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NGD - Kimberly Deluxe 4 Pick-up Solid Body Electric Guitar


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Sometime around 1970 or so (which means I would have been eight or nine years old), I was in our local Woolco department store with my parents. On a high shelf over in the electronics section there were a couple of guitars on stands, and one of them really caught my eye: green (!) and black with FOUR shiny pickups. I thought it was about the coolest thing I had ever seen (not unlike Ralphie staring at the Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model Air Rifle through the store window in A Christmas Story).

My first electric ended up being something else, but I never quite forgot that greenburst beauty from Woolco.

Many years later, through the magic of the internet, I discovered it was made by Kawai and bore the Kimberly brand name. In addition to department stores like Woolco, it was sold through Lafayette Radio Electronics mail-order catalogs. Fortunately, there’s an archive of Lafayette catalogs online, and the "Deluxe 4 Pick-up Solid Body Electric Guitar" appeared in the catalog from 1970 - 1974.

Every now and then one of them would pop up on Reverb, but most were ridiculously overpriced, the electronics didn’t work, it had suffered a neck break, etc. Finally, one showed up that, although it was missing the Kimberly logo and had a crack in the pickguard, everything appeared to be in working order. The original chipboard case was long gone, but it came with a basic gig bag. The price wasn’t bad, but I made an offer considerably lower than the asking price and to my surprise, it was accepted.

It was in serious need of cleaning and I had to fix a broken ground wire, but otherwise it was okay. I took it completely apart and cleaned it as best I could, oiled the fretboard and DeoxIT-ed the pots and switches. Someone had put silver duct tape on the back of the pickguard where it was cracked and it was a sticky mess, so I cleaned that up and patched it from the back with superglue and thin pieces of plastic. And of course I replaced the strap buttons with Dunlop strap locks (with the help of some toothpicks and Elmer’s glue), because all my guitars get Dunlop strap locks.  

Unfortunately, other than the values printed on the volume and tone pots, there isn’t a single number on it anywhere – no serial number (not that it would mean anything anyway), no pot codes, no date stamps – so there’s no way to know exactly when it was made. The only thing I have to go on is that it appeared in the Lafayette catalog from 1970 - 1974.

The tailpiece is a little weird in that you have to depress the bar in order to change a string, but that's okay. The bridge is adjustable up-and-down and the individual roller saddles can be adjusted side-to-side, but there is no back-and-forth adjustment. Hey, who needs intonation adjustment anyway, right?

Four pickups and four switches gives you SIXTEEN (including all-on and all-off) pickup combinations, which is pretty cool. Individually, the pickups are pretty weak, but since they’re wired in series all four of them on at the same time gives you a satisfying Hound Dog Taylor-style roar (HDT frequently played a four-pickup Kawai/Kingston).

I’m looking forward to trying it out on a gig with the blues band. But most of all, I feel like a circle has been completed: fifty-plus years later, I finally got that green guitar (well, one like it, anyway) I saw in Woolco all those years ago.

 

Kimberly Deluxe 4 Pick-up Solid Body Electric Guitar, post-cleanup:

Kimberly 01b.JPG

 

Back view:

Kimberly 03b.JPG

 

With Couch None-More-Black strap in front of my 1974 Univox amp:

Kimberly 04b.JPG

 

Lafayette catalog #700, page 192, 1970:

Kimberly 06.JPG

 

Lafayette catalog #743, page 51, 1974 (coincidentally enough, this page also features a Univox Hi-Flier - which was my first electric guitar in 1973):

Kimberly 07.JPG

 

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That guitar is so ugly that it's cool. Kind of like a velvet Elvis.  The greenburst finish and FOUR pickups are like icing on the cake.

So...a quick check of the inflation calculator indicates that the 1970 catalog price would equal ~$331 in 2022 dollars. Consider that price for a minute and then think about how many great options low-budget guitar buyers have had in recent years.  Beginning guitarists with not-much-scratch had very few options 50 years ago. 

ETA:  Gotta laugh at the catalog writers' use of the term "outfit".  I guess "rig" wasn't in the parlance of the common folk back then. 

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26 minutes ago, Biz Prof said:

That guitar is so ugly that it's cool. Kind of like a velvet Elvis.  The greenburst finish and FOUR pickups are like icing on the cake.

So...a quick check of the inflation calculator indicates that the 1970 catalog price would equal ~$331 in 2022 dollars. Consider that price for a minute and then think about how many great options low-budget guitar buyers have had in recent years.  Beginning guitarists with not-much-scratch had very few options 50 years ago. 

