kind of disappointed

[Grandturk]

they have an hour an a half to decide on an outcome before I pursue this with a serious level of business agression.

I don't know you, and I don't know the store - but damned if I don't want to see you get your money back and deliver a nice black eye to the store. I want some blood, dammit!

[bcrich1975]

Refund granted.
Thanks to plenty of assistance from Jackson directly.
Now hopefully, I might be able to get a flawless USA Jackson, but I think I'm going to wait quite a while.
To give credit where credit is due, Jackson's cust. svc. dept. is excellent.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Seriously, on a DK1 if the neck is shifted slightly, this is a 2-minute job to fix. Regardless of it being a new guitar or not, this is a SHIPPING issue and not a structural or workmanship problem.

The rest of your concerns, I pretty much agree with. Cracked fingerboard on a new guitar? That sucks. Back-bowed neck? That also sucks.

I feel you, man. It's hard to drop $2K on a guitar you've never seen before, and a lot of these stores have lousy return policies. I won't say that Jackson has ever shipped 100% perfect guitars, all the time, but now that I have no dealer near me that actually has anything in stock I feel like I'm rolling the dice every time I buy one these days.

[Trussrod]

Refund granted.
Thanks to plenty of assistance from Jackson directly.
Now hopefully, I might be able to get a flawless USA Jackson, but I think I'm going to wait quite a while.
To give credit where credit is due, Jackson's cust. svc. dept. is excellent.

That's a relief. I'm glad it worked out for you.

[javert]

Great that everything worked out for you. I know your pain; I've had my share of problems with a dealer who at first wouldn't refund or replace a damaged guitar, a USA Soloist to be specific. It got to the point where I'd already contacted a lawyer before they finally sent me a replacement guitar.

[Axe_V]

Really glad that all worked out. One problem with buying any guitar online is that the climate may be different from them to you. It's pretty much impossible or at least shear luck to recieve one with a perfect setup for your area.

The 3 main outside factors on the neck are Temperature, Humidity, and Altitude. Jackson Necks are relatively thin so they are affected more than the standard USA BCR neck. The Qtr Sawn helps but they still seem to need a lot of adjustment. (not knocking them, every brand has it's quirks)

Your Slinger is probably almost as thin but the Maple BCR used in the 80's is like a rock!

[JACKSONFREAK]

I second the 2 minute neck adjust on a DK1. I had a customer who ordered a KE3 in white with blk pinstripes. It was flippin gorgeous except for the strings on the bass side of then neck the high e was almost off the board just looking at it. everybody at the store was oh the bridge is out of wack or the nuts in the wrong place etc etc blah blah. All good assumptions but wrong. I took it to a safe comfortable soft area for it to relax and calm down while i loosened the neck bolts and pushed the neck back into place. realigning the strings again. This guitar had been at the store for a week waiting for a return RA cus it was ordered online thru our website. So i said ill fix it. We called the customer and he was exstatic. This guitar was for his son for his birthday. So i guess the moral of my story is let me fix it. um no i mean a bold on is so ewasy to fix a string alignment issue its not funny. Glad it all worked out for ya. Hope ya decide on another Jackson and this one is perfect.
Gil

[Axe_V]

Easy fix but if they moved once they usually will move again. Some of you guys may know erik from a few guitar forums, but he told me a more permanant fix. Cut a 2" square of metal window screen and place it between the neck and the body in the joint. When you replace the screws it will compress the screen into the wood slightly, and should never slip again.

I had a Jackson Kelly Std that was worn and always slipped making the high E string hang off the neck. Added the screen mod and it never happened again. My son played it out for a couple of years with no problems.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

1. Loosen screws
2. Adjust neck
3. Tighten screws "good and tight"

Sure, if the neck doesn't fit right in the first place, you won't get it stable, but I've never had a guitar with decent-fitting neck move again after this except if it's banged around/dropped, etc. If it were impossible for the neck to move, you'd just get stress cracks in the finish around the neck pocket anyway.

The problem is that UPS apparently enjoys throwing guitars, more than a sloppy neck pocket. I've seen plenty of Custom Shop Charvels with the necks cocked like this, even some with the wood in the neck pocket *crushed* due to the G&G case sucking and shipping conditions.

[bcrich1975]

Today's update. Well a very close friend of mine and the bass player in the band I play in gave me his gray snakeskin DK1 for a long term loan. He's having financial difficulties and has been selling off guitars to pay rent,etc. He said the guitar would be better in my hands because if he keeps looking at it, it may end up on ebay. I'll probably end up (hopefully) just buying it off him in the future anyway. So mission accomplished, sort of. I now have a great playing USA Jackson that has no serious problems except for the headstock having a little delamination going on.

As for the one DK1 that I had last year with the strings hanging off the body on the treble side and so forth, that guitars neck was seated properly and that method of adjustment was tried before deeming the guitar just plain screwed up from the factory. The tremolo posts were not drilled right in the first place and compared to another DK1 (taking measurements) they were off by almost 3/16 of an inch. If that one was an easy fix, I'd still have a trans green DK1 in the herd. Still can't believe that left the factory like that.

Still bummed that I had to send that SL2H back because it played awesome, but like I said before. Two thousand dollars is too much money to spend on a guitar that needs any immediate repair work.

Maybe I just get the guitars that are built in the afternoon after certain employees drink and smoke their lunch

[wilkinsi]

Glad you got your refund. I also had a problem with a DK1 last year. Again, the shop didn't want to give a refund. When I blasted them online, they whinged and demanded an apology. Arseholes.

[bcrich1975]

Here's a pic of the DK1 that I'm playing now:



Here's a pic of the delamination on the headstock...which I could care less about but, yet, another problem and this was delivered from the factory like this. Yes my friend got a considerable discount on it but he was also an authorized Jackson dealer at the time too.



All in all, an awesome playing guitar though.

[stevoc]

If your buddy is the original owner and has the receipt, he can send that back to be fixed no charge. I had the same thing happen on one of my DK1's, I sent it to Jackson (via my local authorized repair shop) and got it back three weeks later, good as new.

http://www.jcfonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84321

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

The tremolo posts were not drilled right in the first place and compared to another DK1 (taking measurements) they were off by almost 3/16 of an inch.

Holy shit... So it's NOT just the Soloist then.

Hello Jackson? QC problem. Fix your products, please! It seems like of the 10 or so Soloists I looked at recently, 9 had the tremolo posts drilled off-center. Some were off a little, some were WAY off, enough that even in a crappy picture on Ebay it was obvious that the high E was almost over to the binding.

Hopefully fixing this is the reason almost no one has any Soloists in stock right now.

[Axe_V]

Sucks about the posts being drilled off but the Snakeskin is SWEET! One of my all-time favorite graphics!