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Encore KC3

 

Review of the Encore KC3 by The Man in the Jar

A good old fashioned cheap Strat copy. I love 'em.

Features of the Encore KC3

Tuners - Covered (not sealed) tuners do a good job of bringing the KC3 into tune.

Headstock - The six-on-one-side headstock has a shallower sweep than the famous Fender profile but looks good nonetheless.

Nut - The white plastic nut is a set-in-slot type and is finished tidily.

Neck - For a budget guitar this is a very slim and playable neck. Comfort in this area is a prime requirement for a beginner.

Fretboard - The rosewood fretboard has a very stripy grain and traditional white dot markers.

Frets - The fat profile frets are well-polished.

Action - Decent from the box. The guitar is fitted with light gauge strings so the playability is good.

Body - This is an exact copy of a Stratocaster body fashioned from an unspecified wood, probably basswood. As such it's a wonderfully comfortable body to wear and play.

Bridge - This is a standard Strat-style bridge that incorporates a vibrato (or trem) unit. The bridge is fixed at the front with six screws. The back part of the bridge has a metal block that extends into a cavity in the body. The block is attached to three springs. The bridge therefore pivots slightly on the six holding screws when the balance of tension between the strings and the springs is altered by the player depressing the vibrato arm. This alters the pitch of the note being played and was originally designed to imitate the wobble of a singing voice. Note that this trem is not suitable for heavy metal style dive-bombing or any other type of extreme pitch changes. The strings are inserted through the vibrato block at the back of the body. 

Pickups - Three standard Strat-style single-coil pickups.

Controls - One Volume and two Tone controls together with a five-way pickup selector.

Scratchplate - Again a direct copy from the Stratocaster template.

Strap-buttons - Two medium-sized strap buttons, one on the bottom of the body and one on the upper horn.

Output Jack - Set in the front in a characteristic Stratocaster dish plate.

Finish - The guitar is well finished all round.

 

Sound of the Encore KC3

The Encore delivers a decent single-coil sound via its stock Strat-style pickups. The advantage is in the switching, so if the bridge pickup running alone sounds a bit scratchy you can beef it up by running the middle pickup as well. This can also be done with the neck and middle pickups. The pickups on a guitar this cheap are never going to set the world alight, but the Encore provides good basic sounds that will please a beginner.

 

Overall Impressions of the Encore KC3

The reason I love these guitars is because they are so cheap and yet of a sufficient quality not to impede a beginner's progress. With guitars like this around there should be no-one prevented from playing because they can't afford an instrument. They're cheap enough to take the risk that little Tommy is tone deaf, and good enough so that he can learn the basics before he needs an upgrade.  

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