Any Kustom K200 owners here?

[Lachstar]

Just got this home! Plays so nice. I'm sure there must be a few owners on this forum? Also, I'm sure someone can put this one to bed - did Semie ever have any part in helping with or working on the design? I've read that he did as "he was consulting with various companies at the time" and that "Kustom was talking to him about distributing Mosrites after the Ventures deal ended." Does any of that have any truth to it?
Anyway it's an amazing guitar, definitely a bit of Mosrite about it, especially the neck and feel and the zero fret, but also a bit of Ric and a little SGesque?

[jfine]

I've never heard that Semie had anything to do with the Kustom guitars, but you never know. I think they were made by the Holman-Woodell guitar factory (the folks responsible for the La Baye 2x4 as well as Wurlitzer electrics), in Neodesha, Kansas, right down the road from Kustom's amp factory in Chanute. I remember playing a Kustom guitar in the late-'60's, but I've never owned one. Nice guitars, though--but by the time they hit the market in '67 or '68, everybody was after the Gibson-through-a-Marshall Clapton tone rather the cleaner Gretsch-like sound of the DeArmond pickups in those Kustoms. If they'd come out a few years earlier, I think they'd have sold a lot more of them.
From the title of your post, I thought you were referring to Kustom K200 amps, the tuck-and-roll-covered ones. I had one from 1971 until 1974. 100 watts, tremolo and reverb, great big speaker cabinet with 3-12" Altecs. Real bright, real clean, and way too loud for any gig I was doing at the time.

[BRRanger]

Howdy Lachstar,
I have a K-200 I bought a hundred years ago, mine looks like oak with the woodgrain darkened...black pickguard, not sure what kind of wood it is, but a neat guitar. Also have several tuck & roll Kustom amps. Also not sure what connection Semi had with Kustom, if any.
Scott

[Bob Shade]

Semie did have a deal in place with Kustom, when he did not own the Mosrite trademark in the 70's. The deal was from my understanding Bud Ross made a deal with Semie to build the Kustom guitars and forward all of the guitars to the Kustom factory. Semie was fronted $15000.00 to start. Apparently Semie spent more of the money on himself and did not produce many pieces and as a result the deal was over as quickly as it began.

I owned one of the guitars myself at one time. It looked exactly like the one you have with the exception of a Mosrite bridge and stop tailpiece, and the neck was just like a Mosrite with tiny frets and micro dots. It had the De Armond pickups. It was similar to the deal he had with Acoustic at one time.


I may have a picture of it somewhere.

Semie had nothing to do with the design of the instrument.

Hope this helps,

Bob

[Lachstar]

Thanks for the replies guys! That's interesting Bob, I'd love to see a picture of it! So in the 70's you reckon? As these were apparently only made from late 67 until around early 69 from what I've read.