Encore KC-3T Strat Copy

y'all here must know the features already, for cryin out loud, its a strat copy! though my accessories that came with it were CRAP the amp... well... its in the garage! P.s. no-one ive showed my guitar to has managed to identify the wood used on the body. most likely solidified crap, but it does fall apart when your unscrew the straps, much like fibreboard or chipboard.

BUZZ! my god, even through a buzz filter it STILL buzzes like a swarm of demented bees! even on clean! You can actually get sound out of it though... which is ok. actually sounds alright through a shitload of effects and some new nifty digital amp modelling

wellllll... the action is terrible. i think you could use this to train yourself on how a guitar should NOT sound and how it should NOT feel like to play. pain chips so friggin easily, the pickup selector fizzes when moved, and the saddles are shite. intonation etc was wwwwwwaaaayyyyy off from the factory, obviously they are equal employers at JHS and employ deaf people to check the intonation. also, the wood has stripped on several scew holes such as the ones holding the plug socket in, and the strap holders on.

despite the paint chips, dogey hardware, worksmanship, and aforemention undicernable wood, i think the guitar body ITSELF would survive a bomb, but the rest wud of gone to where ever crap guitars go when they die. wouldnt gig without a backup.

JHS do exist, and no they didnt want to hear about my guitar falling apart a month after i had it. so i was forced to use No More Nails on the plug socket to hold it in. i actually think it may of improved the sound quality and definition.

been playin for a few days short of a year (4 to be precise) and after this... thing... ive tried and tested many different guitars as to not make this mistake again. soon to be upgrading to an ESP kh-202 as they are gods gift to guitarists compaired to these

It's a reasonably accurate (in dimensions anyway) strat copy, with a different headstock shape to avoid being sued.

It was so nasty to play I never bothered plugging it in.

Set up terrible - bridge was visibily twisted, strings falling off neck. The trem screw holes were way off, not even in a straight line. Several lacquer runs on the body, parts had been assembled before the lacquer was set so there were deep indentations, very poor finish - grain ridges and wood block joins clearly visible.

Paint very thin and soft, not at all robust. Generally a very light, un-solid feel. I wouldn't play this in a darkened room on my own, let alone in public!

www.jhs.co.uk - never dealt with them (they're wholesalers).

This is a terrible guitar. I've been playing on-and-off for 25 years, and this is the worst guitar I've ever played (apart from one a mate at school made himself, but that doesn't count!) I took it apart to use for spares the day I got it - the body is solid wood, surprisingly, so may be usable after a complete sanding down and refinish.

All you'll ever know about this guitar is what you can see with your own eyes, 'cos Encore don't seem to exist in this space-time continuum. What you see is an authentic strat copy with one or two slight differences, the most obvious being the shape of the headstock. Also there's no capping strip down the back of the neck and that little bush thingy that Fender put in the hole where the tie rod goes in is missing. Otherwise all you need to be a Hendrix/Clapton/Hank Marvin wannabe. Mine had a "made in China" sticker which I rapidly discarded. Where that model number comes from I don't know 'cos mine's got nothing on it apart from the logo (font a la Fender). The features are the same as a strat - you don't need me to tell you - and the construction appears to be a laminated God-knows-what body, ash neck & rosewood fingerboard. Mine was bought in a kit from those purveyors of fine musical instruments, Argos PLC, and came with a gig bag, spare strings, strap, diamond hard mega-thick pleccie, 10W amp & instruction video which is absolutely hilarious.

I play indie-rock stylee like Radiohead, Oasis etc. If I use it at all these days I play it through a Boss GT-3 with the headphones plugged in. The pups buzz like a bastard at anything above moderate gain, but I've got used to the humbuckers on a Les Paul, so I might be slightly biased. The sound is a reasonable strat-ish bright sound and the variation in tone is what you'd expect with 3 pups & 5-way selector switch together with tone controls. A major beef here is the difference in tone between the bass & treble strings. Any arpeggio which takes you from the D to the G string sounds like two different guitars. I've never re-stringed mine so that might rectify it if you can be arsed. There's also a problem at the open position on the treble strings. I think the first three frets are set too high, so anything played around there is audibly sharp, which gets you reaching for the tuner - all to no avail. If you ever use the Floyd-Rose type tremelo, make it the last thing you do before a re-tune 'cos anything you play after will be as flat as a witches tit. I don't use this guitar much 'cos it really doesn't match my style - too tinny. At the moment I've got it tuned to open G (Keef Richard's fave tuning) and use it for Honky Tonk Women/Brown Sugar. It actually sounds OK like that!!

