Guitar Gear Forum

I went to Atomic Music on Black Friday to see what kind of deals they had. And man, they had some killer deals, but since I am closing on a new house I couldn't take advantage of most of them.

I did, however, buy this one:





2006 MIJ Jackson DK2M. Previous owner modded it with EMGs and an older Floyd Rose II trem. Got it for $199, marked down from $599.

Killer deal and the guitar is great. I removed the tone knob and filled/finished the hole. Not perfect, but good enough that no one would notice if I am on stage with it. I also did a setup with 9s in E standard. It originally came with super heavy strings in B standard. Which is cool, but I have no use for that.

Also the old school Floyd Rose II trem has a nice thick baseplate and a big brass block, but it came with non-locking saddles, which is typical of these old FRIIs and they're awful for tuning stability. So I ordered a set of locking saddles from Amazon to make it a double locking system like the OFR. It was pretty easy to swap them out and the guitar stays in tune perfectly now.

These MIJ Jacksons are great. And I am happy to have another guitar with EMGs in my collection.

That's a steal for a MIJ Jackson with EMGs. Congrats!

Congrats and a steal of a price! These are great guitars! Love the look! HNGD!

I love those. Our local GC used to stock those new. My other guitar player and I would go there, trade riffs on amps and I’d always grab the white one. Those necks were great and the guitars were awesome. Hard to beat MIJ Jacksons. You got a hell of a deal too.

Sweet! My first “good” guitar was a 2005 Jackson DK2. I unfortunately basically allowed a friend to destroy it, but I would love to have one again at some point.

Crazy good score! Congrats

Hell of a score.

Nice

damn.... that's a crazy deal HNGD!

That's a hell of a deal for that guitar. Looks killer too. Love the maple/black shark inlay look. Congrats, man.

That is bad ass and a killer deal

I've always had a soft spot fo jacksons, congrarts!!!

Thanks guys. I've been playing this guitar all morning. EMG pickups can be addictive lol.. they have a compressed feel that makes them effortless to play. When I switch back to passives it makes me a minute to readjust my ears

Amazing price on a killer MIJ Jackson!

GuitarBilly wrote:Thanks guys. I've been playing this guitar all morning. EMG pickups can be addictive lol.. they have a compressed feel that makes them effortless to play. When I switch back to passives it makes me a minute to readjust my ears

Some might think I'm crazy but to me the 81/85 set sounds like a slightly gainier easier to play version of the PAF's in my Slash LP. Crunch city.

I don't have a guitar with actual PAFs at the moment to compare but yeah they're really fat and crunchy for sure. Playing them through the Marshall is like everything is right with the world just effortless.

I know EMGs are famous for metal tones, but they sound great for rock as well. I mean, Lukather used them for the peak of his career and he's probably the most recorded rock guitar player in history.

Congrats and HNGD!!!!!!!!!! WOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

nice score! ordered this on Black Friday for $280 new ... shows up today . will probably throw a Gotoh Floyd and some pickups in it.

Landshark wrote:nice score! ordered this on Black Friday for $280 new ... shows up today . will probably throw a Gotoh Floyd and some pickups in it.

Yeah this is a different model from the one I got, this is from the current JS series.
But these can be good upgrade platforms. I have the Star model from this same series and it's a solid guitar after the usual upgrades.

GuitarBilly wrote:
Yeah this is a different model from the one I got, this is from the current JS series.
But these can be good upgrade platforms. I have the Star model from this same series and it's a solid guitar after the usual upgrades.

you def got the better deal, but for less than $300 it'll be fun to screw around with some upgrades.

i just missed out on a nice Charvel on the local CL before i bought the Dinky

Landshark wrote:

GuitarBilly wrote:
Yeah this is a different model from the one I got, this is from the current JS series.
But these can be good upgrade platforms. I have the Star model from this same series and it's a solid guitar after the usual upgrades.

you def got the better deal, but for less than $300 it'll be fun to screw around with some upgrades.

i just missed out on a nice Charvel on the local CL before i bought the Dinky

Yeah man the JS series is solid even at full price. You may not even need to replace much on it, the stock Floyd is fine. It will wear out faster than a Gotoh or OFR but you deal with that when it happens. Just a new bridge pickup would be fine to begin with.

GuitarBilly wrote:

Landshark wrote:

GuitarBilly wrote:
Yeah this is a different model from the one I got, this is from the current JS series.
But these can be good upgrade platforms. I have the Star model from this same series and it's a solid guitar after the usual upgrades.

you def got the better deal, but for less than $300 it'll be fun to screw around with some upgrades.

i just missed out on a nice Charvel on the local CL before i bought the Dinky

Yeah man the JS series is solid even at full price. You may not even need to replace much on it, the stock Floyd is fine. It will wear out faster than a Gotoh or OFR but you deal with that when it happens. Just a new bridge pickup would be fine to begin with.

Just got a purple JS for my son for Xmas. Swapped the bridge pickup, but I’m leaving everything else. He’s just getting started, and the guitar plays and sounds great. That stock bridge pickup was complete trash though.

GuitarBilly wrote: You may not even need to replace much on it, the stock Floyd is fine. It will wear out faster than a Gotoh or OFR but you deal with that when it happens. Just a new bridge pickup would be fine to begin with.

yeah good point, no sense replacing it until it needs it.

need to figure out a good bridge PU ... maybe try something interesting i haven't tried before ...