KE3 Confusion

[Confuse-a-Cat]

Hello everybody. As you might guess, I'm new around here, so I'll start by introducting myself. I'm English, and I'm currently at university, and while I don't actually own any Jacksons yet, I've been looking into them for a few months now since my friend bought an RR24 which I was quite impressed with. My username comes from one of my favourite Monty Python sketches in case you're wondering.

I have an Epiphone Les Paul Custom at the moment, but I dropped it and broke the neck a couple of weeks ago, so I'm going to go back into the shop once I'm back at uni (It's the holday at the moment) to see about getting it repaired.

Here's where Jackson comes in. I've seen a KE3 in Crimson Swirl on the shop's website that I think looks stunning, so if they have it in the shop when I go in I'm going to have to try it out, and hopefully I will like playing it as much as I like looking at it. Here's the photo:



Looking at the photograph though, I've noticed something that I thought I should ask about here. As far as I know, all of the new Pro series guitars have the black JT-580LP tremolo, but this one appears to have a chrome tremolo. The site doesn't give any information other than a price and a picture, so I wondered what the community here would think. It appears to have Seymour Duncans (I think) and as far as I can tell it's a standard current KE3 apart from the tremolo. Is it a slightly older model perhaps, before they changed to the black trem, but after they switched to Seymour Duncan pickups?

If that is the case, I will still happily consider buying it if it plays well. The only problem is that I've heard some bad things about the chrome JT-580LP, if that is indeed what the trem is. How does the chrome tremolo hold up? I don't mind if it's not perfect because I think that if I like the guitar enough to buy it, I would happily install an OFR in 6 months time if it needed it. But if the tremolo will fall apart before I've gotten it home, I don't want to be spending any money on it for several months because of when I have to pay my rent for next universtiy year. Of course I could be totally wrong about the tremolo, which is why I'm asking here.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[rjohnstone]

It's an older KE-3.
The pickups look like Duncan Designed pickups and not real Seymour Duncan's.
Hard to tell from the picture though.

The trem should be fine. I've never heard of one "falling apart", but you can easily swap it out for an OFR if you don't like it.

[straycat]

Play it first by all means some like the way they feel some don't.It looks to be an older model.I wouldn't worry about the trem JT-580 are pretty solid.

[wilkinsi]

Welcome, and hope you get the KE3. The "Detonator" pickups are actually useful in that they sound bright and dirty. Being as its a pre-2006 version, you should be getting a good price.

[slash-ed]

Bright? IIRC the ones I had in my KE-3 were like the Invaders they were modelled on - lots of low end push, if somewhat muddy as a result.

[Mass Defect]

i got something like that. It's a 2004 Ke-3. Chrome hardware and Duncan Designed Pups...

[Confuse-a-Cat]

Thanks for the welcome and responses.

The price is good, which is one of the things which made me think it might be an older model. It's £399 (approximately 800$US) which is a very good price for a model in this finish, especially compared to a current model KE3 on the same website with the skulls graphic which costs £699. I would actually be paying about the same price as Americans pay for a current model Crimson Swirl KE3, which is great considering that Jacksons in the UK tend to cost ~50% more than in the US.

Now I think about it, for a similar amount of cash as the Skulls model, I could buy this one and upgrade it with an OFR and a set of virtually whatever pickups I wanted - but now I'm just getting carried away.

So, what can you tell me about the 2004 KE3s? Is the quality of the guitar in general similar to the current ones, because I had heard that the quality has gone up recently since the Fender buyout. If it has, that might put me off this slightly, but like I said it's a good price and if I like the way it feels I'll try to push the fact that it's an older model out of my head. Or maybe push it into the salesman's head to try to get it even cheaper. :p

I was also put off a bit when I read that it only has Duncan Designed pups, but when I think about it, I've been perfectly happy with the stock Epiphone pickups in my Les Paul, so I don't think the tone would be a problem. I'm still interested in more opinions as to what they sound like, though.

One last question for this post; is there anything else about the model that is different from the current one, other than the tremolo and pickups?

Hopefully they will have this in the shop when I go in, otherwise this thread was a big waste of everybody's time, because I don't want to buy a guitar without trying it first, especially since this one is a bit older. It would probably be better for my bank account if they don't have it in!

[Mass Defect]

The 2006 Ke3 just look cooler with the black hardware and the real Duncans. But the 2004 Ke3 is just fine. Nothing different--- quality wise. And the neck is superb and thin.

But if you want the warm sound of the Duncans, go for the 2006 models.

[wilkinsi]

£399 sounds OK considering its a graphic finish. I've just been offered a brand new 2006 (real duncans, black hardware) Trans black version for the same price, normally £479. Not sure I wanna go for it.

[MartinBarre]

It must be a few years old, hence the chrome trem.
If it's not Duncan Designed pups, then it's genuine Invaders which you may like or not. I personally didn't, in my RR3. But I think it'll be Duncan Designed.

[Confuse-a-Cat]

Thanks for all the help everyone. In the end they didn't have the KE3 in the shop when I took my Les Paul in for repairs, which is probably a good thing since I have exams soon and I really shouldn't be spending the money. I still want to get my hands on a Jackson later this year sometime, though.