Jackson DKMGT

Japan made Cobalt blue DKMGT
24 frets
h-h
active pickups
tune o matic i think bridge
thin thin neck!
bought hardshell case too

it is very versatile(blues to slayer)
use it with a fender 25r frontman and a boss ds1 and morley wah
it is loud but that how it was meant to be played!
bright sound on clean
lots of variety

action is great
pickups perfectly adjusted
flaws-loose tone knob(not a big problem)

will withstand anything and everything!
finish very good but too early to tell if its quality
strap buttons oversized to dont have to get locking ones immediately
very dependable
use it with out a backup

i dont know

it is my first elctric and i own one other acoustic
id kill if it got stolen
great value

2002 japanese made,24,archtop,gloss black finish-gets dirty easy,1 voume 1 tone 1-20db gain boost,3-way selector. 2 emg hz just found out they're active duh! me,would have bought this beautiful american made jackson with emg 81&85 in it had i known mine were active also.body & neck woods seem solid.tune-0-matic bridge;wouldn't have it any other way!.tuners say jackson and feel rugged and precise.neck has jumbo frets which i love,my old sg frets get pretty skinny high up the neck&this jackson has better control higher than the twelth fret.fanaglled the jackson road case&had 2 be altered

suits my style good,from mellow clean acoustic sounding stuff to balls out wallpaper peeling stuff. i have only tried it through the roland cube 30 i bought at the same time as guitar.i eagerly await my other amp combos.very noisy in bridge pickup with boost cranked on metal channel thru roland.good variety of sounds.i don't like having to mute the strings so much with boost on,but tweaking might solve that problem

factory set-up is superb,great strings,great intonation on tune-o-matic bridge,perfect action.good pickup height adjustment from new.bookmatched? can't tell,solid black with gloss clearcoat.bridge routing seems fine,never really inspected it.no flaws noted as of yet,except the pots and switches are absolute junk!. rating would be a 10 if not for the electronics problems

live playing it will withstand after pot and switch replacements.i don't know if the hardware will last;everything is shit nowadays.the finish seems rugged due to the heavy clearcoat layers.strap buttons will be in the garbage pronto,replaced with proper lockers.depend on it? too early in its life to tell,though japan craftsmanship has come a long way and seems durable. don't really gig but my sg would be right behind me,due to uncertainty with batteries,pots,etc...

haven't dealt with jackson directly. they're website could use a major overhaul. *more t-shirts and crap than good info*

20 years,lots of amps,effects,8-track analog.gibson sg firebrand deluxe standard.yamaha acoustics.if it were stolen lookout!.i would buy an american made jackson nextime.the neck is the best i've played,only some vintage les pauls even come close.isn't the neck really the key to a decent guitar!.i hate the pots,jet black finish kinda boring,headstock looks cool but quick adjustments while playing might be difficult.i chose it because it plays like a dream!

Purchased in 2002, Japan made Jackson DKMGT, 24 Fret Archtop, EMG-HZ pickups w/Boost knob. Slightly metallic blue finish (actually the guitar's nicest feature besides the neck) Reverse headstock and the thinnest, fastest neck I've ever played on (gotta love the natural finish). Tune-o-matic bridge. Decent features except the boost, which is basically useless. I'd also like to slap around the engineer at Jackson who designed the volume knob placement (see below for detail)

I play melodic metal in my band and by myself pretty much whatever. As far as the band sound goes, playing with 9's and in Eb thru a Marshall JCM800 2210 with the gain and volume dimed it does alright. It holds it's own for rhythm while I think the leads are a bit weak (due to pickups). I'm almost absolutely certain the EMG-HZ pickups are complete crap... I seem to get the desired sustain when turning the boost knob on... but I think running hotter pickups like EMG 81/85s would fulfill that without the noise from the boost. Nice thing is the battery cavity is already routed. Boost knob is like hitting a distortion pedal without the shrill high note shreiking... I tried a rat pedal instead of the boost knob and I thought it sounded much more unnatural. But, the boost knob is almost useless unless you are playing/sustaining a note as I find it makes a crapload of noise. But who knows, I'm sure every tube amp reacts differently. Body is of decent weight and that plus the rosewood fretboard give it a well rounded sound. I play light gauge for shred purposes, I bet it could sound really fat with some heavy gauges on it tuned down a step or two. But again, the pickups are pretty weak. (and is it me or are they buzzy too?) But for a 400-500 dollar guitar it's decent.

