My lad has some hard earnt cash and is after a guitar.

His come across a Jackson KVX10 King V with Cofin Case and strap for £275. It’s discribed as immaculate.
This is exactly he ‘type’ of guitar he is after.
What do you reckon?

My advice is this. I’ve been playing guitar for 30 years and you can go to a shop and see two of the same model, same spec. guitar and they will sound different whether electric or acoustic.
At that budget forget the name, try to ignore the colour and gismos and just play as many guitars in your price range as you can. I promise you, if you do that, the guitar will find you.

(He’ll probably ingore this wisdom because of his age btw 🙂 but that’s okay, it’s how we learn)

(He’ll probably ingore this wisdom because of his age btw but that’s okay, it’s how we learn)

Yep youre probably right, pretty pointless asking really.
He has a Les Paul copy, but that weighs a ton. This is to take to hire studios and school gigs.
He is just 13 BTW.

Will ask my lad what guitar he has now. It has twin humbuckers(?) and has a mighty powerful sound and cost about what you want to pay. Watch this space.

Does the Jackson have a Floyd Rose tremelo? I would avoid if so – unless they are very well set-up/maintained it means the guitar just goes out of tune all the time.

what tyger said is correct
buy according to sound quality not name etc

Yes it has a Floyd Rose tremelo!, it’s a flying V and it’s black and my lads 13.
Done deal really.

Will your lad be playing lots of detuned heavy riffage? If so, I’d advise to avoid something with a floyd rose trem unless he is/has a pretty decent guitar technician. Something with no trem is much easier to manage for heavy detuned stuff. As for the Jackson branding, I love them but I am aware that you could probably get a better deal on a new or second hand “lesser” brand. Check out Harmony Central reviews to find out more about the guitar.

jon

jackson do/did ‘hardtail’ ones too: i forget what they were called but basically the same shape similar sort of pickups and sound but without a floyd rose tremolo. That would be much more versatile: you can retune/detune between songs and the other strings stay in tune if you break one mid-song. I would rather get a fixed bridge guitar and a digitech whammy for ‘divebomby’ stuff. Much easier to live with, as unless your boy is a real whizz setting up guitars, it may spend an alarming amount of time being fiddled with in guitar shops. Setting up a floyd rose is rather like building a really bendy bike wheel in terms of trial and error and lots of fine adjustments.

Yes it has a Floyd Rose tremelo!, it’s a flying V and it’s black

Nothing wrong with a Floyd Rose I’ve never had any problem with them and they’re a hell of a lot more stable than a non locking trem.

Does your lad play standing up all the time? If not then a Flying V shape will be very awkward to play seated.

this what you talking about?

average online price seems to be between 350 and 430 so it sounds a goo price. Other options at the funds your lad has for a new axe would be

Jackson JS30KV – £239 from Guitar Guitar

an ex-demo BC Rich Kerry King from the same place for £250 (seems like good value)

All depends on what style he likes, i take it from your post he’s kinda into metal hence the Flying V choice. Personally I would go for the BC Rich, seems like a lot of guitar for the money. Other than that i would also look at ESP guitars

ESP

pics didn’t work, try again

Jackson

BC Rich Kerry King

see here guitar guitar

(sighs)…guitar marketing still alive and well I see 🙂

Nothing wrong with brands, styles, Floyd Rose trems, Flying Vs etc. but get a guitar that has mojo. It’s an instrument not a car or a bike, find one that’s “alive” and sings in your hands. There’s a lot of dead wood out there dressed up to look pretty, you got to try them and be patient but it’s worth the wait. Don’t just get a guitar because it’s a good deal. A lot of the vintage guitars that are bought for loads of money by collectors are only available now because they were the guitars that no one wanted and left on the shelf. The best instruments would have been played to death – that’s what you should be looking for, otherwise in a few months down the line it’ll be stuck in the corner of a bedroom somewhere collecting dust IMO.
I’ll leave it at that.

the boys 13, don’t really think that longevity or mojo is much of a factor

to be honest, these are the next guitars i want

only because they are Thurston Moore/Lee Ronaldo signature models……and i’m 33, i should know better

Well its been bought….can you hear it 🙄

Yes I guess you can call it heavy riffage and yes this is for playing whilst standing.
Good news though, it was bought from a shop/studio and it turns out that my missus nursed their child when he was very ill many years ago so we appear to have free for life tuning and service.

And yes the one in the first piccy.

we appear to have free for life tuning and service.

hope you don’t need it too much! happy riffage! *rummages in cupboard for slayer cd’s*

OG, tell him that in about 5 years’ time, he’ll upgrade to some kind of strat copy then 3 years after that a gibson SG and he’ll never look back… believe me, from experience i know how that goes!

More advice please.
The jack socket on his LP copy came out with the jack snapping the wires from the solder connections. They are black and white and the socket is not marked in any way, will it matter which way I re-wire it.
Also should I just put in larger screws to hold the socket plate?

you could try this

Les Paul wiring diagram