Jackson DK2 Dinky

This is a review update, follow up, etc. Read on............

I guess I can make a few comments here. Still kickin ass after 2 years! Just like the way it was the first time I plugged her in the day I got her. Replacing the bridge pickup to a Seymour Duncan TB-6 Distortion showed me where I had been going wrong with all the axes I've owned before. I'd have to say the TB-6 pushed this guitar over the edge. Killer combo as far as I'm concerned. Sounds great through just about any rig. For shits and giggles I used a friend of mines Crate BX15 bass amp with my DOD EQ and BOSS Metal Zone. Sounded great. Played it through a Marshall JCM800 full stack with a vast aray of FX pedals and it kicked ass! My rig is all solidstate so it's all set up the way I like it. Still sounds great.

I set the action, leveled the bridge, adjusted the neck and replaced the humbucker with the TB-6 the day I got it. I stretched the strings and tuned her up and plugged her in. From then on it was a love afair. I have yet to need to readjust or tweak anything. No neck shifting or bridge problems. I pull off some George Lynch stuff like holding the guitar by the neck and the trem bar and putting it through dive bomb hell..................it handles it and keeps on going. I rarely have to re tune. Total stability. The finish has lasted through alot. It fell off the guitar stand a couple times and has it's little scratches here and there, but still looks new. The frets are holding up very well. Almost no wear at all for 2 years worth of constant playing. ACTION, FIT AND FINISH still kickin ass after 2 years!

This guitar has been taken apart, banged into shit, water splashed on it, beer spilled on it, etc. Durable as a battleship. Can't beat it.

If I have to recomend a guitar that is suitable for a beginner to a pro, great feel and playability with a killer sound...........the DK2 is the one. Lets put it this way............a friend of mine bought an SL1. I took my DK2 with me so we could jam. My DK2 to me out played his SL1 and cost about a 3rd of what his cost. Hell, if I bought 3 DK2's I would be set. I think even if I were ever to tour ever again I would feel safe taking a few DK2's with me. The Jackson DK2 is truly a Fantastic Value.

Newer model with the red flame paint job. Made in Japan. It has 24 frets and a floyd liscensed type whammy with all chrome hardware. It has 1 humbucker in the bridge and two sigle coils in the neck and middle postions, controlled by a 5 way switch and 1 each volume and tone knob. I don't know what the body is made of but it's light. The neck looks to be a rock maple variety and very flat radiused and stable. Has big jumbo frets too! Also, the scale on this thing is similar to a les paul. I'll give it an 8 because it's fairly eye catching and I like the flames. It takes me back to my 80's Charvel Jackson days. I got this thing used and it came with no case or tools. No biggy to me. It looked like it just rolled out of the factory. I'm sure it was originally purchased by some kid and he couldn't feep the floyd copy trem in tune, so he probably traded it on something else. One man's trash is another man's treasure! For 270 bucks I got a decent foundation for making something cool. As is from the factory this is a poor man's guitar with a great neck. I love charvel and jackson necks.

I like it. I can play dirty or clean and it sounds o.k. I use it with a Marshall 2x12 combo. It does have kind of scratchy volume pot, and the single coils can get noisy. I can make van halen sounds as well as a fairly convincing twangy strat sound, especially with the neck position single coil you can get funk sounds! I did have to raise the pickups to get clarity and punch out of them. Being as I'm a tinkerer I'll probably rout out the neck postion for a double coil and install new duncans throughout. I'll give it a seven because of noisy electronics.

The setup was off and the floyd copy was not level in the bridge cavity. I fixed this. The floyd being higher on one side caused some binding and tuning problems. I oiled all the friction points with molybendum disulfide grease and installed a hipshot tremsetter. All of my floyd rose guitars have this device. The tuning and return to zero is rock solid now. The fit and finish are o.k. The neck and frets are nicely leveled and polished. I really dig the big frets with the shorter scale.
I'll give it a seven here because the factory setup could have been a little better. Either way, I've got to where I'm enjoying fiddling with guitar setups and really didn't mind working on this one.

The guitar is fine for live playing and will hold up well to abuse. I've got a new volume pot for it and will replace that here in the future. Who gives a crap aabout the finish? I like em' when they are worn, dented, and chipped. After I put a little setup time into it, I feel like I can depend on this guitar. The strap buttons are good and I'd never ever gig without a backup.

Never used em'

Same features as listed below. The body on mine is alder with a flame maple top in trans-blue.

