I am writing this as of August 10th, 2025, which is the birthday of Leo Fender. He was born in this date in 1909 and lived until the age of 81. Mr. Fender left us with a legacy of incredible guitars, bass guitars, and amplifiers. He had a vision that changed music forever. This is ironic as he was blind in one eye, and did not play guitar, bass, or any stringed instrument.
As a young man he learned to play saxophone. Due to having a tumor in his eye, it was surgically removed and replaced with a prosthetic eye. His interests lie in electronics. Specifically, the radio. As a boy he began repairing radios.
In 1928, Fender graduated from Fullerton Union High School, and entered Fullerton Junior College as an accounting major, though he continued to work with electronics.
After college, Fender dabbled in odd jobs.
However, he gained a reputation for his ability to build radios and amplification systems.
He was approached by a local bandleader asking him to build six public address systems for use in Hollywood dance halls. This was a brilliant opportunity for him to be paid for doing something he loved.
In 1938 he borrowed $600 from a bank to start his own radio repair shop. He called it Fender Radio Service. Word got out that he could build public address systems. Musicians and band leaders began coming to him for public address systems, which he built, rented, and sold.
He also had created guitar pickups, the magnetic bars that could transfer metal guitar string vibrations into electronic signals.
Fender was ineligible to participate in the armed forces due to his blindness. In the 1940's he met a fellow, Clayton Kaufman with similar interests. Kaufman had recently discharged from the armed services.
Though K&F only lasted 3 years, the men produced amplifiers and lap steel guitars in small quantities. In 1946, Doc left K&F. Leo Fender revised the company and renamed it "Fender Manufacturing", and then later "Fender Electric Instrument Company”.
As the 1950’s approached Big Band Music was winding down. Country Music, and Western Swing was in vogue, particularly in California where many southern workers had flocked to take up jobs in the factories.
Leo Fender became familiar with many of the guitar players in the area. He learned that the players were looking for more durable road-worthy guitars with “faster" necks and better intonation to play what the country players called "take-off lead guitar."
Companies such as Rickenbacker, Gibson, Mosrite, and Paul Bigsby had offered instruments with solid or semi-solid bodies to accommodate these players. Leo believed that he could build a better and less expensive guitar that would maintain tonality, and not ‘feedback’ (as some electric acoustic guitars did).
By 1950 he offered the Fender Esquire, and shortly afterward a two pickup model that he called The Broadcaster. Both instruments were easy to hold, play, and produce.
Due to the word "Broadcaster" being trademarked by the Gretsch Drum Company, he changed the name of this instrument to the Fender Telecaster.
In 1951 Fender had recognized the need for a bass instrument that was more compact and louder than the traditional upright bass viol used by dance bands. He offered an instrument that he called The Precision Bass.
Unlike the curved finger board on an upright bass, Leo Fender’s design included frets so the players would know ‘precisely’ what note they were playing. This was easy to play, louder, and much less bulky than a string bass.
Mr. Fender assembled a team of designers and salespeople. He hired workers for his factory in Fullerton, California who learned woodworking and electronics.
In 1951 Leo Fender's single pickup Esquire model was improved with the addition of a pickup below the guitars neck, and a truss rod that was channeled through the back of the neck. These improvements mellowed the instruments tone and added stability. Don Randall came up with the name; Telecaster.
By 1952 Fender and his associates began designing an electric guitar that would be an upgrade from the Telecaster. Instead of two pickups this instrument would have three. Instead of a three-piece adjustable bridge/saddle unit this new instrument would have six individually adjustable sections. This guitar would include a vibrato unit.
The instruments shape would allow the player accessibility to the very last fret. Instead of a slab body this guitar had contour carved into its upper back for the comfort of the player, and another contour on the lower end of the guitar’s body where the players forearm could rest. By 1954 the Fender Electric Company offered the Fender Stratocaster for sale. This guitar was an immediate success.
Leo Fender welcomed artists to visit his company. He made a practice of providing instruments for perspective players and asking for their feed back to improve his instrument's quality. Many players obliged, accepted his generosity, which helped improve his designs. As someone who began their career repairing radios and building public address systems, Leo Fender's forte was electronics.
