Customising a '98 Kelly KE3-R

[snake_pearson]

That a Kelly Star, eet ese a bad ass!! No?

Thanks Twitch! It took me awhile to track one down, but I ended up randomly scoring a stock black KSXT with OHSC on Craigslist for $200. The bodies and necks on the KS2 (Japanese) and the KSXT are pretty much identical spec wise. The big differences are on the trem and electronics.

[snake_pearson]

[What colour is your "Clamdigger"? (love that name!) is it metallic pink? thats genuinely growing on me! was definately up for kawasaki green... but from the new look jackson website i see that theyve beaten me to it! thus im back to bengal for this next project![/QUOTE]

Good lord mang! All that stuff from Floyd Upgrades will cost a small fortune! Is it cheaper just to buy one the trems they make? I typically get my brass blocks from keith (hoockey) on Ebay. Great guy, good prices, and he will do custom orders no problem. The old Takeuchi trems have wider spacing for the block mounting screws, so I send him the baseplate so it would be perfect. On the recessed Lo profile ones I would have 34mm blocks made, but for regular recessed floyds I get 37mm.

Haha that name randomly came to me when I was trying to think of a name for a pink guitar. The pink is actually factor Jackson, which I think they just refer to as "Hot Pink." It's not metallic, although it can kind of look at it depending on the light. Under stage lights it can turn Same color as the Pink RR5 (why they put silver bevels on a guitar with gold hardware...beyond me) and the DX10D and RX10D's (which this was). Saw that green X series as well. I'm really tempted to make a black and yellow RR, like Alexi Laiho's old Wild Child Jackson.

I was unsure how people would react to it, but people love it. It's the most comfortable instrument I own and the neck feels perfect to me. I took caliper measurements of all the frets last night, so when I go to finish my EX project I will model the neck after this one. It's an RR3 neck I "ebonized" the fretboard with some Fiebings leather dye, sanded the back down to about 600, lightly refinished, and steel wooled. It's super smooth now.

[logan]

Ha ha ! Must admit dude I think its truly awesome.... im toying with going for a bright pink for a project in mind now that the Kawasaki green is a standard option and oh so more popular!

Right....Iv been well busy with the upgrading...
I fited all the upgraded floyd components to the KV and shes awesome... no complaints and by far the Holy Grail of all the floyds Iv ever played....

As a result im now looking for some titanium string blocks and also some heavy duty saddle screws for her, although i dont feel the difference between the uprated units is as much as between the standard floyd and JT580, so for finance reasons shes staying a liscenced floyd for now!

Fitted a USA Spec aluminuim anodized plate to the back of the kelly and added a vinyl, just to see if i should add something in to make her a bit more unique - what do people think?

other than this im back to roto yellows, E-E with heavy duty springs in the z formation, forcing the tension bias toward the bottom end

[logan]

Stripping the floyd on the V for upgrading que the benny hill music....

[VitaminG]

Damn! For that much I would totally scoop one up! Weren't the Roswell's USA made? I'll have to creep my old Jackson catalogs later...

Roswell's were made out of different materials too (I thought aluminum was involved somewhere...), so they probably sound a tad different as well.

excuse me for interrupting the man-love for a minute.

Most black Roswells were Japanese and made of wood. The US ones were aircraft aluminium (or aluminum for you Yanks), although there was one black US prototype.

[straycat]

These two guys need to get a room!
You must have 10 grand invested in the blue Kelly.Kinda overkill IMO but whatever floats your boat.
@ snake what is up with the gloves?Are they mojo gloves or are your hands cold all the time?

[horns666]

I hope he does better with the gloves than George Lynch does..Jake wore gloves back in the day. I always thought that would be restricting..

I gotta be honest. I got nice Floyds..I got cheap Floyds. I use the shit outta them. They do exactly the same thing, and I play exactly the same with either.

Actually on my kid's cheap indian Dinky..I nail harmonics easier than all my old USA guitars.

[logan]

Ha Ha!

Right, starting with the Roswells, Iv never actually seen one...
Iv seen the Jap wooden ones up on the evil SheBay from time to time, often either for £1000s or for £250-£400 because people dont know what they have....
Iv never seen a real original Aluminium one for sale... but id imagine that they fetch a pretty price... I know Ed Roman has a nice collection at the moment that he kindly sent me some details on when I was first hunting for one (before realising the futility of my dream!) so for me, im hunting a cheap jap wooden one, but then at this point id rather have something with a bit more of my kinda spec...

As for the kelly, I should explain that I am part of a custom shop part time, and I specialise in tuning for shred / thrash metal-

The Kelly therefore, is not so much of a tool as a showhorse, designed to display the very best of what is avaliable and achievable through the shop as it were, a vulgar display of power i guess you could call it!

As a result, although a rather ridiculous amount has been spent on what is, essentially only a '98 3 series pro - it is by far worth every penny in my eyes, as i can see the improvements in a quantitative manner...

In addition to this, with many items for the instrument (the brass block, the pickups and a lot of the custom hardware) has been sourced at a massively subsidised rates through both friends such as flloyd upgrades adam, and also through sheer kindness (such as seymour duncans custom shop!) - making the whole journey considerably more affordable -
I should also explain that my background is in preparing vehicles for motorsport and in basic armoury - thus the modification if you like, is as much interest and gives me as much pride, if not more than my playing.

Always figured when I was growing up, that id rather walk into hard rock caffe and see a guitar id made hanging on the wall signed by someone i really admired, than be a rockstar myself. personal preference i guess - and I mean no disrespect to any of my bands by that comment of course!

