I bought this earlier this year (CL find) a 2003 Michael Kelly Patriot Q ... and she is CLEAN! There is one minute blem you can barely see only if you are looking for it. She weighs in at 9 lbs. The tarnish on the pickups cleaned up with some Maguires, the Gotoh tuner knobs are slightly pitted and the Gotoh bridge and tailpiece have lost some gold finish, but polished up great. Electrically she is sound. The overall sound is very good. The neck pickup is excellent clean and crunches up nicely at around 8. With the tone pot up (single coil) she looses some volume but has a twangier (is that a word?) sound. The bridge pickup is somewhat muddy at lower volumes, but when turned up comes through OK. Again dirties up at 8. With the tone pot set to single coil, it loses volume, and cuts the tone but not as much as you would think.
Did I mention the sustain? OMG! This little girl just rings on and on... unbelievable.
All in all... I LIKE IT! I can't wait to get my Bradley in the shop just to compare them, then decide which gets upgraded.
The strings were DOA and all I had was a set of Dean Markley Blue Steels in .009s. Note: You will notice in my pics that the D string saddle is way out of place. It was a bad D string, once I replaced that string and re-adjust the intonation. It is now in its normal. Otherwise, I am VERY happy.
Not too bad for $275 with OHSC (TKL).
Specifications:
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YEAR MADE: 2003
MADE IN: Korea
BODY COLOR: Faded Transparent Black
CONSTRUCTION: Set-neck
BODY: Mahogany
TOP: Quilted Maple
NECK: Mahogany
BINDING: Five-ply white and black
FRETBOARD: Rosewood
INLAY: Abalone block
FRETS: 22 medium jumbo
SCALE: 24-3/4”
BRIDGE: Gutoh Fully adjustable hardtail
TUNERS: Grover 102G's
PICKUPS: Michael Kelly PAF-Plus (G&B G-113s - Korean made)
ELECTRONICS: Two Volume, two tone - coil tapped
KNOBS: Black Speed knobs
HARDWARE: Gold