Amazing after switching out stock DD HB102B to a SD TB-6 Distortion. The stock singles sound great to me and serve their purpose.

Holding up well. No problems.

The humbucker ring is cracked, but has been replaced and the volume knob fried and has also been replaced. So far this is it.

I have had this guitar since March of last year and like the jackson I owned before it is top notch stuff. If you are looking for that one guitar to fill several needs musicaly and don't have enough to spend.......this is the way to go. If the stock pickups don't suit you there is always Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio and EMG to name a few. I have had no tuning problems, neck was adjusted by me the day I got in in March 2002 and hasn't been touched since. This is the best Jackson I have ever owned or played in my opinion. Drop the cash on one today. You won't be disapointed.

This is an update to an earlier review. I've had the guitar for six months now, and the honeymoon is over. Not too big on features, but it's a rock guitar. Plenty of features for me.....in fact a little too many as you will later find out. H/s/s. Floyd copy. 25.5 scale. 24 frets. Floyd didn't stay in tune as well as i ha expected, so i took two wood screws and screwed them in under the bridge so the trem doesnt float anymore. Hey, it stays in tune like a dream now, and if the urge strikes me, i can still divebomb.

I play rock and metal. The stock Duncan Designed just sucks, so that had to go. At first I did the old EVH and only had a volume knob and the bridge humbucker. Ok sound, but muddy and undefined. I put and Invader in the bridge (still no singles or tone knob) and it sounds GREAT. Take note, plenty of bass in the Invader, so adjust your amp accordingly.

It had a dent when I got it, and now it had two, from me dropping it while soldering. The body is poplar, so it dents VERY esily. There are even a few small dents in the body from pushing the bar too far during divebombs. I think i fuck up the action long ago, while i had the trem off installing pickups. Not too bad though.

Dents easy as piss, but it get the job done. With the trem blocked off, even if i break a string it stays in tune, so that helps some. I would depened on it. Of course i put on some strap locks, as you all should do....

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With the trem blocked off, the Invader put in, and a set of strap locks, it does all i need to do, and quite well. I have some lil' screamin demons for the neck and mid, working on installing those next. The neck it the best, though. Plays like a dream. The transparent blue looks nice enough, too. Not a bad flame top, although It's probably not real. If you wanna rock, buy it. If you wanna play country, a Tele is calling your name.

Alder Body, H/s/s pick up configuratoin, 1 vol. 1 tone...Jackson Floyd Rose licesed trem copy...locking nut...I like my guitars simple, and this is pretty simple othre than the floyd...suits my needs

MOTHER EFF'N METAL!!!...this thing kicks out the tone...I love the way it sounds through my Marshall...i play metal and more metal and this thing delivers the goods

plays like a dream, better than anything else I've ever played, and I own a Gibson LP Studio Custom, an Ibanez GAX 70 and a BC Rich NJ Neckthrough warlock...and I've played many high end schecters and gibsons and fenders...very well set up by the factory...low action...you can breathe on the damn thing and hold a note...

haven't had it very long, but I'm sure it will last my abuse

never contacted them...

I've been playing about 5 years, I own a marshall combo a crate blue voodoo fullstack, I already listed my guitars...I play in a gigging band and If this guitar was stolen, I'd kill the theif...not only is it a great guitar...but it was also a gift from my fiancee...

2002 Model Japanese DK2-L dinky, left handed. 24 frets. Volume and tone, five way selector, hum-sin-sin config. Came with crappy duncan design passive hums, cant remember the exact make, you all know em anyway :P. Alder body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, pearloid sharkfin inlays. Standark jackson dinky body, sorta modified strat :S. Jackson JTP Licensed floyd rose, chrome. Locking Jackson tuners. Jumbo frets, standard 25 1/5th scale (I think thats it). Came with Jackson hard case, all the allen key tool thingys :S. For the price, very good.