When he and Doc Kaufman started the K&F Manufacturing Company they began by building amplifiers. The earliest units were housed in a metal case. A gray crinkle" finish that was baked in the Kauffman family oven. They were made in three sizes: 1×8" (one 8-inch speaker), 1×10", and 1×15". These are all very rare today.
The first amplifiers made by the Fender Electric Instrument Company were constructed out of spare hardwood held by the Fender company at the time and were hence given the name 'woodie' later on by collectors.
These amps include the Princeton, the Deluxe and the Professional. The Princeton was a small six watt amp with an 8" Jensen field-coil speaker. This amp had no controls as it was designed for the guitar to solely control the volume and was simply turned on by plugging/unplugging into the wall plug.
The Deluxe was a larger amp with a Jensen 10” field-coil speaker and five tubes in a 14-watt design. It was the most popular amp of this era, with most amps surviving from this era today being Deluxes.
The rarest of all the original 'woodie' series was the Professional. It was the largest of the trio featuring Jensen 15” field-coil speaker and 6 tubes delivering 25 watts of power.
By 1948 Fender entered a new phase of amplifier construction known as the tweed phase. This was based on the varnished cloth covering used on this series of amplifiers.
These amps made were a considerable improvement for Fender based on their sound and their circuitry.
In 1959 Fender made quite a change in amplifier design with its Brownface series. The control panel was moved to the front of the amplifier instead of being on top.
By 1963 the material was black tolex. These amps had much different circuitry from previous models, and some included bright switches to boost the treble sounds.
Leo Fender contracted a serious streptococcal sinus infection that impaired his health to the point where he decided to wind up his business affairs, selling the Fender company to CBS in 1965.
As part of this deal, Fender signed a non-compete clause and remained a consultant with Fender for a while. Shortly after selling the company, he changed doctors and was cured of his illness.
In 1971 former Fender Electronic associates Forrest White and Tom Walker formed the Tri-Sonix company. Forest White went to his former boss, Leo Fender to help finance their company. The company evolved into "Music Man". After considerable financing, in 1975, when the non-compete clause ended, Leo Fender became the company president of Music Man. Once again, he began designing and building amplifiers and guitars.
For Leo’s part he operated as a consultant under the corporate name CLF Research. This was a separate entity from Music Man. Fender made the guitars and basses, while White and Walker's company made the amplifiers and sold accessories.
The guitars and basses were designed and made by Fender/ CLF and then shipped to the Music Man warehouse, where each instrument was inspected and tested. Problems developed with the finish which caused Music Man's inspectors to reject a high percentage of the instruments, returning them to CLF for refinishing.
Because Music Man did not pay CLF Research until the instrument finishes were deemed acceptable a rift developed between CLF (Leo Fender) and Music Man (White and Walker) over payment.
In November 1979, ties were cut with Leo Fender. Fender then formed another company, partnering with former Fender company designer George Fullerton to form G&L Musical Instruments. (George and Leo)
G&L guitar designs tended to lean heavily upon the looks of Fender's original guitars such as the Stratocaster and Telecaster, but incorporated innovations such as enhanced tremolo systems and electronics.
Despite suffering several minor strokes, Fender continued to work. On March 21, 1991, he died of complications from Parkinson's disease.
Tanya Shpachuk repairs guitars and she certainly does a great job. Tanya has also become a well known as a popular digital creator on Tik Tok, Youtube, and Instagram. You can also find her on Facebook.
This lovely young lady lives and works in Kyiv, Ukraine. She began popping up on my Facebook page. I found it fascinating to watch doing her job, I must have watched a dozen or so of her guitar repair videos.
Olimpiyska, Kyiv Ukraine
At first glance I had no idea she was not local. Despite being at war, Kyiv, Ukraine looks much like any major city, only much cleaner and safer than many in the United States.
