Kapa guitars were founded in ’63 by a Dutch immigrant dude called Koop Venemen. He had a music shop and then became one of the many to get into the booming guitar manufacturing business in the 60′s.

Venemen imported the necks, pickups and electronics from Hofner and the tuners from Schaller in Germany. He then built the bodies, bridges and tremolos back home in Maryland and assembled them all there.

Kapa were really the American Hofner and the Challenger was Kapa’s most popular models.

One of Kapa’s earliest models, it has a killer sounding tone circuit and pickups that can be really mellow and warm all the way up to overdriven scuzz fuzz. Super loud Hofner humbuckers although they may just be single coil- the debate continues – all I know is that these Hofner 511 super twin coils are some of the coolest sounding pickups I have ever heard.

Strat like body – supposedly Fender sued – so it’s a “Lawsuit Model”.

Tags: 511, 60's, america, blues, challenger, dutch, electric, fender, germany, guitar, harmony, hofner, hofner 511 super twin coils, japan, kapa, kay, kent, maryland, pickups, rare, recording, schaller, sixties, strat, stratocaster, vintage, whammy

The guitars of the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s, their designs, innovation and features are a cut above the rest. It was the Guitar’s heyday and a highpoint in guitar manufacturing. The time and the music created a huge market where a lot of large small and tiny music manufacturers could survive for a short period of time.

There was a lot of cool guitars and yeah there were lots of nice Fenders, Gretsches and Gibsons and they are the guitars that everyone remembers but the “Coolest” guitars, the most innovative guitars, the guitars that pushed design and feature boundries – well they were the Silvertones, the Danelectros, the Kays and Harmonys, the Hofners and all the other weird and wonderful small Japanese, American and European guitars.

They might have borrowed a few ideas from the big boys of guitar design and building but they in turn had their ideas adopted by the bigger companies when their ideas or designs were ahead of the game. Their affordable price enabled a generation to create a golden era of music, like cheap synths and drum machines enabled andother golden era of innovation and like the computers and software of today are doing as we speak.

These guitars are now collectable in their own right, especially as all the Fender and Gibson prices rise and rise these guitars are still relatively cheap in the collector’s guitar market for what they deliver. It’s the sound of the instruments, the pickups and the amps. It’s also the sound of the records we love and its the sound of the records, the kit and the instruments – it’s what we will always remember and connect with. The first time u play a guitar like this or any decent vintage kit – you will get it – you will make the connection. You will always remember the sound of it cause its what you have always been listening to and trying to emulate.

Tags: 50's, 60's, 70's, acoustic, airline, america, american, amplifier, bands, barcelona, beck, berlin, blues, brooklyn, classic, collector, cork, danelectro, deep south vintage, design, ds vintage, dublin, electric, electronic, england, europe, fender, france, germany, gibson, gigs, gretsch, guild, guitar, guitarist, harmony, hofner, hollow-body, humbucker, import, ireland, jack white, japenese, josh homme, kay, les paul, lipstick pickup, liverpool, london, manchester, martin, new york city, nyc, paris, queens of the stone age, rare, recording, rock, scan, scan's guitars, scotland, silvertone, single-coil, soid-body, spain, strat, supro, teisco, telecaster, the white stripes, uk, vintage, wales

We Are You…

We are passionate about writing playing and recording great music. We love the processes and tools used in the past and the present to produce great music. We feel that all music is recapitulation and a reinterpretation of what has gone before, that the only thing that changes is the perspective of the creators and the knowledge that a good tool will always hold its value and can enable someone to paint a picture relative and fresh in its time .

We Want To…

Offer budding or experienced musicians and producers killer vintage guitars and basses to start with and in the mean time great we will be hunting down and finding vintage amps, synths, effects and recording gear. We want to import quality kit mainly from the US and Europe for re-sale in Ireland, the UK and Mainland Europe.

Tags: 50′s, 60′s, 70′s, acoustic, airline, america, american, amplifier, bands, barcelona, beck, berlin, blues, brooklyn, classic, collector, cork, danelectro, deep south vintage, design, ds vintage, dublin, electric, electronic, england, europe, fender, france, germany, gibson, gigs, gretsch, guild, guitar, guitarist, harmony, hofner, hollow-body, humbucker, import, ireland, jack white, japenese, josh homme, kay, les paul, lipstick pickup, liverpool, london, manchester, martin, new york city, nyc, paris, queens of the stone age, rare, recording, rock, scan, scan’s guitars, scotland, silvertone, single-coil, soid-body, spain, strat, supro, teisco, telecaster, the white stripes, uk, vintage, wales