Anyone Here Ever Play A KAPA Guitar?

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Starise
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2013/12/17 13:37:21 (permalink)

Anyone Here Ever Play A KAPA Guitar?

 
 I was recently approached by someone with a really banged up KAPA guitar. They are curious as to if the guitar can be fixed up . I am posting a picture of it here. The guitar has strong sentimental value to the owner, so they might be willing to invest a little to get it fixed. Part of the story behind the guitar is that it was nearly burned up in a house fire. It had actually started to catch fire and the burn marks on on the back.Someone grabbed it at the last minute when they were running out of the house.
 
 The guitar has a nice maple neck on it that looks to be straight. The frets looks pretty good but the rest of the guitar is in pretty bad shape. Forget a distressed guitar. This guitar really has been through some serious stuff. 
 
 One thing that concerns me is that it probably hasn't had strings on it in ages. It would need new tuners because one is completely missing and the tuners are an entire assembly. The nut is missing. I haven't tested the electronics but I believe the pickups were made by Hohner. It looks like it has a truss rod and it is found on the front at the end of the neck.
 
 I don't have a lot of experience with anything like this. The thing that bothers me the most is the Whammy bar. It doesn't have an access plate on the back like a Fender. The springs are  broken and the whole assembly looks like a one-of-a-kind.I don't think we could substitute anything else but maybe I'm wrong. The whammy isn't the most solid looking thing I must say, kind of chinsy looking and I have no idea where I would find one.
 
 The feel of the guitar is good, sleek and well made bodywise. Any thoughts? Would you even attempt it? Where would you start?
 
 Here is some info on the guitar: http://uniqueguitar.blogspot.com/2010/02/kapa-guitars.html
 
 The owner said is is late 60's vintage probably 69'.
 

 

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    mettelus
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    Re: Anyone Here Ever Play A KAPA Guitar? 2013/12/17 21:45:35 (permalink)
    A lot of this would depend on you. I often get most of my piece parts from Stewart-MacDonald (http://www.stewmac.com/). Things like nuts, tuners, etc. are all easily replaceable.
     
    Depending on if you want to keep the look of it or refinish it is another story. You would have to remove the whammy bar to see if another model can be used there, but is also dependent on how you want it to look when completed. It would be worth putting strings on it (even one string) just to verify the circuitry. If the pickups function, I would be prone to keep them (and even if replaced, keep them anyway), but I would probably replace all of the wiring, pots (keep the knobs), and capacitors in it.
     
    I can check back in later to see what your preferences are. The guitar in my picture was redone by me a second time last year, and the only things still original on it are the wood, knobs, tuners and tremolo (I actually wanted to replace the tremolo, but it is an old/odd design and has a cavity under it that couldn't be dealt with going with a natural finish).
     
    Edit: It looks like it is a Kapa Challenger model, here is a link to a similar in better shape: http://reverb.com/item/37330-kapa-challenger-65-tobacco-burst-hofner-howler-free-shipping
    post edited by mettelus - 2013/12/17 22:02:35

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