Vaslkivska, Kyiv Ukraine
Tanya is apparently based in the town of Vaslkivska on Olimpiyska Street, which looks very nice place. Perhaps I am being naïve, but I have witnessed American cities that I will not visit any longer. This town appears quite peaceful and nice.
I thought it odd that she is repairing some guitars that many of us would consider not worth the effort. Considering she is living and working in a war zone, this is amazing.
Tanya’s work is sometimes unconventional, but this girl knows her craft. I am quite impressed with her work.
I have been writing the Unique Guitar Blog for the past 16 years and have discovered there is a universal love and appeal of the guitar throughout the world. Tanya Shpachuk's work embodies a wonderful example.
On February 9th, 1964 on a Sunday evening, the Beatles made their first American appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. By Monday, February 10th, a phenomenon occurred. Millions of adolescents wanted a guitar so they could become a Beatle. Guitar manufacturers, wholesalers, retailer, and department store could not keep up with the demand.
Over the next four years guitar designers, and builders from all over the world came out with some very bizarre concepts of mostly electric guitars. Here are 15 instruments that I have encountered in the six decades of my guitar journey, Some are wonder and some of them left me thinking, Why?
1.The 1967 LaBaye 2 X 4.. The Holman Woodell factory, in Neodesha, Kansas was awarded a contract by the Wurlitzer Piano and Organ company to build guitars. Howard Holman had a connection with the company through his music store. Victor Woodell was an industrialist with money, and dabbled in woodworking and electronics.
The La Baye guitar was a creation by guitar teacher Dan Helland. The name La Baye was a tongue-in-cheek poke at the body of water at the top of Lake Michigan aka The Bay.
Apparently there was a significant population of French descent that lived in this area. The guitar was offered in 1967 in the six string version with a Bigsby vibrato, a bass version, and a 12 string version. All instruments had two single coil pickups and a bolt on neck. I played the six string version and was not impressed.
2. 1968 Sekova Greecian with six individual pickups. This guitar was built in Japan by the Kawai Manufacturing company. This guitar had six cascading pickups, one for each string. The guitar came with two volume and two tone controls, plus three slider switches that provided a combination of pickups. The problem was each pickup was so tiny that there were not significant winds to produce a usable sound. Fuji Jen Japanese manufacturer used the Greco brand name, so perhaps "Greecian" was a play on words or a tribute. I once played this guitar years ago at a guitar show.
3. Buddy Miller's Wandre guitars. I went to a Buddy and Julie Miller concert in the early 2000's with a bunch of friends that were members of the Fender Discussion Forum. Buddy played one of his Wandre Soloist through a Vox AC-30 amplifier. The sound was amazing. Wandre guitars (pronounced Von-dray) were the creations of an Italian artist and sculpture name Antonio Pioli Wandre who built guitars and basses as functioning works of art. This guitar has an aluminum neck encased in plastic which is bolted on another piece of aluminum that is inside the instruments hollow body.
Both of Buddy's guitars (one is white, and the other is black) have three Divoli pickups with the neck pickup wire out of phase. Wandre guitars are certainly interesting.
4. The 1974 Ovation Breadwinner. Despite any preconceived opinions you may have about guitars made by a helicopter manufacturer, Ovation made some very fine instruments back in the day. My local music store had one of these American made solidbody Ovation guitars for sale at one point. It was possibly the first mass produced electric guitar to have active electronics.
The guitar was made with either two single-pole pickups (early models) or two mini-humbucker pickups, a master volume and tone control (which boosts or cuts treble, and is "normal" in the centre position), a three way pickup selector (configured as Neck, Bridge, Neck + Bridge Out of Phase) and a notch filter switch for filtering out Mid Frequencies. What is most interesting is the guitars ergonomic body shape. Part of the tongue-in-cheek design was that the Breadwinner resembled an Axe. The Breadwinner also had a built-in FET pre-amplifier on board that allowed the instrument to get a variety of sounds.
5.. The 1982 Kawai MS 700 Moonsault guitar. This guitar had a quarter moon shaped body which seemed to be a popular design for the Japanese market. Different versions were produced beginning in 1975 through 1983. I saw one of these in a pawn shop, played it, and it was not my cup of tea.