Well I'm going to rate the sound firstly on how it was before I changed the pickups, then after. I play metal and guitar instrumentals, in the vein of Dream Theater, In Flames, Symphony X, Children of Bodom, blah blah blah. I was using it through a Digitech GNX3 guitar processor, which is fairly versatile, no matter what amp I'm using it through, so the crappy Yamaha 2000-PE I was using was good enough. Aaanyway.. the sound was muddy, rather than bassy, and was quite noisy on the bridge position, definately not what I needed out of a metal axe. Anyway, after four hours worth of playing, I decided that the pickups were the ONLY fault with the axe, so I sent it in to get actives whacked in. Two EMG-SA's for the single coils, and a MasterTone SPA in the bridge hum. What a transformation! The bass is huge and stays clean forever, sustain for days, cutting highs and huge harmonics. I simply can't understand why Jackson don't put decent pickups in these things as standard and jack the price up a couple of hundred. Definately worth it. Not to mention the variety of sounds I can get out of it is incredible, but I mainly have to credit that to the MasterTone hum, nothing sounds like it. Check my review on that too :P. I almost don't bother with the other settings!

Well, it recieved a set-up the day before it was sent, courtesy of guitarxpress.com, what a great bunch of people. Dont really have to comment much on this one, no problems with the axe itself, action was low, harmonics were all in.

Really impressed with the axe so far, finally found a guitar that can put up with as much playing as I do. If there was anything I'd change, it'd be the bridge, probably to an original Floyd, just for that extra bit of stability. The finish is black, fingerprints easily, all that means is I have to clean it for a change, heh. Strap buttons I was impressed with, really big and solid, safe enough that I didnt feel the need to put locks on em. Wouldn't gig without a backup, talk about suicide :P. Stage lights, sweat, *twang*.

Well as far as customer support goes, a definate 10 to http://www.guitarxpress.com , why buy a Jackson from anywhere else? Everyone raves about their customer support and huge range, as well as ridiculously cheap prices. Its the truth. As for Jackson, I got a year warranty, which by the looks of it I wont ever need to use, which is probably a good thing, the fine print pretty much rules out everything anyway :S

Been playing 6 years, playing 8 hours a day, I'm completely guitar obsessed. If anyone's read through the Ibanez reviews (grx20L and rg7420) you'd know I've had a shitful experience with guitars, and I'm glad to say I've finally found an axe that fuckin well screams. Combination of a good quality make and huge sounding pickups. Stolen? Ahahaha... I'd hunt them down to the ends of the earth, and split their manhood open with the headstock. Then again, if a chick stole it, I'd have trouble pulling that one off huh.. :S. Oh, its a sick axe too.

This guitar was made in 2002 it is a Japan model with the bolt on neck. I got the model with the flamed laminated top finished in red. Really a great looking guitar. The Dinky body style is a superior design as it is very comfortable to play either standing or sitting. This guitar has a Jackson Floyd Rose on it. It also has the H/S/S pickup configuration. I've had the guitar about three months now so I decided to do a review. (I like to wait a while after I purchase something to review it as I feel it takes a while to honestly evaluate a guitar or amp.) I would also like to say that all the ratings I will use are based on the fact the guitar cost 300.00 and should therfore reflect value as compared to similarly priced guitars. One would not expect the hardware on a three hundred dollar guitar to compare with the hardware on a 1500.00 guitar.

This area is very tricky to give a rating and therfore I won't. What I will try to do is give you my evaluation of the sound. When I first recieved the guitar I was inatially disapointed with the sound, because when I would unplug my Gibson SG from my Marshall 1/2 stack and plug this Jackson in with the same amp settings, the Gibson clearley had a "Hotter" sound. I was similarly disapointed when using the bridge pickup and comparing it to my strat. I decided to change the pickups. Before getting around to changing the pickups I plugged the Jackson in to a Carvin Tube amp I have that has a EQ built in. I messed with the amp for about 30 min and I was listing to some Fusion Style jazz on the Radio at the time. I found I could exactly nail the sound I was hearing with the Jackson but when I tried it with Gibson the sound was way off. I decided to leave the pickups alone and use this guitar in conjunction with the Carvin amp to play Fusion style music and I have come to love the sound stock. Moral to the story is if you are looking for a "Hard Rock" sound this guitar could disapoint you with the stock pickups, if you are looking for a "Fusion Rock/Jazz" sound this guitar is great.

The factory setup on this guitar was the worst of any guitar I have ever bought. The strings buzzed everywhere, the neck needed to have a truss rod adjustment just to make it playable. In fact I considered sending the guitar back when I recieved it. However The finish of the guitar was a work of Art, no kidding, this thing looks great so I spent several hours setting the guitar up and now I glad I kept it as it is becoming one of my favorite guitars. For rating this category I would rate the finish a 10 and the setup a 0 so averaged this is a five

I haven't owned to long enough to give a usefull evaluation here.

