Kinman Icon

This guitar was made for me in around 1993 in Moorooka, Australia. It is a 22 fret Strat style guitar with an adler body (3.5 resonance scale out of a possible 4)and a Tiger stripped maple neck. It has normal Strat pickup configuration with a 5-way switch. The second tone control dials the neck pickup in and out in positions 1-3. The pickups rotate between Chris's AVN-Warms and the HMS-CV's. The hardware is the vintage style Gotoh bridge with Gotoh locking tuning gears. Its got a reallllllly fat neck, jumbo frets and a rather straight profile which adds to its uniqueness. Chris no longer makes guitars, but he has often said to me that in 25 years of building guitars that this was his best build. I have a standing offer from Chris to buy it back from me when and if I want to sell it. Fat chance!

This guitar suits my style by simply giving me the tools to express myself with tone for days. What you put into this guitar is what you get out. I have stopped using effects with this guitar and have been looking for an amp to mate with it. Right now I am ampless (between amps) but have ordered a custom amp to be built by Benjamin Fargen in Sacramento (Fargenamps.com) modeled after the Fender Tweed Super/Bandmaster circuit. It should mate real well with this guitar. I am tired of the search for the perfect gear and want to get back to the business of refining my chops and writing/playing and performing my music. Say no to G.A.S.!I have put this guitar against all types of vintage and booteek offerings from all of the known players and guess what...none of them come even close. I am constantly stopped after jam sessions, even after playing with crap solid state amps, and leaving my sometimes stellar chops at home, and been asked what kind of guitar I was playing because my tone was so superior to the others. No matter what the circumstance this guitar NEVER fails to deliver the goods. I have since sold all my other guitars, you know the fancy well made expensive humbucking ones, better known as the dentists guitars and only want to play this guitar. Whats more, when I first picked it up I knew it right away. For a backup I have a Kinman Blueprint, which was Chris's cheaper prodution model, which is also no slouch. If it were my only guitar I would still be one happy puppy.

The guitar was set up at the factory with Chris's philosophy, stated on his website and had a high relativly high action but still played like butter. I have since lowered the action a bit to help me with my arthritis. The pickups are adjusted about 3-4mm below the string height when depressed at the 12th fret. No flaws just a resonant piece of wood expertly, passionatly and lovingly handcrafted by a true master.

No worries here on reliability, I have found the guitar of my life and have stopped looking at all the others, they are boring and uninteresting to me.

Customer support is great as Chris has also become a very good friend. You will not find a nicer, caring more knowledgeble guy anywhere in the music industry. Even though he no longer makes guitars he will take time to answer my questions and he brings the same type of zeal to his pickups.

I've been playing for around 36 years and have pared my guitar collection down to a Kinman Icon, Blueprint and a 52 Tele reissue. I would be heartbroken if lost or stolen as Chris no longer makes guitars. I love what this guitar has done for my playing and confidence and the fact that I no longer have to search for my guitar. I already have it. Its a great comfort to stop the search, to no longer be looking for that instrument. No I just look forward to playing every day, confident that I only have me as excuse for sucking.