jackson USA DK1 and a Jackson Custom Shop USA RR1 from 1988 (that I just got and will review). And, I've played everything in between to include all of the other major guitars. I have to say that Jackson's are my favorite. The 68 Les Paul Custom with the 57 classic pickups has the most incredible sound of all (but it was far and away the best sounding Les Paul in a store full of Gibson Les Pauls, but it is in a class by it's self.) The USA models are affordable if you get them on EBAY, and they are all from the Custom Shop, hand made by the same guys. The quality and consistency is unmatched in my opinion.

Usa selected series dk1, original floy rose tremolo, graveyard graphic in the bodi, 24 fret, emg 81 at the bridge, emg 85 at neck.
Alder body, ebony fingerboard.

I play modern metal, and this guitars is perfect for my style, the sound is bright couse I think the tipe of pick ups and the wood of the body, for me mahogany produce better sound than alder..but this is my opinion.
I use this guitar in my jmp1, el 34 marshall and 1960 cab.

This guitar is beautiful in every aspect, mother of pearl inlay in the fingerboard are perfect and the geve graphic is fantastic.
The guitar came with light gauge ( 09-42 ) i replace this string with 011-49 daddario and tune my guitar 1 half tone down, in Do# for more eavyer and full sound.
The action of this guitar came very low, and i wand it more high cause I have a hard touch!

this is a great guitar!!!

The usual. Mine is blue ghost flame finish :-D Came with HSC. Stock emg's, which i replaces with dimarzios. (see below) Volume, tone, then 3 way switch. 24 frets, original floyd. etc etc..

Sounds amazing. My amp is a crate blue voodoo with a marshall 1960 lead cab. I was using the emg's for a good while. Gave me a real heavy sound. But eventually, my ears developed more to my sound and i was noticing the emg's couldnt articulate well, and plain were crap. So I replaced them with a dimarzio super distortion in the bridge and a PAF pro in the neck. (make sure you get f-spaced if your changing the p-ups) This is my dream guitar now! Gets that low end crunch amazingly, and the highs are great. I just wish they had a kick more of some "juice" to em, the kind you really hear when the notes are sustaining, but hey, i love it allready.

Plays smooth like silk. Excellent action. I play 10-46's. Of course, it came from jackson with 9-42's, so i had to set it up myself, which can be a pain with the floyd, but now it plays great. Nice and low, the way i like it for my sweeps :-D It plays so smooth because of the unfinished bolt on neck. Ive never had a bolt on before, but now, i wont go back. Blue ghost flame finish....WOW

Never has anything gone wrong with it. Solid strapbuttons, solid everything.

Never had anything wrong, wouldnt know.

Great guitar, plays so smooth. Cranks out that death metal sound i love so much, and shreds very nice. I play in the style of children of bodom...yngwie...etc. Shred influenced music, and, like most jacksons, this pup does the trick beautifly. I highly reccomend it. If it were lost or stolen, id buy a new one right away (or a soloist, just because i love to experiment with new gear) If youre not sure whether to get it or not, GET IT! its great. email me with any questions. Rock on!

Alder body, bolt-on quartersawn maple neck, Bound neck and headstock, 24 frets with mother-of-pearl sharkfin inlays, Ebony fretboard, Original Floyd Rose bridge, EMG 81 bridge and EMG 85 neck pickups, Master Volume, Master Tone, 3-way switch, Die-cast tuners, locking nut.

It shipped from the factory 8-7-03.

Giving a 9 since I prefer independent vol control for each pickup.

The guitar came with 9-42 gauge strings. I'm used to 10-52 gauge on my Gibsons. So I found myself kinda sucking while playing this guitar for the first time. The longer scale of the Jackson does lend itself to lighter gauge strings so I'm going to stick with 9's but I'm going to install 9-46's. For now, I'm just enjoying the guitar as is. I find that it has a pronounced low-midrange. Very beefy in this area. I had to roll the mids down on my amp to balance it out more. I've never owned active electronics before. Even though I prefer passive pickups, I can definitely see why people like these things. Strong output and yet quiet operation. I wouldn't call it a "woody" tone per se and yet it certainly has a sound of it's own. I'd describe it as heavy low-mid crunch. I like it. I have no plans of swapping the pickups out. I'm going to stick with these and learn to use it.