6. 2000 Yamaha SGV 800- For a few years I was a fan of the British Doctor Who series. Scottish actor Peter Capaldi was cast as one of the versions of 'The Doctor" Capaldi. in his earlier days Capaldi played guitar and sang in a band. (Comedian Craig Ferguson was the drummer).
When it came time for the 12th Doctor to show his chops, Capaldi said he and the producer scoured London's music shops to find a suitable and bizarre guitar. That is when the came upon a black Yamaha SGV 800. This guitar was made from 2000 to 2007. The oddly shaped body, and the extended six on a side headstock make this a unique instrument. It has 2 large single coil pickups, and an interesting vibrato system. It played much like a Strat and is just plain weird.
7. Kustom K200 guitar. We are all familiar with the old tuck and roll Kustom amplifiers of the mid 1960's. The company was owned by Bud Ross in Chanute Kansas. The company wanted a matching guitar and turned to that other Kansas company, Holman Woodell (remember La Baye 2X4?) to create a guitar. The Kustom K200 history began in 1966 to create a guitar.
The bodies were cobbled out of four pieces of wood, two were laminated and hollowed out to make the guitars top, and the other two were laminated, and glued to make the instruments back. On the body was a small faux F hole, while the opposite side had a cavity for the instruments controls. Two single coil DeArmond pickups were bolted onto the body. The string ran over a tune-o-matic style bridge and attached to a Bigsby vibrato. The bolt-on necks on these guitars were very thin and the rosewood fretboard came with lots of dot fret markers, I ran across one at a defunct music store in Cincinnati.
8. 1963 EKO 700/4V Sparkle Guitar. Even before the popularity of the guitar in the United States became a thing, the Italian Accordion manufacturers saw the writing on the wall and they began putting their skills to use building guitars. However they included the same flair found on their squeeze-boxes. These included the plastic sparkle body coverings, and lots of push-buttons and switches to control tone.
The Eko Company was founded by Oliviero Pigini in 1960, was the largest musical instrument manufacturer in Europe from 1964 until the 1970s. It was the largest European exporter of guitars to the United States, where much of its history is tied to the Lo Duca Brothers, who are a Milwaukee based music company that specializes in Accordions. I never saw an EKO (pronounced EEE-KO) in a music store for sale, but in the mid 1960's they were plentiful in pawn shops and some department stores, and were relatively inexpensive. I played one at a local pawn shop. It was a nice instrument, with a shape that looked like someone took a bite our of it. It had 4 single coil pickups, lots of pushbuttons, and a whammy bar, plus who doesn't love blue sparkles?
9. Late 1960's Sorrento Kingston Swinger Guitar. This budget guitar was made by Kawai of Japan and shipped to the USA by Westheimer Company of Chicago, which brokered guitars to wholesalers. My father owned several small grocery and liquor stores. He occasionally pawned things for his customers that were down on their luck. Dad would come home with strange vehicles, guns, rings, watches, and this Sorrento Swinger guitar in a chipboard case. No one ever claimed it, so it was mine. I had some much nicer guitars, but this one was interesting.
In the early 1980's I learned a lot about guitar electronics and went to work modifying this guitar. I put in phase reversal switches for each pickup, and a battery powered preamplifier unit with an on/off switch. I still have this guitar stored away.
10. Gianinni 12 string Craviola - In 1970, when I was 17, I saw three models of Gianinni Craviolas at a downtown music store. These were creations from Sao Paulo Brazil's largest stringed musical instrument manufacturer. The Craviola, created by Giannini by Brazilian musician Paulinho Nogueira, is one of the most notable guitars due to its unique shape and sound identity. The instrument was created during the late 1960's when the harpsicord was making inroads in popular music.
