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1938 Kalamazoo KG 3/4 Sport


Lars68

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I got a 1938 Kalamazoo 3/4 Sport a few years back. This a a really tiny guitar, see photos here.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/152722330@N05/40358980851/in/photostream/

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/152722330@N05/39648314004/in/photostream/

 

It's the one on the left. The photo is from the seller, and the other guitars are not mine. The Sport is so small. It's tiny even in comparison to the other small guitars in the picture.

 

I love this thing. I have recently started to use it with Nashville tuning strings (basically the six octave strings from a 12-string set), which makes it incredibly easy to play. Mostly I use it to record a second track, next to a guitar with normal strings and tuning, giving a great complimentary sound. I'm a rudimentary player who can't do anything fancy, but when playing this guitar next to a normal guitar, it sort makes the playing as a whole sound a little fancier than it really is. I'll take that any day of the week.

 

Here is a track I recorded recently with the Sport playing in the left channel (if you have your speakers/headphones wired correctly [biggrin] )

 

https://soundcloud.com/lars1968/den-ha-r-stan

 

I can really recommend this type of small guitar and set of strings, if you are looking for something a little different.

 

Lars

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Hey Lars,

 

The images did not show up in your post for me, but I got to see them by extracting the URLs.

 

We too are 3/4 fans! Here is a picture of ours with an 1935 3/4 L-00 and some other Zoos. The 3/4 L-00 is on the left -- the 3/4 Sport Model is on the right.

 

Zoos.jpg

 

Ours both sound great -- but different. The L-00 3/4 is x-braced, the Sport Model is ladder braced.

 

We also have a Martin 5-18 terz. What you can do with these tiny jewels is indeed breathtaking. Thanks for sharing.

 

-Tom

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Tom, the 3/4 guitars almost look "normal" in your picture. It is hard to get an image across that really show how small these things are. I remember you posting a comparison video of your Gibson and Kalamazoo 3/4 guitars some time back. Do you mind posting it again?

 

I bet that x-braced L-00 3/4 sounds great with normal strings. The ladder braced Kalamazoo version has an incredibly dry and snappy, almost banjo-like tone. With normal strings, I found it very hard to record, with my limited equipment. I couldn't make it record with anywhere near its natural tone. However, I find it perfectly suited for recording with Nashville strings. The guitars look like toys, but they a certainly not. A lot of fun!

 

Lars

 

By the way, I tried updating the links. Hope they work...

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Tom, the 3/4 guitars almost look "normal" in your picture. It is hard to get an image across that really show how small these things are. I remember you posting a comparison video of your Gibson and Kalamazoo 3/4 guitars some time back. Do you mind posting it again?

 

I bet that x-braced L-00 3/4 sounds great with normal strings. The ladder braced Kalamazoo version has an incredibly dry and snappy, almost banjo-like tone. With normal strings, I found it very hard to record, with my limited equipment. I couldn't make it record with anywhere near its natural tone. However, I find it perfectly suited for recording with Nashville strings. The guitars look like toys, but they a certainly not. A lot of fun!

 

Lars

 

By the way, I tried updating the links. Hope they work...

 

Here is what I have. It is not a particularly good demo IMO, but you can certainly hear the difference between the Sport Model and the L-00 3/4. The guitars in the demo are 1951 5-18 Martin, 1942 Zoo Sport Model, 1935 Gibson L-00 3/4, 1934 Carson Robeson (Zoo KG-11), and 1933 Martin 0-18.

 

Link

 

Best,

 

-Tom

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Here is what I have. It is not a particularly good demo IMO, but you can certainly hear the difference between the Sport Model and the L-00 3/4. The guitars in the demo are 1951 5-18 Martin, 1942 Zoo Sport Model, 1935 Gibson L-00 3/4, 1934 Carson Robeson (Zoo KG-11), and 1933 Martin 0-18.

 

Link

 

Best,

 

-Tom

 

Thanks Tom! I think they all sound great. The last Martin sounds the most like a normal guitar, which of course is to be expected, due to its size. By the way, I think these small guitars are all about "different". The more they sound different from a normal guitar, the better in my book.

 

Lars

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