Are Kalamazoo guitars good?
These are ladder braced, but very lightly built and very nice guitars for the kind of guitars they are. They are a nice compliment to a more complex x-braced guitar because they are so fundamental. Many people swear by them for blues or ragtime. I have a Kalamazoo arch top and I absolutely love the guitar!
How do you date a Kalamazoo guitar?
The headstock shape is the best dating feature of the guitar, since Kalamazoo serialization does not follow Gibson’s. The top of your headstock tapers up to a point, placing the date of manufacture between 1938 and 1940.
Who made Kalamazoo guitars?
Gibson
Kalamazoo is the name for two different lines of instruments produced by Gibson. In both cases Kalamazoo was a budget brand.
What year did Gibson stop making guitars in Kalamazoo?
1984
The company closed its Kalamazoo factory in 1984 and moved its headquarters to Nashville. That factory was later adopted by former Gibson employees who started Heritage Guitar Inc. to make handmade guitars.
What guitars are made in Kalamazoo?
Although the classic Gibson guitar, used by such greats as Prince, Keith Richards, Johnny Cash, and B.B. King, might bring to mind its current Nashville home, the guitar’s roots are actually in the Michigan city of Kalamazoo. Built in 1917, the Gibson Factory there created some of the most iconic guitars ever made.
What kind of guitar did Robert Johnson play?
Gibson Guitar Corporation model L-1
Guitars Johnson played The guitar he is holding in the studio portrait, where he’s dressed in a suit, is a Gibson Guitar Corporation model L-1 flat top, which was a small body acoustic produced between 1926 and 1937.
What is Kalamazoo famous for?
Kalamazoo is famous as the home of the United States Tennis Association Boys 18 & 16 Championships for the past sixty years. Did you know? Kalamazoo was once the manufacturing domain for Checker cabs, Gibson Guitars, Kalamazoo Stoves, Kalamazoo Corset, Kalamazoo Sled, and Shakespeare fishing rods and reels.
Why did Gibson leave Kalamazoo?
James Deurloo, plant manager, said the reason for closing the Kalamazoo plant is purely economic. The company, now owned by Norlin Industries, has a surplus of manufacturing space. Sales have declined dramatically. Gibson sold $20 million worth of instruments in 1982 and only $14 million last year.
Does Gibson still make guitars in Kalamazoo?
When Gibson left Kalamazoo, a number of former employees picked up right where they left off in the Parsons Street factory with Heritage Guitar Inc. After more than three decades, Heritage is still producing some of the highest-quality guitars in the world right here in Kalamazoo.
When did Kalamazoo make Epiphones?
The Epiphone Spirit and Special were produced in the early 1980s in Kalamazoo.
Are Gibson guitars still made in Kalamazoo?
Kalamazoo, Mich. After Gibson moved all of its production to Nashville in September of 1985, a few Gibson workers decided to stay behind in Kalamazoo and open a guitar company of their own — right in Gibson’s former building. Today, the old Gibson factory at 225 Parsons Street has housed Heritage Guitar Inc.
Was Robert Johnson a great guitarist?
Regarded as one of the greatest guitarists of all time, Delta blues wizard Robert Johnson recorded only 29 songs (plus 13 alternate takes, in two sessions) during his 27 years of life. Ike Zinnerman allegedly inspired Johnson to practice guitar in a graveyard at night while perched atop tombstones.
When did the Gibson Kalamazoo guitar come out?
In the absence of a serial number, the guitar you see here is pegged as a 1938 model, backed up by the tapered headstock shape, a feature peculiar to models made between 1938 and 1940. The black buttoned open tuners are a Kalamazoo feature. Gibson branded flat-tops, such as Robert Johnson’s L-1, generally had white buttons.
What kind of acoustics does the Kalamazoo have?
Nothing unusual about that, you’d think; all acoustics have some form of bracing. Well, the Kalamazoo features an old-school arrangement called ‘ladder bracing’, which gives it a unique voice.
What kind of wood is a Gibson KG 14 made of?
The back and sides are mahogany. The KG-14 was closest in size to the early 30s L-0 model. At 14.75 inches across its widest point, it came with a natural finish mahogany top, mahogany back and sides with a bound top and back, unlike the single-bound KG-14.
Where did Johnny Shines get his Gibson Kalamazoo from?
Fellow guitarist and friend Johnny Shines remembered that Johnson owned an archtop Kalamazoo, but it was lost or damaged, possibly in a fire. It was then replaced with a flat-top Kalamazoo. “It might be the one that we bought in Steele, Missouri,” recalled Johnny Shines years later.
