Pls help Identify mystery jackson guitar #2? Thanks so much for any/all help!

[mrsteve]

Me again

This is the 2nd guitar I bought from the same person as the previous one I posted about before. This is the one I really wanted from his ad that he posted and I think I paid $250-300 for it, IIRC. Wondering if I did ok? I don't know if I want to sell it or keep it since I don't really know exactly what it is - i.e. rare? valuable / in demand? or more likely maybe just "pretty decent" worth about $250-300 tops

Here's a pic:

https://ibb.co/6rrTpJT

Serial number on back of bolt-on neck is; 9695655

I THINK this is maybe yet another 1996 Jackson from The Gakki factory in Japan which seems to be a good thing, so there's hope, if so!

Other than the serial number and the "Jackson" logo on the headstock, the ONLY other text is "made in Japan" on the back of the neck, and typical stuff like "Licensed Floyd Rose" and "Duncan Designed" on the pups.

Unlike the previous one I posted, this one actually really seems to be in mint condition.

Can someone knowledgeable maybe put a model to this guy? Anything? I'm really curious what I have here and if it's anything special at all. No worries if it's not, but if I want to go ahead and list it, it would be really nice to be able to list it properly with the proper make and model, etc...

Thanks much again!

[pianoguyy]

that would be mid-2003
and looks like a DK2, which is so funny because everyone posts their used junk as a DK2, and here we have a DK2 that you don't know what it is

[Number Of The Priest]

Pre-2006 DK2. Precise date can be found by disassembling the neck from the body and looking for the date stamps on the neck heel and in the neck pocket. One of the most common Chushin Gakki Jacksons, spanning 1998 until the end of Chushin Gakki (2011). After 2006 they gained Seymour Duncan pickups and black hardware.

What you paid for it is considered fair-to-good prior to COVID-19 and these days, and if you care to browse backwards in time through https://www.jcfonline.com/forum/equi...fraid-of-e-bay you will see many DK2s I shared for that price and under. However, I haven't seen many in the COVID-19 era.

[mrsteve]

Interesting - thanks so much guys, I really do appreciate your time and knowledge here!

Seems very similar to this one on Reverb - I just found in the first 20 seconds or so of browsing, lol

https://reverb.com/item/48150763-jackson-pro-series-dk2-dinky-2003-2011

825$ (!) The black hardware is, iIMHO cooler than mine. Tastes differ all over of course, though. hmmm.

I'll have to check out that backwards in time browsing as well from the link you posted N.O.T.P, that's great, thanks again!

[Razor]

As stated above it's a pre-2006 MIJ DK2. The price you paid was fair and the guitar is easily worth what you paid. Those are well made guitars especially for the money.

[Number Of The Priest]

The black hardware is, iIMHO cooler than mine. Tastes differ all over of course, though. hmmm.

This forum largely expressed the same sentiment in the early 2000s, noting that the chrome hardware looked "cheap" and that the Duncan Designed pickups on these Pro Series guitars (and the EMG-HZ pickups on the sister product line, the MG Series) made Jackson seem ill-equipped to compete with LTD guitars, which at the time offered higher end hardware and electronics such as Seymour Duncan pickups or active EMG pickups, locking tuners on some models, and Floyd Rose 1000 and Tonepros bridges on some models.

By 2006 the Jackson Pro Series gained Seymour Duncan pickups, black hardware, and some models received Floyd Rose 1000 bridges, and the Jackson MG Series gained active EMG pickups at the cost of losing the active boost circuits on the models that had them. Either Fender listened to the fans and implemented the changes we wanted to see, or realized that they needed to give their Jackson imports a facelift to compete with LTD.