The set-up out of the box is truly pants. Big linen ones with porcelain buttons and a cat-flap. The gap between the strings and the fingerboard above the twelfth fret is big enough to drive your car through. It takes so long to get the string down that you've already plucked it & moved on to the next note before it hits the fret. This is something you get used to with time - this was my first guitar - but once you've played something with decent action you realise how restrictive it is and it's almost impossible to go back. There's no obvious problems with fit of the various parts, but the paint job is dire. Mine's black, and it looks like a bog standard gloss finish that you might put on a door, and there's overspill where the neck meets the body. What with the softness of the body and crappy paint, mine's got dinks & chips all round the edges, and I don't abuse it - honest!

Don't gig with this, people will laugh. Learn to play on it. If you can get a tune out of it the next guitar will be a piece of piss. I've only had a knob drop off so far, which I glued back on, and the body dinks I've mentioned above. These guitars probably last a while 'cos nobody plays them much.

What company?

I've got into Epiphone guitars 'cos of the tone - they're the same as Gibson but cheaper. I now own a Les Paul Standard & a Zephyr Regent archtop electric/acoustic, and I've moved up to a Laney VC50 amp via a Kramer 15W practice, and the Boss GT-3 floor effects pre-amp I mentioned before. Of course I wouldn't buy another Eclipse if it got nicked!!!!! I'd act devastated to the insurance company and put the money towards a Telecaster. I love nothing about it and hate it all, but it taught me to play guitar. I've got a soft spot for it, OK? Buy it for your kid when he expresses an interest in guitars, then you won't have wasted too much money when he moves on to something else after a week. You can probably buy these in bulk somewhere for the purpose of smashing them up on stage without damaging your amp. Or the stage.

strat copy with a strange "too small for a strat, too big for a tele" headstock - SSS with 3 knobs and 5 way selecter, the pickups are poor inhouse ones, and as a beginner (lets face it the only people who would buy this guitar) these will not help your musical development, and by spending another #50 on a guitar you will notice the difference and you will enjoy playing much more because of it. the set-ups pretty simple, nothing flashy, The other stuff it comes with (amp lead etc.) where terrible, i gave the amp to a friend and got a marshall mg30 second hand for #100

i play mostly punk, ska, rock and the odd slow song, and in the process use pretty much every fx pedal you could imagine. i play through a marshall mg30 amp (buy/try marshall, you'll never turn back)and a korg ax1500 board. this guitar sounds simply bad, clean it has no sustain at all, while distorted it just hums, even when you stand a long way from your amp with a noise gate. The sound is soooo thin when distorted its unreal, even with bass turned up and mid raised a bit too, its just lifeless.

i owned this guitar for 5 months in total (well, this guitar 3 times. see below) and the paint stripped off at various points 2 of the 3 times (the last time i only owned it for 4 days)

the action was extremely high, and i like my guitars like this, but this was still way off target. People who have said "this is what you expect from a budget guitar" are wrong you should expect something much better.

The guitars only redeeming feature is the neck, which is ok. Easy to move around and the frets where ok 2 out of 3 times.

*sigh* playing this guitar live - no chance, im not sure i would like to play it infront of friends and family. lets go thought the guitars one by one with its faults.

GUITAR 1 - "lovely" i thought, "its much better than my nylon string acoustic". I learnt the basics and all was well until 2 months in, when the middle and bridge pickups just started squeeling uncontrollably (even on clean amp setting). A few days later they had just stopped making sound all together, except the odd clunk and fizzle.

GUITAR 2 - i got a brand new one of the same model. some of the frets where sticking out a bit, but i decided to stick with it. 1 month in and the problem had become severely worsed, and even after i took it to a proper music shop to get the action fixed it still rattled when i played (the strings against the frets). Various reasons meant it took 1 month for me to get another replacement

GUITAR 3 - 4 days in and it just plain stopped. id had enough and got a refund.

i didnt speak to encore at all - but argos were very nice. They replaced the guitar each time, and gave me a full refund when i told them the problems that had occured, if you really must by this guitar go for the extended warrenty

Ive been playing for only a year and a half, and i can tell this guitar is just plain bad. I now own a yamaha pacifica 012, and am looking to upgrade to a fender mex fat strat very soon.

