Jackson DK27 Dinky

24 jumbo frets, rosewood fretboard with MOTO sharkfin inlays, bolt-on hard rock maple neck, alder body, two EMG-HZ humbuckers, master volume, master tone, EMG turbocharger (0-20db gain boost), 3-way blade switch, black "dinky" strat body, Jackson tuners, tune-o-matic bridge, string-thru.

The first thing I did was pull out the crappy EMG-HZ and threw them repeatedly into a brick wall. The cracking and popping sounds are the best these pickups will ever sound. I replaced them with a Duncan Jazz/JB set, which absolutely brought this guitar to life. The cleans are smooth and balanced, with lots of punch and clarity that you don't get from simply down tuning a standard scale length guitar. When distorted, it produced a warm and pleasing crunch, with plenty of low-end growl. Turning on the turbocharger gives you equal amounts of scream and background noise as you roll it up. This doesn't quite sound like a normal guitar, as it has a lot more punch, with more mid to low overtones. This thing sounds huge, like a train rolling over a bridge. I plug it into a Peavey XXX with two Mesa Rectifier 2x12 cabs (one with Celestion Vintage 30's, one with Mesa Black Shadow 90's), and it absolutely crushes.

As usual for the Japanese line Jacksons these days, it came with an ultra-low action that caused a bit of fret buzz in the upper registers. I raised it up just a tad, and bends became easier, with no buzz or loss of appreciable speed. The fretwork is smooth, well polished, and amazingly fast. Huge, monsterous frets, as to be expected out of a metal guitar. All the hardware is clean and blemish free, the neck pocket is tight. The MOTO inlays seem to have a black outline around them, which I can only assume is the glue. It would probably blend in perfectly with an ebony fretboard, but is slightly noticeable with rosewood. The unfinished neck is thin without being too thin (like an Ibanez Wizard is), and so silky smooth that your hand glides over it. The paint is perfect, with no swirls or orangle peel, like a sheet of black glass. The nut slots are cut at angles, so they line up with the tuners, preventing the stickage problems Jacksons have had in the past. A very nice touch. The switch is noise free, and the volume and tone knob are perfectly waited. The EMG turbocharger has no resistance, making me think I'm going to roll it right off the top of the guitar, reinforcing my hatred for EMG. It is a fun toy, but I can already tell it will get little use. The back compartment route is cut with a notch that perfectly fits the 9V battery, which is another new addition and another nice touch. I hate to say it, but Fender has definately upped the QA on the Japanese line (ooh, I hate complimenting Fender).

Like all my Jacksons, this has the same solid feel and thick finish that lets me know it is going to hold up well to the abuse of live playing. Like all my import Jacksons, I noticed right away that I'm going to have to replace all of the cheap hardware. The tuners are junk, the bridge seems to be made out of lightweight cast metal, and the nut is plastic. I wonder if I can get a graphite nute cut the same way? I won't comment on the strap buttons, since all my guitars get Schaller straplocks, period. No real complaints, since crappy hardware and pickups are to be expected from a guitar in this price range. I rather have good tonewoods and bad hardware than the reverse. I'm a customization fiend, so no big deal

I've never had to deal with the company. The lion's share of my collection are Jackson's, and I've never had a problem with anything that doesn't get replaced (pickups and hardware) anyway.

This is a great guitar for the money. It may pale in comparison to my USA Soloists, but I don't think there is a long scale guitar in the $300 price range that can touch it. Schecters sound like mud, Ibanezes feel like toys to me, and I don't even want to start in on the horrible piles of crap that are LTD and Epiphone.

I bought this guitar recently and its really neat, my first baritone also. Finish is Cobalt Blue which I think is the best of all the color options. It has a 27" neck tuned to B but I tuned it to C#. EMG HZ-3 pickups that doesnt do any justice at all. EMG Turbocharger preamp, which I dont use at all. Tune-o-matic string through body bridge, I upgraded it to a tonepros locking TOM so it wouldnt fall off when I restring. Jackson Tuners, I upgraded to Gotoh for better tuning stability. Bolt on neck construction with a 24 Jumbo fret neck. Body is made of Alder wood and neck is hard rock maple with rose wood fingerboard and sharktooth inlays. Controls are 3-way blade switch, volume, tone and turbo charger knob/switch. I give it a 5 for it as stock and a 9 after my upgrades.

Let's see, I like to play metal music and the emg HZ's were not cutting through the mix like I wish so I removed them and installed a Bill Lawrence 500XL in the bridge and a Seymour Duncan 59 in the neck. I also gutted the controls except the 3 way switch and installed the following 1 meg volume pot(neck Pickup) 2 meg volume pot (bridge pickup), midrange control knob (0 scoop, 5 neutral, 10 boost). For the Volume pots I bought 2 volume kits to prevent loss of tone when knobs were rolled back. All controls and electronics were purchased at Torresengineering.com for about 75 dollars except the duncan pickup, that was purchased on ebay for 50 dollars. Total spent on electronics was about 125 plus shipping. Stock I rate it 5, after my mods 9.

