Kingston Hollowbody

As said before the features on this guitar are great. The pickups are out of line and the tuners are too flat for my fingers to grip right (but that's a personal bit), other than that I love it.

I only play this guitar unplugged for practice. It has decent tone and sound even without amp.

Like I said before, the pickups are a bit out of line (a bit more noticeable in the bridge pickup).

The binding tends to come loose easy. I've had to repair three spots already.

Great guitar for it's age!

This full hollowbody guitar is mid to late 60's Japanese made, 22 frets, with features VERY reminiscent of a Rickenbacker 330 (except that the top and back are nicely arched). 1.5" deep, it's has 2 cats-eye cutaways on the upper and lower bout(ric 330s only have 1). it's a cherry burst finish, 2 low output single coil shielded pickups. the neck pickup is angled a few degrees clockwise. the headstock logo is a raised gold on black background logo, "Kingston". it also has a teisco style roller bridge and tremolo system. This is probably the top- of- the- line "Holy Grail" of Kingstons. The body, neck, headstock, and soundholes are all fully bound. the body is 3 ply bound, neck is 5 ply bound(!), and headstock is 2 ply bound. The neck is thin, fast, narrow, with a very comfortable (rosewood) fretboard radius. There are pearl block inlays. In general it really seems like it was produced from the Teisco factory. The body wood is probably plywood (it's very light and identical to teisco hollowbodies). The neck is actually laminated plywood, also very characteristic of imported guitars of this period (Framus, Teisco, etc). The tuners are Gotoh style. Controls; 2 volume, 2 tone, 3 way toggle switch to assign the pickups, and a treble boost switch built into the cellulose/shell pickguard. Overall it's got all it needs and it's looks visually stunning. a closer look will reveal some of the cheaper materials (ie. wood).

It suits my style fine. mostly indie stuff. I've played it through a TopHat Club Royale where it sounds pretty good, but what doesn't?? it's actually fairly quiet, has really nice clean/ brights, not much low end with the treble switch on. with the switch off, it's way too muddy and practically useless. Like I mentioned earlier, the pick ups are very low output. you really have to crank the amp to get it to sing, but it will sing!

The action is outstanding especially considering the age of this guitar. the neck plays really well. the pickups are not well aligned though, they're slightly offset from the path of the strings. The wood is poor quality, but was maintained well over the years, so it still looks great.

Even though it appears that this was intended to be a higher end guitar, it's more like the high end of the low end. it'll withstand playing in it's present condition, but i have doubts it'll hold up over the years. the finish is still very good, the hardware is sturdy, strap buttons are solid, and i'd gig with it without a backup, but it just doesn't feel overall as solid as a rickenbacker, gibson, fender, or gretsch.

Doesn't exist anymore. It was owned under the Kawai company but I'm sure they wouldn't support it

I own a ton of gear, and have owned in the past more than i can remember. been playing 10+ years. I think i love the kitch value of this guitar. it's looks great and it's extremely rare. I wish it had fret markers on the neck binding, but oh well, i still dig it for what it is. it's a great conversation piece that i might use for recording at some point, but it'll never be my main player. If it went missing, well, i'll never be able to find another one. In fact if you have seen it before or have one or have any more info on this, write me. i'd love to talk about it.