SOLD! - 1939 Kalamazoo KG-21 Sunburst Archtop, Made by Gibson

It is not often that we do a restauration job but this beautiful 84 years old (!!!!) KG-21 was in a pretty bad shape when we got it and deserved one. We got it from the original owner who bought her for a whopping 265,- Dutch Guilders!
 
We repaired some cracks, removed an old pickup that was glued to the top, restored the original bridge and did some general repair, cleaning and setup. She now plays and sounds truly lovely again and was restored without losing sight of originality and wear/marks/etc that come with age...

The KG-21 is a small sized Jazz-box type guitar built by the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA in the late 1930’s.
 
The serial number on the back of the headstock is EK-533 which leads to 1939 and it was built for export as it has “MADE IN THE U.S.A.” stamped below.
 
The KG-21 is an L-00 shaped Archtop model with a deep body with a Red Spruce top and Mahogany back and sides. Like most Kalamazoo branded guitars, the appointments were simple to keep the price down; single white bindings, basic tailpiece and pickguard, unbound Brazilian Rosewood fingerboard, silk-screened logo, and a two-colour sunburst top finish with a dark-stained back. The guitar's neck is carved into a pronounced V- profile and has a nice chunky feel.
 
Because of it’s deep body, this guitar has a rich and warm voice, with trebles that are big and round, mids that punch and a balanced bass response that sounds larger than the guitar's 14-3/4" wide body should allow for. It is a guitar with a lot of real vintage character and roots guitarists, flat pickers, songwriters, and bluegrass folks will love it.