Introducing…the Kal-Tone Edison
This electric guitar features an African mahogany neck and body, Granadillo fretboard, a handmade bone nut, a high-gloss finish, Waverly tuners, and a Schaller Signum bridge. The guitar’s electronics consist of a Filtertron-style humbucking pickup hand-wound here in the shop, a master volume with a treble bleed circuit, a master tone, and a control bypass switch.
About Kal-Tone Instruments
Ry Charters has had one full time profession since he was 19 years old in 1998 - Guitarmaker. Rather than focus on one type of instrument, he has worked on, studied, and built a wide variety of guitars: traditional acoustics, lap steels, solid-body electrics, and custom designs. Currently, we are producing three standard model guitars - our brand new Edison (based on the Junior guitars made in the 50s and 60s) the Wave (a bolt-on solidbody) and the Eleanor acoustic (a 1930s L-00 inspired small body design) with Black Walnut back, sides, and neck. These models have a build time of 2-3 months, and we usually have a selection of completed instruments available to choose from.
Our guitars are made here, in Kalamazoo, Michigan - an ingredient in all of our guitars. In addition to the education passed down from our predecessors, most of our wood is hand selected from local lumber mills, we wind our own pickups, make our own pickguards, and spray our own finishes. We also design all of our guitars in 3D CAD software, and use our small CNC router to make precision tooling for our traditional woodworking machines. Kalamazoo is filled with fine craftspeople we constantly call upon for help making small parts, designing and printing logos and other materials, especially here at Jerico, where our workshop and retail store calls home in the Edison neighborhood.