My first Jackson

[MichaelLitvak]

hey people

i've been playing guitar for allmost a year now.. still very new to all this
i got my jackson DK2 about 3 months ago.. so i just feel like sharing my shit with u.. how it all started and etc.. hope im not boring

hmm okay i bought it.. cool guitar and all that.. didnt know much but now that i had to change the strings, deal with the floyd rose, experiment with the guitar more, improve my playing by a thousand times.. i really like this guitar and it feels like only now i disocvered its full potential.

First when i got it.. i saw the floyd rose..i didnt care much about it, i thought i wont have trouble with it... then i started messin with the fine tuners and my guitar went completely out of tune and i got nervous as hell.. wtf is going on here.. after my tutor explained me how to tune it properly, change tunings and put on strings.. its really not a big deal, i dont know why people are scared of it.. if i ever get another guitar, i would certainly like another floyd rose..

hmm how did i get to jackson? well i asked on a forum.. said i like metal and all that.. and they recommended jackson.. asked my tutor and he recommended it too.. went to my local guitar store (Long&Mcuade if anyone knows) and tried it out.. originally i wanted to buy ibanez.. just because my friend has the ibanez SA and it felt really comfortable.. then i tried the ibanez RG and the neck wasnt so great .. then i tried the jackson DK2 and it blew my away. holy crap! what a smooth comofrtable neck.. much easier to get harmonics out of it.. feels great!

here's a pic of my tiny little setup



i also have an FBV shortboard that isnt shown in the pic..
and that is a real cheap les paul knock off.. got real bad twisted neck problems.. still playable.. good for rythem playing..



i got a couple of questions.. hope to get anwers

1. the ducan designed pickups are nice, but the guitar can sound a lot better with real pickups.. i will change them eventually and when i do, what should i go for? should i go for the real ducans like in the soloist? will emg's work on it too or it is meant more for ducans?

2. i am starting to play around with the whammy bar.. is it safe to push it up? i push it just a bit but im afraid the strings will just rip..
once i had 2 strings off and the bridge was tilted wayyy back and the rest of the strings didnt rip.. does that mean its safe to pull it up?

3 again regarding the whammy bar.. how come when i go to big dives, the guitar goes a bit flat? is it suppose to? i understand in regular tremolos it goes out of tune but here its floyd rose.. the purpose of the lock is to keep it in tune no? correct me if im wrong


okay dudes, im done, god bless u if u read everything.. but i doubt anyone did

[Sunbane]

1. Pickup brand/model is a matter of taste. EMGs, DiMarzios or Duncans will all work fine in your guitar. What sort of sound are you looking for? Btw, EMGs will require you to replace all the pots in the guitar though, so it will mean a little more work.

2. Yes, it's safe to pull up on the whammy bar.

3. It's pretty common with Floyds that they often don't return to absolute zero, but with some experience you can work around it. When I tune my guitars, I make sure they're in tune after a dive. When playing them, if I pull up on the trem, I also try to do a quick dip at the end to make sure it returns to proper pitch. However, if there's a really big difference, something is not right. I suppose it may be that the bridge and the springs aren't worn in properly or something, but it could also be that the knife edges are damaged, or that the trem posts are loose in the guitar. Bear in mind that the trem on the pre-2006 pro models was made from cheap materials, and is more easilly damaged than a quality trem. Even adjusting bridge height under full string tension could damage the knife edges. That happened to me.

[Sunbane]

double post...

[Razor]

Nice Pile O' Skulls there. Not too shabby for a first Jackson.

[MichaelLitvak]

tnx.. and Sunbane, i dont think theres anything wrong because it just goes a tiny bit flat.. i usually correct it by pushing it up a bit as you mentioned

and how come the strings wont rip? when u pull up ur stretching them so it would make sense of they do rip.

[Sunbane]

and how come the strings wont rip? when u pull up ur stretching them so it would make sense of they do rip.

Well, that depends on how much you can pull up. I have never broken any strings on any of my guitars by pulling up - except when I set the guitar up with a radical forward tilt on the trem as an experiment.

In my normal setup, I can raise the pitch of the high E by 2 half steps (one whole note) by pulling up alone. The other strings go up more, about 4-5 half steps. I have never broken any strings by pulling up on the trem with this setup.

Then at one point, some dude came in here, claiming he could pull up a whole octave on his Ibanez. So I did an experiment, setting up the bridge with a forward tilt, so I could pull up more. With that setup, I could raise the high E by 4 half steps (two whole notes). It took me 5 minutes to break 3 of the strings. Let's just say the guy with the Ibanez didn't come off as very credible. If you can pull up that much, then yes, you do run a risk of breaking your strings.

[shadowcat]

Maybe that would have worked better if you had tuned down a whole octave before pulling up.

[Sunbane]

Maybe that would have worked better if you had tuned down a whole octave before pulling up.

[Nazgul]

Nice guitar! That pile of skulls looks great! Do you have any closer pics of a body?

[JACKS0NESP]

Congrats! Nice for a first Jackson..


Pulling up..a lot, would it warp anything..neck...some guy told me that, which is why I don't too often.

[Sunbane]

Pulling up..a lot, would it warp anything..neck...some guy told me that, which is why I don't too often.

I have never heard about this even once in my 15 years of playing. I wouldn't worry about it.

[MichaelLitvak]

Nice guitar! That pile of skulls looks great! Do you have any closer pics of a body?

as you wish

http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/169/picture0012oy.jpg

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/2860/picture0032zt.jpg

sorry for bad quality

[RacerX]

Welcome Litvak! Check out the other forums, too, they are really helpful...try the Tech Q&A section also for tips on Floyd management and pickup selection.

[MichaelLitvak]

hey thanks for that welcoming
i already checked out some forums here like the techniques forum and the amp forum.. very nice people, very active, i like it so far
hope i'll participate and be an active member

[TheSteveMan]

Nice first Jackson!

You're making me miss my first Jackson... (even though I have grown to dislike rosewood fretboards...)


And, welcome to the gang!!