Watch It First
Every guitar shop has one Jackson Kelly hanging at the back, and every guitarist under 25 has stared at it for slightly too long.
The JS32 Kelly is the cheap way into that shape. Poplar body, licensed Floyd, 24 jumbo frets, and a price tag that makes the whole thing feel faintly illegal.
The question is not whether it looks cool. Obviously it looks cool. The question is whether it plays well enough to still be in your rack once the novelty wears off.
First Things First: This Is Not the JS32 Dinky
Worth clearing up straight away, because Jackson naming is a nightmare.
The JS32 badge turns up on several completely different bodies. The JS32 Dinky is the Strat-ish superstrat – conventional, comfortable, the sensible one in the family.
This is the Kelly. A sharp, asymmetric X-ish body that looks like an Explorer got into a fight with a razor blade and lost.
Same series, same electronics philosophy, completely different guitar to actually live with. If you want the safe pick, go Dinky. If you want the one people ask about, keep reading.
The Shape Is the Point (and the Problem)
Sitting down with a Kelly is a negotiation.
The lower horn wants to slide straight off your leg. Classical position works fine, standard position mostly works if you are wearing jeans and the finish is not polished to a mirror.
Standing up, though, it is perfect. It hangs at a natural angle and the long upper horn puts the nut exactly where your fretting hand wants it.
There is also the small matter of it not fitting a normal gig bag. Jackson sell a shaped one. Budget for it, or accept that you are carrying an oddly-shaped parcel to every rehearsal.
The Epiphone Explorer has the same problem for the same reasons, though its flatter lower bout actually behaves a bit better on your knee.
How It Actually Sounds
Two Jackson High Output humbuckers, one volume, one tone, three-way toggle. No coil splits, no push-pulls, no cleverness.
That is the right call at this money. These pickups are built for one job and they get on with it.
The bridge pickup is tight and aggressive with a slightly scooped mid character that suits modern high gain. Palm mutes come out defined rather than mushy, which is really what you are paying for here.
The neck pickup is where budget humbuckers usually fall apart. This one is fine – thick without going boomy, and lead lines sit nicely in a mix. Subtle it is not.
Cleans are the weak spot. Usable, a bit flat, nothing you would write home about.
- High gain rhythm – genuinely excellent, no notes
- Lead tones – strong, especially above the 12th fret
- Cleans – adequate and no more
- Anything jazzy or country – absolutely not, and you knew that
The Neck Is Far Better Than the Price Suggests
This is where the JS32 line earns its reputation, and it is not close.
Speed Neck profile, compound 305 to 406 mm radius, 24 jumbo frets, graphite reinforcement and a scarf joint headstock. That is a spec sheet lifted off a much more expensive guitar.
The compound radius genuinely works. Chords feel comfortable down at the bottom of the neck, and bends up at the top do not choke out. On a budget instrument that is not a given.
Fret Access
Full 24 frets with a deep cutaway and nothing in the way of your hand.
The Kelly shape properly earns its keep here – upper register access is better than on almost anything else at this money, and that alone makes it a decent lead guitar.
The Floyd Rose Question
It is a licensed Floyd, not an original. Manage your expectations accordingly.
It holds tune well enough for dive bombs and flutters, and the locking nut does its job properly. What you will notice over time is that the knife edges wear faster and the fine tuners feel a bit gritty.
String changes take twenty minutes and a fair amount of swearing. True of any Floyd, but worth saying out loud if this is going to be your first one.
I went deeper into this whole bracket in best cheap guitars with a Floyd Rose if you want the wider picture before committing.
The Honest Cons
- Poplar body is light but tonally anonymous – fine, never exciting
- Cleans are flat and there is no getting around it
- Will not fit a standard gig bag or most hard cases
- Genuinely awkward to play sitting down
- Factory Floyd setups are usually a mess – budget for a proper setup on arrival
- Snow White shows every single fingerprint and pick scratch
Who It Is Actually For
Metal and hard rock players who want a real shred spec without the shred budget. It also makes a brilliant second guitar parked in a drop tuning.
And teenagers who want to look like it is 1987, which IMO is a completely valid reason to buy a guitar.
If you would rather have neck-through construction and better pickups, the Jackson Soloist X Series is the obvious next step up.
If you want similar money with more usable cleans and stronger pickups, the Schecter C-1 Hellraiser is worth a look, though it is a far more conventional shape.
For a broader sweep of the brand I also put together a best Jackson guitars rundown.
Specs at a Glance
- Body: poplar
- Neck: bolt-on maple, graphite reinforced, scarf joint
- Neck profile: Jackson Speed Neck
- Fretboard: amaranth, compound 304.8 – 406.4 mm radius
- Frets: 24 jumbo
- Scale: 648 mm (25.5”)
- Nut width: 42.8 mm
- Pickups: 2x Jackson High Output humbuckers
- Controls: 1 volume, 1 tone, 3-way toggle
- Bridge: Floyd Rose Licensed double-locking tremolo
- Strings: Fender NPS .009 – .042
- Finish: Snow White
- Thomann article number: 378291
Final Verdict
The JS32 Kelly is a lot of guitar for the money with two obvious caveats: it is uncomfortable sitting down, and the cleans are dull.
Everything else punches well above its weight. The neck is the star of the show – a compound radius and 24 jumbo frets on an instrument this cheap is genuinely generous, and the upper fret access is superb.
So is it worth it? Yes, if you are buying it for what it is: a high gain machine with a great neck and a shape that turns heads across a room.
No, if you were hoping for a do-everything guitar. This one has exactly one job, it does that job properly, and honestly that is the whole appeal 😉
