Kustom K200B

[dminer]

Does anybody know much about or even own one of these guitars? I have a line on a natural (stripped?) body with original pups,pots,knobs, strap buttons, trapeze tailpiece, neckplate and half of the pickguard....it has a non original (tiesco, sears no name) neck kinda barely bolted on it....anyway, the price is cheap and I'm wondering if it might make a good project? Any suggestions on a neck that might fit it or what the body carcass and hardware is worth...Here's a link to a site that features this guitar... http://www.broadwaymusicco.com/kustom6.htm .....I wonder if I could use the body and turn it into a shortscale bass (I'm a bassist) ...the bass body looks like it's the same size as the guitar body..and it does look very Rick-like..thanks, David

[dminer]

OK...I got this yesterday...very rick-like but I've never heard of them being pulled from ebay for legal reasons...all original parts and it was a trans black finish when it was born...any suggestions....make it a guitar, a short scale bass, sell the parts on ebay...firewood?

[johnallg]

I'd be tempted to make it a SS bass. How hollow is the body?

[dminer]

John...That was what I was thinking as well...right now I'm considering a danelectro longhorn short scale neck with the cola bottle headstock (kinda like a potatoe head)...the body appears to be 2 pc front and 2 pc back... carved and chambered and then glued...no braces. I also thought of extending the cateye f hole to make it even more ricklike....I can hopefully fund this project with the sale of the 68 DEArmond pups and maybe the centralab (gibson) pots....maybe someone with a k200 is even looking for an original bridge...also the toggle switch is a switchcraft which I believe that Rickenbacker used as well. I have a spare toaster and it looks like it'll fit nicely... dm

[mgauction]

Dave - I have had their basses and love 'em! You got to the right site. They are approx. from 1967-69. No legal problems. The KUSTOM company still makes ams & cabinets. Not the same owners as the original.

[dminer]

Mike, thanks for the info...The bass player for the band on Saturday Night Live last weekend was playing a kustom bass (dk blue)...the band was Vampire Weekend...I got lots of info over at reranch as well, and it turns out the bass body is the same as the guitar...someone over there has a bass and will give me exact measurments as to where the bridge should go...scale length ect...I think I'll put toaster in it and a danelectro ss neck...i'm looking forward to the project/challenge...dm

[teb]

Draw it out and see how the bridge position works out. I suspect that your bridge saddles will wind up back about where the big bar of the tailpiece is. My short-scale bass has a pretty typical neck pocket on a Les Paul body and the bridge saddles are about 9.5"-9,75" back from the end of the fingerboard. It would probably be a fairly easy project to pick up a Warmoth paddle-head neck for it, cut the headstock to the shape you want and turn it into a six-string again. Turning it into a bass is possible, but will likely involve a lot of drilling new holes and plugging old ones. You may want to paint it when you're done to cover all the fills.

[dminer]

Teb...thanks for the tips...I had a line on an actual kustom guitar neck but the guy decided to hang onto it, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to turn it into a short scale bass..the bridge on the kustom bass actually is only about an inch back from the guitar bridge position ( but I will do the math and see where it should be)...and there's a seller on ebay with a new bass bridge similar to a les paul guitar bridge with the 2 anchor studs...so to do the bass conversion I only need a ss neck (danelectro longhorn or maybe epiphone ebo) and a 4 string block for the trapeze tailpiece ( I think I can shorten the tailpiece and just tap new threads on it ) and maybe get a hofner style block....I already have a toaster and some new pots and jack and pickguard material and tuners from previous projects as well as paint...my work is really slow right now so I'm trying to do this on a fairly restrictive budget... as far as filling new holes there were already 3 BIG screw holes in the body so it probably going to have to be a solid color....I'll post some pics here when I get going...thanks, david

[rickenmetal]

I don't know how well it would balance with a bass neck, might be better with an Epi EB0 neck because it is mahogany and has less frets, but I am not sure.

Then you need some bass PUs. Rick PUs?