It was based on a 10 string South American instrument called a viola capira combined with a 12 string guitar. Initially this started out just to be a 12 string instrument, but later there was also a six steel string version and a nylon string version produced. The body can best be described as a large kidney bean shape. The original ones, produced around 1970, had slotted headstocks on the 12 string and gorgeous wood finishes, but they were actually fancy wood laminate made from Brazilian Rosewood. They came with a spruce top and mahogany neck. These instruments are still available, but now are made of solid woods with built in electronics. It remains one of my favorite guitars.
11. The 1967 Domino Californian Rebel. This was Kawai of Japans take on the Vox Phantom guitar. The oddly shaped five sided body was seen mostly in 1960's garage bands. Domino guitars were distributed in the United States by New York City's Maurice Lipsky Music Company. This was produced at a time when Japanese guitar manufacturers were making copies of popular instruments.
The Asian manufacturers considered the instruments to be "tributes". Plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery. This guitar was offered with a solid body and also a semi-hollow body with one F hole, and either two of three single coil pickups. It was weird.
12. 1966 Wurlitzer Gemini guitar. Here is another guitar built by the Neadesha, Kansas based Holman-Woodell guitar company. There were actually three models of Wurlitzer guitars. Due to its striking shape the Gemini is a favorite. A local music store had one in stock. This guitars body looked like a Strat with sharp straight features. The body was Canadian Maple. The bound bolt on neck was topped with a Brazilian Rosewood fretboard. A toggle switch on the guitar's top was the pickup selector.
There were twin "Sensi-tone" single coil pickups which had a rocker switch above them for Jazz or Rock settings. Each pickup had a separate volume and tone control. The Bigsby inspired Vibratron tremolo had a "W" for Wurlitzzer. This was a stereo guitar. On the guitar's lower wing was a balance control. The guitar played beautifully and was a real eye-catcher. However the Wurlitzer Holman Woodell guitars were notorious for problems with their finish. It was a beautiful candy apple metal flake finish, but it had a tendency to flake off. Since so many Wurlitzer guitars were being returned to the factory, the company abandon it's foray into the guitar market. These guitars were made in the USA.
13. 1967 Musicraft Messenger Guitar. Messengers were very different then any guitars built during this era. Messenger guitars were the first really modern aluminum-necked guitars. Created by Musicraft of Astoria, Oregon, this organization was made up of Bert T. Casey, president, and Arnold B. Curtis, head of marketing, These guitars, though scarce are awesome to play. Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad used them..
The aluminum “chassis” eliminated the need for a heel, improving access, The guitar was actually tuned to A-440, supposedly to improve resonance. The M logo was different. And the stereo concept was simple and great (two mono jacks for each pickup, but throw the switch and both pickups go through just one). I haven't seen one for years.
14. Acoustic Amplification Black Widow Bass Guitar. During the 1970's the Christian Group I attended brought in a Gospel singer to perform at a concert. Her name was Lily Knauls. Ms. Knauls was a member of the Edwin Hawkin's group that had a hit record at the time, Oh Happy Day. This group also backed up Melanie on her song, Candles in the Rain. Lily brought with her a pianist and bass player. I was enlisted as the chauffer and got to drive Ms. Lily around all day. This meant I got to attend her rehearsal.
The bass player had this unusual instrument which had a black, glossy finish and no frets. This was the first time I'd seen a fretless bass. I looked at the headstock and it said "Acoustic."
Being curious I later discovered the bass guitar (and also a guitar) were built for the Acoustic Amplifier Company in the 1970's The companies main product were huge solid state, high powered amplifiers to be used by stadium rockers. The bass and guitar were designed by Paul Barth and built in Japan.
Barth was the son of one of the National Guitar Company foremen. He was born in 1908 and by 1931 was elected to the board of directors of National Guitars and was with Ro-Pat-In string instruments, which became Electro String Instruments. He stayed on with the company until 1957. In later life he opened a small store and made guitar pickups. He made guitars and basses for other companies but marketed them under the name Bartell.
Some of the electric guitars that Paul Barth made under the name Bartell look surprisingly like the Black Widows. In later years Semie Mosley built several hundred of the guitars for the company’s final run. (The one picture above was built by Mosley).
