Jackson Made in Japan DKMGT Dinky
Average used price range: $300-$400

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This is Jackson’s made in Japan model DKMGT that was made sometime in the 2000’s after Fender’s buyout of Jackson and included EMG HZ pickups with a 20db Afterburner swtich. This guitar I had acquired during a trade for my Marshall tube combo, and this isn’t the only Dinky, or Jackson I own. I own a MIJ DK2 and a MIJ KE3 Kelly Explorer, plus I’ve also been able to play several other Dinky models. This is honestly one of the best I’ve played, and it also has one of the skinniest necks I’ve played on a Dinky up to this point.
The options that came on this guitar were two EMG HZ pickups, carved archtop alder body, string thru (surprisingly good for sustain, even with a bolt on), multi radius 12”-16” fretboard, and an active After burner switch that adds a 20db boost to the pickups when the tone knob is pulled up like a coil tap.

Neck Feel:

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The neck is most comparable to an Ibanez Wizard 1 with binding. Even though comparable in thickness, the main differences would be that the nut width is slightly smaller and the neck doesn’t have as much shoulder on it. It didn’t match the neck thickness or profile that’s on my DK2. The DKMGT was much thinner across the neck, not as flat, and not as wide at the nut.
The bolt on joint on this guitar’s is very bulky and limiting. The neck joint starts becoming difficult around the 17th fret, and getting to the 24th fret proves uncomfortable enough to be undesirable to reach to.

Fret Work:

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The frets on this guitar are very wide, wider than my DK2, and wider than some custom shops Jacksons I’ve played, but they’re rounded enough where they don’t hold up your fingers when sliding. This is a high quality Japanese guitar. I played this as my workhorse guitar for a good portion of three months for about two hour sessions a day. I didn’t need re-tune it at all, it didn’t go flat, sharp, or drop a step when playing. In that time as well, the frets stayed consistent and didn’t start buzzing, even through season change, at around 0.5-1mm string action off the fretboard.
Two hand tapping on clean has decent volume. Doing fast legatos and string skipping on this guitar are near effortless because of its large frets and skinny neck. While there is binding on the neck, you still feel the fret edges slightly, not pokey or a cut your hand type, you still know they are there when sliding on certain parts of the neck. When putting on new strings, string bends start out feeling tight, but as your fingers oil up the strings they loosen up and you can utilize the multi radius fretboard easily. Because of the flat radius on the end of the fretboard, it doesn’t fret out when bending as high as you can go, even though my DK2 has the same radius and it frets out in several spots.

Sound:
The EMG HZ’s are surprisingly versatile, when put on a clean channel on a tube amp they sound snappy and clear, but under distortion they aren’t as mean as their active counter parts. Under distortion, they sound metal when you want them or Rock when you want, with an EMG 81-ish tone, but when you turn on the Afterburner switch it makes them sound much more powerful and gives shredding moves and solos a hit-you-in-the-face sound. Unfortunately, when switching the Afterburner switch off again, the pickups sound much more hollow and quite, less pleasing at least to say, it made me want to keep the Afterburner on and not go back to the bypass sound.

Finish:
I had gotten the dark Forest Green color, which I liked. It wasn’t an in-your-face green that was overly standout-ish. Under certain light you could see that the green had a slight sparkle flake look. The finish wasn’t the most solid, but sturdy enough. It did get some dents in it from what I thought was minor bumps, but the finish never chipped for me.

Options:

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The string thru for me provided a lot of sustain for the guitar, more than I thought it would because of the bolt on construction. The sustain lasted as long as my Gibson LP Studio, SG, and even my Washburn Parallaxe. The string thru made this guitar good for straight shredding. No fancy Floyd sounds, even though I think it would have made this guitar ideal for me. But it’s more sustain and tone versus whammy tricks, it’s a give and take.

In Conclusion:

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Guitar Level: Pro
Best Fit: Live/Studio/Workhorse guitar.
Best for Rhythm or Lead: This guitar could fit either real easily.
Has Value for studio use: If you need a guitar that’s good clean; versatile, but can have either a quieter or punchy Metal tone for either rhythm backing or searing lead work that comes with an extremely thin neck, yes.
Worth the Price?: Nowadays this guitar goes for about $300-$350 used online. With this guitar you get decent options and outstanding Japanese quality. This guitar is a player with probably one of the skinniest Jackson Dinky necks out there, if what you’re looking for that’s straight shred and don’t mind the Dinky neck joint, than yes. If I had played this in a music store and didn’t get it in a trade, I would have forked up the money for it.