Identifying Jackson year of manufacture.

[luciferlight]

So, I own a Jackson dinky DK2FS Japan made ( or at least I was told it was) that was purchased around 2008, I pictured it to be a fairly new guitar back then.
I was a beginner and was into metal, went to a store, enjoyed it's sound and bought it, didn't care for much more than that... Recently I was doing research on it's neck pickup that I always found to be surprisingly good for a duncan design, due to the lack of info found, I tried to take a look at the serial number to pinpoint the actual specs and according to what I've read on the internet the guitar should be a lot older than I thought ( which doesn't seems likely).
On the headstock it says only Jackson, the serial number on the neck joint plate is 9857528, on the bridge it says Jackson and " Licensed under Floyd Rose Pats", I believe the FS on the model name stands for the duncan design ( or is it made by seymour duncan??) fire storm installed.

Seems to be indeed a Japan made Jackson with second hand hardware, could you help me to properly identify it and the year it was made?

https://ibb.co/k93xiQ

https://ibb.co/fsvA3Q

https://ibb.co/eQvoq5

https://ibb.co/gEUsHk

[Number Of The Priest]

Seymour Duncan made the Firestorm boost circuit. https://www.google.ca/search?newwind...k1.OWGMMqq5CtE

All DK2FS guitars were made in Japan.

The presence of Duncan Designed pickups would indicate pre-2006, as opposed to post-2006 when real Seymour Duncan pickups were installed at the factory.

Mudlark will be able to identify the date of manufacture based on your serial number. The most accurate way to determine date is to remove the neck from the body and look for stamps on the neck heel and neck pocket. Often those stamps will specify year, month, and actual day. Examples from my Made in Japan KE3/DK2S "factory mutt":

[luciferlight]

Mudlark? A member of the forum?
Thanks for the info, but I'm not comfortable about removing the neck since I always take it to a luthier if setup is needed, this passes the point of things I usually do by myself.

[Number Of The Priest]

Yes Mudlark is a fellow member of the forum. He responds promptly to production questions such as yours.

I wasn't comfortable removing necks until last year, and I had been playing guitar for 16 years up until that point. But I understand your hesitation. It was Dan Erlewine's book/DVD "How to Make your Electric Guitar Play Great!" that made me realize not to fear tinkering with the instrument in pursuit of a well-playing guitar, and that all adjustments on guitars are reversible and can be restored back to normal as long as you don't strip screws, overtighten things, or otherwise mistreat components.

[Mudlark]

The chrome hardware indicates early 2000s-2005.
That number is one of the many mid-2000s models that apparently got a 98 instead of a 97 serial. 9800000 began circa 2007.
9756xxx would be 2005, but 9856xxx would be 2011. My 2011 has 9853xxx.

Of all of those 'misprints' (speculation, but nothing else makes sense), when people check their neck pocket for date stamps they find 2005ish.

2006 brought black hardware to the DK2 models and well as other models.

[TKEblue]

I too was once afraid.

Seriously though, when I started playing I used the same set of strings that came on the guitar I got used at a pawn shop for over a year. I didn't know how to change strings, or how often you should, and was afraid to do it wrong. Finally one day i just did it, and it was easy. Fast forward years later and I got my guitar back from the tech and wasn't satisfied with the setup, plus the neck was at an odd angle that wasn't present before. I decided to try to fix it myself, watched a few videos, tried it and I've been doing my own setups ever since. Nothing to be afraid of.

To check the neck cavity you really don't need to change anything at all, stick something under the base plate of the trem, cardboard or something, in order to keep it from pulling in toward the body of the guitar, then remove the locking screws from the nut and loosen the strings. Back them way off, past no tension. Then remove the neck screws and have a peek. Put the screws back in, tighten the strings back up, tune up, lock the nut, and your cardboard probably fell out on its own. Good to go!

[Mudlark]

The 2003 catalogue.
You'll notice the 2006 and later catalogues have black hardware on many models that were previously chrome.
Many models got pickup upgrades in '06 also.

http://support.jacksonguitars.com/catalogs/us/Jackson2003_catalog.pdf