The blue finish is actually really nice for a guitar in the lower-mid price range. I've read a few reviews and most seem to say the same thing about all the finishes. I have also seen a few in the store and they do all look good. The little "pirhana" inlays do look pretty cool although on a dark stage they don't help much. Binding is ok, the reverse pointy headstock is kindof cool (although I dropped mine and it chipped a little off the end). I wish paint didn't scratch so easily but hey a lot of gigs and a lot of beer can cause those sorts of pains. Jackson probably varies the color schemes so I doubt you can get tubes of touch up paint. I believe a Jackson dealer told me the same thing as well. Nail polish maybe? I really love the maple finish neck as it is quite fast after a good polish with regular guitar wood polish. Again I think for the price the guitar itself is the best part and is what you pay for with this one. (the electronics blow). And would someone please tell me who the hell at Jackson decided on the abosolutely retarded volume knob placement? Personally I anchor my right pinky on the bottom of the bridge pickup and this stupid knob gets in the way of my fingers when I'm speed picking. Also plan on getting a really tiny flathead screwdriver for tightening your knobs constantly. The pots are also nonstandard shaft size so if you replace them with a decent brand pot plan on making the hole slightly larger. And you'll have to raise the knob slightly for it to clear the larger nut. Who would've thought guitar maintainance had to be such a pain in the ass? Like I said the wood is beautiful but the electronics are where they skimp.

Well I've used this guitar for a year of regular gigs involving rowdy crowds, lots of beer, and drunk roadies (including myself). Like I said above I think the actual guitar is rather sturdy. It comes with oversized strap buttons which of course have to be replaced with locking ones. It's been dropped it's fair share but has only seen one full setup with neck adjustments and it still plays rather well. I do cleanings, intonation, fretboard oil, pretty much every other string change, about every 2-3 weeks and I believe regular maintainance like this will keep this guitar performing. However the stock bridge saddles would repeatedly break my low A string (at the time I was using 10's) which struck me as really strange. Turns out the metal saddle wear grooves really easily so I replaced them with graphite ones (don't remember if it's a schaller bridge or not but I do remember it had to be special ordered, it wasn't a jackson bridge or gibson-style). It's been about a year and just recently I've been breaking strings again (although a lot less). I'm sure filing the grooves in the saddles will help. The ELECTRONICS are complete crap. I've had to replace the battery connector, the volume pot, the connector on the boost pot. The EMG pickups use these cheap little plastic 5-pin connections on the pickups and the boost knob, looks like those crappy little motherboard-LED connectors you see inside computers. Plastic and don't hold up very well. The wiring is thin and extremely crappy. This is the guitars weak point, I've resoldiered almost all the connections on this guitar. If you play live I'd just take a load off your mind and re-do all the electronics. The day I can afford EMGs will be a big relief.

Haven't dealt with Jackson directly although the Jackson dealer I got it from has no problem selling me replacement pots. You'd think that when they go they'd replace em for free but hell a couple bucks is easier than waiting forever for the company to replace them. I have no idea what the warrantee is as I do most repairs myself. Jackson's website blows, they basically list the models, their features, and might have PDFs of the manuals (if there are any). It'd be nice to see something a bit more in depth but whatever, they aren't obligated to educate their customers, only sell them product. I bet if I emailed or called I'd get a response in a decent timeframe. Jackson doesn't seem to be super-corporate that they'd blow people off, but who knows since Fender just bought em.

I have been playing for 9 years now, and over the past 4 years in bands have progressed from playing small (30-100 person) gigs to larger (200-600 person) gigs, so I know the progression from basic gear to reliable, good sounding, professional stage setups. I've owned a few other lower priced guitars (Washburn something or other, Gibson Hawk) and I purchased this guitar because I needed a good sounding and reliable stage instrument. I have found this guitar to be a pleasure to play, as I think the neck is really well shaped, the craftmanship seems to be really good for a guitar this cheap. I love the archtop, it really adds flavor to the look and the guitar looks great onstage. Like I said it's got its fair share of problems, most of them stemming from cost-cutting in the electronics and hardware department. Plan on replacing pickups and saddles if you're a real player. For the beginner or bedroom player this guitar would probably work fine forever out of the box. But the crappy wiring and knobs will fall apart on you. I really wish they'd put the volume knob in a different spot, and as soon as I put EMG 81/85 in it I will relocate the volume and tone knobs over one space, get rid of the useless boost knob, and fill in the volume hole with wood filler. As a temporary solution I've simply removed the knob, sure it looks ghetto onstage but it solved my problem with my fingers hitting it. All in all, for under 500 bucks this is a really decent guitar. If it was lost I'd miss the archtop and the neck most, but there's probably about a billion of these guitars around so getting another would be easy. I'd just save the money and get something better like a Soloist or Caparison Horus... I'm at the point where I will need a more "professional" guitar within the next year. You get what you pay for... ever see a pro onstage with a Fender bullet or an Epiphone LP special? Didn't think so. But this is a great middle of the line guitar for the working musican without a couple thousand in his pocket to get a super-solid axe. Anyone with any thoughts on this guitar please email me I'm always up for swapping ideas.

