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K200A guitar [message #3353] Sat, 20 December 2003 14:18 GH Messages: 4 Registered: December 2003 Junior Member Hey there got a old guitar that needs some tlc . A bridge to be specific. Can anybody tell me where to get one that is very close to the one that came on it? What guitar you ask a K200A in natural tone. it is in good to great condition. I really want to put it back together and play it. thanks Report message to a moderator

Re: K200A guitar [message #3354 is a reply to message #3353] Sun, 21 December 2003 04:56 QModer Messages: 413 Registered: June 2003 Senior Member If worse comes to worse bigsby makes a bridge especially for their tailpieces. I had and old Kustom guitar too. I foolishly sold to a drummer friend who has dropped it a few times. Its in kinda bad shape now. I really liked that old guitar though. I have ordered a Ric 360 now that the Kustoms were basically a copy of done by Bud Ross and Roy Clark. Report message to a moderator

Re: K200A guitar [message #3356 is a reply to message #3354] Sun, 21 December 2003 21:15 ET Messages: 146 Registered: October 2000 Location: Charlotte NC Senior Member no...although a lot of similarities..the kustoms were not copied from Rics nor Mosrite...per Bud himself...in fact there's a whole story on his original design getting ripped off..he was hurt..and gave up the guitar making dreams for a couple years before returning to it and producing the 200 series...but yeah..a Bigsby is fair game on a kustom..some models came factory with the big bigsby trem on them, and a stop tail I don't think would be out of line or original intent on the 200. Report message to a moderator

Re: K200A guitar [message #3358 is a reply to message #3356] Mon, 22 December 2003 01:44 QModer Messages: 413 Registered: June 2003 Senior Member I would say its impossible to think that a Kustom guitar is not heavily infulenced by Ric. I had one a kustom for several years beginning in 1970. I still miss the old girl. However Rickenbacker's semi hollow bodies predate kustoms by and awful long time and there are only minor differences between the two. Things such as where the top strap button is, the fret markers, and such small details just are a little too close to say its not heavily infulenced by Rickenbackers. Not they are not now or were not then good guitars. But if they had been any closer there would have been sued for copy right infringement. There are many guitars on the market that its easy to see where their roots are as in strats and gibson inspired models if you would rather call it that than say imitation. That there are other guitar makers who have just made something very simular but not exact. A fella came out the other night and he had a flying v copy. It was not exact of course or suit would be filed but its undenyable where that shape came from and its not korea like it said on the back LOL.. Again a kustom is still a good instrument just like his flying v was nicely made but its still not an original idea. The kustom is worth more than it because of its rarity and age. But its not worth as much as a Rickenbacker of simular vintage and won't be. John fogerty was a Kustom amp man. Kustom's biggest name performer who could have what ever guitar he wanted and a kustom if he said the word and He did have kustom amps but he played Rickenbacker guitars. A much as my love for my kustom guitar was and is the only rock band of any significance to play one was the sixties group Smith. You may remember them for their hit, "Baby its you". They had a female vocalist with the guitar player using a kustom guitar in the background of a photo of them that was widely distributed by Kustom. Report message to a moderator

Re: K200A guitar [message #3360 is a reply to message #3358] Mon, 22 December 2003 18:37 ET Messages: 146 Registered: October 2000 Location: Charlotte NC Senior Member ok..let me warm up my typin fingers here...I'm reciting from Mike Wrights' guitar Stories volume 1 copyright 1995 in a personal interview between Mike and Bud Ross...as follows..: "The idea for a Kustom guitar began in 1966, when Ross and some other local guitarists got together a design for an electric guitar. At that time there was a guitar manufacturing factory just starting up in Neodesha Kansas. According to Ross, he approached the Neodesha factory with the Kustom design and they agreed to produce them, with Kustom marketing the guitars under the Kustom name. According to Ross, this plant did in ded produce some of the guitars he'd designed, but instead of delivering them to Kustom, the guitars were sold to Wurlitzer and bore the Wurlitzer logo. Wurlistzer did, in fact, market solidbody electric guitars manufactured by the Neodesha factory, although whether or not the styles most frequently found are the ones designed by Bud Ross and friends is uncertain. Needless to say, Ross was bummed out and he forgot about guitars. Until, that is, one day in 1967 when one Doyle Reeding came knocking at his door. Reeding had been a local woodworking teacher who quit teaching to work over in Neodesha at the guitar factory. for one reason or another, Reeding and the guitar factory had parted company. reeding had some ideas for a guitar and wanted to make them for Ross. At about this time the Neodesha facotry went out of business, but the chronology here has become a little fuzzy with thte passing of time. In any case, Reeding moved to Chanute in the fall of '67 and he and Ross set up the guitar making factory. Another woodworking teacher was hired, Wesley valorie, and the three (well, mostly Reeding and Valorie) set about designing and making Kustom guitars. Kustom guitars, with a design completely different from the Wurlitzer model, debuted in the summer of 1968. they were semi-hollow bodies made of four pieces of wood. Two were glued together and hollowed out, making a front, another two a back, and then glued together to compelte the guitar. the thin fast necks were bolted on and had a curved truss rod design. Pickups were DeArmonds, vibratos by Bigsby. Input for the design was provided by none other than country guitar wizard Roy Clark, who several years previously had listened to Ross' amplifiers and who later became a Kustom amp endorser. It's easy to see why someone would think that either Rickenbacker or Moseley had something to do with these guitars. The body, with its single catseye soundhole, has a very Rick look to it, and the neck, skinny two piece maple with zero fret, could easily seem like a Mosrite. Even the knobs look Ricky. However, these were the original (wherever they got their inspiration) and hail from Kansas." That's the most direct story we have boys..and excuse my typing as I was reading from the book...page 157 in case you have a copy...as I look at the naughy kat dolls with their pointy heads and kat eyes.. I can easily see where Bud may have been in designing the headstock, body bouts, and even the kat eye soundhole...they don't play all the great and I'd not use one as my main rig fer sure..proud to own one as I think they are important to the kollection...and yeah, I gotta believe in the influences of the day myself...but wanted to share this story with ya'll just the same...ET Report message to a moderator

