Quote:
Originally Posted by Bard2dbone  Except for the headstock, it looks like a Kalamazoo.
My wifes coolest and most interesting cousin is a world-class swing jazz guitarist named Slim Richey. His main stage guitar is usually a '50's Epiphone Emperor. But a few years back the back of the neck cracked and he had to do several gigs with his camp guitar, a Kalamazoo much like you Recording King, except he'd had a luthier friend rebrace it. It sounded awesome. He got great jazz tones out of a seventy five or eighty year old kids guitar. |
Good story. You know, very few people in those days could afford a real expensive guitar. It was the Great Depression. The main difference between the Kalamazoo and Recording King versus the lowest priced Gibson at the time was that the Gibson had an X braced top, the other two brands had ladder bracing, at least on the lower end guitars. But at the time, all Gibson flattops, even the cheapest L-00 had X bracing,
AFAIK. Ladder braced guitars aren't in the same class, true, but they can be very good. I figure this Recording King sold for around $20 in 1938. The L-00 Gibson sold for about $27.
