Pawn Shop Dinky - Reverse Professional

[laughingparrot]

Hi All. Just wanted to share about this Jackson I found at a Pawn Shop Wednesday night. Really dirty and trem bar hanging about to fall off. They were only asking $250, but I offered $175 and they took $200. As I was paying I noticed some writing on the Floyd, it said: "Made in Germany by Schaller." Sweet.

When I came home, I did some research, and found that it was one of the Japanese made Dinky's from 1993, during the "golden era of Jackson imports." I pulled off the strings and took some 0000 grade steel wool to the fretboard to clean all the gunk off. Then I lemon oiled it and scrubbed the body with some dishwashing liquid and warm water. Put on a new set of strings, tightened the trem arm assembly from below, and set up the Floyd properly. The finish isn't in too bad a shape for being 15 years old, although there is a drill hole where whoever owned it before had installed a Roland Midi Synth pickup. So it's not perfect cosmetically, but man does it play nicely. It's got one of the super thin necks, and now that it's setup properly, the trem is rock solid and won't go out of tune. I've lost my share of money on guitar deals in the past, so it's nice to get a good deal every once in awhile as well.

Here's a quick and dirty soundfile of this guitar http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=788066&content=songinfo&songID= 6751973

[m2pmd70]

Nice score. I wish the pawn shops around here had something other than the same over-priced garbage they've had for a decade.

[metalchurch79]

That's a nice looking guitar man! I think that you got a great deal on it.
Sometimes all they need is some TLC and they're ready to rock.

Not to hijack but :
I have a question for you or whomever;
What kind of bridge pickup is that? I've seen those before, but never figured out what they were, or the specs etc...
I saw a Scott Ian guitar and also I believe a Bond Rhoads with this pickup, or atleast cosmetically it looked the same minus the Jackson logo.

Reminds me of a Bill & Becky Lawrence XL500 because of the thick blades.
I've heard of an "Iommi" pickup from either Jackson or Seymour Duncan that also looked like this.

Any help would be cool, this one has stumped me for a while, and now that I have access to all of you guy's knowledge I can get answers!
Thanks in advance.

[Franx]

Not to hijack but :
I have a question for you or whomever;
What kind of bridge pickup is that?

It's a Jackson J-85 pickup (catalog-scan)

@laughingparrot: Congrats !

[metalchurch79]

Thanks Brother!
I also use audiozone,for reference. What year cat. approx should I look at?

edit: oops! I read the OP again and answered my own question: 1993
I love it when I have the answers!

[dangerous_dave]

I like hearing about these kind of purchases!

I could do with a roundy myself, really...

[mustaine-who?]

I've

I've got one as well...really love it. I've gone thru many guitars in the past 18 months...but the Professional Reverse is here to stay!

HNGD!!

[sixx_ gunner]

Wow! Great find! We have a ton of pawn shops here but I can never find anything remotely in this caliber...lots of Bronze series BC Rich, crap copy Strats or no name brands. I will keep my fingers crossed to find one like this!
Congrads!!

[laughingparrot]

Thanks, everybody. I usually find a bunch of crappy stuff as well, but there is one pawnshop that sometimes has decent stuff and this time they also had a Jackson Kelly and some sort of a King V with what looked like an inexpensive laminate sunburst finish on it. This was definitely the "player" of the bunch, though.

I wouldn't really recommend the J-85 pickup, it's got too much mud in the bottom end - I was running it through 2 different EQ's in that clip. I'd maybe try one of the other blade pickups - like the Bill Lawrence you mentioned, a DiMarzio D-Activator X, a Dimebag or even the GuitarFetish Crunchy Rails, which is quite a nice, heavy sounding pickup.

I'm really liking this guitar!

[Charlz]

Love the color!!! How come I never find any cool pawn shop scores???

[Robert Hendrix]

Very nice! Good score. It's nice when you're able to find a gem in a pawn shop like that. I usually keep an eye on the pawn shops when I have a few extra bucks. I've found some pretty good stuff sometimes. Mostly old Hondos and Arias but sometimes you'll find one in there like that. It's a great feeling when you do.

[TommyD]

Pawn Shop Dinky - Reverse Professional

> If you decide a few months down the road you don't want it,I'll let ya make 150 profit on it,no bullshit. I'd take that over a DXMG all day long. Tommy D.

[laughingparrot]

> If you decide a few months down the road you don't want it,I'll let ya make 150 profit on it,no bullshit. I'd take that over a DXMG all day long. Tommy D.

Thanks for the offer Tommy. I have some sweet-ass guitars and this is right now my second-favorite out of the whole bunch.

You might try checking Craigslist and/or eBay though. The collector's market hasn't caught up with these and it seems like you can still find deals on this model. The nut clamps weren't tightened when I was looking at this one and I was able to loosen the strings and pull the bridge back a bit and check the knife edges. If you can do that, you can see if the trem is still in good shape. Then all it needs is some new pickups. Good luck!

[quiksilver]

Nice score. I had one in purple. For the thin neck fans out there (like me), these do have wonderful, THIN wide necks. Mine was much thinner than my Jem's neck - on par with the Super Wizard I had on an Ibanez RG520QS (which is another diamond in the rough for thin neck fans).

[AdRock]

Nice score man. I have 2 Dinky Rev's. The slim neck on them is the most comfortable neck I've ever played.