I was surfing on eBay a while ago and checked out some of the auctions that a favorite seller of mine had going on. My seller is a Cozart dealer and specializes in China-made instruments. This month’s guitar caught my eye. It’s kind of a cross between a Tele, a Mustang, and a Les Paul Special. It has a mahogany body and neck, a T-style headstock, and an ashtray bridge with a 3-way adjustment. The bridge is top-loading and has a T-style single-coil pickup, and the controls are mounted on a T-style chrome control plate. The neck pickup is a P-90 (Oh yeah, mama! My favorite flavor!), and the guitar has a Mustang-like body shape. The headstock says “King.” I’ve bought a few King-labeled guitars before, with good luck, so I bookmarked it and kept an eye on it.
After a few days, I started thinking more and more about this guitar. You know how it is. A guitar starts speaking to you in your dreams or something. There was a buy-it-now price of $189.99 with free shipping, but the listing also said, “or best offer,” so, being the bottom feeder I am, I made an offer of $165. The bid was automatically declined, so I inched my way up to $170. Declined again. So, finally, having only one bid left, I said $175. That seemed to be the magic number. The offer at that point was sent to the seller, who accepted it within a few hours, and the deal was made.
Photo 2 — Note the Will Ray signature Helle-Bender, the standard T-style control dial plate, and the ashtray bridge with 3-way adjustment. Despite the latter, fret-filing was required to knock out this guitar’s buzzing upon arrival.
Bottom Feeder Tip #377: Since eBay allows you to make a total of only three offers during the auction cycle of an item, I try not to offend the seller with an offer that is too lowball. Usually 5 to 10 percent lower than asking price is still in the ballpark. What do you have to lose?
Photo 3 — This instrument’s exact origins are a bit unclear, but it’s ostensibly made in China and it’s not the first King in the Bottom Feeder collection.
I received the guitar about four days later. I was excited to unpack it. It had a cool look. I did a quick setup. The King T-Stang played very well, but there were a few high frets that bugged me. I kept adjusting the bridge and truss rod to minimize the problem, but the buzzing still continued to bother me.
Photo 4 — With its bolt-on neck, mahogany body, and poly finish, this instrument appears to have gotten some genuine love on the production floor.
I finally made the decision to email the seller and explain the problem. I made a suggestion: How about a $25 partial refund so I could get the problem addressed by a good guitar tech? To his credit, the seller immediately PayPal’d me the $25 and we were both happy campers. I decided to work on the buzz problem myself by filing down the high frets in a couple of areas, and then I slapped a Hipshot bender on the guitar—a sure sign that an instrument is a keeper. I can’t explain it, but this King is just a fun little guitar to play. Listen to my MP3 online and hear it sing!
It’s no secret that I like Cozart guitars. (If you need proof, check out my love affair with this Rickencopy and blanket-covered T-style.) They make some interesting instruments that are always in Bottom Feeder territory, but you have to be careful. Some of these China-made guitars are built great, while others can be train wrecks. It’s hard to know in advance what you’re getting. That is, unless you happen to know the seller.
I saw this baby on eBay a while back. It was being offered by a seller I’ve bought from before. He gets good cheap guitars, modifies them to make them better, and then sells them for a profit. He nicknames his guitars “Custom Shack” creations.
This guitar intrigued me from the git-go. It was a Cozart T-style with a burl-maple top and an F-hole. The seller had changed out the 3-way bridge to a nicer Wilkinson with compensated brass saddles, installed Schaller-type locking tuners, and swapped out the cheap pickups with better ones. I asked the seller who made the guitar’s pickups, and how much the guitar weighed. He replied it weighed 5.5 pounds and that the bridge humbucker was made in China and measured 9k. Then he told me something interesting: The neck pickup was really muddy until he took the chrome cover off. Then it was “5 times better sounding.”
I thought about the guitar for a while, and later asked him if the neck had any issues. He said it was better than most Cozarts he had played, and had very little string buzzing. Then he shot me an offer. I made a counteroffer and we settled on $160, which included shipping.
Image 2 — Although the Hipshot bender was added by our columnist, this close-up also shows the Wilkinson bridge with compensated brass saddles that was among the seller’s mods.
Bottom Feeder Tip #284: Sometimes buying a cheap guitar is much sweeter if someone has already modified it and taken care of potential problems. They’ve done all the hard work, and now you can simply enjoy it.
When I received the guitar three or four days later, it was more than I expected. It’s very easy to play, the pickups sound great, and the intonation is spot on. It’s also very lightweight, which got me wondering: Why are most U.S.-made guitars so heavy compared to China-made ones? It’s a question that pops up every time I pick up an American-made Tele that weighs eight or nine pounds. I’ve even had some in the 11- to 12-pound range.
Image 3 — The headstock on this T-style boasts that it’s “custom hand made.” Still, the quality of these guitars varies widely.
So, how do I like my Cozart Custom Shack? It’s one of my favorite T-Styles. After 20 minutes playing it, I went ahead and slapped a Hipshot bender on—a sure sign it’s staying in my collection for a while. The pickups really have some nice sizzle. I especially love the neck pickup. Listen to my MP3 and you’ll hear what I mean. Is it a keeper? Well, hell yeah!
Vintage Bridgeplate
Also available in an American Standard version, this bridge is made of the same spec’d material as the original but is slightly thicker to make it less prone to unwanted squeal.
Modern Bridge for Tele
This beefier version of a traditional Tele bridge features a solid-brass baseplate and six completely adjustable saddles for fine-tuning string height, radius, and intonation.
FCH Tele
This direct coupling system features the company’s “eCAM” saddle design, which eliminates unwanted space between the bottom of the saddle and the top of the plate.
Maverick
If a tremolo is in order, the Maverick features the company’s “Blade” technology for clarity, sustain, and stability, and V-Tone vintage-style brass saddles.
Adjustable Compensated Bridge
A locking pivot screw in the center of each unplated brass saddle on this 3-saddle design allows for precision string-intonation adjustment.
M4
The M4’s baseplate is CNC water-cut from stainless non-ferrous steel, while the solid-brass saddles feature the company’s unique hard-chrome-plating not found on other bridges.
Vintage T
Crafted with thicker, specially treated steel for an 80-percent increase in rigidity, this bridge design is intended to dramatically increase sustain, volume, and note separation.
Steel Replacement Bridge
Designed with vintage-bridge specs, these replacement units have a stamped-steel baseplate and brass saddles like the originals, but feature higher quality finish work.
TL Bridge
This bridge’s lightweight aluminum body and raw-brass saddle construction is intended to provide warm and bell-like tone transfer from strings to the body of a guitar.
Telecaster Retrofit Bridge
Available with different saddle configuration and mount styles, these laser-cut, stainless-steel bridges are non-magnetic for more transparent tone in the bridge pickup position.