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What model/year is this Kelly? (Album with photos, and serial number)

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  • What model/year is this Kelly? (Album with photos, and serial number)

    Hello

    I am interested in a Japanese Bolt-on Kelly (I would have liked a KE5, but they are rare to come across)

    Here is the album of the images https://imgur.com/a/DFt34rj

    The seller does not provide a picture of the neck plate, but claims that the serial number is 1000837 and that it is a "Custom Shop" Pro Kelly from Japan. When I pointed out that the Custom Shop is in America and not in Japan, he corrected the description to this. He claims that it was bought in 1991 for $1275 (using German Marks) and that he's had it since 2010 or so.


    As can be seen from the pictures, it has only two tiny little quirks that are only purely optical and in no way impair the way of playing.
    Freshly tuned and armed with new Elixir strings.

    According to the previous owner, the guitar was built in 1991 and at that time cost around 1900 Deutsche Mark.

    Unfortunately I could not find out much about the details since the guitar itself has been in my possession for about 10 years, but what I could find out I list here:

    Jackson Kelly Pro / Professional
    Body: Alder
    Neck: Maple, Bolt-On
    Fingerboard : Ebony, 24 frets, Sharkfin inlays
    Finish: Metallic Red
    Pickups: Seymour Duncan
    Bridge: Original Floyd Rose II
    Gotoh machine heads
    Hardware: Black
    1x Volume, 1x 3-Way Toggle-Switch
    Strings: 10-52 Elixir

    Those who are familiar with this know that this Model does not differ much from the USA models and that production was quickly discontinued due to competition.
    I think it's a 2006+ KE3 with an upgraded Korean Floyd Rose, but with an old neck plate/neck, which is worth about 300 € for me. But the serial doesn't match. And the hardware doesn't match either.

  • #2
    Looks like a KE3 to me, at least the body and neck do. But, as you point out, there's a mix of black and chrome hardware and the bridge has been swapped out. Would make me wonder if it's a parts guitar. I had a metallic blue KE3 that I picked up several years ago. The guitar played great and was very comfortable. I have a few other kellys so I ended up selling it to a friend for $300 USD, and that included a Jackson hard shell case. There is a similar metallic blue KE3 with and HSC on my local Craig's List that has been listed for $450 USD for a while. So I would think similar KE3 models in great shape would fetch $300 - $400.

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    • #3
      I don't think it's a KE3. It's one of the lower-end models that had the cheaper JT500 trem originally since the baseplate is squared off. The Floyd 2 (similar to a Schaller) would not be original on there, but fits the JT500 route perfectly. Might be one of those Musician's Friend exclusive models, and probably not Japanese.
      I feel my soul go cold... only the dead are smiling.

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      • #4
        I'm going to guess it's a KX10 body, mated to a KE3 neck. The KX10 did have a square-baseplate trem, but it also had dot inlays, like this one (https://www.jcfonline.com/forum/equi...w-ohsc-cad-160).

        However, here is one that has sharkfins (https://www.jcfonline.com/forum/equi...-jackson-owner) leading me to believe either that it's another KX10/KE3 hybrid or that that was a different KX model. Note the headstock logo placement is different (slightly higher) on that black KX compared to the headstock logo placement on the red guitar which is more like what you would see on a normal KE3 neck.

        A discrepancy I noticed is that your first post in this thread lists the serial number as 1000837 but the serial number decoder screenshot in your Imgur gallery has one fewer zero. Which is the true serial number?

        Really need photos of the neckplate, and the back of the headstock too, for good measure.

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