'65 Kalamazoo KG2 Project

[cooter]

I got this ’65 Kalamazoo KG2 in a trade with forum member over at reranch.
The vintage brass tele bridge and the tele bridge pickup were perfect donors for a Keith Richards “Micawber� build so they were sold off right away.
So were the gold mini grovers.













That left me with a shell of a Kalamazoo and free reign to go any direction I wanted with it.
I love a set of p90s sooooo...

I stripped down the body and neck.



The body needed a little filling where the tele bridge pickup had been routed. I also had to redrill the holes for the bridge cups.
And yes, the body is made of some sort of mdf. Who needs wood when you can use particle board.



Then I made a kustom pickguard template.



Then the pickguard.



Then I added some of this.



And now I’m on the home stretch.





I need to make a couple of small blocks to glue in the body to raise the p90s a fuzz more and then wire it all up.

Overall I'm really happy. I play fuzzed out garage/blues/punk so a cheap guitar + p90s = heaven.

[Zack]

dang, that plum is pretty. not too into the les paul toggle label but I get that it's good contrast with the p'ups. nice work, as always cooter.

[HNB]

Sexy!

[sunshiner]

Thank you very much for sharing this cooterfinger, that's the really beautiful little guitar.
I have some questions about overal construction. Is the body thickness 35 mm (1.38")? Is there the angle in the neck pocket or neck just sits not very deep in the pocket to match the height of the bridge? As I noticed the shape of pickguard has some differences from the original one. What model of P90's do you use and what pots(250, 500)?

I need to say that I have the similar point of view on guitars, that should be simple in appearance, construction and use and should sound good at the same time. Also like garage/blues/punk, but the interception of these genres varies widely for each person and something that you consider as punk or garage blues can be nothing close to these genres for other people.

[cooter]

Thanks guys.

Thank you very much for sharing this cooterfinger, that's the really beautiful little guitar.
I have some questions about overal construction. Is the body thickness 35 mm (1.38")? Is there the angle in the neck pocket or neck just sits not very deep in the pocket to match the height of the bridge? As I noticed the shape of pickguard has some differences from the original one. What model of P90's do you use and what pots(250, 500)?

I need to say that I have the similar point of view on guitars, that should be simple in appearance, construction and use and should sound good at the same time. Also like garage/blues/punk, but the interception of these genres varies widely for each person and something that you consider as punk or garage blues can be nothing close to these genres for other people.

I'm getting 32.9mm for the body thickness on mine. The neck pocket is shallow. It measures 11mm. No neck angle to speak of.
The pickguard that came on it with the tele setup was homemade so I didn't have much to go on other than the mounting holes and basic shape.

As for music I like everything from The Sonics to The Oh Sees, BFTG, 70's Glam, Violent Femmes, Dirtbombs, Jack White, Black Keys, Billy Childish style stuff. The list is long.

[theshadowofseattle]

holy fucking shit. That looks AMAZING.

[Fakir Mustache]

Wow, that's very thin! So it is still very light despite the heavy material?

[cooter]

Wow, that's very thin! So it is still very light despite the heavy material?

No, it's got some weight to it. Not too bad but not light by any means.

holy fucking shit. That looks AMAZING.

Thanks! You know, purple's the new black.

[finboy]

Amazing as always cooter, we use the same weather stripping for pickups!

[speedfish]

Impressive.