Kentucky Emando experience?

[Elliot Luber]

Anybody play one of these? I saw one in the "show me your set-up" thread. I know it's a low-price unit, but is it any good? Thanks.

[Martin Jonas]

Yes, I play a Kentucky KM-300E and so does Ken Olmstead. There's quite a bit of both our experiences in this thread.

I think these are really great value. The setup and playability on mine was immaculate right out of the box, the wiring and shielding is professional (arguably more so than on stock Strats or Teles). The stock pickup is a fairly nice lipstick pickup and works well with little noise despite being single coil. I have however upgraded mine to a new Bill Lawrence mini humbucker, which slots straight into the pickguard with no modifications required. These pickups are around $40. It gives it a somewhat warmer and fuller sound, and has a more even response across the strings than the lipstick. I believe Ken has upgraded his pickup too, to a DiMarzio Protrack (slightly more expensive than the Bill Lawrence, and I think Ken said he needed to modify the pickguard and cavity to fit the new pickup in).

I personally prefer the looks of the Kentucky over both of the other "standard" emandos in that price bracket, the Mandobird and the Mandocaster. That's of course personal preference, but I would certainly recommend considering the Kentucky if you're looking in that price range.

Martin

[Elliot Luber]

Thanks Martin, I appreciate the input... and the word on the Lawrence pickup retrofit.

[Ken Olmstead]

Thanks Martin, I appreciate the input... and the word on the Lawrence pickup retrofit.

I wish I had known about the Lawrence pickup possibility! However, I had a new pickguard made and installed a dimarzio protrack like what Mann and a other emando builders use. Great results!! I also moved my volume and tone control to be more to my liking and replaced them with higher quality units. I still have the pickguard template that was made (the expensive part) and am willing to share with anyone who would like to mod their 300E.

The overall unit is huge bang for the buck. The lipstick PU sounds great, I just can't deal with 60hz hum. It does not bother some but I am a noiseless kind of guy!!

[Elliot Luber]

I usually play my Gibson (custom shop, ES335 dot) guitar, so the Fender sound from my emando could give me some sonic versatility.

[igowing]

A KM-300e was my first electric, traded it for some pedals when I took up building instruments. Mine played quite well with nice low action and good intonation. The neck and scale were nice and made the transition from 8 string acoustics easy. I found that it sounded by far the best when set up with flatwound strings. Fit and finish were quite good, the and arched back was very comfortable.

[Martin Jonas]

I have however upgraded mine to a new Bill Lawrence mini humbucker, which slots straight into the pickguard with no modifications required. These pickups are around $40.

To follow up on this, I should say that the pickup I used is the reissued L-45S directly from Bill Lawrence (the person), whose company is called "Wilde Pickups". This is a bit confusing, as there is also the "Bill Lawrence" company run by his former business partner selling pickups under that name through StewMac (and other outlets).



It's a tiny bit wider than the stock lipstick, but just about fits into the cutout in the pickguard. Use a bit of sandpaper on the pickguard edge if the fit is a bit tight. The mounting holes line up with the existing holes. I think the black one looks nicer than the white, so that's what I've used.

Martin

[Elliot Luber]

Thanks. I bookmarked it. It's gonna be a while before I can buy it. Hope Dennis Vance doesn't run out of those Kentuckies.

[Ken Olmstead]

A KM-300e was my first electric, traded it for some pedals when I took up building instruments. Mine played quite well with nice low action and good intonation. The neck and scale were nice and made the transition from 8 string acoustics easy. I found that it sounded by far the best when set up with flatwound strings. Fit and finish were quite good, the and arched back was very comfortable.

I agree, I use flatwounds on mine as well.

[mandroid]

60 Htz hum could be inadequate shielding,

though if the bar you play in has Neon Beer signs too close to you,

the magnetic coil pickup might hear that, no matter what you do.

[Elliot Luber]

The 60 cycle hum is normal for a single-coil pickup. If you mount two in reverse polarity, they cancel each other out so the is no hum. That's why they are called Humbuckers, a Gibson innovation.

[Martin Jonas]

Yes, I play a Kentucky KM-300E and so does Ken Olmstead.

Just a quick heads-up in this thread that I have shot a few videos with my KM-300E (with the replacement Bill Lawrence pickup) and posted the links over in the Song-A-Week Social Group here and here.

Martin