Sam Koontz

**Archtop Guy** · 09-13-2016, 10:42 AM

This just sold on FeeBay. Top of the line Sam Koontz. From the Tsumura collection. $4550. One rare and beautiful guitar. Big Mike and Greenstone,check out the tailpiece. Think Mr. Cowles might have been influenced by this??

**BigMikeinNJ** · 09-13-2016, 11:02 AM

I half broke my vow of chastity by placing a half assed eSnipe bid on it but cancelled it 20 minutes later (is that like when Jimmy Carter said he wasn't unfaithful but he lusted in his heart ???). There's another on Reverb (not an oval hole) going for $14,000 something if my brain cells are still functioning right...

Nice.

**wintermoon** · 09-13-2016, 11:16 AM

ok, now I think I'm going to be ill.
I had one jut like this and only sold it because a friend offered me a ton of money for it. [waaay more than what this one sold for]
was an ok acoustic guitar but sounded big and thick w/that Dearmond through an amp.
aside from a '39 Super 400 I had, that's the only guitar I wish I still had.

**Stringswinger** · 09-13-2016, 12:21 PM

There is a glut of guitars and amps out there. I think the prices will remain in the buyers favor until that glut is consumed.

That was a great deal on a rare guitar.

**BigMikeinNJ** · 09-13-2016, 12:29 PM

Originally Posted by Stringswinger

There is a glut of guitars and amps out there. I think the prices will remain in the buyers favor until that glut is consumed.

That was a great deal on a rare guitar.

Truly agree... there's some great deals out there.

**wintermoon** · 09-13-2016, 12:31 PM

the one week when I didn't check the bay under Koontz....

**Jabberwocky** · 09-13-2016, 01:05 PM

There was no reserve on this? From the Tsumura Collection? Is it legit? Hijacked account maybe.

Colour me sceptical.

I did some Googling and found an expired listing in Japan for a 1976 Koontz 16" Oval Sunburst. Asking? $34120.00.

If this is real, someone lucked out and some fool took it up where the sun don't shine. 2bop mebbe lucked out!

**fws6** · 09-13-2016, 03:10 PM

Ouch. Why didnt you post BEFORE the auction ended....

**Archtop Guy** · 09-13-2016, 07:01 PM

Originally Posted by Jabberwocky

There was no reserve on this? From the Tsumura Collection? Is it legit? Hijacked account maybe.

Colour me sceptical.

I did some Googling and found an expired listing in Japan for a 1976 Koontz 16" Oval Sunburst. Asking? $34120.00.

If this is real, someone lucked out and some fool took it up where the sun don't shine. 2bop mebbe lucked out!

I see the guitar in my Tsumura book. I didn't see it until 20 minutes prior. The name Koonz isn't on my alert list. I guess I should add Standel to it also.

**neatomic** · 09-13-2016, 07:03 PM

Originally Posted by Archtop Guy

The name Koonz isn't on my alert list. I guess I should add Standel to it also.

and harptone!!

cheers

**HeyNow** · 09-14-2016, 12:28 AM

lol, I think the day the auction started is literally the day I removed a watched search for Koontz.

The fretboard is much narrower than the neck near the nut?

**cmajor9** · 09-14-2016, 07:31 AM

This one has been available for some time, at a seemingly reasonable price:

Standel 1000s (1960's)

**WilliamScott** · 09-14-2016, 04:11 PM

Koontz are good guitars, but I think they are expensive mainly because they are rare. The ones I've played have not been that impressive. I've played better Silvertones.

**neatomic** · 09-14-2016, 05:51 PM

silvertone didn't do this!!

Sam Koontz-30472694_1_x-jpg

koontz baby!

haha

he was skilled and eccentric..took chances..very much of his time..the 60's...

but i can understand the love/hate

cheers

**WilliamScott** · 09-14-2016, 06:35 PM

Gorgeous! Too bad MIDI wasn't around back then.

**NSJ** · 09-14-2016, 06:53 PM

Sam was a very close friend of the Chicago based guitarist, Jack Cecchini. On his website, Jack has a very nice personal and professional remembrance of Sam--I can tell you that I never heard an archtop with as sweet and full-toned sustain as Jack's Koontz guitar. When Johnny Smith played it, he apparently told Jack at the time that it was "the finest guitar I have played, without exception ."