Both the Black Widow guitar and bass had a familiar body style similar to the Les Paul Junior but larger. The double cutaway horns had more of a flared shape. The bodies were made of maple and had a high gloss black lacquered finish. The guitar had 2 single coil pickups with chrome sides and 6 poles hooked up to a 3 way selector switch with twin volume and tone controls.
The bass came with one humbucking pickup that had 8 pole pieces and was mounted in the center of the body. The jack was mounted on the top of the body. The bass came in a fretted or fretless version (that had lines for position markers).
The pickup's output was higher than most produced during this era. Originally the guitar and bass were equipped with Grover tuners, however by the end of the run the bass tuners were changed to Schaller.
One of the most interesting features was the red pad on the back of each instrument which snapped on to the body just like some Gretsch guitars. On the pad was the design of a black widow spider. The guitars manufactured by Bartell feature 3 bolts securing the neck to the body. The Black Widows made by Moseley have a sort of a wavy chrome neck plate with 4 bolts. There were also some that were built in Japan. The Japanese Black Widow have a 4 digit serial number sometimes starting with the letters BA. The Moseley Black Widows start with BC for the guitars and BD for the bass guitars.
15. Travis Bean TB1000A - From 1970 to 2001 my family owned a grocery business where I worked (way too much). A music store opened up next door in the same shopping plaza. I spent a good deal of time at that store. This is where I first was able to play a new Travis Bean Travis Bean TB1000A and it was a fantastic guitar. I'd have to say it was one of the finest guitars that I had ever played.
Travis Bean, Mark McElwee and Gary Kramer created Travis Bean Guitars in 1974 as the brand name of a unique line of electric guitars and basses. Bean, McElwee and Kramer designed a guitar using a solid piece of koa wood and a machined aluminum neck. The base of the neck fit under the body and the strings were slotted the the bases distal end. The head stock was part of the milling process and was designed in the shape of a hollowed out “T” with the tuners on the perimeters.
The Travis Bean guitars came with alnico humbucking pickups or alnico single coil pickups. Due to the metal and the dense wood, these were heavy guitars. However the “nearly” through-the-body aluminum neck gave these guitars great sustain and clarity. The metal necks were topped with rosewood fretboards that were glued in place. Around 3,600 guitars and basses were produced between 1974 and 1979.
16. 1976 Gretsch Super Axe - There used to be a small music store north of Cincinnati, Ohio where I would occasionally shop. I was there one day when the owner told me that I had to try this guitar out. It played like a dream. I hope it went to some worthy customer. It turned out that the Gretsch Super Axe was designed by Duke Kramer. I met Mr. Kramer and his wife at several vintage guitar shows. He was a really nice guy. When The Gretsch Company was sold to the Baldwin Piano Company in 1967, I believe that Duke Kramer went to work with Baldwin as part of the deal. In doing so it was rumored that he loaded a couple of semi-trailers with original Gretsch equipment.
After Baldwin shut down guitar production Mr. Kramer sold the parts at various guitar shows. The Super Axe was created with a built-in phasor and a built-in compressor. In 1976 the phasor was a unique feature which did not last long, but the compressor is still a popular effect.
17. 1969 C.F. Martin 0-16NY (New Yorker) - I bought this guitar in 1972 from a Cincinnati Music Store for $250. It was brand new. It was a beautiful instrument, but it gave me a lot of problems. This size O-16 guitar was created during the Folk Era and set up to use only silk and steel strings or nylon strings.. Even light gauge strings tugged on the neck since Martin did not use truss rods back then. However this guitar had a solid spruce top and a beautiful solid mahogany body, back, fretboard, and neck, with a slotted headstock.
Much like a classical guitar, it did not have fret markers. It was a very basic smaller instrument with satin finish and a 12 fret body. I had a hard time with tonality. I sent the guitar back to Martin several times. By 1974 I sold it. Later I regretted the sale.
