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Electra-String Piano made in Chanute - Kustom's connection with other companies... [message #14684] Sun, 07 November 2010 02:52 Go to previous message
kustombassist is currently offline  kustombassist
Messages: 9
Registered: November 2008
Location: California
Junior Member
This piano was recently brought to my attention. see photo here:

http://www.oaktreeent.com/web_photos/keyboards/Electra-Strin g_Electric_Piano_Collage.jpg

It was evidently built in Chanute, Kansas. I am familiar with the Kustom 88 which uses electronically generated tones, but this has strings! It looks more like the Baldwin electric string pianos... I have seen "Kustom 88" pianos labeled Baldwin 88, so I suspect they might have worked together to produce these too.

Does anybody out there know about this instrument and Kustom's relationship with Baldwin in general?

Also, I recently discovered that the bridges used on Kustom basses are identical to the bridges Ovation used in the late 60's for their "Typhoon Bass". So if anybody is missing this bridge from their rare Kustom , I guess they can steal one from an equally rare Typhoon! Wink Its not included in these photos, but they even used the exact same bridge cover!
Check out a photo here:

http://www.ovationgallery.com/pagebassty3.htm

So, I'm curious if anyone knows the story about this situation too! Was the hardware for the Kustom guitar and bass line built in-house or sourced from elsewhere? Did Kustom sell off their parts to Ovation at the end of the bass production?
One thing to note is that Ovation made this model bass starting in 1968 and continued into the early 70s. The later models still used the same bridge-base, but they had slightly different saddle-pieces.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on these and any other partnerships Kustom might have had with other instrument manufacturers in the 60's.

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