Build and features

This particular design, unsurprisingly dubbed ‘Pile O’Skulls’, is among the most popular Jackson’s Custom Shop has ever produced. Designed and applied to thousands of orders by genial air-brush artist Dan Lawrence - a Jackson alumnus since 1984, who has plied his sprays for many of the big names of US guitar manufacture - the image is pure hard rock kitsch.

Of all four models present here, this DK2 is the only one that features genuine airbrush work. The main image - the skulls, trees and grass stems - are courtesy of a body-wide decal, but the myriad highlighting that’s present along the branches and inside the skulls’ nasal cavities looks to have been carried out by hand: not bad for a guitar at this price point.

The two-piece maple neck has that wondrous custom feel, its high, square edges working perfectly with a wide and flat profile. The Dinky body shape, ‘snowdrift’ inlays and, of course, 24 massive frets, are Jackson trademarks, and the duo of Seymour Duncan humbuckers - a TB-4 JB Trembucker unit in the bridge and an SH-2N Jazz in the neck - are controlled by single volume and tone controls, plus a three-way lever selector.

Next: Jackson DK2T Skulls sounds, pros and cons