Re: K200A guitar [message #3361 is a reply to message #3353] Tue, 23 December 2003 04:59 QModer Messages: 413 Registered: June 2003 Senior Member I knew about the Roy Clark connection back in 68 just before I got mine in 69. He's a fanastic picker but not a rocker by any means. Mine was wine burst. Roy played a kustom just one on the hee haw show just after I got mine. I found mine to be a very nice player. I used it as the guitarist in a Chicago style rock band for about three years in the early seventies. We would not only play one set of horn stuff such as Chicago and Joe Cocker. But another set of other rock varities of the day such as Hendrix, James Gang, Uriah Heep, Grand Funk Railroad, and Stephenwolf to name a few. So it was versatle enough for all of that. I ran it thru a couple of kustom cabs powered by a Bassman head for a little more break up. The pickups were a little weak but I still have my 66 Strat and 66 Mustang from that period and theirs are not the strongest in the world either. I got a Les Paul in the later seventies and my collection was begining to grow. So I got rid of three guitars one a harmony, one a silvertone and one unfortunally for the kustom and me was the kustom. The drummer who got it put humbuckers in it and has dropped it several times when drinking. It has two of its pots broken off at the head and numerous dings. But as its clear to me what its origins are I'd rather get a the real thing for what it would cost to restore the old kustom so I got ordered a Rickenbacker 360 instead in this years color only option of Montezuma Glo instead of getting the old kustom back. As you pointed out too the cats eye opening and all were so close to a Ric its ridiculous. I played a friends Jet glo 360/12 string not long after I got my kustom and knew what had happened there. All it needed was a big R where the bigsby was and that of course that was oddly enough remedied by John Lennon as seen by the whole world on the Ed Sullivan show so every one knew what one looked like with a bigsby of all thing instead of that big R and then after that the Kustoms were strangely produced after the runnaway Beatles success with every one seeing that Ric on the Ed Sullivan show and that the kustom came to look so much like it. Who might not be blamed for looking over the name on the head stock? Could all be coinidence though I guess could'nt it that it was produced in the after math of the British invasion when any thing that looked like a Beatle instrument sold like the hot cakes they were? One of my collection now is one of the first basses I got that was oddly enough produced also in 1969 and oddly looks almost like a Hofner for some reason? You don't seem to see too many Hofners or Rics today for some reason either? Report message to a moderator

Re: K200A guitar (and K200C) [message #9052 is a reply to message #3361] Thu, 13 December 2007 03:57   alhall Messages: 2 Registered: December 2007 Junior Member Hello, I am new to this forum, and about to buy a 1968 Kustom K200C guitar. I really like the look of the guitar (i cannot try it because i live in France and the guitar is in the USA). Here are my questions: - What is the difference between Models K200C and K200B (the K200A has a bigsby) - Years passing by, do you think that the Kustom guitars were the poor man's Rick, or do they have their own sound (pickups?) Thanks in advance for any information. Alain Report message to a moderator

Re: K200A guitar (and K200C) [message #9053 is a reply to message #9052] Thu, 13 December 2007 12:57 chicagobill Messages: 2005 Registered: April 2003 Senior Member Alain, welcome to the board. The three models of Kustom guitars really only differed in features. And the features were only minor ones. The K200A was considered top of the line, with fancy inlays on the fingerboard and a Bigsby tailpiece. The K200B had simple neck inlays and a plain tailpiece. The K200C had fancy neck inlays and a plain tailpiece. As for the sound, I feel that they are a cross between a Rick and a Gretsch. They aren't as bright and jangly as the Ricks, but do have a great single coil sound. If you check out the literature section, you can see ads and catalog listings for the guitar line, to see what the factory descriptions were. Again, welcome aboard! Bill Report message to a moderator

Re: K200A guitar (and K200C) [message #9054 is a reply to message #9053] Fri, 14 December 2007 05:12   alhall Messages: 2 Registered: December 2007 Junior Member Thanx ! Alain Report message to a moderator

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