80s Jackson USA San Dimas / Ontario dinky

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ultimatemetalguitartones

ultimatemetalguitartones

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I came across this beauty listed as - Jackson San Dimas 1987 - splatter finish. Know, I don't know a lot about these old Jacksons, but I've been told that these are quality and well made instruments. How much do these go for? Since the last year I see prices are all over the place, especially in Europe. I have once played a 93 soloist which was amazing and played like butter, but other than that one I have had only Japanese Charvels. Cheers!
 

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This will blow the doors off of the MiJ Charvels, or they do for me at least. The tone and feel are a big step up from the model series. The 86-87's are pretty much spot on to the earlier USA Charvels made up till 85. In 88 they started doing some different things with neck profiles; or so I've read anyway. I've had 3 83-85 Charvels, 2 Jacksons from 86-87 and 2 from 88. All are great. The 2 88's I had, the necks were considerably thinner than the Charvels or Jacksons from 86-87. I'd say with the Jackson Floyd(you'll want to swap it for an OFR IMO, those were pot metal and just don't last/wear well) it should go for 1500 or so. If it's any less jump on it, especially since it's a custom finish.
 
Is that a dinky or a strat? My first thought was strat, but I'm really bad about judging the graphics ones on size like that. (I mentioned that because I thought they were only doing strats up until after the move, but not positive.) The neck will be like an San Dimas Charvel, which is a good thing in my book. I have Jackson from that era that has one of the best necks I've ever played. I love it.

The pickups are inhouse, and honestly I've swapped all of those out for Duncans or Dimarzio's on my older Jacksons, but others love them. That's not an original Floyd. They're decent, but again I swapped mine out for an original. I have a dinky around still with one of these, and it works fine.....just not quite as solid. It looks like this guitar has a Kahler-style nut, which was fairly common at the time for some reason. I've never been bothered by it, but it's still a little strange having both a standard nut and the locking nut. Also, the Kahler uses US standard allen keys, and the Floyd uses metric, so you need a mixture for these. It's a minor PITA, not a major one IMO.

The last I looked, Jacksons of that era were a steal compared to Charvels and as good. Now, I'd just have to do searches on ebay and reverb to see sold prices. I'd assume north of $1k and south of $2k, but not sure where it'd land. I don't pay premiums for graphics guitars, but others do which might push it up a bit.

That's probably more info than you wanted, but it's all I got.
 
Review it when you get it. I'm anxious to hear what you think. IMO, that's a steal at that price for quality, though again I'd be planning some tweaks on it. Also, double-check me on the allen wrenches, but I think you'll need the US ones, and I assume you can't just pick those up anywhere in Greece.
 
rstites said:
Review it when you get it. I'm anxious to hear what you think. IMO, that's a steal at that price for quality, though again I'd be planning some tweaks on it. Also, double-check me on the allen wrenches, but I think you'll need the US ones, and I assume you can't just pick those up anywhere in Greece.
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Will do! It comes with these!
 

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sotosprince said:
Thx for the info man! I pulled the trigger and got it for 1150 shipped!
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Congrats, they are great sounding and feeling/playing guitars. Like previously stated, you'll want to swap the pickups and the bridge to get the most out of it. The only time I haven't swapped both was with a 1990 Soloist; the mid boost circuit worked perfectly with the Jackson bridge pup so I left it in.
 
Racerxrated said:
Congrats, they are great sounding and feeling/playing guitars. Like previously stated, you'll want to swap the pickups and the bridge to get the most out of it. The only time I haven't swapped both was with a 1990 Soloist; the mid boost circuit worked perfectly with the Jackson bridge pup so I left it in.
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I'm not sure but if it comes with the j90c it's one of my favorite passive pickups!
 
I had a Charvette with the same bridge and string lock. I was surprised how well it stayed in tune and I never had to adjust the intonation. You might end up liking the guitar as-is with that bridge and pickup.
 