2002, Made in Japan, 24 frets, 2 EMG HZ active pickups.
http://www.jacksonguitars.com/ for more info

I mostly play rhythm. The sound is very good w/ the active boost turned on, and OK without it.

Great action, great finish, no complaints.

I bought it used, and one of the solder points broke loose in shipping (according to the seller, it was fine before it was shipped.) That worries me a bit, but we'll see if it happens again.

I called Fender (new owners of Jackson) to request a schematic for the guitar. They were very friendly, and e-mailed me a PDF of the hand drawn schematics for the DXMG which uses the same electronic setup.

I've been playing on and off for over 10 years. My main (and only before this) electric guitar is a Gibson Explorer. I love the tune-o-matic bridge on the DKMGT. If I were to add another guitar to my collection, I would definitely look at another DKMGT, or a DKMG if I had a need/desire for a tremolo.

It is a 2002 model made in Japan. Basswood body, bolt-on maple neck, H/H EMG-HZ pickups, string-thru body, tune-o-matic bridge.

This guitar suits my style perfect! I play heavy/thrash metal. I play through a DOD milk box, DOD Death Metal Pedal, Morley Wah, Zoom 707-GFX, and a DOD 7-bank EQ. My amp set up is a Peavey Bandit 112 with a single 12" extension cabinet. This guitar has an excellent clean tone, as well as a brutal crunch.

Set-up was perfect right out of the box. I have made no adjustments what so ever. The finsih is flawless. It has a transparent amber finish, with a flame maple top and all black hardware. It is a very beautiful guitar!

I have had no problems with this guitar, nor my other Jackson (PS-4), therefore I feel it will be a very dependable guitar.

I have never had a problem to contact Jackson about.

I have played for 15 years on and off, but the past 3 years consistently. I will never put my guitar down again! I would love to have a high-end Jackson some day, but for the money this guitar is a perfect 10!

2002 Japan made DKMGT in Black Forest, 24 fret, reverse headstock, tunamatic string thru, bolt on, and pirhana inlays. Arch top, 1 vol 1 tone and 1 push/pull active 20db variable gain boost(useless). Two EMG HZ humbuckers, basswood body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, 25.5" scale. www.jacksonguitars.com has everything I've left out.

Sound is pretty decent, I can't stand the pickups and have ordered and am awaiting a Seymour Duncan Dimebucker for bridge and Jazz for neck. This will make it sound a lot better. Sound is pretty full and not very trebly.

Set up was pretty good. Had one problem though, this being a reversed headstock non floyd guitar - the low E string would consistently pop out of the nut. However, I believe that my using a .052 guage was the reason. I now have .046 and it is fine. Action was low, frets were okay. No cosmetic flaws whatsoever. The neck and headstock binding was pretty pathetic, almost looks like the wood. The finish is real cool. The Black Forest finish is a very dark metallic forest green that looks black ten feet away. Fingerprint magnet.

Definitely durable, you obviously would want strap locks on anything. Hardware is black and looks solid. Always have a backup, but not being a floyd I don't have to worry about breaking a string and not being able to finish the song. Too many times in front of too many people with floyds. The string thru is the reason I bought this, and guitarxpress.com had it for $470 w/ case & shipping.

Never dealt with company, emailed them before purchase to ask a ? about the pickups and never got a message. However, many people say their phone service is excellent, so definitely phone first.

Been playing 9 years, definitely fav guitar I've owned. The turbocharger is a waste of time, but everything else is great. For the money I couldn't have done any better.

