King Guitars, What the......???

I just noticed that the makers of the brilliant King Doublebass is now making Hollow and Solid body guitars. They Hollowbodies look cool, a mix of an SG and Gretsch with what seems to be all the good things in life. They will also custom paint the guitars like they do the basses. When did this all happen?

TV , I'm sure you've had a play, what are they like and what's the pricing??

Funky! Can't decide if I like the pointy cutaways on the hollowbodies or not. Kinda looks perfect for rockabilly heavy metal!

BTW, there's a couple other pics in their MySpace albums of Brophy Dale from Lee Rocker's band with a King guitar.

Brophy Dale is playing this T-Style guitar.
You can see it on the cover of his album.

Sounds good.
But i guess the price is high.

Last year when Brophy Dale was in the Netherlands on tour with Lee, he let me play that guitar..

Them f-holes look sweet.

Dunno how they sound (hollowbodys) or whats the pricetag.

The double cutaway might be perty handy up the neck.

Those are TV-Jones Pickups, arent they?
Anyway, here is a Video of one of those King Guitars (with Lee Rocker playing Bass!)


I do still prefer the venetian cutaway, but those axes got an awesome Sound!

some total legend wrote:

I just found out from Brad via the King Guitar's Myspace page, they have an Orange Sparkle Hollowbody like in the pic for sale for $2500 USD. It's one of the early run of guitars they did, with TV Jones, Bigsby etc.

René-a-pony

that's Jesse Dayton (ex- Road Kings) on guitar in that video, he's no slouch, and yes the king guitars are awesome!

g

anyone know if that bridge is pinned?

That pict of the double cutaway has been on the net for over a year, I think I posted it here 2 namm shows ago (somehow it gives me the creeps and I love old SGs)..but this yrs namm show only had these funky simpletons

Along with the ones in the pict of my son watching a bass demo at the king booth, shortly after I heard a demo with some dude jammin with
Spazz on the upright.

hmm...I'm stickin with gretsch when it comes to the billy boxes..

saw brophy at the show too over at gretsch..

Brophy's "custom" tele is very nice (he uses a Zvex super hard-on booster with it) but in the world of telecasters, there a tons of good builders and a slew of really really great options.
If you have heard of Don Mare pickups, glendale bridges, or callaham hardware..we should start a tele post.
I'm building a tele with a set of tvjones classics, a g.e. smith half bridge with an ebony fretboard strat neck using one of those new "road worn" alder bodies shot in nitro. (fun to come)

King Double bass is good for double bass guits no doubt...

ps. I like Brophy's other "tele" a bit better, the fender custom shop built by chris fleming with bigsby and tvjones, sounds awesome with
his tophat ambassador and super deluxe

tvthewiredturtle wrote:

Along with the ones in the pict of my son watching a bass demo at the king booth, shortly after I heard a demo with some dude jammin with
Spazz on the upright.

*Squeal!*

That dude is Mikey "Chops" Laconte. Formerly of Slick Pelt. He currently plays with Barry Ryan from the Rockats in the Rockabilly Express (and knowing Chops, probably multiple other projects I *don't* know about LOL).

He's a great person.

Glendale bridges and saddles turn an average tele into awesome. I have one of his bridges and brass saddles on my AM deluxe series tele and that thing was pretty good before (well, the best off-the-shelf tele I played at local shops) to an alive and twanging machine. It seems the guitar "breathes" better than it did with the heavy bridge and 6 steel saddles

I want to try some Don Mare pickups, or Fred Stuart pickups in there someday. I have a set of Harmonic Design vintage plus now, and they are worlds better than the vintage noiseless that came in the tele.

Right now, I'm more focused on my Spectra Sonic and getting that running great. I got the pickups adjust to TV Jones spec a few weeks ago and it really sounds great. I need to get the volume bleed mod in there and change the tone cap.

to keep this post on topic...I do dig the flat black and red king that Lee Rocker plays...it'd be awesome to have a big Gretsch Hollow in that color scheme with black TV Jones P'tron style pickups.

tvthewiredturtle wrote:

...we should start a tele post.

Hey TV, you should have a look at this beast, guess you like it:

that guitar is tops! Is that a spruce top I spy on that thing?

webelvis wrote:

tvthewiredturtle wrote:

...we should start a tele post.

Hey TV, you should have a look at this beast, guess you like it:

aha... thats been around a while and incredible! Paul Waller is the builder and that guitar is built from Benedetto materials for the NAMM show a few yrs back, they did several of them and they were around $8K each.
..hand carved solid spruce top, carved maple back and sides, no plywood, TV Jones Classics for pickups

Paul is one of the best the fender custom shop has and yet has not been given the well deserved title of Master Builder. He's my good friends son in law from Temecula (sunkidd on this forum).
He took my american standard strat and redid the frets, each one is like a piece of friggin
jewelry. I have fallen in love with my ol' strat again.


check his site :
http://www.wallerguitars.com/

more picts of this guitar:

webelvis wrote:

tvthewiredturtle wrote:

...we should start a tele post.

Hey TV, you should have a look at this beast, guess you like it:

Fender needs more of those out there. looks like a fun guitar

WildCat wrote:

*Squeal!*

That dude is Mikey "Chops" Laconte. Formerly of Slick Pelt. He currently plays with Barry Ryan from the Rockats in the Rockabilly Express (and knowing Chops, probably multiple other projects I *don't* know about LOL).

He's a great person.

Since the thread is already being derailed; The Rockats played in Norway last summer, with Chops on bass and Eddie Everett on drums (and of course Dibbs and Barry), and they did one helluva show! And they're the nicest guys. Chops was a little worried about the bass that was being provided, but a friend of mine let him borrow his beautiful, brand new King. And he played GOOD!

The Rockats on stage

Me posing backstage with Barry and Chops

Anders