Racerxrated said:
From what I remember, the 80s Jackson USAs I've had came with the J50..
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I think the ones with the active mid boost circuit came with this one but I'm not sure! Let's hope it's either the 80 or the 90 ?
 
If I recall correctly, there's a difference if you have a J90 vs. J90C. The J90C is like a JB or a Distortion pickup, while the J90 is a lower gain pickup. I don't know how that compares to any other Jacksons. When I've played them, they've been fine. I just like my Duncans/Dimarzios a bit more.....also, I used Anderson H-3's in a lot of guitars over the years. I'm not brand loyal when it comes to pickups!
 
Very cool! But it does look like a strat to me. What do I know?
 
rstites said:
Is that a dinky or a strat? My first thought was strat, but I'm really bad about judging the graphics ones on size like that. (I mentioned that because I thought they were only doing strats up until after the move, but not positive.) The neck will be like an San Dimas Charvel, which is a good thing in my book. I have Jackson from that era that has one of the best necks I've ever played. I love it.
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Circa 1987, the bolt-on model was classified as the "Strat Body". The pics posted by the OP show softer edges on the body. A Dinky body would have sharper edges as the Dinky body was essentially created by cutting down the soft edges of a full sized strat body.

The so-called "Dinky" body was debuted on the Soloist, notice the sharper edges on the 1984 Soloist just like found on later Dinkys. Jackson would get orders for Strat Body bolt-ons with the Soloist body style and by 1989 it became a standard option for bolt ons, later becoming the defacto bolt-on body style for Jackson. Somewhere along the way the cutdown strat body became known as the "Dinky" body even though it debuted on the Soloist.

1989 was the debut of the term "Dinky" in the Jackson catalogs. The bolt ons split into two models: the "Vinetage Style" and the "Dinky Style". Several years later it just became the "Dinky". The Vintage Style was the new designation for the Strat Body and the Dinky Style was a bolt on with a Soloist (Dinky) body. From the 1989 catalog:
The Jackson Dinky Style guitar is inspired from our Soloist model, yet features a bolt-on neck design. As with the Soloist, the body lines are a bit sharper and narrower which give the horns an extended look
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So the OPs guitar would be a 1987 Strat Body.

https://assets.ctfassets.net/4jcppg...d524225d8b86a7c35464/Jackson-1989-catalog.pdf
https://assets.ctfassets.net/4jcppg...ddd3313a3aa66990fad9/Jackson-1987-catalog.pdf
I have have multiple Dinkys and Dinky Strats in my collection now. I also have had Strat Bodys and Vintage Strats in my collection over the years, but none at the moment.
 
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Nice score especially at that price (the way people are pricing today is ludicrous). I've had a bunch of San Dimas/Ontario Jacksons, you may
like the pick ups in there just fine. an OFR will drop right in but the JT-6 holds tune plenty fine, I always ended up selling these after a while because I hate the 3 mini toggles, I recently sold one with the plate # in 1200's because of that. great playing guitar for at home but when I used
it with my band I was looking for a blade type of selector, and no way was I modding them. Besides that issue probably my favorite guitars out there. I own several MIJ charvels, as well, these old Jacksons have mojo that the Charvels don't and I love my MIJ charvels.
 
kmanick said:
Nice score especially at that price (the way people are pricing today is ludicrous). I've had a bunch of San Dimas/Ontario Jacksons, you may
like the pick ups in there just fine. an OFR will drop right in but the JT-6 holds tune plenty fine, I always ended up selling these after a while because I hate the 3 mini toggles, I recently sold one with the plate # in 1200's because of that. great playing guitar for at home but when I used
it with my band I was looking for a blade type of selector, and no way was I modding them. Besides that issue probably my favorite guitars out there. I own several MIJ charvels, as well, these old Jacksons have mojo that the Charvels don't and I love my MIJ charvels.
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Thx dude! Yeah I love the MIJ Charvels! I had 5 of them, all of which were amazing instruments! The one I liked the most obviously was the higher end , the 650xl
 
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