KJC guitars

Guitar 9 (7-string)

• Walnut Body

• Walnut Neck

• Aged Bronze Aesthetic Overall

• Seymour Duncan Nazgul and Sentient Set

• Black and Antique Copper Schaller Hannes Bridge

• Antique Copper Brand Plate

• Locking Gotoh Tuners with Amber Buttons

Lessons learned:

• About at this point I’ve decided that working with steel frets is a horrible experience.

• Seymour Duncan Nazgul and Sentient pickups are crushing!

• I think I’ve found the perfect headstock shape. A friend pointed out that it looks like a wizard hat (like Gandalf’s) so maybe I’ll call it my “Wizard” headstock.

• I made slight tweak to my body shape but I’m not convinced by it. It still works but this will probably be the only one with this exact reshaping.

• Locking tuners add a lot of weight to the headstock, so I may not use them in the future to lessen issues with neck drop.

Guitar 8 (5-string bass)

• Alder Body

• Neck from cheap Squire Bass that I had

• Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Jazz Bass and P-Bass Pickups

• Ray Ross bridge

• 3 Guyker burnt chrome knobs (volume for each pickup and a tone knob)

• Metal brand plate “Kevin J. Cope Custom Guitars No. 8”

Lessons Learned:

• Squire necks are apparently more narrow that typical bass necks. I ended up having to get a different bridge than I had planned to use.

• Bass tuners are really great. After making this one I replaced the 8th string tuner on my 8-string below to make it easier to use an appropriately thick string.

• Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound pickups have some heft!

Guitar 7 (7-string)

• Black Schaller Hannes Bridge

• Black Limba Body

• Ebony fretboard

• Stainless steel fretwire (wide/tallest)

• Pickups:

  • Neck: Dimarzio Liquifire (John Petrucci Signature)

  • Bridge: Dimarzio Tone Zone

• 2 Black pickup rings

• Gotoh 3-way Switch

• Metal brand plate “Kevin J. Cope Custom Guitars No. 7”

Lessons Learned:

• Dimarzio Liquifire and Tone Zone pickups are a great pair. Liquifire is surprisingly smooth on this guitar and the tone zone is nice and bright for distorted low riffing.

• Schaller Hannes bridges are superbly comfortable.

• I think this one is the perfect body shape.

Guitar 6 (6-string)

Completed in approximately 2022

Specifications:

• Hydro-dipped Mahogany Body

• Body shape modeled after the Jackson Kelly, now modified to perfection

• Bare Knuckle Aftermath Pickups

• Burnt Chrome Floyd Rose Special Series Tremolo Bridge, Nut, and String Retainer

• Handmade Marbled Knobs (Etsy)

• Gotoh 3-way Switch

• Gotoh Black Tuners with White Buttons

• First Guitar With Brand Plate with Serial Number, “Kevin J Cope Custom Guitars No. 6”

Fixes/Changes since it was first made:

• Floyd Rose Special Series saddles are useless. HOWEVER! I managed to find hardened steel replacements on Reverb that are burnt chrome! They are perfect but it was a bit more of an expense on top of the cost of the original bridge.

Lessons Learned:

• The more expensive Floyd Rose tremolos that have hardened steel saddles are too expensive, but a decent way to go is to get the Special Series and replace the saddles with aftermarket hardened steel saddles that match the look. You can also find trem blocks to replace the cheaper one on the special if desired as well.

• It was on this guitar that I decided that the cost of Bare Knuckle pickups is too high. I love them but the Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio, and Lace pickups that I’ve used otherwise are just as good and a fraction of the cost.

• HYDRODIPPING: Make sure no flat surface touches the paint when dipping, it creates air bubbles and messes up the look. This one isn’t perfect but it ended up being perfect in several ways so it’s staying otherwise imperfect.

  • The paint all come to a focus at the bottom right where the jack is!

  • The purple curve up near the nameplate fits the shape perfectly!

Guitar 5 (6-string)

Completed in approximately…2022

Specifications:

• Hydro-dipped Mahogany Body

• Body shape modeled after the Jackson Kelly, with modifications

• Lace Deathbucker Pickups

• Gold Gotoh Tuners with Amber Buttons

• Marble Topped Gold Knobs

• Rose Gold Floyd Rose Special Series Tremolo Bridge, Nut, and String Retainer

• First Guitar With Brand Plate, “Kevin J Cope Custom Guitars”

Fixes/Changes since it was first made (alot has changed on this one):

• Hydro-dipped twice: The first one yellowed badly after applying a Polyurethane finish.

• Body slightly reshaped as the original horn did not allow for good high fret access and looked rather silly when I sanded it back to allow easier access. Chopped the horn off, glued a new piece of Mahogany on it and reshaped it from there.

• Replaced Floyd Rose Specal Series Tremolo with Gotoh Floyd Rose licensed bridge (it’s much better)

Lessons Learned:

• See guitar above for revelation about Floyd Rose Special Series bridge.

• Lace Deathbucker pickups are surprisingly rich and milky sounding. Not what I expected but they are really nice!

