Back in on trade, TRM is proud to present this guitar by one of the top archtop luthiers of all time. Steve Grimes is still actively building amazing guitars with a waiting list. The Kula Rose model starts at $12,000 new and like all Grimes guitars, do not come available very often on the used market. This is your chance to get one in beautiful condition without a wait.
The Kula Rose is described by Steve Grimes as having " a well defined ringing tone rarely found in an archtop guitar. It is a versatile performing guitar with a powerful projection and clear voice making it an excellent guitar for both concert and studio work." We have to agree. This guitar is his oval hole variation which he describes as having a "...mellower, deeper bass response closer to that of a flat top, while retaining that punchy mid and high range particular to arch top instruments." Again, we have to agree. We compared this guitar and three other oval hole archtops on our youtube channel. The video can be seen at this link.
This guitar features a carved, graduated Sitka spruce top which is x-braced. The solid flat back and solid curved sides as well as the soundhole rosette are made of top grade, flamed koa. The neck is made of Honduran mahogany. The fingerboard, bridge, tailpiece, and pickup housing are all made of ebony. The binding is done in bloodwood.
The electronics feature a custom wound Kent Armstrong floating mini humbucker with an ebony "Grimes" engraved housing and a piezo pickup in the floating bridge. These pickups have separate jacks in the side, allowing them to be used at the same time or separately. This guitar is amazingly versatile with great tone acoustically or plugged in. As one would expect from Steve Grimes, the playability is superb. The only cosmetic issues I can find are a very slight impression in the top wood and a light scratch next to the top binding, highlighted in closeup photos. There were some small lacquer chips on the neck that I had master luthier Darrell Guinn drop fill which I show in a photo. These can be seen on close inspection, but cannot be felt at all.
The photo of George Benson is of him playing this very guitar while it was still in Maui with Steve Grimes.
Lower bout width - 15.75 inches
Body depth - 3.5 inches
Nut width - 1.78 inches
Weight - 5.0 pounds
Fingerboard radius - 12 inches
1st fret depth - 0.83 inches
9th fret depth - 0.92 inches
The guitar comes with its original Ameritage Platinum hardshell case with built in humidifier which is also in excellent condition.
Ships free in the continental United States. We also ship worldwide. Contact us for international rates.