The guitar needed a neck adjustment as well as a set-up to accomodate my tuning. Guitar is routed cleanly and no markings of any at all. The nut needed a replacing since I prefer Graphite nuts. I dont like how all companies route the controls past the bridge, they always get in the way. I love the finish of this guitar the cobalt blue is amazing! I wish the guitar was a set neck or a neck through then it would be a badass. I rate it a 6, I can be a picky bastard. after my mods a 9.

This guitar is nicely sized and weighs not too much but isnt light. I upgraded the hardware to better and higher quality parts, strap buttons are large and solid. I think this guitar is a backup as stock but after the modifications I made it can be a main guitar. I'd say an 6 before my mods and 10 after my mods.

never dealt with customer support, Jackson is always known to make some of the greatest guitars.

I've been playing for about 8 years and own a Jackson SLSMG. I dont regret buying this guitar, it was purely experimental and I got way more than what I thought it would be. I like the longer scale, it sounds so much better for lower tunings. I couldn't compare it to another baritone since its my first one. I just wish the stock pickups were something better, dont get wrong EMG makes nice pickups but the HZ's are crap! I chose the pickups I installed cuz I like Dimebag Darrell's tone before duncan made him a pickup so I tried these out and it is powerful set to use. If you want to give a baritone guitar a shot I recommend this one, its cheap and isnt too expensive to upgrade. Before my mods 6 after my mods 9

Japanese-made, 24 fret baritone guitar. Alder body, rock maple bolt-on neck. The neck has a 27" scale, so it's not a good idea to get this if you have small hands. It's also beautifully thin, and is the most comfortable neck I've ever played. It's very smooth and fast. Frets are jumbo.
2 EMG-HZ humbuckers, with a three way selector switch. I got mine in the Black Forest finish, which is a sparkly dark green, it looks great for death metal despite being sparkly. The guitar has a volume pot, tone pot, and the EMG Afterburner circuit, which adds a 20dB gain boost to the signal. The pickups are passive, but the afterburner is active, so a battery is included with the guitar.
It has a tune-o-matic style bridge, with strings-through-body instead of a stop bar.
The tuners are just bog-standard Jackson tuners.
No included accessories beyond the allen key for the truss-rod, but it doesn't have a floyd rose bridge so you don't really need anything else.

I play mainly death/black metal, so it's perfectly suited to what I do. Mine came tuned to A#, but I tuned it up to B as I didn't want to risk damaging my amp.
I use a Crate GT65 with a Danelectro Black Paisley, Digitech Death Metal (not at the same time), and a Crybaby wah. It sounds best put through the Death Metal pedal (I use the Dano pedal for higher tunings), the neck pickup is very warm. The bridge position isn't exactly bright, but thats's to be expected when it's tuned so low. Neither position sound muddy though, even when I had it tuned down to G and ran it through a bass amp. The pickups are both extremely quiet, no noise problems, and very little feedback, even at loud volumes.
The guitar sounds are pretty limited, it has twin humbuckers and no coil tap. However, the gain booster makes the pickups sound more like fat single-coils than humbuckers, so used on a low gain setting can produce a good blues tone.
I like just about everything about this guitar. However, I am going to change the stock EMG-HZ pickups for proper EMGs, an 81 at the bridge and a 60 at the neck.

I'm giving a rating of 8 for the sound, because while it sounds good, and is versatile, it'll be even better when I've got the active pickups in it.

One other thing - the sustain is incredible on this guitar. Heavy-gauge strings and a long scale length, especially when combined with the afterburner, make this a sustain monster.

The set-up was perfect straight out of the box, no fret buzz, and no adjustment needed. It hadn't been touched by the staff in the shop either, I ordered it in specially and they hadn't touched it when I picked it up. I didn't really notice what the pickup matching was like, as I switched on the distortion as soon as I plugged it in, any differences in volume would be obliterated by the amount of gain I use.
The volume pot is crackly, though. This will be sorted when I install the active pickups though, as I'll be replacing the pots. Having looked at other reviews on this site, the problem seems to be fairly common amongst the MG series guitars. Apart from that, the only other problem was a chip in the paintwork in between the volume and tone pots.

I'm rating 8 again for this, if it weren't for the crackly pot and the paintwork chip, it'd be 10, the action on this guitar is PERFECT, it stays in tune really well, and is a joy to play.