ETA:  Gotta laugh at the catalog writers' use of the term "outfit".  I guess "rig" wasn't in the parlance of the common folk back then. 

Velvet Elvis - yes, exactly!

And yes, the quality of entry-level guitars was pretty bad back then. I'm sure a lot of beginnings guitarists got really discouraged when their guitar wouldn't stay in tune, play in tune or was just generally hard to play. You can get MUCH more for your money these days.

All those old catalog writers LOVED the word "outfit"! 😆

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I'm pretty sure that same four pickup guitar was offered for sale at the local Goldblatt's store. And we also had a Lafayette Radio store in town that was the preferred source for all of the CB radio equipment we had to have back in the '70s.

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THAT. IS. AWESOME! Are we talking 4 volumes and a master tone knob? The  green burst painted back of the neck takes the prize. Overall, the guitar just resembles any fictional representation of an electric guitar. 

Hard to believe that the arm for the whammy bar was still intact. You can’t say that for just about every (Hamer) Daytona that turns up for sale. 

Do the Hound Dog in good health!

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13 hours ago, crunchee said:

Very cool!  Now you can play Hound Dog Taylor tunes with authority!:

His songs have been a favorite of others too, those with better equipment and less fingers (Hound Dog Taylor had six on each hand):

 

Yes! We already do two Hound Dog songs; since 2008 we've opened petty much every show with "Give Me Back My Wig" and closed one of the sets with "She's Gone."

 

I think I'm gonna try "It's Alright" on the Kimberly.

 

And yes, SIX fingers! (Until he got drunk one night and chopped off the extra right-hand finger a straight razor.)

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That is a great back story and research to go with it. 

Eastwood may have already done a copy of that Kimberly by now, but if not you can request it.  Their versions have better construction than the original 60s guitars, and sometimes they change neck dimensions to be more in line with what people look for today.  It is not the same as finding the guitar you wanted as a kid, but you can gig with what they make.  Think of it like rich people spending big bucks on a piece of jewelry while wearing a knock-off in public. 

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7 minutes ago, Steve Haynie said:

That is a great back story and research to go with it. 

Eastwood may have already done a copy of that Kimberly by now, but if not you can request it.  Their versions have better construction than the original 60s guitars, and sometimes they change neck dimensions to be more in line with what people look for today.  It is not the same as finding the guitar you wanted as a kid, but you can gig with what they make.  Think of it like rich people spending big bucks on a piece of jewelry while wearing a knock-off in public. 

Eastwood is great. I really like the idea of more gig-worthy versions of rare/obscure guitars at affordable prices. I have an Eastwood Delta-6, which is a reproduction of a Mosrite Californian. A real Californian would have cost thousands of dollars and I probably would have been afraid to take it out of the house, whereas the Eastwood is well-made, super-reliable and stays in tune (even tuned to open-A) - for a fraction of the cost of a vintage Mosrite.

I don't think Eastwood has done a repro of the Kimberly yet (although requesting it is a good idea), but they do have the SD-40 Hound Dog, which is a recreation of HDT's Kingston:

Eastwood-Guitars_SD40HoundDog_Redburst_Right-hand_Full-front_1800x1800.jpg
 

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OMG I had that exact same guitar!

I bought it at a garage sale when I was about 13 growing up in the suburbs of NYC. It was 1989 or 90 and I was playing Floyd Rose trems, and I vividly remember having to depress the bar to change strings. I sold it to a friend when I was about 16 for maybe a hundred bucks. Always wondered what happened to it until about 15 years later I was visiting a friend who taught at Muzic in Chappaqua (an affluent town North of the City) and it was hanging on the wall! I asked about it and discerned that My childhood friend’s stepmom sold it to them when he went to college. It was essentially wall art, and I explained my history with it and asked to buy it back. They told me five hundred dollars or something. Ugh.

Sad that I never got that one back to hang on the wall for posterity, but actually truly happy for you that you found this one! It somehow satisfies my same empty spot knowing you got it. So happy for you! 🤘😁

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Kimberly 01b.JPG
Very nice nostalgia and great story. I like it.

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Very cool! I remember drooling over that same guitar when I was 9 years old, but never got one. In my young mind, the more pups and controls, the better! 😂

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My SECOND electric guitar was a 4-pickup Teisco (hard to believe that the the first was cheaper and much worse).  I remember mooning over the green guitar in the Lafayette catalog, but I bought the Teisco elsewhere, used.  Lafayette was, however, the source of my first amp (Tempo SS 5-watt combo) and fuzz box (LRE Fuzz Sound).

