1936 Gibson-made Kalamazoo KG-14 Flattop Guitar

Sheesh, I've worked on so many of these over the years. They're very hip old boxes and always attract fingerpickers, country-blues enthusiasts, and old-time players looking for snappy-sounding backup guitars without going the archtop route. Since another Robert Johnson photo popped-up recently with his hands on a KG-14, I'm expecting folks will be hollering for me to abuse your ears with slide whenever one of these passes through the shop again.

This one's here on consignment and it's (now) in great shape. While it has one tiny hairline crack (repaired) under the edge of the pickguard, it's otherwise crack-free and original save bridge pins, saddle, and one tuner ferrule. There's plenty of scratching and use-wear throughout, though.

I did a bunch of work on it, however, and now it's playing like a true champ -- fresh frets, neck reset... and the like. It dishes-out that dry, open, woody, snappy sound you might be expecting from one of these. And boy these are loud... they'll slice right through in a jam or band setting and will easily "bark" around street corners if you're doing open-air solo work.

The tops on these are solid spruce (it's a 3-piece top) and have ladder bracing while the back, sides, and neck are solid mahogany. Both the board and bridge are Brazilian rosewood.

Its 1100B factory order (really hard to photograph but it's at the neck block) number points to a 1936 build date.

Repairs included: a neck reset, bridge reglue, board plane and refret with pyramid/large fretstock, side dots install, saddle-slot modification to drop-in format plus a new compensated bone saddle, light sand-down/buff-up/sealer job on the bridge which had previously been gouged-out on its "deck" in an attempt to fit the guitar with a tailpiece, general cleaning, and setup.

Setup notes: it plays fast and easy and has spot-on action with 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE height at the 12th fret. The neck is straight and the frets are virgin, so it handles more like a boutique modern interpretation. The reason for the oversize frets vs. period-style stock is the depth of the tang -- which helps add stiffness/compression to the neck. Strings are 52w-11 "custom lights."

Scale length: 24 13/16"

Nut width: 1 3/4"

String spacing at nut: 1 1/2"

String spacing at bridge: 2 3/8"

Body length: 19 1/4"

Lower bout width: 14 3/4"

Waist width: 8 1/2"

Upper bout width: 10 1/4"
Side depth at endpin: 4 3/8"

Top wood: solid spruce

Back/sides wood: solid mahogany

Bracing type: ladder

Fretboard: Brazilian rosewood, ebony nut

Bridge: Brazilian rosewood, bone saddle

Neck feel: medium-bigger V, 10-14" compound board radius

Condition notes: because the finish is so dark on the back and sides, it's hard to see the amount of light scratching there is on the back, though there's not much at all on the front and sides -- well, a bit on the sides. I did shoot a much-overexposed photo with glare to highlight them, though. They're not distracting, however. One tuner ferrule is an identical period replacement, there are non-original side dots at the fretboard's edge, the saddle and bridge pins are replacements, and the bridge's top contour has changed a little because I sanded it down slightly to remove gouges from when this had a tailpiece on it at some point. Oh, and yes, there are three filled screwholes above the endpin and a few marks on the top below the bridge from where a tailpiece had been installed and rubbed the finish. There are also a few white-paint speckles here and there on the finish -- presumably from some time spent out in someone's workshop decades ago. I removed a lot of them during cleaning but a few remain.

It comes with: a gigbag