Jackson Kelly Eerie Dess Swirl

[alessandroarzilli]

Hello everyone! I'm quite new to the forum, but I've been a Jackson guitars fan since the late 90's and owned some!
This week I finally managed to buy an used Jackson Kelly in an Eerie Dess Swirl finish, serial Number 9693743, I've been chasing one for like the past 15 years! The absolute craziest thing is that I paid only 150,00 euros for it, I still cannot believe it. I would need some help to figure out the exact model and how to clean it properly.

I made some researches on the Jackson archived catalogues and I'm pretty sure this one is a bolt on 2002/2003 made in Japan KE3 eerie dess swirl, with Duncan Designed Detonators, Jackson JT580LP tremolo and chrome hardware. Do you all agree?

It's crazy dusty and dirty 😔, looks like it hasn't been polished for years. I can't stand it, lol. I'm planning to disassemble it all, clean and re assemble it back. What would you suggest me to use to not damage the wonderful finish, the neck, the fretboard and the hardware?

Finally, it's got some minor dings merely noticeable, except for the longer horn which is chipped in the end (again, 😔 grrrr). How would you suggest me to proceed to repair it the best I can? I'm not a total newbie when it comes to finishing/soldering/using small tools.

Thank you in advance for your help and sorry for the long post.

Some pictures
https://www.dropbox.com/s/608qq93591...4-01.jpeg?dl=0
​​https://www.dropbox.com/s/c3823ccscp...64330.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mz0bcxmwrr...64318.jpg?dl=0

​​​​https://www.dropbox.com/s/uywks9ekjc...64349.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8gdlrfxz07...64404.jpg?dl=0

[skullfunkerry]

That looks great! I can't believe it was only 150EUR too, good score!

It won't be a nitro finish so you don't need to worry too much about damaging the finish when you're cleaning it. A damp cloth should be enough for teh body and neck (followed by a dry cloth), and probably just a dry toothbrush for the hardware to get all the gunk out. I personally wouldn't bother with any kind of metal cleaner or polish.

For that chip on the top horn, I'd say your best bet is a drop of nail varnish, in the closest match you can find. Once it's properly dried, go over it with a very fine cutting compound (not T-Cut, that would be too harsh) until it's level with the rest of the paint. Maybe a once-over with some polish afterwards.

Are you keeping the pickups? The Duncan Designed stuff generally is pretty good so there shouldn't be any need to get rid of them. If you do though, I can highly recommend Irongear.

Happy new guitar day! Make sure you post up some pictures once you've cleaned it all up

[skullfunkerry]

D'oh, duplicate post

[Number Of The Priest]

Your assessment of the guitar's build period is probably correct. It's definitely pre-2006. If you want to identify the precise build date, disassemble the neck from the body and look for the date stamps on the neck heel and in the neck pocket.

Those Duncan Designed Detonators are reputed to sound like Seymour Duncan Distortions even though they look more like Invaders.

skullfunkerry gave a good overview of cleaning. I learned from a book & DVD from Dan Erlewine, How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great: https://www.google.ca/search?q=dan+e..._AUoAHoECAEQAA

To clean your frets and rosewood fretboard, use 0000 steel wool. Since you plan to disassemble the guitar anyway, you'll be able to take the neck outdoors to grind away with your steel wool without getting steel wool dust all over the guitar body (particularly the pickups) and all over your house.

skullfunkerry also gave a very high level overview of repairing the paint chip. You can get into further detail if desired: https://www.jcfonline.com/forum/equi...h-car-products

Overall your KE3 looks to be in good physical condition and actually looks far cleaner in the photos than you describe in your written text, with no corrosion or major damage. I love finding guitars like this. They promise to clean up easily and you end up with a great guitar after cleaning and setup.

[alessandroarzilli]

Hello and thank you all for answering me! I've followed your suggestions and managed to get rid of 99% of the dust and dirt just by using a simple damp cloth and an old toothbrush for the hardware! I can't believe how amazing this guitar still looks, sharing some photos of the process here.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xd9qu3h9jue2vw0/IMG_20200615_170754.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lpa08qjfr5ctm28/IMG_20200615_170816.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q95f3hja4v7f5e7/IMG_20200616_123246-01.jpeg?dl=0

AlsoHello and thank you all for answering me! I've followed your suggestions and managed to get rid of 99% of the dust and dirt just by using a simple damp cloth and an old toothbrush for the hardware! I can't believe how amazing this guitar still looks, sharing some photos of the process here.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xd9qu3h9jue2vw0/IMG_20200615_170754.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lpa08qjfr5ctm28/IMG_20200615_170816.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q95f3hja4v7f5e7/IMG_20200616_123246-01.jpeg?dl=0

Also, I managed to remove and clean the pickups very well, very carefully stretching the 4 conductor cables through their hole, I don't want to describe the amount of dirt found in their cavities and under the bridge (brrrrrr terrifying).
Also, since everything's well locked and works fine, I will not remove the neck!
Tomorrow I'll be finally re-stringing it and adjusting the tremolo bridge (which came out wonderful just by using some little drops of spray degreaser and the toothbrush).
I've recorded the whole process with my camera, I'm going to share the whole video when I'm finished!
Stay tuned and thanks again for your very precious help

[alessandroarzilli]

Don't know what happened, cannot edit the previous post's beginning.