But enough about your weird green guitar.  Tell us about the Univox cabinet and, (I hope) the amp that sits atop it.

 

 

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On 4/4/2022 at 7:07 PM, stobro said:

I'm pretty sure that same four pickup guitar was offered for sale at the local Goldblatt's store. And we also had a Lafayette Radio store in town that was the preferred source for all of the CB radio equipment we had to have back in the '70s.

Yeah, in addition to the Lafayette catalog guitars like this were sold in department stores all over the place - Goldblatt's, Woolco, etc. We didn't have a Lafayette store in my area, but I can remember getting the catalogs in the mail and I was always fascinated by the dazzling array of electronic gadgetry inside.

 

On 4/4/2022 at 10:05 PM, topekatj said:

THAT. IS. AWESOME! Are we talking 4 volumes and a master tone knob? The  green burst painted back of the neck takes the prize. Overall, the guitar just resembles any fictional representation of an electric guitar. 

Hard to believe that the arm for the whammy bar was still intact. You can’t say that for just about every (Hamer) Daytona that turns up for sale. 

Do the Hound Dog in good health!

Yes, four volumes, one tone and one on/off switch for each pickup - a world of possibilities! I'm not surprised the arm is still there - it takes a screwdriver (or socket wrench) and a wrench to remove it. I HAVE seen some of these where the arm is broken off, so I was lucky to find this one with the arm still in one piece.

 

16 hours ago, DaveH said:

Very cool! I remember drooling over that same guitar when I was 9 years old, but never got one. In my young mind, the more pups and controls, the better! 😂

That's EXACTLY what I thought!

On 4/5/2022 at 3:00 PM, geoff_hartwell said:

OMG I had that exact same guitar!

I bought it at a garage sale when I was about 13 growing up in the suburbs of NYC. It was 1989 or 90 and I was playing Floyd Rose trems, and I vividly remember having to depress the bar to change strings. I sold it to a friend when I was about 16 for maybe a hundred bucks. Always wondered what happened to it until about 15 years later I was visiting a friend who taught at Muzic in Chappaqua (an affluent town North of the City) and it was hanging on the wall! I asked about it and discerned that My childhood friend’s stepmom sold it to them when he went to college. It was essentially wall art, and I explained my history with it and asked to buy it back. They told me five hundred dollars or something. Ugh.

Sad that I never got that one back to hang on the wall for posterity, but actually truly happy for you that you found this one! It somehow satisfies my same empty spot knowing you got it. So happy for you! 🤘😁

That's a great story! Sorry you couldn't get it back, though.

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10 hours ago, Rich_S said:

My SECOND electric guitar was a 4-pickup Teisco (hard to believe that the the first was cheaper and much worse).  I remember mooning over the green guitar in the Lafayette catalog, but I bought the Teisco elsewhere, used.  Lafayette was, however, the source of my first amp (Tempo SS 5-watt combo) and fuzz box (LRE Fuzz Sound).

But enough about your weird green guitar.  Tell us about the Univox cabinet and, (I hope) the amp that sits atop it.

 

 

My first amp was a Tempo! I don't have it any more, but here it is in a Lafayette catalog:

Tempo Lafayette.jpg

Mine didn't come from a catalog, though, it came from Bishop's Music in Nederland, TX, when I got my first electric guitar - a Univox Hi-Flier - in May, 1973. It was my amp when my neighbor and I got our first band together.

In March of 1974, we played my school's annual talent show (I was in the seventh grade). It ran two nights: Tuesday and Thursday. After the first night, it was clear my little Tempo just wasn't loud enough for a venue as large as the Woodlawn Junior High auditorium. So on Wednesday, March 27, 1974, my dad and I went back to Bishop's Music and traded it (along with some cash) for a Univox U-1226 amp. 60 watts, all tube, two 12" speakers in a separate cab.

It works best if you bridge the channels like a four-input Marshall. What really sets it off is some kind of preamp, so sometime in '74 or '75 my dad and I built the two-battery preamp from Craig Anderton's Electronic Projects for Musicians book - it's the little silver box on the top right.

The label on the reverb enclosure reads:
Q.C. Electronics, Inc.
Folded Line Reverberation Device.
Manufactured by beautiful girls in Milton, Wis. under controlled atmosphere conditions.

When I got my Peavey Mace in 1976, the Univox began to see less use, and sometime in the mid-'80s it basically went into storage at my parents' house.

