Back to navigation


Jackson USA Select: The Best Kelly Hails from Cali!





This article was


Written By





Our Product Research Team





Get to know them!





Players looking for a trusty USA-made workhorse, take note! The USA Select Kelly KE2 from Jackson packs the definitive feature set for modern shredders with an eye for quality. Jackson’s original Kelly models brought fiery tone and speed-minded comfort to an already wicked body shape. The USA Select Kelly KE2 adheres to the original design while taking quality to extremes with an alder body, alder wings, a quarter-sawn maple neck, and a stunning ebony fingerboard laced with signature shark fin inlays. A wide-range 24-fret fingerboard and a 25.5-inch scale length support seamless note accuracy and daredevil stunts, whether that’s punchy rhythm playing, solos, or all of the above. Two Seymour Duncan pickups ? a bridge JB and a neck SH-2N Jazz ? offer two distinct flavors of hot humbucker articulation while an easy-going control scheme frees you to enjoy the music and play your best. Hungry for more? The USA Select Kelly KE2’s premium Floyd Rose lets you hardline and wail on strings while tuning and sustain stay stable. Savor the best Jackson has to offer with the USA Select Kelly KE2 from Sweetwater!





Fast-playing neck and compound-radius fingerboard





Jackson crafted the USA Select Kelly KE2 as a high-performance solidbody electric with maximum clarity, sustain, and sonic power. A maple neck delivers slick fingerboard speeds and a crisp note attack. A quarter-sawn designation indicates much attention went into crafting a neck with wood grain cuts that resist shifts. A seamless neck-through joint and a fast-playing ebony fingerboard support accuracy while empowering daring climbs straight to the fingerboard’s highest frets. Down low, your fretting hand will value a 12-inch fingerboard radius that keeps things comfortable for chord work. Up top, a 16-inch radius lays it all out flat for low-action, lightning-fast runs, and smooth bends without fretting out.





Dual Duncan humbuckers





The Jackson USA Select Kelly KE2’s two Seymour Duncan pickups deliver a promising spread of humbucker tones geared toward hot-rodded output. The bridge position JB TB-4 pairs Floyd Rose pole spacing with the traditional upper-midrange, tethered bass, and soaring treble of the beloved JB humbucker. A Jazz SH-2N neck humbucker serves up a smooth counterpoint to TB-4 heat characterized by a glassy treble response and a scooped midrange. Guitarists at Sweetwater find these pickups a force to be reckoned with, leaving you with a range of tones to explore while keeping tonal controls straightforward.





Locking Floyd Rose Original





The Jackson USA Select Kelly KE2 is fitted with Floyd Rose Original hardware that facilitates bends, flourishes, and dive bombs, thus merging this Jackson’s showy form and fierce functionality! This particular Floyd Rose Original package includes a locking bridge/tailpiece and a locking nut for hassle-free performance worthy of this choice Jackson axe.





Jackson USA Select Kelly KE2 Electric Guitar Features:


A top-tier axe made in the USA by Jackson’s best luthiers


Premium alder body and alder wings sing with clear tone, balanced sustain, and rich harmonics


2 powerful Seymour Duncan humbuckers: bridge JB TB-4 and neck Jazz SH-2N


Quarter-sawn maple neck with a neck-through joint supports maximum fret access and keeps setups locked in


MOP headstock logo and fingerboard shark fin inlays and white binding


24-fret ebony fingerboard


Silky 25.5-inch scale length and a 12- to 16-inch compound fingerboard radius ? maximum shredding comfort!


Floyd Rose Original tremolo bridge/tailpiece and nut-locking design keep tuning stable