Kalamazoo KGN-12 Oriole 1940 - real Gibson sound for a fracture of the price! Robert Johnson played a similar Kalamazoo and made recordings with it.

Similar to the Gibson L-00 this Kalamazoo KGN-12 Oriole is a very nice small bodied guitar, built in the Gibson Factory in Kalamazoo.

Before Gibson bought Epiphone, it had Kalamazoo. Named after Gibson’s home town in Michigan, Kalamazoo was the brainchild of Gibson president Guy Hart, who needed something to keep Gibson in the musical instrument business through the Great Depression.

This Kalamazoo brand of musical instruments was marketed as “The World’s Greatest Value,” with the quality of Gibson’s manufacturing at Great Depression era prices.

The Kalamazoo KGN-12 Oriole is a special model and was the high end model in the Kalamazoo range. It was only built in 1940 and 1941 and is quite rare. It has a spruce top and maple back and sides. The nut width is 44 mm.

We already had many Gibson L-00 and quite a few Kalamazoo guitars too … this is truly a gem … light like a feather and with an immediate response to the lightest touch it gives you the impression that it plays by itself. A fantastic attack combined with a great dynamic makes this guitar to an unbeatable vintage cannon. It impresses with the sound of old and matured wood – vintage fans can understand what we mean.

This Kalamazoo KGN-12 Oriole 1940 is in good condition for its age. It has a lot of traces from play and use and the finish is quite worn, but it is free from cracks and brakes. The neck has been reset and the frets are new - the guitar plays great, with a low action. The FON is there but we could not read it. We dated it according to the information of the previous owner to 1940.

It comes with the original case, which is a bit in a rough shape, but definitely one of the coolest vintage cases we have seen so far.