CALIFORNIA ROCK NEWSKz Guitars: How a One Man Factory in Japan Ended Up Creating Signature Instruments for The Struts and the “Red Special”

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Kz Guitars: How a One Man Factory in Japan Ended Up Creating Signature Instruments for The Struts and the “Red Special”

Kz Guitar Works is a local all-handmade guitar factory in Zushi City, Japan. Kz Guitar Works was established in 2001 by ESP Craft Academy graduate Kaz Ijyuin as a one-man operated shop specialized in building a close copy of Queen’s Brian May’s Red Special guitar to honor Queen’s music with May’s unique signature guitar sound. Kaz’s curiosity…

californiarocknews

November 14, 2019

1–2 minutes

Kz Guitar Works is a local all-handmade guitar factory in Zushi City, Japan.

Kz Guitar Works was established in 2001 by ESP Craft Academy graduate Kaz Ijyuin as a one-man operated shop specialized in building a close copy of Queen’s Brian May’s Red Special guitar to honor Queen’s music with May’s unique signature guitar sound.

Kaz’s curiosity and passion towards Brian May’s homemade guitar paid off when his Red Special copy guitar “Super” model version officially became Brian May’s actual back up guitar in 2007.

In 2016, Kz Guitar Works came to Anaheim for the Winter NAMM show to introduce KzOne Standard guitar, which is their take of the Red Special guitar for today’s modern applications and players. When Kaz heard the band “The Struts”, they instantly became his next favorite band after Queen. Soon after, Kaz contacted The Struts’ guitarist Adam Slack in hopes of building a guitar for him.

The two ended up developing KzOne Adam Slack model in 2017, which became Kz’s first Artist Signature guitar.

In 2018, Kz made their first bass guitar for The Struts’ Jed Elliott that also became his signature model.

In 2019, coinciding with The Struts’ 3rd Summer Sonic concert appearance in Japan, Kz made a second Adam Slack signature model, known as the“Adamoo”, Jed’s Jazz style bass “J-Edo”, as well as a red painted acoustic-electric model guitar which was ordered from by lead singer Luke Spiller, who named it “Cherry Dandy”.

The Struts Signature Collection Guitars can be ordered in the exact specifications as the artist models or as a custom order in different colors and other options from Kz factory.

www.kzguitarworks.com