I've been playing 27 years and I own six other electric guitars, (Gibson SG, Schecter C-1, Ibanez Artist and Less Paul,Fender Strat, Charvell 255) I also have three tube amps and three soild state. I would buy this guitar again as I like the neck, and the feel of the guitar, I've come to like the sound also. Bottom Line, at this price point it is a great guitar.

Japanese made. 24 Frets. Volume, tone, 5-way switch. S/S/H Pickup configuration. Duncan Design pickups. Smooth, unfinished maple neck with a rosewood fretboard. Strat-stye body with a licensed Floyd Rose temolo.

I'm using it with a Randall RG100SC, and it makes a great rock/metal combo. I got it used, and it had Lil' Scremon Deamons in place of the stock neck and mid pu's. Stock bride pu, which I am going to replace with a Duncan Distortion. Stock pu sounds ok, but it's just a little to muddy.

I got it used, so I'm not to sure about factory set-up. I raised the bridge pu and lowered the middle one for picking. The neck feels amazing, really smooth and fast. I will never go back to a finished neck. The volume knob was loose, but I tightened, and no problems. I wish the Floyd Rose stayed in better tune, that's why I got a guitar with a Floyd Rose. It's alot better than a 6 point fender bridge, too. It floats, so you can pull it up as well. That is kind of cool.

Seems good enough for me. Nothing looks too cheap for a guitar in this price range. Never gig without a backup.

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I've been playing for about 2 years now. I mostly listen to and try to play Van Halen, but I also like Metallica quite a bit. This guitar is perfect for both of those. Worth getting for the neck alone. I wish the Floyd was more stable, but I am going to put a Hipshot Tremsetter on it, so that should help. I am also going to add a d-tuna so I can go into D without having to take half an hour to re-adjust the Floyd Rose. Other than that, I love it. I think it's a great value and I would buy it again.

Features are the same as the rest below. Does have an alder body with a maple veneer over the top that is a little thicker than some may think. This is an update post as to how this axe has handled 4 seasons and several modifications.

I replaced the bridge pickup with a real Seymour Duncan Distortion humbucker. The stock pickup was a Duncan Design modeled after a SD JB model or TB-4. I need a raspy and deep bottom end at my command. For me the Distortion bucker does that for me in conjunction with my EQ and amp settings. I had 6 guitars in my collection at the time. Due to some financial problems I got rid of all but my DK2. It was up against a few Fenders and an old Charvel. The DK2 won hands down.

It's holding up. It has a few battle scars from slipping on the guitar stand and when trying to replace the volume knob I chipped the top a little. Thats how I found out how thick the veneer was. It's a pretty tough guitar. Everything is holding out on it pretty damn well.

The volume pot took a dump on me. This is after about 10 different pickups were soldered in. It's been fixed though. Everything else is top notch.

If you want versatility that will hold up, this is the guitar. I can't say enough about it. A friend of mine has a Jackson SL-1 Soloist neck thru. I like mine better. It may be just me though, but this is the best Jackson I have played yet.

2002 Japan 24 Frets, 1 Volume and one Tone, S/S/H, Duncan Desiged Pickups, Popular wood body, Hot Rod Flame Finish, Strat style body, Floyd Rose Double Locking Tremolo, Jackson brand tuners, very thin rosewood finger board, alan and truss rod wrenches included.

The guitar suits my 80's style of hevey rock. I use just a Pig Nose amp and Korg PX2. I don't like the pickups. They don't sound good at all. They will be changed in the future.

The auction was set up for 1/2 step down tuning. When i tuned the guitar up to red 440, the Floyd Rose needed adjusting to bring the saddles back to the right position.

The guitar seems like it will last a lifetime.

Never had to deal with Jackson yet.

I would like to add a few things. For the money $299.99 from American Music Supply, you can't bet this guitar with all its features. The hot rod paint was flawless. The neck is very thin and the sharkfin inlay on the rosewood fretboard is a plus. Here is what I don't like about the guitar. The neck is a two peace neck. You can see where the wood comes together on the back of the neck below the headstock. I hope this will last for years to come. The pickups don't sound good at all. The middle and neck pickup have a hum to them. Also it has the weirdest Floyd Rose I have ever seen. The saddles are on a pivot screw. I don't like that. I would like a normal floyd for it.
All in all its a solid guitar and American Music Supply has free shiping over 200.00. I would grab it. I got the case for 79.00 extra for it. Its nice also.