Encore Review: KC3

History:

Purchase: I got this guitar off the internet at gear4music.com i think. I paid about £130. I bought it cos i'd been playing an acoustic for 9 months and simply wanted an electric. Advertised as the favourite begginers guitar I thought there must be something in that, but it appears it's the price people like. It came with an amp and purchasing something like a Pacifica and seperate amp was out of the question.

What I Like About This Encore KC3: Its my first electric guitar, so i like it. Its sturdy too. Cheap. Actually somehting i do like is that if you put it on either the bridge or neck pick up and turn the gain all the way up you can create a wall of sound, which if you into heavy metal can sound pretty cool. This is due the the fact that the pick ups are crap and generate loads of noise. Above the twelve fret you get a nice ringing sound.

What I Do NOT Like About The Encore KC3: Head to Toe: The Tuners suck.One turn and you 6th string is in too high and 100 turns and the 1st and 2nd string are still like rubber bands. WHere the head stock meets the neck its a such an angle that it pulls the strings up away from the tuning pegs. Then nut is cheap plastic. The fret board is too hard. The frets are un-even and after one year i have worn grooves in to them. The pick ups are rubbish, simply. They screech and its not nice to play around the 9-12 fret. The trem is shocking. It takes the guitar straight out of tune. I took the arm out and threw it away. cos its floating dont put anything heavyer than 10's on it otherwise it will some out of the body. The tone pots make no difference unlees they are all the way up or all the way down. The amp it came with sounded like a grammerphone. If you dont use fender bullets the strings get stuck in the trem makeing changing strings a nightmare. the sustain is practically non existent and dont even get me started on fret buzz.

Encore KC3 Quality Rating: Its sturdy. You'd have trouble smashing it. quality? If it were a gas boiler you'd phone watchdog.

Review Summary: Over all, despite the above. Its playable but sounds better unplugged and whats the point in that. Its only suitable for parents to buy for a kid who's gonna give it up after a week and the price should reflect that, i would say about sixty quid. Seriously if your buying your first electric. Save about £200 and get a Yamaha, Aria, Cort or Vintage guitar, and a peavy or kustom amp. They take the biscuit in entry guitars. I cant wait to get my maverick x-1!

Rating of this Encore product: 2

This Encore KC3 Electric Guitars Review Submitted By: Prince Karpinski

Review Date: 2004-12-21