Same features as the other DKMGT's. This one has a sweet transparent amber finish with 24 frets and, the best feature of all, tune-o-matic bridge. Came with a crappy owner's manual and a tool for adjusting the tremelo bridge which I don't have. Came equipped with 9s, so you may want to have some fatter gauge strings handy if you get this guitar. For more info: www.jacksonguitars.com

I run this baby through a Fender Deluxe 112 amp with a Cry baby 535Q and a Boss Overdrive/Distortion. Guitar sounds excellent. I play straight up Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, and this guitar performs very well. Has nice, full sound when cranked. The turbocharger provides a nice punch for hard playing. I use it pretty often, but if you have a good amp with a solid gain channel you probably would not use it much. Be sure to push it down when you're finished or your 9V battery will drain. One thing I truly love about this axe, besides no Floyd Rose, is that is has a super fast neck. If you like to play up and down the neck, then here's your axe.

This guitar came to me with all the usual minor problems, neck needed adjustment, intonation was off, had the volume knob fall off but a small flat-head screwdriver fixed that. When it came in I was expecting the worse cause I didn't have the cash for a case, but Musicians Friend packaged this thing very well and there wasn't a scratch or a fingerprint on my guitar. The only real problem I had with this guitar was that with the 3 way selector, the guitar in the bridge position didn't produce any sound. Each wire that connects to the selector switch is soldered onto two terminals, and the wire going to the bridge position was soldered onto only one. Simple job you repairman can fix in 2 seconds.

I don't gig or anything, but I would be confident that this guitar could withstand live playing. It's a Jackson, nuff said.

I emailed Jackson about my selector switch problem and never got a response, so I called them up and they were very helpful and knowledgeable so if you ever have problems with your Jackson, however unlikely, call em! All the DKMGT's come with a lifetime warranty.

I've been playing now for 4 years and I absolutely love this guitar. After having it serviced at a local shop, this guitar is perfect. The main reason to buy this guitar is for all of us who got sick and tired of futilly trying to tune those crap Floyd Rose tremelos. Get this thing and all your tuning woes will disappear. This thing stays in tune, period. I do a lot of bends in my playing style and after an hour of playing, this guitar is still in tune. Tuners are high quality. Neck is insanely fast. 24 frets is very sweet too if you haven't owned a guitar with 2 full octaves. Turbocharger is cool for giving you more kick to your sound. If it were stolen, then you better flee the country cause I'm coming after your sorry ass! I would definitely buy another DKMGT. I really can't think of anything I hate about this guitar, other than I wish I bought one sooner. This is my first Jackson and I am truly impressed with the overall quality of this guitar. Get it!

same features as everyone else's. www.jacksonguitars.com if you need to know more. NO FLOYD ROSE!! YAY

i run dkmgt << boss flange << dod ice box chorus <<dod death metal distortion << some cheap guyatone noise supressor << crate gfx120t. sounds real good. with the death metal pedal i dont really use the turbo charger 20db boost much. i do alot of palm mutes, and it puts out a real heavy crunch. i mainly play stuff like machine head and deftones, and its real good at putting out sounds like that. it does get noisy when you active the gain boost real high, but thats also thru a pedal, never tried it without the pedal.

the guitar came from the factory set up great. it required a little bit of tuning, but every guitar does when you mail order it. the action was fine, and the pickups were fine. the neck one had to be lowered like 2mm or something like that, if you hit the string too hard it would hit the pickup, but other than that it came fine. no blems in the finish, all nice and shiny like.

never gig'd with it but it seems like it would hold up. alot of death metal bands play jacksons, so it must be able to hold up. everything feels solid on. i try to take care of my guitars, but no matter what i always seem to drop it or hit it on the wall or a door or something, and this one has held up fine. would never gig without a back up, but if i had to, id use this one over otherone ive played.

never had to deal with them support wise, but i emailed jackson to see if i would have to get the body drilled out a little bit to fit in something like emg 81's and they email back in like a day.

the overall rating is great. ive been playing like 4 years. my last guitar was an esp m-100, and that broke after 2 years of my abuse, and i was gonna get another esp, like a vb-300 or something, but in the month it took me to save up the money i went to guitar center and was playing this one so i decided to buy this one instead. this guitar blows the esp's out of the water. the esp viper 300 which has the same pickups doesnt sound halfway as good, and this one looks slicker. if this were stolen or lost, i think id cry, becuase it would take me forever to save up another 500 for a guitar. the only bad thing about this guitar is that if you hit the low e string too hard pulling up, it can pop out at the top. just take a hack saw and make the notch a little wider and deeper and its all set. really with it had nuts on the top to hold the strings in. but its a great value. plays like a $1000 guitar for half the price. the tunamatic bridge isnt too high up on the body like it is on a few ibanez's that make it feel wierd to palm mute. great guitar.