[Number Of The Priest]

Wow that looks great. I love when guitars clean up nicely.

On one neglected guitar I bought, I found dead spiders in the electronics control cavity. I don't know how they got there originally but it felt so good to clean that guitar. Nothing surprises me any more.

Glad you didn't need to remove the neck. That suggests to me that the frets didn't need cleaning with 0000 steel wool.

The tremolo turned out great. Which spray degreaser did you use? Many guitarists recommend WD-40, and I like 3-IN-ONE Multi-Purpose Oil just because I don't own any WD-40. If a bridge (any kind) is very dirty or rusty, I disassemble the bridge completely and brush all parts using that oil and a toothbrush. It doesn't harm the finish and rust melts away easily, leaving metal parts looking new again.

[alessandroarzilli]

Woah...dead bugs inside the cavities.... I'm scared lol!
To clean the tremolo I've used very few droplets of a Change Clair Degreaser Hygiene product, and immediately wiped dry with a cloth. Turned out very well!! I'm about to re assemble it all and see how it sounds, I'll post something soon! Thank you and no, I didn't remove the neck at all, it feels very stable

[Luca1973]

Ciao Alessandro!!!

Hard to stay away from Jacksons, isn't it..??


--- This guy lives few minutes by car from me and he sold me a wonderful Soloist just a year ago ---

[alessandroarzilli]

Ciao Alessandro!!!
Hard to stay away from Jacksons, isn't it..??
--- This guy lives few minutes by car from me and he sold me a wonderful Soloist just a year ago ---

[ITA] Ueeee! Ma tu pensa quanto è piccolo il mondo! Ciao Luca, come stai? [/ITA]
Yes! I did it again, haha, I fell off the wagon :-) I've always wanted a Kelly since when I watched Beverly Hills 90210 hahaha!
I finally managed to set it up correctly, here's a little sound test I recorded today using the NTS suite! Standard D tuning with D'addario light top heavy bottoms! I wasn't expecting the 20yo detonators to still sound so heavy :-0 I played and abused the tremolo for half an hour straight and it surprisingly held the tuning perfectly! I'm sooo happy with this Kelly!
Here's the sound test: https://www.dropbox.com/s/t11jo4232f...62020.mp4?dl=0

As for the BCB SL-2h, I'm happy it's in your good hands :-) Definitely one of the best guitars I've ever had, sometimes I miss it haha, but it's ok :-)

[Number Of The Priest]

Great sound! Do you have other Neural DSP products? Or just the Fortin NTS?

[alessandroarzilli]

I'm a death thrash metalhead, I just own the NTS suite.
I tried and reviewed them all, though, on my YouTube channel, just look for my name!

[Number Of The Priest]

Thanks! Holy shit, such a large amount of reviews on your Youtube channel! I just realized I've previously watched your video on "Duncan Solar Vs. Seymour Duncan SH-1N and JB-TB4". Your SL2H is beautiful! Is that the one that Luca1973 now owns?

I'm particularly interested in all the review videos of plugins so I subscribed and I will revisit later when I have more time.

[Luca1973]

Your SL2H is beautiful! Is that the one that Luca1973 now owns?

Yes, that’s it!!

There’s a funny story behind this guitar.
Initially my brother (gigi here on the forum) bought it, directly from the US (here in Italy they’re very rare, and at the time if you wanted one, you would have had to wait months, even for a “standard” production model).
After a couple of years he sold it to Alessandro, with my surprise. The years went by but I kept thinking ‘bout that guitar.

(at least) I was lucky, it didn’t go too far.

I don’t know if Alessandro remember now, but at some point I tried to contact him (didn’t know him at the time) asking for any possibility to buy it back….but at the time he considered it unsaleable….so, as we say, I had to “put a stone” on it.
So I thought. But if there’s a possibility for the fate to be already written, that was the case of that Soloist.
Finally, 3 years later from that first approach, Alessandro decided to put the guitar on sale, and I got it for a very good price, exactly in the same PERFECT conditions when my brother sold it to him.

Now the baby sits in my rack alongside her other sisters, and even if I don’t play it daily because I have many others and sometimes it’s difficult to play them all the same way, I think she will stay here for a long time.
Hahahh, thank you again Alessandro.

[alessandroarzilli]

Wonderful! I'm so happy that SL-2h BCB looks still in perfect shape after all these years! I've recorded the whole process of me disassembling, cleaning and re-assembling my KE3, I'll finish editing the video very soon and I'll post the link to the video here, also! I think the only real issue with the Kelly might be the output jack, because sometimes, only sometimes, it scracthes a bit when I'm playing too hard! Should be a very easy fix :-)