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The Kapa Page...all things Kapa

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This page is dedicated to all things Kapa. Kapa guitars were made in the USA by Koob Vaneman, a Dutch immigrant. His idea was to have an affordable, quality guitar, for the average person. He also ran a retail operation in Maryland, Vanemans music emporium. The guitars are early copy era stylings, very slim necks, Jaguar style bodies early on, then a teardrop copy called the Minstrel, which was available as a six or twelve string as well as a bass.Later there were hollowbodies, the 500 series, which were imported from japan{unassembled}. Other style names are, but not limited to, The Cobra, a single pickup model with a smaller body, the Challenger, which has strat like features, the Continental, which was available in 6&12 string models, as well as a single or two pickup bass, The Wildcat, a strat style but with three humbuckers. You'll see many of those models here.

This is one of my favorite guitars. Its a mint condition Kapa Wildcat. Three stapletop pickups, maple neck, and you gotta love that beautiful sunburst and pizza slice pickguard. I purchased this from a fellow named Tony. It was his uncles guitar and meant alot to him, but he doesnt play, and he wanted it to be played and loved. Well, I love it!

This is a mid sixties Kapa continental 12 string. Two staple top pickups, the 12 string was also available with a vibrato as well. It has a nice sound, think "Eight miles high". One problem the twelve string version has, due to the slim neck, forward bowing can occur. I do need to occaisionally tickle the truss rod on this one, but she still plays well.

This is my mid sixties Challenger, non original pickups, slim fast neck, good sustain, nicely relic'd body. Its missing the tremelo bar, but thats ok, a little easier on the strings! These are terrific players.

Editors note: The Early Kapas had Hofner{Pix} adjustable pickups, the later models had non adjustable japanese staple tops.

Heres a one of a kind{take that as you wil} a '65 Kapa Cobra, slim neck, pearloid dot markers, with a single Hofner pickup. When I bought this guitar, it was stained with a dark walnut stain. I joked with the Kapa site moderater that it looked like a coffee table without legs. Thus, it became the "Coffee table Kapa". One day this past summer, I was browsing some older guitars and came across a "Delft Blue" colored strat from the same era. So I decided to paint it. It came out quite nicely, and the color is a nice touch, even if its a non Kapa color. I then painted the pickguard a' la' Van Gogh....so now its known as the "Van Kapa". Fitting in as Mr Vaneman is of Dutch decent{as am I, however I dont claim to have V. Van Goghs ability}.

Here are a pair of mid sixties Kapa Continentals, a sunburst, and a fairly common burgundy colour. The sunburst is missing the trem bar{Im am certain there is a place in the universe where every missing trem bar is piled a mile high, along with missing wallets, car keys, lighters, etc.!} the burgundy is complete with trem. The burgundy has Japanese staple top pickups, the sunburst has Hofners{pix}.