This is a custom guitar! Although it wasn’t build for me. As a matter of fact this freak of an instrument was supposed to die in a fire! In the mid 1970s my friend Lothar Landenberger (who was and still is one hell of a classical guitarist, played bass in my first fusion band ‘Satisfiction’, picked up various saxophones, and then opened a music store specializing in wind instruments) started an apprenticeship with a guitar builder by the name of Wolfgang Kist in Bavaria. Apparently Mr. Kist started developing a line of eletric guitars for Musicland in Albstadt. This, Kist 02, was one of the first prototypes but was never supposed to become a full guitar because there were problems in the chunk of would to be used for the body – so Mr. Kist threw it on fire wood rack.
Except that Lothar snatched it because he thought burning the body was a waste. He slapped on some hardware and there we go. Several people have tried to own this instrument and wouldn’t take it for free – it’s not a Les Paul or a Strat. It’s pretty much unlike anything I have ever seen or played. Lothar gave me the guitar some years before I moved to the US and it has seen a lot of use and recording. Maybe I have a defect where I prefer the odd weirdo stuff over the brand stuff, even (or especially) when it’s hard to play, get a decent sound out of and keep in tune.
Some special features of this instrument:
- early neck-through-body design, except that this neck is so thin that I can create excellent vibrato effects just yanking it back and forth (thereby destroying any sensible tuning)
- headstock which essentially is in a straight line with the neck, thereby not providing enough pressure for the strings to stay in the saddle grooves – requiring a metal piece to clamp the strings down (can you say “string-wear”).
- I did replace the very nasty, string breaking adjustable bits at the bridge by string saver bits, making the strings last a bit longer.
- when replacing strings inserting the new string through the back of the insrument is worse then threading string through a needle – especially in the middle of a set!
- totally fake(!) door-bell-ringer-push-button that I put in to cover up a little routing.
- the totally awesome metal plate under the strings with the inscription: KIST 02.
- 1/8 of a one dollar bill found in the Chatterbox tip jar.