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Flea Market Barn Discovery.
A few week ago my wife and I were driving around looking for flea markets. She likes to look at clothes, shoes, purses and many more…. Me, I just walk around scanning side to side seeing if there’s anything I can’t live without, LOL! We walked through this old barn looking building full of stuff. No order at all!! Just looked liked someone unloaded piles and piles of stuff. As I’m, Mike and Franking my way through and around this maze of junk something caught my eye. Is that what I think it is under bags and junk? Yes it is, it’s a guitar! So I dug it out and looked it over. Immediately I fell in love with it’s gritty old patina. I really didn’t care if it was a vintage, I just loved the way it looked. So I thought to myself, I wonder if it’s repairable/playable? I offered the lady $20.00 she said no, it’s 100 years old I want $100.00! So I walked away and did a little research on my phone. I looked up the name Kamico K but nothing matched what I was looking at. No #’s inside at all just a name. I thought to myself maybe $50.00 for a cool wall hanger just incase it’s not playable???? So I offered up a 50 and she said yes. Man I thought! I can’t wait to take it to our local Luthier.
That afternoon I ran up town to talk to Kevin, a Luthier where I purchased my other 2 guitars. This is his thoughts of my barn find.
* Other than a rough life, (wish it could talk kinda look) a few minor cracks- body only, glue joints including heel are solid. Bridge not loose, fret board/neck true, tuners good for it’s age, back of body not warped, headstock good.
* Not able to give exact birth date but guessing around 20 – 40’s ???
* Has no truss rod, dots on fret board are clay, tuning peg knobs are clay, the button for the strap on body is wood, nut and saddle is ivory.
* Things to replace: Nut, saddle, bridge pins, strings.
One thing the Luthier couldn’t understand was, why is there screws for a Trapeze but with a solid bridge?
This is why I’m reaching out to my TAC family for assistance. Please let me know any information if you know of or seen this type of guitar around. I would love to learn the history of this one. I’m not concerned if its valuable or not. I love the worn out patina it has and hopefully after I complete the repairs it sounds great! if it doesn’t sound good then it’s a wall hanger.
TIA!
Rodney
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35 Replies
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Please let me know if the pics are viewable. For some reason I’m not able to open pics???
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@outdoorgator Was not able to open that Image you sent.
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Photos are now available.
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Here are the pics of the Kamico K
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This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by outdoorgator. Reason: Loading issues
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This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by
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Okay… Apparently when it comes to uploading a pic I’m not doing something right! So if you all would like to see the pics please send me an email to tharunner@att.net this is the same email used for my TAC account. Or if any of you have any ideal what I’m doing wrong please reply. Thanks!
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I bought an old 1940’s guitar made by Stella Harmony that I would love to fix up someday. As is the action is beyond unplayayble. Even back then it was a cheapo kids guitar so I dont expect much from it but about those wall hangers…. sometimes when they got the look they got the look! The thought of “man if that old guitar could tell where its been” pops in my head everytime I see anything with worn off finish. To anyone else they probably look like old beaters but to me its a clue to mystery of its amazing past travels
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Exactly! 👍
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@outdoorgator , I just sent you an email. In the future, you can just have people send you messages through your profile. That way you wouldn’t have to give your personal email out.
You’ll have a great backstory to the guitar at the very least.
I’d go back and tell the lady at the flea market that she’d be lucky to get $20. If the guitar were that age and worth more, then why did she have it buried under other items? Also her way of storing the item depreciated the value, because it led to cosmetic damage, possibly the structural damage, which could have been worse since it wasn’t a temperature and humidity controlled atmosphere.
I have a 1973 Guild F30 that was purchased for $100 at a garage sale back in the late 70’s. Turns out it is pretty valuable. Couple thousand. I was using it when I first began playing and with TAC, but then I figured I should probably keep it in its hard case most of the time so as not to damage it. I pull it out every couple of months just to check it, clean it, play it a little. It has a beautiful aged look to the wood.
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Thanks for the info. The Luthier at the guitar shop said ” other than cosmetic wear it should play.” But the sound of it is yet to be determined. The patina of aging is what really makes it rough in a cool way. So hopefully it sounds good.
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@outdoorgator I tried uploading the photos, but for some reason they aren’t available once I do uplaOad them. I’m asking Support if they don’t allow photos anymore.
It is definitely an older guitar with a lot of character. It’s too bad that it wasn’t taken care of. Will you be following through on the repairs?
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@albert_d Photos are now visible. It took IT a bit to catch up with the recent holiday.
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Yes indeed.
Guitar has a rough look but hopefully it will sound right. The luthier seems to think so. No buffing or polishing on this one. Just a light rub down, new nut, bridge and strings. I need to be careful with the clay tunning knobs so wont be changing strings very often. Trying to figure out how to age the new nut bridge and pins to match. If guitar sounds right may order the ones you cut, they match closer to the look. Luthier said to put them in a car with someone that smokes. LOL I don’t have the patients to wait that long! LOL
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@outdoorgator That’s too funny about the car with a smoker. The difficulty there might be finding someone who even smokes in their car haha. You’d have better luck with a smoke den or humidor shop with a smoke room. Leave it in there, and it will quickly age from the smokers.
I spoke with Service regarding the photos. As far as Victoria knows, there hasn’t been a change in policy on photos. She suggested resizing the photos, but I wasn’t given that option when reviewing them. I sent her the photos, and she’s going to try and upload them here.
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Thank you!
There used to be directions on how to upload pics but I’m not able to find them.
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The pictures I posted of my guitar are t showing either.
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@That_Guy Please let Victoria at Support know, because she says she’s not aware of a problem’ and that no one else has brought up a problem. She can’t open an IT ticket with just one person’s complaint. There has to be a few complaints or service requests for assistance.
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@That_Guy Photos are now visible. It took a while for IT to catch up after recent holiday.
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Was not able to open that Image you sent.
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@Marty72 Photos are now available. It took IT a bit to get to ticket due to holiday.
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I got to see them…. nice find! Thanks @Loraine 😊👍😎
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👍
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They all opened for me @outdoorgator, great find, good for you!
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@JoeT 😮 How are you accessing them? I’ve tried through my phone, my iPad, and on my desk top. The only reason I know what the guitar looks like, is because I had them emailed to me.
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Trying to delete this post
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Good morning @Lorraine, well I’m running a Mac, I just click on the little question mark, a black window window opens up, with a sidebar on the right. In the bottom right hand corner is a “Download” tab/button, once it’s clicked on the image opens in the Preview app and is automatically downloaded to my download folder.
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Thanks!
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@outdoorgator Photos are now showing. It took IT a while to catch up after holiday to get it fixed. Yay!
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👍
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Wow – if that guitar could talk!
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Same thing I was thinking!
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hey, cool find, love the look, its rough, but did you notice the guitars played by say, chris stapleton, or willy? they look, rough too. but if it means something to you, put some strings on it and play it.. thanks for sharing…
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Thanks Dozer!
I plan on playing it. Just needs a new bridge, nut and some pins. The bridge was completely glued in saddle. So it’s going to take some time to remove without damaging the bridge. I have all the parts just not enough time yet. LOL 🙂 This is something I don’t want to rush into and trash the saddle.
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thats great, don’t let anyone steal your joy of doing this. i think it’s fantastic. sorry for the late reply, i’m still trying to figure this whole this out.
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Thanks Dozer!
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