I had to update this post because I finally figured out how to operated the "gain boost". I didn't mean to call it a "mid boost" on my last post. If you pull up on the knob located the farthest from the bridge, you activate the gain boost. I must say that it is a pretty good lift when you activate it. If you have your amp set to play an ACDC type distortion, you can pull the knob and instantly have more of a Metallica type. I don't know if it is true, but someone told me that the guitar will still operate as long as a battery is plugged in, even if it is dead. I don't know if that is true or not. Obviously if the battery dies the boost won't work, but it would be cool if the pickups still did. I am trying to find out from EMG or Jackson.

This is my first good Jackson guitar. Back in 1992 I bought a Jackson, but during shipping it was chipped so I sent it back. Finally after all these years I am back to owning one. I am going to be as descriptive as I can because I know people like to have good info. This is a brand new Black Jackson DKMGT (string-thru) with a reverse headstock, 25 frets, Piranha inlays, two EMG-HZ pickups and a 20 decibal mid boost built in. Guitar operates on a 9 volt battery.

This guitar was made in Japan and has a basswood body, rosewood fretboard and maple neck. Also has three control knobs and a
3-position pickup selector. Really great features, but I don't like the fact that without a 9 volt battery the guitar won't work. I was under the impression that unlike active pickups the mid boost could be used or not used. I was wrong because when I took out the 9 volt, the guitar died. They must have everything running through the mid boost somehow. Not a real big deal. It is cool that the guitar actually came with a 9-volt in it. I am sure I will find a way to disengage the mid boost if I am short a battery, etc.

I like playing a variety of things, but mostly hard rock and metal. I have this guitar plugged into my TECH 21 PSA-1 and it sounds great! The guitar is really only noisy when I play next to my computer monitor. Other than that, it is pretty quiet. Like with anything, tons of gain will probably add some noise. At first I didn't like the pickups, but I noticed that the strings were almost sitting on top of the pickups and I was also getting fret buzzing. So I raised the bridge a bit and that is all it took. The sound is really good coming from the pickups now. Pickups are great for metal, hard rock, etc. and I am sure can handle most styles. The guitar has good palm muting chunk to it. A good example would be Dave Mustaine's sound. It has a bit of that extra "mid" in there. I can nail some of the riffing in Metallica's "Damage Inc." with the Jackson into the PSA-1. They are not the best pickups in the world obviously, but I was pleasantly surprised. Guitar has great harmonics and sounds great all the way up and down the neck. Some people might want warmer pickups or EMG's with a bit more "balls".

Coming from Musician's Friend via Fed Ex, I expected the worst. Especially because I foolishly ordered the guitar without a case. I was expecting fire wood to arrive. But I was in for a surprise. The guitar came in a cardboard box "form-fitted" to the guitar. It did not have a lot of protection around it, but it had some foam supports, etc. Then, this box was put inside a Musician's Friend box packed with paper. Crude, but it worked. This guitar came out of the box in perfect form. There was not a scratch, smudge, fingerprint, etc. I was blown away. I cannot find a ding or other problem anywhere on this guitar, which is shocking. The pearloid piranha inlays look very cool. The tuners feel really sturdy and are not loose at all. This guitar stays in tune very well. The glossy jet black finish is great. The guitar to me looks a lot like Kirk Hammett's guitar. It has that shape and the pickups are the boxy EMG's. Very impressed. Japan did very good work on this one. I am by no means an electrician, but I opened up the back to put a fresh battery in, and the wires, soldering, etc. looked solid.

Guitar seems very solid. I have only heard good things from the Japan Jacksons and now I have to echo that sentiment. If you have the money (only $499) you can own a guitar that feels like a $1000 one. Finish, hardware and everything else seem real solid. I think I could depend on this guitar. Once I figure out the mid boost thing I'll feel a lot better.

There are so many Jackson boards, forums, etc. that you really don't need the company. You could find out more from a player. I was not impressed with the manual that came with the guitar. It is not updated with the guitar I am playing! So, I can't find out how to disable the battery, etc.

Nothing beats a Jackson if you want to race up and down the neck. Guitar is great. I love this thing and I really feel like I got a great deal. I am glad I have returned to Jackson after all these years.