Then, last year, I decided to see if it could be brought back to life. I do most of my electronics work myself, but I have a friend/bandmate who's really good with tube amps so I let him have a crack at it. He did a great job with it.

Oh man, this thing is awesome. And LOUD. It's mostly Fender-like, but if you bridge the channels and add the preamp it gets almost Marshall-esque. Turn the volume(s) up past 10:00 and stand back.

For now I've just been playing around with it at home, but at some point I'd like to work it into a gig. (I've gotta be careful with it, though - no road case or covers.)

 

1974 Univox U-1226 head and matching  2x12 cab:

Univox Amp Large (2).jpg

 

Close-up of the head. Note the homemade Craig Anderton preamp on the right. The brown box is an accessory box my dad made for me in 1974.

Univox Amp Head Large.jpg

 

 

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Yup, that's the same Tempo amp I had.  It ended up being cut down into a head and used to power the audio input for the color organs in the flashing disco lighting system me & my friend Alan built in the late '70s, when mediocre rock bands couldn't get gigs because of The Bee Gees, et al.

Now that we're completely off-topic (and I admit at least some responsibility for that) I'll share my Univox obsession.   When I got back into playing 15-ish years ago and was horrified by the prices of tube amps, I decided to build myself one.  I converted an old Bogen PA chassis into a Marshall 18 Watter clone and when I needed an enclosure for it, I opted to go for the old '70s Univox styling.  Real Univoxs like yours are way too powerful for my needs, so this gives me the look without the loud.

spacer.png

At about the same time, I was browsing all things Univox on eBay, and came across a chassis from a small solid-state piggyback amp.  It had the groovy '70s silk-screen graphics and only cost me 9 bucks, so I stashed it in my workshop.  Several years later, I decided that a chassis that size, with holes for 2 jacks and three pots was just begging to be turned into a blackface Champ.  I was going to build it myself, but a guy called MuchSX from the TDPRI forum (a well-regarded expert on old Fender amps) made me an offer I couldn't refuse.  So I sent him the chassis and he built me a Champ clone out of assorted recycled electronic bits.  He even made a dovetail-joint enclosure for it out of scrap pine shelving.  I later covered it in green tolex to match my little Lopo Line 1-12 cabinet. 

spacer.png

So, both my amps look like Univox, without actually being Univox.

 

 

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On 4/8/2022 at 5:55 PM, Rich_S said:

Yup, that's the same Tempo amp I had.  It ended up being cut down into a head and used to power the audio input for the color organs in the flashing disco lighting system me & my friend Alan built in the late '70s, when mediocre rock bands couldn't get gigs because of The Bee Gees, et al.

Now that we're completely off-topic (and I admit at least some responsibility for that) I'll share my Univox obsession.   When I got back into playing 15-ish years ago and was horrified by the prices of tube amps, I decided to build myself one.  I converted an old Bogen PA chassis into a Marshall 18 Watter clone and when I needed an enclosure for it, I opted to go for the old '70s Univox styling.  Real Univoxs like yours are way too powerful for my needs, so this gives me the look without the loud.

spacer.png

At about the same time, I was browsing all things Univox on eBay, and came across a chassis from a small solid-state piggyback amp.  It had the groovy '70s silk-screen graphics and only cost me 9 bucks, so I stashed it in my workshop.  Several years later, I decided that a chassis that size, with holes for 2 jacks and three pots was just begging to be turned into a blackface Champ.  I was going to build it myself, but a guy called MuchSX from the TDPRI forum (a well-regarded expert on old Fender amps) made me an offer I couldn't refuse.  So I sent him the chassis and he built me a Champ clone out of assorted recycled electronic bits.  He even made a dovetail-joint enclosure for it out of scrap pine shelving.  I later covered it in green tolex to match my little Lopo Line 1-12 cabinet. 

spacer.png

So, both my amps look like Univox, without actually being Univox.

 

 

That's so cool! Always happy to see another Univox fan out there - even if the Univoxes only look like Univoxes!

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  • 1 month later...

Took it out for a spin this weekend. Hopefully I can get video next time, but for now here's a still shot.

As planned, I used it on Hound Dog Taylor's "It's Alright." With all four pickups on, it's loud and REALLY dark - which works out well for HDT.

 

SUIT_Mill_2022-06-04_001.JPG

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I had some no name 4 pup thing as my 1st electric, summer before 6th grade. Had the 4 white switches too, but not 5 knobs.BK 6th grade.jpg

 

 

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