• This was my first attempt at this guitar shape, not perfect yet, it got better with the next few guitars.

Guitar 4 (8-string)

Completed in approximately…

Specifications:

• White Limba Body

• Purple Stained Barky Spalted Maple Pickguard

• Brushed Nickel Soapbar Bare Knuckle Ragnarok Pickups

• Black Nickel Floyd Rose Special Series Tremolo Bridge (saddles replaced with hardened steel), Nut, and String Retainer

• Modified neck from an Ibanez 8-string, 3-piece neck

• 2 Gotoh Push/Pull Pots wired for…

• 3-way Switch

• Gotoh Black Nickel Tuners

• Body shape modeled similarly to Guitar 2 (below)

• Black Nickel Knobs

Fixes/Changes since it was first made:

• 8th string on a guitar somehow doesn’t fit through the tuners or saddles made by these companies!

  • I got a replacement saddle and used a dremel to make it wider for the string to fit through. So stupid to need to do this…

  • I replaced the 8th string tuner with a Gotoah bass tuner! I absolutely love it and will probably do it in the future.

  • Partial scalloping on last four frets

Lessons Learned:

• (see fixes section) The 8th string NEEDS to be very thick in order to have any chance at intonation.

• The pickguard idea was cool but a lot of extra work, probably won't do it again in this exact way. Maybe just something like this that is cosmetic on front but not actually the access to the electronics.

• Bare Knuckle Ragnarok pickups are quite crushing!

Guitar 3 (6-string)

Completed in approximately…

Specifications:

• Chambered Mahogany Body with Worm-hole Golden Camphor Top

• Bare Knuckle Polymath pickups

• 2 Gotoh Push/Pull Pots wired for…

• 3-way Switch

• Roasted Maple Neck

• Stainless Steel Frets

• Black Floyd Rose Special Series Bridge, Nut, and String Retainer

• Black Gotoh Tuners

• Body shape modeled similarly to Guitar 2 (below)

Fixes/Changes since it was first made (alot has changed on this one):

• Originally stained Orange, but I was meh on it. Sanded it off and left it the natural wood color on the top and still stained the back lightly black.

Guitar 2 (7-string)

Completed in approximately…

Specifications:

• Semi-semi-chambered Ash body (I was sheepish about routing this first 100% handmade body) with Quilted Tiger Maple Top - Stained blue with a few small highlights of pink

• Neck purchased from Precision Guitar Kits: Roasted Maple Neck with Purpleheart Fretboard

• Chrome Gotoh tuners

• Chrome Floyd Rose Special Series Bridge, Nut, and String Retainer

• Gotoh push-pull pots, wired for…

• 3-way switch

• Burnt Chrome Bare Knuckle Juggernaut Pickups

• Stainless Steel frets

• Strat-style jack

• Strandberg and Kiesel influenced body shape with large cutaway from high fret access and beveled arm rest for comfort and aesthetics

Fixes/Changes since it was first made:

• Frets 21-24 scalloped and re-fretted with stainless steel frets

LESSONS LEARNED:

• Don’t be afraid of the router, be careful but not afraid to seriously take out some wood for a chambered body

Guitar 1 (6-string)

Completed in approximately April/May of 2021

Specifications:

• Precut Alder Body with Poplar top from Russia with Strandberg body shape. Made for telecaster style electronics

• Gold locking Gotoh tuners

• Gold Floyd Rose String Retainer

• Black Graphtech Nut

• Pots and electronics (prewired purchase on Reverb, all details from listing below)

  • 2 CTS Custom Premium Audio Taper 275k pots.
    1 3-way Switch
    1 Orange Drop 200V .047 capacitor or Mallory .033uf Capacitor
    1 Treble Bleed Circuit
    1 Switchcraft input Jack
    Premium Gavitt push back wiring.
    1 Kluson Gold Control Plate (USA specs)-TOO BIG FOR STRANDBERG BODY SHAPE-NOT USED
    2 WD Music Gold Flat Top Barrel Knobs or Dome Top Knobs.
    1 Black Switch Tip (switched out for Gold Strat style tip)

• Pickups:

  1. Neck

     • Originally had a Gold Bare Knuckle Brute Force, but switched out for Chrome Lace T-100

     • Gold pickup ring for Fender Telecaster PC-5763-002

  2. Bridge

     1. Bare Knuckle Cobra T

• Bridge: Babicz FCH-Tele Single Coil, Original Series, Gold

• Custom Tele Control Plate made from Oak

Fixes/Changes since it was first made:

• I hated the neck pickup. It didn’t match the bridge pickup at all by being significantly lower in volume. The change (listed above) matches much better and really completes the sound perfectly.

• Original generic Tele bridge replaced. I’ve found that I hate the height adjustment screws on the saddles of those bridges, they cut you! So I replaced it as listed above and LOVE the new bridge.

• 2024: Refretted with stainless steel frets and frets 13+ scalloped. I might scallop the whole neck I love it so much.