Should I avoid a Kelly JK20 made in India?

[GearBoxTy]

It was a private sale. I am in Powell and posted on Facebook asking about Made in India Jacksons. I'm agreeing that I probably overpaid but the guitar seems fine except for the pickups and bridge.

It also came in a Coffin bass case which is HUGE. So, I will get a Jackson Kelly case for it ($129.99 new). New pickups and a new Schaller tremolo will cost almost as much as I paid for this guitar and the case will put it over!

[GearBoxTy]

I bought one new for my nephew when they came out, it was only 349.00 new with hard case.

What did you think of the one you bought your Nephew and did he like it?

[Scream And Fly]

I bought one of these back when Musician's Friend was blowing them out on sale for $299. It came with a nice hard case, but the guitar itself was horrible. I own several Kellys, and even a JS30 which is also made in India. I thought I would get this JK20 as a nice beater guitar with a trem to mess around with and take with me on work trips. Well...

The thing is, the JK20 was not even close to the JS30 in build quality. The JK was awful, and I'm not exaggerating. You would assume that since the JS and JK were both made in India, that they were made by the same factory? I strongly doubt that. These are both entirely different guitars. Here's why:

The shape of the headstock was not correct. Its dimensions were slightly different than my other Kelly guitars. The JS model I have has a perfect headstock shape. If I recall, the JK20 was 22 frets? Did any other Kelly model ever have 22 frets? The finish and wood qualiy on the JK were really bad. I remember you could see a multitude of defects in the wood that printed through the finish. It was not glassy smooth like even my JS Kelly has.

The bridge looks like a JT500, but its quality is bad as well. Interesting thing about the bridge on the JK is that it does not say "Jackson" on it like the JT500 normally has. There is the area embossed for the name, but it's blank. Weird. The JT500 on my Kelly Performer PS-6T definitely has a higher level of finish.

The pickups were terrible as well. Everything about that guitar just reeked of very cheap, poor production quality. I was very surprised at the time that Jackson put out such a low-quality guitar. It has always been the case that even the low-end Jacksons were decent quality and played acceptably well. That's not at all the case with the JK20. I played it for about 30 minutes and sold it on Craigslist. The benefit to me was I kept the nice hard case, and still sold the guitar for what I paid for it since it was essentially new.

Ive heard stories that the factory the JK20 was produced in was in the business of making guitars that looked like many popular models from different brands, though not using the company brand name on them to sell them legally, and that Jackson/Musician's Friend contracted them to put out a run of the JK20 Kelly as a Musician's Friend exclusive. I don't know if that's true, but I believe the JK20 was produced in a different factory than the India-made JS20, which is a far superior guitar.

The JT500 being unbranded, wrong headstock shape, only 22 frets, and the very poor quality really makes me wonder.

So yeah, you paid about double what it's worth on a good day. Sorry to say.

[GearBoxTy]

I bought one of these back when Musician's Friend was blowing them out on sale for $299. It came with a nice hard case, but the guitar itself was horrible. I own several Kellys, and even a JS30 which is also made in India. I thought I would get this JK20 as a nice beater guitar with a trem to mess around with and take with me on work trips. Well...

The thing is, the JK20 was not even close to the JS30 in build quality. The JK was awful, and I'm not exaggerating. You would assume that since the JS and JK were both made in India, that they were made by the same factory? I strongly doubt that. These are both entirely different guitars. Here's why:

The shape of the headstock was not correct. Its dimensions were slightly different than my other Kelly guitars. The JS model I have has a perfect headstock shape. If I recall, the JK20 was 22 frets? Did any other Kelly model ever have 22 frets? The finish and wood qualiy on the JK were really bad. I remember you could see a multitude of defects in the wood that printed through the finish. It was not glassy smooth like even my JS Kelly has.

The bridge looks like a JT500, but its quality is bad as well. Interesting thing about the bridge on the JK is that it does not say "Jackson" on it like the JT500 normally has. There is the area embossed for the name, but it's blank. Weird. The JT500 on my Kelly Performer PS-6T definitely has a higher level of finish.

The pickups were terrible as well. Everything about that guitar just reeked of very cheap, poor production quality. I was very surprised at the time that Jackson put out such a low-quality guitar. It has always been the case that even the low-end Jacksons were decent quality and played acceptably well. That's not at all the case with the JK20. I played it for about 30 minutes and sold it on Craigslist. The benefit to me was I kept the nice hard case, and still sold the guitar for what I paid for it since it was essentially new.

Ive heard stories that the factory the JK20 was produced in was in the business of making guitars that looked like many popular models from different brands, though not using the company brand name on them to sell them legally, and that Jackson/Musician's Friend contracted them to put out a run of the JK20 Kelly as a Musician's Friend exclusive. I don't know if that's true, but I believe the JK20 was produced in a different factory than the India-made JS20, which is a far superior guitar.

The JT500 being unbranded, wrong headstock shape, only 22 frets, and the very poor quality really makes me wonder.

So yeah, you paid about double what it's worth on a good day. Sorry to say.

The one I bought has 24 frets but everything else matches you description. However, the finish seems great; I see no flaws in the wood. The pickups look cheap but I have a Duncan Custom (SH-5) and Duncan Jazz (SH-2n) that I can drop in.

[Mudlark]

22 frets?

[Scream And Fly]

22 frets?

The one I had was 22 frets, which was one of the reasons I immediately sold it. It was really odd.

[jacksonaxes]

The one I bought absolutely had 24 frets.

[Scream And Fly]

Maybe the Kelly I had was manufactured with a neck from another model? I don't know. I am looking to see if I have any old photos of it. I know I took one photo of the JK20 right next to my KE3 and PS-6T, but that was when the guitar first came out. I still have the case though .

On a side note, I know the Jackson JT500 tremolo gets a bad rap, but I always liked it. I never had any issues with it and it is very stable. As you all now, the JT500 is a copy of the Schaller, and it has the hardened steel inserts. Even the Schaller unit has a cast zinc main plate, which is the need for the inserts. I also love the JT580LP unit on my DK2M (love that guitar, too) but I do not like the uniquely-shaped main plate, which leaves a big gap if you retrofit a Floyd Rose in its place.

[GearBoxTy]

This is the unbranded Tremolo on the JK20 I bought (further evidence it is a JK20, right?). You can see it is missing the arm nut:



And we can all see that the Serial Number is an 8-digit starting with 99:



Here is a full body shot in the enormous Coffin bass case that came with it:

[Mudlark]

Of course it's a '99 JK20. I sent you an old thread on facebook last night saying the pups were Armstrong.

If the trem is problematic just block it.

[GearBoxTy]

I know, Mudlark! I appreciate all your help.

I'll block the trem for now with an FU-Tone.com brass trem stopper. I replaced the control knob and strap buttons last night. Maybe replace the pickups this week and install that stopper! \m/