Jackson 1985/1986 Dinky or Strat Style???????

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mismas1

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Folks:

So about two years ago I bought what I thought was an old USA Dinky. The color is the purple cloud and lighting finish. It has the made in San Dimas neck plate, and is serial number is 5175. In doing some research it doesn't look to me that Jackson actually made a dinky in those years. However, what would later be called the dinky was called a Jackson "strat style" guitar. Am I going down the right path with this, or am I completely off base? Would love to hear from people who collect or know a lot about Jackson guitars made in San Dimas. Also, anyone know what this guitar is worth. Any help would really be appreciated!

Thanks,

John
 
I forget when they came up with the dinky designation but there are a few SD Charvels with dinky bodies, so that would put it at pre-86. Dating from serial number in that era is impossible because the plates weren't used in order and as I understand it, there are no records.

One way to date the guitar is the hardware - does it have a JT6 bridge, kahler or OFR? Does it have an oversize bridge pickup? 'Hot dog' single coils?
 
It is definitely an 85 or 86 based on the research and was made at the San Dimas factory before they closed it, and moved to the Ontario facility. It has a in the bridge and then two single coils. It has a bolt on neck. I took it apart to replace all the wiring, because one of the single coils were not working. It has San Dimas stamped in the neck cavity too, and on the neck plate. It has a reverse head stock, with the made in USA on the headstock. Its not a fake, because I can spot that from a mile away. I have used Jackson waterslides on the headstock on replacement necks for partscasters I have built for myself in the past. I will take some pictures of it and put them up. Would you mind taking a look at it and give me your opinion on what you think? Like I said, any information would be very helpful. Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post.
 
Sure, absolutely - wasn't suggesting it was a fake (they're not really worth enough to fake as such), but what year it is from is always kind of tough to place without pics..
 
It simply sounds like a custom shop San Dimas Dinky. All the guitars that came out of SD and early Ontario guitars were all built to order "custom shop" so there are a lot of one off features from one to the next. Your reverse headstock is an example of that, someone spec'd it that way. What bridge is in it? It should be a Jackson licensed JT-6 if it's a floating bridge, which most had.

Here is what a JT6 looks like in my '87 Ontario CS soloist.

As far as value, I only follow neck through Jacksons so I'm not up on "strat style" bolt on guitars, but if it's a CS old dinky from the mid 80's in a good shape I'd think it would be worth all of a grand.
 

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I have an 87 Jackson Dinky and know for sure that there were Charvel Dinky bodies in the early 80's. I have seen them and played them.

Now whether yours is the original dinky shape body or not is something I can tell you from some good pictures. There is actually a story on here from about 4-5 years ago about me going through the old body templates in the Charvel Custom Shop with Mike Shannon himself to try and find the "correct" 80's Dinky body shape template. We found it! :thumbsup: Sometime in the 90's, the Dinky shape changed and that one doesn't look quite right to me. The original one is my favorite shape, but the 90's era one, not so much. If you look at the brand new Demartini snakeskins, they are using the 90's Jackson era shape and not the original dinky shape. I'd be very interested to see yours.
 
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