Gibson Kalamazoo

[2] While the bolt-neck design was already a money saver, Gibson sought cheaper materials as well and found them in MDF (also known as Masonite).

[1] Guitars were built at Gibson's old electronics plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan, not the main Parsons street factory.

[4] The Kalamazoo Bass was introduced in 1966 and like the guitar model had two body styles resembling the Mustang and the SG.

Several standard Gibson components were used in the KB, namely a typical EB series humbucker pickup used in many Epiphone basses.

[citation needed] Simultaneously Gibson produced a line of Kalamazoo amplifiers, marketed primarily as budget model practice amps.

The last of tube-style Models One and Two were given a brown, wooden look faceplate instead of the previous black panel, and are sometimes referred to as "brownface Zoo's" by Kalamazoo enthusiasts.

Before ceasing production, Chicago Musical Instruments offered a solid state Model Two with a silver face place.

However, they are fairly sought after by blues harmonica players for use in amplifying their sound with microphones due to their natural distortion and harmonics.

The Kalamazoo Reverb 12 was introduced as a larger, more powerful amplifier, boasting a 12W push-pull tube driven output through a 10" speaker.