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Pros:
- Great Value
- Awesome Pickups
- Beautiful, thick sound
Cons:
- Derivative Design
- Watch for dents and scratches
Riddle me this: how do you make a good guitar with a silly name and still make it look and sound fierce? Well, you obviously sit down and spend your time designing guitars, for hours and hours, until you come up with something you like. Or you simply create a guitar in the Dinky series with a design lifted from the blackest of 8 string metal guitars. Let us take a look at the Jackson JS32-8Q Dinky and see what makes this guitar so good, or so bad, that you might wanna buy it.
Body Quality
The design of the guitar is part of the homogenous body of models of 8-string guitar from around the world. It is in no way introducing a new theme, or an interesting one, and yet it is acceptable. Not all guitars need to look exciting and new, do they? The Stratocaster reminiscent body of this instrument looks adequate enough to be loved by its owner. The slight slope of the body towards the wings of the instrument is a nice touch. The solid black, glossy finish of the guitar also keeps it dark and slightly more fitting for harder genres.
The body of the guitar is constructed out of Poplar. This tonewood is reminiscent of the more famous Alder and is even rarer than Alder is in the guitar manufacturing world. Poplar is known for a few things, one of the more interesting being the tonal effect it has on a guitar. The tonewood has a very solid mid range, with a little bit of bass resonance tacked on top and some interesting highs. Still not as full as Alder, but adequate enough. The tonewood is rather light, which is definitely a nice thing to have with an 8 string guitar. It is a slightly softer tonewood, so it might dent or scratch easily, but nothing horrible.
The neck of the guitar is made of maple. At this point, I have discussed the benefits of a maple neck so many times, I feel a little like an insane man talking about it again. We all know maple is sturdy, so there you go, amazing benefit. No warping, denting or any other problem. The neck of the guitar is bolted onto the body of the guitar, which might cause problems in the distant future, but should be fine for now. The fretboard of the guitar is made of rosewood.
Hardware
The guitar comes with a Jackson Stamped Heel HT8 8 string hardtail. This bridge was specifically designed to work well on an 8-string guitar. As a result, you have great action, great string stability and potential for some great sustain.
The nut of the guitar is made of a midrange material. It does not do anything amazing, though the sound is clear and remains clean of any string noise.
The tuning machine of the guitar does an adequate job of keeping your instrument in tune, something that we all can appreciate on an 8 stringer. Nobody wants to keep tuning their instrument again and again, especially with an 8 string.
Electronics
The guitar comes with a dual, passive humbucker combination. The Jackson High Output 8 string humbuckers, while passive, have a lot of qualities that make them great for the 8 string guitar. Designed specifically for the extended range of the instrument, the pickups produce an interesting, detailed sound. The pickups also have a high output rate, which is lovely, and are in general very good pickups, especially for the price you are paying for this guitar.
The controls on this guitar are fairly simplistic and easy. You get one master volume control, one master tone control and a 3-way lever for controlling your pickup configuration.
Jackson JS32 8 Sound
The sound of this instrument is lovely. The combination of the mid tone enhancement of the poplar and the low tone specificity of the humbuckers gives you a very thick, warm sound. The high output of the pickups produces a very powerful sound, with the growls of the low tones and the midtones being consistent and heavy. The high tones are detailed, though a little neglected in the resonance age, but sufficiently present to be appreciated.
Conclusion
The guitar is awesome. It has a great sound and is relatively affordable. The derivative design, while a little annoying, is nothing to fret about. Recommended, for the high value.
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