Jackson Stars DK04

For the DK04, Jackson started slimming things down. Gone are the bound fretboard and fancy inlays. Also gone are the passive EMG pickups. Instead, we get the dot inlays and unbound neck. This is meant for people who can't afford the other models. The guitar has the following specs:

Alder Body w/ Flame Maple Veneer
Maple Bolt-On Neck
Rosewood Fretboard with Dot Inlays
Licensed Floyd Rose
Two Jackson Humbucker Pickups
One Volume
One Tone
Three Way Switch

UTILIZATION

Things start getting a touch sloppy with the DK04 and DK05 guitars. This guitar still has the maple veneer top on it, but the top isn't really anything to brag about. It's not nearly as good as some of the other veneer tops that Jackson has, and there is a very noticeable seam where it isn't properly bookmatched. The frets on this were a bit sharp on the ends. You could notice this when you start moving your hand up and down the neck. About 10 or so minutes with a modified triangle file would fix that, but it's still a bit of a pain. The floyd on this is cheap, and I recommend replacing it if you're going to keep it. Everything else is about on par with what you'd expect from this.

SOUNDS

The pickups in this thing are pretty weak in terms of how they sound. The overall output isn't bad, but I find that they lack the clarity that a real pickup has. I think they're made by Gotoh, but I can't be sure. The bridge is a bit bland and seems to have this fuzz going on that I can't dial out. The neck is a bit muffled, and it seems like it's being choked. Adjusting the pickup height really didn't change much in terms of overall sound. If you're going to keep this guitar, look into replacing the pickups. You'll get a much better sounding guitar once you put in some pickups that work well with your particular guitar.

OVERALL OPINION

The guitar isn't quite as good as the higher end models, but it's still a decent guitar. There are some things about it that I'm not quite fond of, specifically the floyd and the pickups. Once you address those issues, you might find that this is a pretty decent guitar for the price. All in all, it's worth checking out, but don't spend too much money on it as you'll want to upgrade it if you decide to keep it.