So GTFO here with that silver tone BS trolling.
Here is Jack's article on Koontz--//

"I first met Sam Koontz at a music convention in Chicago. I entered a display and someone was playing a Koontz guitar. I asked if I could try it and he answered no. At that moment a man entered the room with a nametag on his lapel that read Sam Koontz. I asked him if he had built the guitar and he said yes. I asked him if I could try it and he said sure. He took the guitar away from the player and gave it to me. I played it and asked if it was for sale. He answered yes. I asked the price and he said $700.00 dollars. I took out my checkbook and paid him. That was the first of many Koontz guitars I bought. Years later Sam said the reason he liked me was that I was the only person that never tried to get him to lower his price. Sam and I just seemed to be on the wave length and we got to be very good friends.
Whenever he built a guitar he would call me and play it on the phone. He would go into long detailed explanations about the structural changes he had made and how it affected specific aspects of the instrument. Sam was an innovator and his guitars kept getting better each year. I sold many of his instruments to my students.
Bill Shultz who was working for Yamaha (he later became the CEO of Fender) asked me to go touble shoot and suggest improvements for Yamaha guitars. Yamaha was having problems with their neck joints. I suggested that Sam understood production methods from working at the Harptone factory and would be the ideal person to help with production guitar problems.
Sam was a simple man but the moment he entered the factory he became a genius. The engineers at Yamaha were in awe of him and his knowledge. I learned a great deal about guitars from Sam and at the Yamaha factory.

Two very interesting experiences were the climate control chamber and the sound proof chamber. We would put a guitar into a humidity-controlled chamber with movement sensors all over the instrument. The sensors would reveal which parts would move first as a result of the humidity or lack of humidity and then build the instrument to compensate for the movement in that particular area. This information prevented the guitars from cracking in the specific climates of each country the guitar was shipped to.

The sound proof chamber was a room that was elevated off the ground. The moment one entered it the strangest hearing sensation occurred. The room was totally devoid of any reverberation at all. It was a very strange and totally new hearing sensation.
We could test the true sustain of guitars in this chamber because it was totally insulated against any kind or reverberation. We would pluck a string and time it with a stop watch and in this way we would get real information about which bracing system and which change we made improved the instruments sustaining power.
Another important technique was to put the guitar tops in a drying room so they would shrink and glue the braces on while the top was shrunken. This technique prevented many instruments from cracking.
Sam always built his guitars so they resonated at the pitch of A flat. Sam explained to the engineers that the cubic air content of the instrument determined its resonance. The engineers disagreed and Sam took a bucket of water and poured it into a guitar. This of course reduced the air content and changed its resonance note. The engineers had egg on their face."

**neatomic** · 09-14-2016, 06:57 PM

yes, i've posted some of these jack c writings on sam here before...always good to read...as i stated ^, he was skilled..but eccentric..the idea of putting a bigsby in the middle of a triple neck guitar!! haha..great

cheers

**wintermoon** · 09-14-2016, 10:22 PM

Jack Cecchini sold that guitar to my good friend the late Howard Krive.
Howard was a great player/teacher, and most of all a great person.

Howard bought my Koontz, that's how I met him. I believe it was the last one Sam made before he took his own life. Howard used to hang @ Sam's shop in Linden when he was younger. He had over 30 Koontz's in his collection when he passed, and maybe 100 other guitars, including a dozen D'Angelicos, several that he purchased from me when I had to raise some cash.

Howard said his teacher's Koontz, the great Harry Leahy's, was the finest guitar he ever played, and Howard later bought it. he told me it had a badly twisted neck but still played perfectly. he said the second best sounding guitar in his collection was Cecchini's Koontz.

Koontz's sound great w/that Dearmond through an amp, that was their strong suit. But Howard said the Leahy and Cecchini Koontz's were killer acoustics.

**HeyNow** · 09-14-2016, 10:32 PM

The engineers disagreed and Sam took a bucket of water and poured it into a guitar. This of course reduced the air content and changed its resonance note. The engineers had egg on their face."

Doesn't that also dampen the vibrating plates with the mass of the water?

**wintermoon** · 10-04-2016, 02:00 PM

Originally Posted by Jabberwocky

There was no reserve on this? From the Tsumura Collection? Is it legit? Hijacked account maybe.

Colour me sceptical.

I did some Googling and found an expired listing in Japan for a 1976 Koontz 16" Oval Sunburst. Asking? $34120.00.

If this is real, someone lucked out and some fool took it up where the sun don't shine. 2bop mebbe lucked out!

Jabs was right, bogus auction
feedback "Fake Tracking Numbers Provided but not shipped, Case open to get a refund"
whew.....