Kalamazoo Electric Guitar

Collectible worth in guitars could be defined a variety of techniques, and not simply by having a popular brand such as for example Fender or Gibson. That’s truly the truth with this specific little electric guitar! Ask virtually any guitar collector for his or her preferred brand name, and Kalamazoo is typically not likely to be 1st title to come to mind. Or even the second, or the… nonetheless, there’s an awful lot even more to the modest circa-1968 Kalamazoo U.S.A. KG-1 making it unique. Not minimal of which is that it features a beneficial bit of technological innovation and is, really… actually a genuine Gibson electric guitar!
Kalamazoo ended up being a spending plan brand developed by Gibson around 1965, the level for the ’60s guitar boom and lasting until 1970 or thereabouts. Gibson had been, definitely, based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, from 1890s before the last transition of their headquarters to Nashville in 1984. Gibson previously used the Kalamazoo title on its spending plan acoustic archtop and flat-top guitars, mandolins, and banjos between 1933 and World War II. The Kalamazoo range additionally included some electric archtops and some Hawaiian lap steels. There Have Been even some Kalamazoo amplifiers created from 1938 to ’40.

The Kalamazoo solidbody electric line was conceived at a time when guitar organizations could offer anything they are able to make or put their on the job. Gibson was one of the advanced companies on the planet as well as its guitars were expensive. In 1957, Gibson bought arch competing Epiphone becoming its “budget” brand – some an insult, to say the least! Nonetheless, Epiphones had glued-in necks and were really a mid-level brand by now. Gibson wished one thing really inexpensive. The solution would be to develop the business’s very first bolt-neck guitars, a method Gibson has attempted with little to no success regularly through the years. To distinguish all of them from multitude of brought in guitars dominating the reduced end of this marketplace, Gibson included “U.S.A.” towards burned-in logo design.

But simply making a bolt-neck electric guitar wasn’t the entire solution. Gibson looked to a cutting-edge, low-cost product to make its Kalamazoos. Development was no complete stranger to Gibson, which was produced of Orville Gibson’s innovative carved, arched top tools. As opposed to solid woods, Gibson made its Kalamazoo line-out of Medium Density Fiberboard, or MDF – a composite material contains lumber chips along with wax and resin then squeezed by temperature and pressure. MDF, better-known to you personally and I also as Masonite, was designed by William H. Mason in 1924. However, there have been no commercial uses for MDF until the mid ’60s.

Unlike the inexpensive furniture you will get during the big-box shop, MDF is more “engineered, ” denser and more powerful. Kalamazoo guitars were 1st instruments and on the list of very first commercial applications of MDF!

The very first Kalamazoos launched in 1965 were basically copies of Fender Mustangs, which will be quite ironic considering Gibson’s later objection to “copies!” There have been four guitars and a bass. All were built with bolt-on maple necks, MDF bodies, and Melody-Maker-style single-coil pickups; the K-1 had one, the K-1a added a simple vibrato, the K-2 had two pickups, K-2a a vibrato, in addition to KB had been a one-pickup bass. The electronics – such as the jack – had been mounted on a simple plastic pickguard (no laminates), to save on manufacturing. Tuners had been ancient open-back strip-style. There is in addition a small-bodied mahogany K-10 acoustic. Finish options were Flame Red, Glacier White, and Las Vegas Blue. All typically delivered in a chipboard case. There clearly was a matching distinct solidstate Kalamazoo amplifiers, nonetheless they were defunct before this guitar was made.

1st line of Mustang-shaped Kalamazoos lasted until around 1968, if they were replaced because of the new SG shape seen here. This is a simplified as a type of SG, without the contours on cutaways, though there is somewhat beveling from the guidelines and a chest/belly contour on straight back.

Despite the using downscale products and building, these little Kalamazoos are quite great guitars. Discover the back aching somewhat after per night of jamming with a Les Paul? That won’t happen with a Kalamazoo. The MDF is super light and remarkably resonant. The neck is quite thin for a Gibson, nearly a Kapa, but near. It’s excessively well-made and simple to relax and play. The cutaways and pocket positioning allow you to play right within the neck and pickups have pretty good result for little products. Combined with the MDF, this electric guitar is particularly noisy on high-end, with a curious “funky” tone that rounds aside well whenever you roll the tone control to treble. The response is neat and brilliant. Playing this guitar quickly reminds among picking the Fender Mustang that first models were designed to copy, as well as that modern guitar loaded a really similar marketing and advertising purpose. In a nutshell, this guitar has actually a unique voice you’ll probably not get a hold of on other guitar!

Kalamazoos have actually a stamped serial quantity regarding back associated with the headstock that generally uses regular Gibson date ranges, though evidently there are plenty of exclusions. This example is stamped 529967 which, relating to Gruhn’s help guide to Vintage Guitars, put this toward the end of 1968. That fits utilizing the style.
Tend to be these Kalamazoos uncommon wild birds? Just how many Kalamazoos were built is as yet not known. While Gibson kept pretty good production documents during the time, they didn’t bother to track these lowly guitars. And lowly though they could be, these play very well while having a swell sound you cann’t duplicate in the event that you tried! Plus, they’re real Gibson-made and historically significant with their utilization of MDF. With prime timbers getting scarce and guitarmakers in search of appropriate replacements, you might say why these little Kalamazoos had been way ahead of their particular time! And truly worthy of collectibility condition… at a considerably cheap than guitars holding the Fender or Gibson brand!

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