1934 Kalamazoo (Gibson) KG-11 00-Size Guitar

Tone: It's woody, mids-focused, and has a good snap and bite to the top-end when dug-into. These are best played with a more relaxed attack vs. the no-holds-barred approach you might take to chordal backup with, say, an x-braced guitar. If you lean into these too heavily they "compress" a bit which is an excellent sound for gypsy-jazz and country-blues where you want that smack of sound but less-so for old-time and folk styles where you want a smoother sound for backup needs. As fingerpickers, these excel.

Feel: It's got the classic Kalamazoo neck feel -- medium-bigger with a V profile, small frets, and 1 3/4" nut width. The body fits comfortably in the lap and puts your left arm "just so" so that, while it's a 00-size guitar, it "feels" more like playing an 0-size or parlor guitar.

Interesting features: This one has a huge replacement pickguard in black that I assume was added in the '70s to cover wear and tear around the soundhole. It has the "solid lining" to the sides that you only see in the first year or two of production and while this may be a late '33, I'm guesstimating it to be a '34. The factory order number inside could point to either. It has the cool "small burst" of the time.

Repairs included: It's had a neck reset, minor crack repairs to the top (center seam, lower bout) and back, a small heel crack that was repaired and reinforced with a bolt, a fret level/dress, side dots added, a new bone saddle, new ebony pins, and setup work done. It plays spot-on and is ready to serve.

• Maker: Gibson
• Model: KG-11
• Body style: squashed-body 00-size
• Weight: 2 lbs 15 oz
• Scale length: 24 3/4"
• Nut width: 1 3/4"
• Neck shape: medium-bigger V
• Board radius: 14"
• Body width: 14 5/8"
• Body depth: 4 1/8"
• Top wood: solid spruce
• Back & sides wood: solid mahogany
• Bracing type: ladder
• Bridge: rosewood
• Fretboard: rosewood
• Neck wood: mahogany
• Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
• String gauges: 52w, 40w, 30w, 22w, 16, 12
• Neck relief: tiniest hair of relief (~1/64") at pitch
• Fret style: low/small

Condition notes: It has a repaired heel crack. There is one repaired center seam crack on the top lower bout. There are a couple of small hairline cracks under the pickguard that are repaired. The side dots and bridge pins and saddle and pickguard are non-original but it is original otherwise. The bridge itself was shaved, strangely, on the treble side but not the bass. I have modified the through-saddle slot to be a simple drop-in style for convenience. 

It comes with: Sorry, no official case -- but I may have a chip case to throw in with it around.

Consignor tag: JW