The yamaha pacifica 012 (#110 if you look hard enough) is a superb instrument, the humbucker makes it more versatile (expecially for distorted sounds) and the build is much better. Anyone who wants to play punk/rock guitar like green day, blink, foo fighters etc. would be much better off with it. i bought this guitar because i was stupid, and i didnt spend time like you have reading websites to see how good/bad it was.

In conclusion - beginners can do much better with a pacifica or a higher end squire for similar cash. experts can have fun in music shops playing them and seeing how bad these things really are

This was my first electric guitar, and it sounds the same today as when I got it 3 years ago. A bad humming noise if plugged straight into a practice amp, but put through some effects and it sounds as good as any other I've come across. Mine came with a terrible strap that fell off 'cos of the weight of the guitar, a spare set of strings, low quality cable and gig bag. Excellent guitar for begginners, but wouldn't reccomend it for anyone else.

There's a lot of buzzing with this guitar, but i put it through a boss xt-2 pedal, and it sounds fine for fast, grungey sounds.

The finish on this guitar is indestructible, i must've thrown it around a hundred times, and it looks the same as the day i bought it. I had to take it back to the shop after about 5 months, the neck had twisted. Also, the jack-socket is coming loose and the thread in the screws has been damaged

i wouldn't play live using this guitar, but if (like in my case) this is your only electric, and you have NO CASH, it could be used as a last resort i guess. Indestructiible though.

Don't seem to have a website. When mine needed repairs i took it to an independant music store

This is great for beginners, but nothing more than that.

I'm pretty sure that this guitar was made in Japan or Korea but I heard someone mention India in a sdifferent review so it's definitely somwhere in the east (All you can expect fro the price). It has 22 frets and the usual stuff that the original Strat has (well to look at anyway). It also has a tremelo arom although I like to cal it a detuner.

As with most Encore guitars this sounds nothing short of terrible. And to whoever said it was the fault of the amp is wrong as it's definitely the piss poor pickups on this thing. I played it through numerous amps and it's always the same. As for the overall tone of the guitar, I'll have to wait till I have access to some sort of buzz filter to tell you that. Who knows, it could sound like an original 1960's strat underneath. My music style is instrumental rock and it doesn't suit this at all.

Ah, the action, let's start with that. Well as someone else said, it is possible to crawl under the strings without even touching them, believe me I've tried it. In fact, I'm pretty sure you could fly a jumbo jet underneath them without even coming close to the fretboard. I really don't see why companies such as Argos aim these things at beginners because I'm sure even Malmsteen would sound like an arthritic monkey playing this. It really is impossible.

If there's one thing you can say about Encore guitars it's that they'll definitely last, much to your dismay. I'm not sure what this thing is made out of but judging by the weight of it I'd guess at lead or titanium. I've owned two Encore guitars in the past and they certainly can take a few blows. Maybe the army should commission the guys at encore to start making their tanks.

I've never actually had any contact with Encore, (I'm sure they wouldn't e able to fix the problems I'm having with this guitar) but I have searched for them on the internet numerous times and It seems that they simply don't exist (or have gone into hiding).

I've been playing for two years and mostaly play Istrumental rock by Malmsteen and Vai, as well as some harder stuff such as Metallica and Iron Maiden. I see that most of the people on this database have purchased these things as a first guitar from places such as Argos. Well let me tell you something, Argos know about as much about guitars as Kate Moss knows about Quantum Physics. The beginners may complain about "snobs" giving this guitar a bad rating but wait a few years and see if you still play this piece of monkey sick. Thankyou

The encores strat isnt a quaifled guitar its begginers, which is what i am so im ok with it. Mine was made in India and its god knows how old i think its about 5 year! i got it second hand! it comes with an 10 watt amp with has ok ish distroition. it is perfect for playing nirvana songs as long as u raise the pickups up ALOT! the trem is crap so i dont use it! the build wquatilty is good because its been droped a few times and still works and also the paint stayed on.
the main prob is the things too bloody heavy!
i think its a good guitar sometimes but file down the brige area becasue the strings snap if u dont as i found out.

it suits most of my style as you can get a great overdriven sound wiht the raised pickups but on too loud it becomes microphonic but its really only for beggining praticeing.

i got it second hand so i think most of te probs were sorted out by the guy who had it before

it will last long it doesnt go out of tune unlessss u use the trem then it goes way out. its a bit heavy to be held on by my cheap strap so get straps locks!
oh and dont think about giging it

its fun guitar great for begginers and im selling it cheap at christmas when i get my tele (made by vintage a great guitar comp).

