Runt | soldguitars

(SOLD)

1996 Jackson USA SDK1

"Runt"

#002766

This one is a bit of an enigma. Old Jackson super-strats used a proper strat-shape body; nicely contoured, but a little ‘chubby’ looking to my eyes, not lean and streamlined like a Soloist. Jackson’s bolt-on evolution of the strat, the ‘Dinky’, was streamlined and prettier than the chubby strat; smaller than a strat body, but less contoured around the edges. Enter stage left the ‘Super-Dinky’ body style (‘SDK’ = SuperDinKy). The body on this is smaller again than the dinky body style, but maintaining the lack of ‘rounding’ to the edges. The result is tangibly smaller than you expect …not quite toy-like, but pretty tiny. I suppose that was the first problem with this guitar. Secondly, Jackson necks are made to fit a particular bill as far as I’m concerned. They’re not super-thin like an Ibanez Wizard, not crazy-thick like a 50’s Gibson, but are certainly oriented more towards the shred community than the traditionalists. THIS neck is, in contrast to Jackson tradition, really quite rounded and thick, with a small board radius and skinny, tall frets. Which makes it feel, and play, NOTHING like you’d expect from a Jackson. Don’t get me wrong, it is all VERY nice ; the raw maple feels wonderful and the fretwork is flawless (I've got the action set OBSCENELY low) and it plays effortlessly. It fills the hand well, is executed and finished very nicely, but just isn’t a 'normal' Jackson. More like an old Fender, albeit with an oiled finish and no sticky lacquer. To ME, it plays very well indeed. However, the combination of the weird neck and the small body style means that these things sold like two day old dog turds. Production started in 1996, and ended pretty abruptly soon after in 1997. As far as I’m aware, dealers ended up pretty much giving them away. This was another one of my embarrassing eBay purchases, where I threw in a (really quite insulting) low bid and watched as the minutes counted down, only to see not a single other bid. So, I clicked straight on PayPal before the guy had a chance to figure out what the hell had happened. A USA Jackson for the price of a trolley full of groceries. Maybe two trolleys. And okay, FULL trolleys, but you know what I mean ... not a lot for a USA made Jackson. I was very pleased with myself. And still am. Look past the ‘foibles’ of this guitar, and you have a genuinely great player. The neck feels fantastic, the tall frets really give you something to dig into (almost like a scalloped board) and the action is super-low with no fretting out or buzz. The unusual pointy headstock used on this is a departure for Jackson (maybe another reason that it wasn’t popular) but has since been used recently on quite a few of Jackson’s custom shop guitars, as well as the Chris Broderick signature model. You’ll notice that some of the chrome hardware on this has been swapped for black … that was the result of me pillaging the chrome hardware to use on “Frankie”, my EVH replica. You’ve got to get your priorities right ... right?