Mystery Kingston/Wurlitzer/Harmony
Well, this guitar is one of lifes little mysteries. The "Kingston" name clearly stenciled on the headstock is only half the mystery. The "Wurlitzer" name stamped on the inside of the soundhole is the other half of the mystery. I know that kingston was a lower quality japanese brand that specialized in "Teisco" type electric guitars. Kingston also apparently manufactured some lower quality acoustic models in the 1950's(I believe). I have a hard time believing this guitar is related to either. First of all it is much higher quality construction than the acoustic models I mentioned of the 1950's. The jedistar website has photos of a similiar guitar and claims that it could be made by Harmony. To add to the mystery you will notice that the body looks very similiar to the Kalamazoo KG-11 series. To further add to the mystery, the finish on the back and the neck is a tiger strip finish which is very beautiful but also seems to be a Japanese finishing trait. Had enough yet!! Alright, so I can't properly identify it - fact is this is a smoking guitar. Huge neck, 14 frets to the body, ladder braced, but with a much more balanced tone than those old ladder braced blues honkers. It came to me with a floating bridge as well as a fretboard extension that floated over the body much like an archtop. It was also in need of a neck reset. I wanted to put a fixed bridge on it which would require getting the fretboard extension flush with the body. So that's what we did. Add a little fret dressing and this is one heck of a unique instrument. Action is low with big frets. I have a friend who is a great fingerstyle blues player and he loved this guitar. Big crack on the top below the soundhole that was cleated with popsicle sticks and is very stable(hey, whatever works). Feel free to provide any info on this baby if you have some.
postscript - 2/28/11 - I've seen a guitar or two made by harmony with a similiar tiger stripe type of finish to this one, but I've come to believe that this is a Regal made guitar. It has the same body style as the kalamazoo kg models which Regal made a few attempts to copy(or visa versa - I'm not sure who was first).
Nonetheless - this remains one of my favorites. Sounds great in standard tuning and really kills it in open tunings. A fantastic find!!
Well, this guitar is one of lifes little mysteries. The "Kingston" name clearly stenciled on the headstock is only half the mystery. The "Wurlitzer" name stamped on the inside of the soundhole is the other half of the mystery. I know that kingston was a lower quality japanese brand that specialized in "Teisco" type electric guitars. Kingston also apparently manufactured some lower quality acoustic models in the 1950's(I believe). I have a hard time believing this guitar is related to either. First of all it is much higher quality construction than the acoustic models I mentioned of the 1950's. The jedistar website has photos of a similiar guitar and claims that it could be made by Harmony. To add to the mystery you will notice that the body looks very similiar to the Kalamazoo KG-11 series. To further add to the mystery, the finish on the back and the neck is a tiger strip finish which is very beautiful but also seems to be a Japanese finishing trait. Had enough yet!! Alright, so I can't properly identify it - fact is this is a smoking guitar. Huge neck, 14 frets to the body, ladder braced, but with a much more balanced tone than those old ladder braced blues honkers. It came to me with a floating bridge as well as a fretboard extension that floated over the body much like an archtop. It was also in need of a neck reset. I wanted to put a fixed bridge on it which would require getting the fretboard extension flush with the body. So that's what we did. Add a little fret dressing and this is one heck of a unique instrument. Action is low with big frets. I have a friend who is a great fingerstyle blues player and he loved this guitar. Big crack on the top below the soundhole that was cleated with popsicle sticks and is very stable(hey, whatever works). Feel free to provide any info on this baby if you have some.
postscript - 2/28/11 - I've seen a guitar or two made by harmony with a similiar tiger stripe type of finish to this one, but I've come to believe that this is a Regal made guitar. It has the same body style as the kalamazoo kg models which Regal made a few attempts to copy(or visa versa - I'm not sure who was first).
Nonetheless - this remains one of my favorites. Sounds great in standard tuning and really kills it in open tunings. A fantastic find!!
I have two wurlitzer acoustic guitars with kingston on headstock one body a premium built like a Martin other one has a 10 inch upper bout with a 15 1/4 inch lower bout with great sound someone s as I'd a kanas state guitar maker old bro and the accessories
ReplyDeleteI have one of these guitars and I can't really tell you much about it except for the age. The guitar belonged to my uncle who was killed in WW2 in 1945. That means the guitar predates 1945. By how much I don't know. I'll have to ask my mother.
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