In 1965 I was taking guitar lessons at my local music store. The Byrds had just come on the scene with Mr. Tambourine Man, a song that featured an electric 12 string guitar. Man, how I loved that sound and wanted it. My teacher went down to the showroom and brought up a Kapa Continental 12 string guitar. It resembled a Fender guitar, but with two pickups. It was so comfortable to play, and sounded great. But at only 13 years I could not afford the price of $185 for the guitar.
During the early 1960’s Mr. Veneman made the decision to build his own unique line of guitars. This was the years of the British Invasion and the Guitar Boom and Mr. Veneman wanted his piece of the pie.
Many of the guitars in stock at the Veneman store consisted of guitars that were imported from Germany and Italy.
His connections with these European companies provided him with an excellent opportunity to purchase supplies from overseas manufacturers. His plan was to order guitar parts from European suppliers, then assemble them in Edsmonston, Maryland where the guitars bodies were created. He was unable to obtain a Fender franchise, so he decided to create his own solid body guitars.
Historically Koob's father, Albert Veneman, was a Dutch violin builder. He had opened up a violin shop in The Hague where he built violins and guitar under the brand name AMKA, which was an amalgamation of his family's initials; Albert, Madeline, Koob, and Albert Jr.
Most of the guitars that Albert Veneman created were the Jazz style archtops that were popular in the 1930's. The Venemans eventually immigrated to the United States.
The necks, pickups and electronics originally came from German manufacturer Hofner. The guitars generally were equipped with two slider switches to control on/off function of the pickups, which were typical of Hofner design of the 1960’s. In the company's later years they made their own pickups, which looked similar to Hofner units.
The tuners were made by Schaller. Kapa made his own bridges and tremolo assemblies. Most KAPA guitars are equipped with the tremolo.
Veneman named the instruments after himself, his wife and children by using an anagram of their first names. Of course his name is Koob, his son’s name, Albert, his daughters name, Patricia and his wife’s name Adeline. Later Koob’s brother joined the family business.
KAPA necks were quite thin, which was sort of a ’60 thing. Guitarists wanted to play fast and for some odd reason, manufacturers equated this with skinny necks instead of low action. In fact, some Gibson ES-335’s of this era had thin necks.
It is also interesting that KAPA 12 string guitars came out around the same time that Fender released the Fender XII.
But the cost of the KAPA was almost half of the Fender instrument.
To the unfamiliar, one could mistake a KAPA for a Fender guitar, based on it's Jaguar and Stratocaster-like shapes and the shape of the headstock. Veneman admits that he used exaggerated body styles from Fender and Vox to create the body shapes.
The KAPA instruments also used script on the headstock for the guitar model that was very similar to what we call the Fender Spaghetti script. However the KAPA logo was a circle with a crest in the middle that was similar to the Veneman family crest.
KAPA guitars were founded on some great principals set up by the Venemans. The instruments were well made, playable and affordable. Plus they were made in the USA.
The guitar boom eventually wound down. Competition was fierce. And Asian made instruments were getting better all the time.
During the companies final years some of the production was outsourced to Japan, no doubt due to the high cost of labor.
Kapa Series 500 and Kapa Challenger
Finally in 1970 KAPA ceased production and sold it's assets to Mosrite and Microfret Guitar Companies. Mosrite also outsourced the KAPA instruments production to Japan.
One of the earliest models produced by KAPA was called first called The Challenger which had a Strat-like body. In 1966 the name was changed to The Continental, which had a slightly different shape. The Challenger had two pickups.
The Continental was available in six and twelve string models. One unusual feature on KAPA twelve string guitars was the fact that many of them came with a tremolo bar.
These instruments were also being produced during the same time Vox was selling guitars and the Vox Teardrop was one of their most popular models. The Minstrel also came in a twelve string and a bass version.
KAPA also made a hollow body model called the 506. It resembled a Gibson ES-335. The headstock on this guitar was three-on-a-side. The KAPA script was engraved, instead of being placed as a decal.
The metal trapeze tailpiece was also engraved with the KAPA name and was similar to one Hofner used on their guitars.
This guitar was built in Japan with German parts. There were other guitars in the KAPA 500 series, all were made in Japan.
