What kind of frets are on the KE1? (KV style frets or SL style?)

[Deadlock]

Back to the original poster, that's a big reason why I sold my KV2. It's not just that the frets are thinner "medium" sized. The shape of the fret itself is very different from standard jumbos - more squared-off or even rectangular in shape, rather than the typical nice roundly-arched jumbos on all other USA Jackson / Charvel guitars. The size, and even more so the shape, were a turnoff for me.

Same here. I loved that guitar, it was a beautiful korina KV1 but it was such a bitch to play because of those frets. When I'd slide into a note my finger would actually get caught on the square edge of the frets instead of gliding over a curve. The other issue was the non-locking nut. Jackson headstocks don't have the straightest string pull, so the B and high E strings went out of tune a lot. I sold it and bought a neckthru "Grover Jackson" KV with soloist style frets and a Schaller Floyd Rose for a fraction of the price and I never looked back.

[Grim]

The smaller the better for me, although for some reason, my genius mind went "JUMBOS!" when I ordered CS. I don't really mind though I can play either I just find small frets give me maybe a 10% speed increase.

[Tmoran]

Im just going off the specs on the jackson website. My KV2 was made in 08 and the frets seem narrower than even the medium jumbos on my carvins. My guess is its a typo. Theres a couple on their site.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

You're confused because, apparently, you just don't understand. The squared-off profile is the shape of the fret wire itself. It has nothing to do with how Jackson is crowning the frets.

OK, I get what you're saying, it's more "squared off" because the height is closer to the width than it is on the jumbo stuff. I am guessing it's 6105 wire, which is like "vintage skinny" but "jumbo tall."

[Brian]

Im just going off the specs on the jackson website. My KV2 was made in 08 and the frets seem narrower than even the medium jumbos on my carvins. My guess is its a typo. Theres a couple on their site.

That's cause the frets on the KV2 are not the typical "medium jumbo" that everyone refers to them as. Dunlop doesn't even supply a fret wire that's the identical size either last I looked. Nor does Jackson use Dunlop wire for that matter.

It's supplied by a company in Japan called Sanko. The KV2 frets are "SBB24". You'll find it listed here http://www.factorhythm.com/brand_sanko.html under small fret wire.

As for them being square lol... the only reason I could think of that they might seem that way is because they are indeed narrower than a typical "jumbo" fret so there's less surface area to create the wider "U" shape that you may be used to if you typically play on guitars with larger frets.

[shreddermon]

Exactly. Compare the SBB24 to Jackson "regular" jumbo SBB215 - huge difference in feel.

Ever run a big stick along some train tracks? That's what it feels like running up a KV's fretboard to me.

[Tmoran]

Its weird, Not alot of things about fretwire effect my playing. I really would never have noticed it unless this thread had me take a second look. I still love my KV2

[roodyrocker]

Fretwire doesn't seem to make a difference to me. Neither do scalloped fretboards or painted vs. unfinished necks. All things which get argued regularly on boards. :think:

[Axewielder]

Sanko is where they source the wire? Interesting. The drawing of the SBB-24 shows a profile that I wouldn't call "squared off" though. :think:

[secks]

My 1997 KE1 has extra jumbos (6100) where as my 1996 KV1 has normal jumbos (6105) (not medium jumbos - 6130). Both still have the original fretwire.