1968 Kustom K 200 Cherry Red, Good, Original Hard, $1,550.00

Summary: Best known for their iconic Tuck and Roll amplifiers, Kustom briefly produced a line of guitars and basses. Made in 1968 and 1969, these unique and rare instruments featured a semi-hollow body of unusual design—the front and back were made separately, hollowed out, then joined together. They have been called the love-child of a Mosrite and a Rickenbacker.

Body: Sandwiched (2-piece) book-matched semi-hollowbody maple body construction. Single “cat’s eye” hole. Red glossy finish.

Neck: Two piece maple bolt-on neck. Rosewood fingerboard with zero fret and dot inlays. Factory screw-mounted metal nut. Kluson tuning machines with clover metal buttons. Short scale. 1 ½” nut width. The frets on this vintage bass are in great shape and have lots of life left in them!

Pickups/Hardware: Two DynaSonic DeArmond single-coil pickups. Compensated bridge. Top-mounted reverse trapeze tailpiece. Two volume and two tone controls with chrome insert black fluted 7-point knobs, 3-way selector switch, white plastic pickguard.

Cosmetics: This bass guitar does showwear consistent with a vintage bass guitar from the 1960's. There are several visible dings on the top and lots of wear around the edges. The back of this guitar has buckle rash & some places where the finish has been chipped off. Structurally this instrument is in great shape and the nicks and dings add lots of character and charm. This bass also has some cool checking that has developed throughout the guitar.

Playability: Unlike the very thin necks on the K200 guitars, this bass has a comfortably round C neck profile. With its short scale and narrow nut, the bass is well suited for smaller hands (or those used to guitars), but isn’t so small that a gigging bassist would find it cramped. Action is low and play is very smooth up and down the neck. The tone dished out by the two DeArmonds is transparent and warm. This instrument also is strung up with flatwound strings & they feel smooth & easy to play.

Mods: This instrument looks like it has had a different bridge installed at one time – there are filled holes on the body near the bridge & it looks good but you can still tell that they are there when you hold the bass in your hands. We also think the pickguard may be a replacement pickguard because these instruments were supposed to have a black pickguard, however, I have also seen other examples of ones that had the white pickguard so it is possible it is original.

Weight: 8 lbs, 2 oz.

Case: Original hard shell.