Kawai Archtop

[Rufus]

This is a Kawai acoustic archtop that I got off ebay that I can't identify. The store I bought it from believes it to be from the late 60's or early 70's. It is a bolt on neck, I have seen other Kawai archtops with the same neck - headstock, inlays, and truss rod - but this is the only purely acoustic one I have ever seen.



I removed the pickguard and replaced the bridge (I bought this guitar foremost to play it, but kept the original bridge which needs a new saddle.) Here's what it looked like before:



I have more pictures, let me know if you would like to see it from any other angle.

[VintAxe]

Rufus, this is tough since acoustic archtops offer few distinguishing characteristics to use for dating. Obviously, the tailpiece offers a clue, but unfortunately, Kawai used this tailpiece on various hollowbodies from 1964 to 1969. However, the headstock inlay perfectly matches a 1968 VS 180 I have an illustration of so I bet your acoustic was also made in 68. The pure acoustic archtop is indeed unusual for Kawai.

[Spud1950]

That's a mighty nice looking guitar.How does it play and sound?

[Rufus]

I really like the feel of the neck. It is almost as if it came off an electric. With the new bridge the intonation is perfect. The action, though (and I've always bitched about this with acoustics), is higher than I am used to - the neck is straight and it has a truss rod, but I put .010-.047 strings on it and I kind of like it the way it is. Great sustain, and more mellow than with .011-.050s. The way that the sound projects, it doesn't sound as loud as a lot of flattops while you are playing it, but stand in front of it and it really projects. Bottom line, I bought it to play the blues on and it works quite well. I'm looking for a neck mount pickup with adjustable pole pieces so I can use it with phosphor bronze strings.

[tiwouaf]

hi , I'm french ( sorry for my english ) i have a kawai archtop too , but I don't know the model


I don't have the pickguard , but the body have some hole I think is missing , the neck is bolt on and very great to play ,I do change the string for a better size , and right tune all of parts , in the futur I add a pickguard and a P90 pickups like ES 175 gibson , if you have any information about this model send me a message


kind regards
Denis

ps I have 6 kawai guitar , two : 1 electric KS-11 XL violin finish, 1 aquarius AQ401 , and 4 acoustic

[Rufus]

Wow, thats basically the same guitar as mine except the cutaway and the tailpiece.

I like the idea of adding P-90 pickups to make it like an ES-175. I wanted the same sort of thing but I didnt want to permanently alter the top so I put a neck mount single coil on.


The only permanent change to the guitar is the 4 screw holes in the end of the neck to hold on the pickup. I soldered together a wiring harness and a jack that is held onto the sides of the body with double sided tape. The jack is double sided taped to the mounting plate for the tailpiece.

I have it strung with DR zebras which sound great both acoustic and electric - half the windings are phosphor bronze and the other half are nickel steel. Play it through a dirty amp relatively quietly and it sounds like you are playing 2 guitars at the same time - an electric and an acoustic.

[tiwouaf]