Currently up on the order list:-

brass floyd post strut brace
Schaller 377 sure claw

Anyone with feedback on these items is greatly appreciated!

I should also state that with regards to the quality of tremlos, the difference is to me noticable for sure, but wether its enough to make me spend cash, im not so sure. Although, some of the modifications have made more difference than the swap from dd jb to SD SH8 pickups, others have made differences that are only really noticable on monitoring eq deices (ie a bit shit) -

It is for this reason i have abstained from the almighty cost of titanium saddles, as i am yet to be proven that they make the £far to much cost a worthy expenditure....

At the end of the day, the kelly s not for sale, and do you think im unhappy with her?

[logan]

http://youtu.be/lbpLbIRWPo0

Aright, this is a horrific effort on my part, but was how she sounded in A-B with the optima heavy gauge gold plated strings....

At this stage:-
Jackson Kelly 1998 MIJ KE-3R
2X Bridge Seymour Duncan SH-8B Zebra CS Pick Ups
2x Metal P/up Rings (double sprung on hdi bolts)
Original Floyd Rose Neck Nut
Ibanez Shims
Sharpened Frets
Sharpened JT580LP Plate
Heavy Duty Springs (FR)
Brass Claw, Sprung
Brass Block (floyd Upgrades)
SD Resistor
Switchmasters Pot 500k
HD Neck bolts stainless steel

And a few cosmetic bits....

Ideas are always welcomed....

[snake_pearson]

These two guys need to get a room!
You must have 10 grand invested in the blue Kelly.Kinda overkill IMO but whatever floats your boat.
@ snake what is up with the gloves?Are they mojo gloves or are your hands cold all the time?

Haha I never use to wear them but I started when I ran into my frethand getting slowed down during shows. It actually cuts down on the friction between my palm and the back of my neck, especially if I am moving around and start sweating. I wear the longer gauntlet style because then it also helps protect my palm and wrist from grinding on my floyd rose when I palm mute. It took a little getting used to, but now I actually prefer it.

[snake_pearson]

excuse me for interrupting the man-love for a minute.

Most black Roswells were Japanese and made of wood. The US ones were aircraft aluminium (or aluminum for you Yanks), although there was one black US prototype.

Thanks for verifying that one. I've never run into one in my parts, so they have always been a bit of a mystery. I knew Amir Derakh had a custom one he played but I really wasn't into Orgy when they were popular. That guy has some beautiful old custom shop Jacksons though from his Rough Cutt days if you check out his website.

[snake_pearson]

I hope he does better with the gloves than George Lynch does..Jake wore gloves back in the day. I always thought that would be restricting.. .

I always thought so to. Mine are like a stretchy knit cloth, similar to what cloth winter gloves are made out of, only a little thinner. They stretch and conform to your hand, so you can actually still feel the strings enough to have some finesse when palm muting.
Pretty much the same reason why Hetfield and Mustaine wore wristbands or wrist gauntlets, I just have gloves.

I gotta be honest. I got nice Floyds..I got cheap Floyds. I use the shit outta them. They do exactly the same thing, and I play exactly the same with either.Actually on my kid's cheap indian Dinky..I nail harmonics easier than all my old USA guitars.

The JT580lp on my 2001 Eerie Dess RR3 worked amazing. It's actually the guitar that I learned how to do all the trem techniques I do. I could abuse the shit out of it and it went back to perfect tune. But I also found this to be the exception, not the rule. The Jt580 on my EX Pro Rhoads was a nightmare that I could never keep in tune, the JT580lp on my Kelly XLR would always go out of tune and sounded off, even properly intonated and tuned, and the Takeguchi made lo profile on my ESP LTD V-250 won't stay in tune work a damn either, not to mention issues with saddles threading out, string breakage, screw heads threading out. But these were just my experiences. The other guitar player in my band plays a RR3R with the stock satin chrome JT580 lp and he doesn't have too many issues with it. Upgrading the pot metal sustain block to brass is a wise investment on any licensed trem though.

[snake_pearson]

Damn, this thread was dead for like a month and now its hopping again. That's what I get for not logging into the forum for a few weeks.

Ha Ha!

It is for this reason i have abstained from the almighty cost of titanium saddles, as i am yet to be proven that they make the £far to much cost a worthy expenditure....

At the end of the day, the kelly s not for sale, and do you think im unhappy with her?

Absolutely! It's no different than people that hot rod their cars. I just happen to prefer guitars.

Yeah, the titanium floyd rose caught my interest awhile ago, but there is no way I am sending $500 on the guitar bridge. Considering the standard for most high end guitars (Jackson's included) are steel Schaller Floyd Roses with brass blocks and can be had for <$100 on Evilbay, I'm sticking with those. I would be interested in hearing from someone firsthand how they compare to the traditional units though.

Man, I honestly don't know what else you could do to that thing at this point, barring getting a completely different neck or body lol. Have you upgraded the tuners?

[logan]

Ha Ha! Well, Im waiting on a set of satin spurzels at the moment,
other than that, Iv ordered a schaller sure claw mount for the floyd claw,titanium saddle blocks, stainless neck nut and saddle bolts, an allen key holder, a fender fat finger sustain clamp, and a floyd post strut brace (6mm brass), have just uprated the trem arm cup and mount to stainless steel so as to give a tighter feel to the arm movement....

Should be linking a video of her in e-e shortly!

Oh, where can I get an ibanez suregrip for a floy rose trem arm?!?!? Iv looked everywhere for those damn things and i cant find them anywhere - new, old used, lisenced - nothing... anyone who knows where I can get one please let me know!

Keep it metal!