This was great for beginners because it came with amp (ok not too big) strap, case, tuner etc. um, excuse me if I'm wrong but, WHAT ELSE DO YOU NEED? 3 way, tone and volume, it's not like it left out any feature which matters, unless you are a fussy, stuck up b***ard. The only reason it is not a 10 is because it is nothing special, it has the same amount of features as my mate's Fender strat.

Well, my fave band is the Foo Fighters, they are well into distortion and "fuzzled" sound which creates an electric atmospher. The distortion on this baby is top notch. No I'm not going too far by saying that, I love the distortion, it rocks. It is buzzy on high distortion settings, FOR GOD SAKE SOMEBODY TELL THE OTHERS TO GET A DECENT AMP, that's what makes MOST of the the buzzing for christ sake. Good clean, vibrant sound, again I can immediately tell it's a foo fighter song when I start playing.

Well, unfortunately the volume button came off mine, it was still on, but it was like not fixed. It LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE A STRAT, I think there are too many "brand" obeyers out there who just go and do fender up the ass cos their called "Fender", so what, I like the look of this guitar. Call me inexperienced, but I think this is best, to not have high standards because then you actually judge a guitar on wot it is, not comparing it to a 1,500 quid Les Paula. Fine bridge, all FINE

hmmmm dunno about live playing, I wouldn't risk it. It is stable though, very stirdy, good build solid strap buttons, I can depend on it to pump out some seriously decent rock shit, great on power chords.

yeah, I found the Hornby Website, technical shit was available there, as expected.

Only been playing 4 months now, this is a seriously decent guitar for anyone who is a) not a fussy b***ard
b) a beginner (definately)
c) wanting to play like kick ass bands
Get it! And you don't just have to be a beginner, all you have to be is 150 quid up and not a true, "high standards" pro.

well then, 5way selector, 3single coil pickups, 2tone 1 volume control etc...etc...
came in a pack with 10Watt Kustom amp, strap, strings, video, bag etc...standard starter kit jobba

well, i would say that the sound is quite...hmhm...WANK. its actually me cousins guitar - but the sheer number of times he's asked me to go round and fix this and that for him, i think i've pissed about with it enough to make a fair opinion.

the sound is excellent if you like your guitar to sustain a note for 2seconds, even better if you like it to make a lovely BZZZZZZZZZZ sound for any period over this. The bloody bridge is all over't show, all the tuner things have slipped in random directions

oh good god. it looks fine, brand new i suppose it'd work fine aswell. give it 3months down't line however, OH BUGGER you shall be saying. i didnt expect much build quality due to its cheap price with all the extras, not too many gaping holes like id associate with VINTAGE, BUT THAT BRIDGE! the knobs have a nice stiffness to them, the neck has what i would call a more standard shape to it (damn you pacificas) BUT THE BRIDGE. ITS JUST SO CRAP! *BZZZZ* oh the joys of hearing it detune as you strike the note (amidst the BZZ). it did sit on't knee nicely though. light too

slap ye overdrive one, no1 can tell...but i'd say you pay for what you get. cheap guitar, cheap quality. im buggered if i'll ever play live, but this will give you not justice what-so-ever. i never once bothered to test the strap buttons due to the sheer crapness of it when your sat down playing it

ah, i too attempted to find the website...the closest i got was a pantomine. i aint sure of the background, but i know it aint under warrenty

great for a starter, probably worth it just for the amp & stuff, but any advances from being a begingner and your buggered.

3 pickups, single coil. Not the best quality, but it was my FIRST guitar ever.

It has a good clean but not a lot of power. I have heard Squire Strats that sound worse.

They are all fine. I had to keep REALLY light string or it woule buzz. But it looks great.

i wouldn't trust it live. It was a great beginners guitar and I learned a lot. i still play on it every so often.

Don't know

For a beginner, its a great guitar. I gave mine to my little brother to learn how to play. If you're looking to buy a beginner guitar, its the wayt o go.