'68 Kustom K200A

Kustom is best known as a manufacturer of amplifiers - beginning in 1965 - with their trademark "tuck-and-roll" vinyl covering derived from the car upholstery technique popular at the time. They are still around today.

The company - based in Chanute, Kansas - got into the guitar business, when the owner, Bud Ross, got together with a couple of local woodwork teachers and tapped the expertise of country guitar wizard Roy Clark. 

The result is a slightly Rickenbacker-like semi-hollow guitar , made using a very unusual construction method: the front and back are made separately, hollowed out and then joined together. The thin, fast neck is bolted on, and has an attractive four dot pearl inlay pattern, zero fret and chrome plated nut. The pickups are DeArmond 

humbuckers (row of large pole pieces and a row of small poles) with a volume and tone control for each and a three way pickup select switch. Tuners are Klusons, and the vibrato is a Bigsby. 

Many people wonder if there is some connection to either Rickenbacker or Mosrite guitars (the body design is clearly "Rick-ish", the neck is Mosrite-like). Answer: No, This was a completely original design.