I've not used this guitar for a gig yet, the other guitarist in my band doesn't have a guitar he can tune down to B yet, so there's no point. I'll be using it in the studio though, and live when my other guitarist gets one.
The hardware looks decent, the black finish will probably rub off after a while though.
The finish looks fairly thick, and it's withstood a fair bit of scratching from my studded belt, so I doubt a pick is going to scrape it off. Strap buttons are huge, and well fixed on, a strap should stay attached with no problems unless you jump about like Busted onstage.
I've only had this guitar for a couple of months, so I don't know what the dependability is like. Going off my RR3 however, it should be just fine.
I'd quite happily gig this without backup, for three reasons:
1) the neck is rock-hard, so it's not going to break on the off-chance I drop it.
2) The strings are heavy-gauge, .13-.56, so I doubt I'd break them, and
3) even if I did break one, it'd be a matter of seconds to change it as it's a simple string-through-body system.

If I got hold of a baritone with a floyd rose, I'd use this as backup instead of a main guitar.

I'm rating it 10 for reliability, if my opinion on this changes over time, I'll update as necessary.

I've not dealt with them. I hope I don't have to, going off the experiences some people have had...

I've been playing about a year and a half now, and I own two other Jackson guitars (can you tell I'm a fan?), an RR3 and a DKMGT. If this guitar was stolen, I'd replace it as quickly as possible, I love it. I love everything about this guitar, the sustain, the gain booster, the sheer low-end rumble... my favourite thing about it has to be the neck though, it's silky smooth and amazing to play. I can play faster on this than I can on my RR3, despite the longer scale length. I compared this to a Schecter scorpion baritone (I think that's what it's called), but I went for the Jackson because I preferred the neck (the Schecter has a painted neck, I don't like them), and because in my opinion, Jackson make the best guitars for heavy metal.
My only wish is that it came with active EMGs fitted as standard, so I wouldn't have to wait for them to arrive seperately. Oh well.

Japanese made 24 fret 3 way pickup selector EMG HZ Pickups, Tune O Matic style bridge, thin rosewood neck.

I play metal, and I wanted something I could tune down to C or C#. Overall, I am happy with the sound even though the distortion is a bit muddy for my tastes. Clean sound was very good, however. I was very surpised with the clean sound. The pickups need to be replaced, though. Too muddy distorted.

This is where the guitar excels. Nicest stock guitar I ever got. Action is superb, I love the fretboard, and all the hardware was in good working order. Very nice-Better than my strat or my Jackson DK2.

Very dependable-It's a Jackson! Japanese made-second only to America for making guitars. No Floyd Rose and tuning is stable. You could use it without a backup.

Unknown-I never deal with the guitar manufacturers. Never had to.

I can sit around all day and just chug away on this guitar. Tuning is great, neck is wonderful, great price. I was unsure of buying a Jackson since Fender bought them out, but Fender kept it real and I am very happy with this purchase. I mostly bought the DK27 to tune down without fighting with a Floyd Rose. I am glad I got this instead of a 7 string. My only hang up was the muddy distortion from the EMG HZ pickups, but it is rare for any guitar to come stock with decent pickups. Dimarzios or Duncans or EMG 81/85 will replace the EMG HZ pickups.

Built in Japan, Alder Body, Bolt on Neck, Die-Cast Tnuners, Rosewood Fingerboard, 24 Jumbo Frets, 2 EMG HZ Humbuckers, Volumecontroll Tonecontroll EMG Turbocharger (0-20 db Gain Controll), JT390 Bridge Adjustable Strings through Body 27" Scale

Clean sound is rather average or below without the Gain booster but with it it sounds quite useable (still better than my Warlock Platinum) i think this is because of the PUs
So with distortion i sounds pretty good even better with the boost but then it can get a little noisy
i play mostly death thrash black and rarely need clean sounds
I think with EG 81/85 it would sound even better so i am going to built this in

I am playing Bass for 10 years in various bands
playing guitar is more a hobby and i didnt play guitar in any band
for the music i want to play i think its the best joice because
- 27" Scale
hehe i still need some bass more then a regular guitar has
- no tremolo
i often change the tuning and everytime i did this i had problems with the tremolo system and a dont need one i only want to play chords no solo at all

i also tested the ESP VB 300 and the Ibanez MMM
the DK 27 lies between this two (sound&price)
the MMM sound fuller warmer especially clean
the ESP was brighter
but the DK27 had the best distortion sound for the music i play
overall i would say the MMM is the best of this 3 but i dont like its look and i dont need a good clean sound so why should i pay 100? more for a feat that i dont need
Once the EMG 81/85 are in it i think it will sound very good
the HZs are the only real drawback on this guitar
with good PUs in it i would give it in Sound and overall 10s
but so its a 8