Giving an 8 since the sound is pretty much reserved for rock and heavier music. Don't get one if you want to play commercial, light rock, classic rock, blues or jazz.

Looks perfect. Nary a flaw to be found anywhere on the guitar. Jackson calls the color blue-green pearl. When held in the sunlight, it looks like a deep blue with a hint of green. It also seems to sparkle lightly sorta like a finish on a car if you know what I mean. From a distance, it looks like a very dark blue almost black. The binding is excellent without any glue seeping through or anything like that. The neck pocket seems very tight. My ONLY grip with the finish is that the fret dressings aren't as smooth as my other guitars. They don't bother me while playing though. I wouldn't change a single thing about the action of the guitar. Absolutely perfect for me. Low with no buzzing at all. I hope when I put on the slightly heavier strings it'll remain close to this. The Floyd is parallel with the body and well, does what it's supposed to do. I still plan to install a tremsetter though.

Giving it an 9 since one would expect fret dressings to be like glass on a guitar that lists for around $2400. Everything else was damn near perfect though.

It's a guitar! It'll work just fine and last forever if I take care of it. Since the pickups are active, the battery will need to be checked...one deduction for that. Breaking a string with a Floyd Rose renders them useless so another deduction for that. Other than those two things, it's a solid a guitar as any other I've owned or played.

Never dealt with em but I expect that they would be nice.

Brand new Jackson which lists for over $2000...I got it for $800!! I couldn't be happier. The guitar is everything I was looking for. Initially I wanted a neck through design but if a bolt-on came my way that still played great, I wasn't going to think twice. What can I say really? I was in the market for a new guitar. Since all my other gigging guitars are Gibsons, I wanted a guitar to complement them. Even though I hate whammy bars, I wanted to get one since I'm going to be playing old school metal covers. The DK1 is perfectly suited to the music I plan to play. I think it looks great, plays great and sounds right. I've never bought a guitar sight-unseen before and I don't necessarily recommend it. I just happened to luck out I guess. If a straight foward, rock through metal guitar is what you need, make sure you check out a Jackson DK1.

I got a killer deal on a guitar that plays and sounds damn good. So for an overall score I want to give a 10 based on this bias. But since I want to be fair and give an honest rating of the guitar itself I'll give it an overall 8.

mine is a 1995 ontario-calif. made dinky .24 jumbo frets.i think it has a solid alder body,master volume and tone.5-way switch for pickups.two singles and a bridge humbucker.i think singles are j-100 vs'es and i have a lawrence l-500 in the bridge.
i have a superb Birdseye maple neck and fretboard with ebony sharkfin inlays.body is originally painted in Multi-color dragon.an original floyd rose trem.a wide thin neck.

i am playing almot eveything.but especially sorts of metal.and it really fits me when i play.i used boss effects,fender amps but right now i am using LYNE6 amps.and they are the perfect couple.i dont have noise.it has a full bodied sound.i can find what i want with my guitar.but i think that there could be a full size hum in neck.but i totally love it.

i bought it second hand.but it was not used so much.there were any dings or scratches or any oxidized hardware.i even dont have a loosen screw.it was tough as a rock and it is still the same.
it was setted up perfect.all those adjustments were really nice.it was so playable.

i think it will last during my lifetime.hardware is still so tough.my graphic finish is far beyond good.strap buttons are still tight.i can bet it will last forever.i used it for 3 concerts without backing it up...

never dealt with 'em.

i am playing for 8 years.i already have ajapan made jackson king-v std(1993).and i love them both.if it was stolen i am sure that i would buy a new jackson.i love jacksons,i love everything related with my guitars.i feel really good with 'em.i used several guitars like fender strat and tele's,hohner,ibanez,esp and i think after all of them,my guitar is jackson.i dont wanna compare it it to any guitar.