The DijonStock Digital Home Recording Support Forum

I had to post as I am insanely excited about a guitar I purchased on the spur of the moment yesterday!

I had no particular intention of buying another guitar, but visited a guitar shop yesterday by chance and an old looking small bodied Kalamazoo acoustic caught my eye. It was battered and worn and looked like it had had an interesting life. I had a vague recollection that Kalamazoo guitars were made by Gibson, but other than that knew nothing about them. On closer inspection, inside I saw a label saying 'MADE IN THE USA by Gibson, Inc - Kalamazoo, Michigan'. The guy in the shop was useless (thank goodness as it turns out) and knew nothing about it, other than to say 'its really old'! I played it, and even with ancient dead strings, I could tell it was a great little guitar. I had to have it, and luckily my wife said I should go for it. But I still felt pretty nervous parting with the money, as I have never really bought a guitar that I haven't known anything about. I know it sounds a bit stupid, but I just had a hunch that I had to have it.

So, I got it home and put a new set of Elixir strings on it, and it plays and sounds like a dream. Really punchy for the size! I love it. As I said, it is beaten and battered and worn and has been played, but there are no cracks or repairs and it all looks original.

I love it even more now that I have done some research on the internet. It is a Kalamazoo KG11 and can be dated from between 1933-1937!! These guitars didn't have serial numbers, but for these years only they had a batch number printed inside on the block. This one has one (albeit very faint). They were budget guitars at the time (new price was 12.5 dollars) made in the Gibson factory. Its the only model/shape that Gibson didn't do their own proper version of. They seem to be pretty rare and collectable and are regarded as a really great sounding guitar. I can't believe it is nearly 80 years old and plays and sounds so well. It stays in tune perfectly and still has the original machine heads!

Sorry if this post is a bit long. I can't contain my excitement!

Does anyone else know anything about these guitars?

Let it all out, Alex. That's what we're here for.

Well done, it looks like you have something special.

Any pics maybe?

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Don't judge the coffee by its cup.
The proof of the cheese is in the eating

A friend of mine is nuts about all things Kalamazoo. He has at least two of these small-bodied guitars. They seem to fetch a good price but I think he said that they can have a tendency for the bridge to lift off the front, so if yours is undamaged, I think you've struck gold. They do seem to put out a lot of volume. I believe they're known as parlour guitars and that they can have either flat or round-fronted profiles. I'm sure that we'll have at least one expert on this forum!

Well done on your purchase. I'm sure you'll be very happy together!

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All progress is made by unreasonable men.

http://www.howardgardener.co.uk/

Cheers guys!

Robbie - sorry to be an idiot, but how do I add pictures to a post?

That is something you don't know. Being an idiot is not understanding the obvious. So, you're not an idiot

You have to host it somewhere, like picasa or flickr. Then, post the direct link to the pic here between the img and /img tag.

When you click quote for this post you can see how I did this:

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Don't judge the coffee by its cup.
The proof of the cheese is in the eating

Thanks Robbie! Lets give it a go:

No - I am an idiot Robbie. I can't make it work!

You're not!

I checked what you posted and you put a link to a map between the tags, but it's missing the actual filename. Lemme see what I can do.

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Don't judge the coffee by its cup.
The proof of the cheese is in the eating

Phoi... flickr didn't make it any easier...

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Don't judge the coffee by its cup.
The proof of the cheese is in the eating

Alex.... huge score!!!!!!

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it's funny, the older you get, the older you wanna be

Many thanks for sorting that out Robbie!

Bok -

Congratulations Alex, amazing that something that old stays together let alone play at all.
Sorry I don`t have any info on it though, but I`m sure someone will.
Enjoy.

T.

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https://tmacmusic12.wixsite.com/tmac1

https://tmacmusic12.wixsite.com/tmac

http://www.soundcloud.com/t-mac-12

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmCjAzN ... ture=watch

https://www.reverbnation.com/tmac

Alex,
Gratz on the wonderful guitar. Sometimes it's nothing more than a gut feeling that leads your heart to make the purchase. Your lovely bride must be one special lady to have wanted you to buy that instrument. I've been doing a little digging around the internet and thought I'd share a few of my findings. It looks as though you are in a elite club having bought that KG-11. Enjoy.

1st link

2nd link

3rd link

4th link

5th link



Link

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GSMUSIC: Hey RZ, Im not no upper class american, the gear I own is what I have special to me. My car sucks, my house sucks, my nieghborhood sucks. Does yours RZ? Does it?

rz-land

Many thanks for posting those links.Much appreciated.Really interesting stuff.And yes - I am lucky to have a wife who loves guitars too.My only fear is that I will now have to save up some money to buy her what is on her next-guitar-wish-list - a Larrivee! Still - life aint so bad.I'll get to enjoy that as well!!

Cheers for sharing in my excitement all

Totally Cool! Nice score!

-= Beer

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I LOVE THIS!!! Ted Stevens, 82-year-old US Senator from Alaska and chairman of the Senate Committee on Science, Commerce and Transportation, for explaining in a speech how the Internet actually works: “It’s a series of tubes.”