NGD KV2 Snakeskin

[laurens]

2012 is one day old and I already got my self a new guitar! I traded my beloved RR1T for a King V with snakeskin paint job. Gonna clean her up, a new set up and lots of TLC! Nice start of the year...This one is supposedly built in November 2002. The serial number has an U, but not the "Uo". The Jackson website is not updated, so does anyone know how to verify the production year?Here are the crappy pics of this beauty:[IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG]

[Axegrinder87]

VERY nice. Snakeskins are sexy.

[toejam]

Congrats! What's the full serial after the U? Also, it would be a number zero and not a letter o like you're thinking. They started with U0 and went up to U1...

[Ward]

That is freakin' awesome!

Johnnyryche has a pretty comprehensive list of U serial numbers with dates.

If it helps, I have one from Feb 2002 that is U1084x, and one from July 2002 that is U1133x.

[Axewielder]

Those look great in snakeskin!

[laurens]

Thanx all! Serial number is solved. It starts with U1167x, so 2002 is very likey to be the production year. Thanks for helping out. JCF is really one of the most helpful forums.

[Larz]

Love that one

[Johnnyryche]

Thanx all! Serial number is solved. It starts with U1167x, so 2002 is very likey to be the production year. Thanks for helping out. JCF is really one of the most helpful forums.

Sweet KV! Looks like yours was completed in October 2002. And if I had to guess, the SL2H limited run of chlorine soloists started right after your guitar.

[VitaminG]

the back of snakeskin necks just look so fuckin' cool. Congrats, laurens. Great looking axe

[Force]

Holy freakin' bats piss, envy is not a sin in this case.

[Rsmacker]

Beautiful, just beautiful.

[laurens]

Thanks for all the nice comments. After a few days of cleaning and set up I wanna share my learning curve here. The previous owner didn't know much about floyd rose's, I guess. I already noticed that the bridge was not parallel to the body, etc. He did inform me about a shim under the locking nut because the E string was buzzing otherwise. That was done by the owner before him (the first owner I believe). The neck had very little relief too.

Anyway, I am a bit stubborn so I decided to start from scratch. First I started by doing a quick clean up: remove dust from bridge with a vacuum cleaner, then WD40 on various parts, clean the fret board and oil it (I use Dunlop for that), new set of strings with my gauge (.11), tune it, set the bridge parallel to the body and adjust spring claw, adjust neck relief and action to my preference/experience, round it off with intonation.

To my surprise it didn't stay in tune for long. The string clamps had some sign of wear. Also the sadle on the low E didn't junp back to the fine tuner like it is supposed to do. In addition, I wanted to install my JH EMG set. So I ordered new string clamps and an EMG 3 way lever. In the meantime I removed the sadles from the bridge and cleaned them, soaked them in WD40 so they all moved well. The bridge had collected some serious gunk. Now I put the sadles back on. I was clever enough to mark the positions of the saddles with tape so I didn't have to do the intonation process again.

To shorten the story a bit, somewhere down the line I also removed the shim. I pulled the old wiring and put in the EMG's with the new 3 way lever. Smoking! New string clamps added too. It stayed in tune better now, but not long. The bridge moved up after a few hours. Bummer. The previous owner also gave me an additional spring. That should have given me a clue beforehand, haha. So I installed the extra spring and also the tremel-no system as it seemed to be an easy thing. New set up and intonation again.

Somehow I didn't get the sound I wanted. You know, I missed a tight articulate chugga chugga with thump. I messed quite a while with amp settings and pick up height. Checked action again. Unplugged I couldn't hear any buzzing. Well, guess what, I didn't check the clearance on the first fret. It was not much, but there was a little buzz there. Especially on the G string (open and on the first fret). Fuck me, that shim was needed after all. So I replaced the shim. Checked intonation again and learned that the tremel-no can't hold it (in locked position) when you take off more than one string, haha. Anyway, it is all set up now with a tiny bit higher action than I wanted (it is minimal). After hours of work, the guitar is a serious metal machine the way I like it!

Why do I write this? Well, because I missed a few signs (in hindsight) that I learned from. In the end, patience and the hours of work paid off. I could have gone to a luthier, which would have been the quick and easy way. But I wanna do my own set up. Much more rewarding.

Here is a new pic.

[IMG][/IMG]

[xenophobe]

Sometimes it's really hard to see issues when they come set up badly. Not all Jackson necks are perfect... Most can be tweaked to play well with some compromise, but there is quite a bit of variety with Jackson. Many times adjusting the truss can make all the difference. Sometimes nothing will help.

Nice looking guitar. I like that grey snakeskin the best.

[laurens]

Sometimes it's really hard to see issues when they come set up badly. Not all Jackson necks are perfect... Most can be tweaked to play well with some compromise, but there is quite a bit of variety with Jackson. Many times adjusting the truss can make all the difference. Sometimes nothing will help.

Nice looking guitar. I like that grey snakeskin the best.

Exactly, and it is wood after all. I had a CS once with a serious issue on the D string. Low action was impossible, plus it sounded a bit tame. Unfortunately, buzz on the first fret cannot be fixed with the truss rod. The shim (and hence a tiny bit of higher action) is a compromise, but the neck profile of this KV2 and the the way it sounds makes up for it.

[Anders]

Sweet looking guitar... I wouldn't say no to a snakeskin either!

Must be rewarding after the hours you've put into it!