The BlacKat Guitars thread

[BlacKat Guitars]

Hollowway - there are two sections on our pricelist - EU prices that include VAT and export prices without VAT but with upcharge because we need to hire customs agency to do some paperwork for us when we ship out from EU. Ninja zebra 8 is 1550 € incl 23% VAT. This one goes to a customer but we will be happy to build more of them because we really enjoy the spec .

[BlacKat Guitars]

Testdrive of 7 string natural. Hell of a guitar - Aftermaths+sapele+mahogany neck+ebony board=TONE MONSTER


And here is switching diagram (push pull up changes to mid coils in all 3 positions).

[BlacKat Guitars]

Before we came up with production models, we did some prototypes that feature different specs than what we are doing now, but still are very good instruments and definitely worth the clearance price.

BlacKat Leon 6 prototype

This guitar was made by old workshop so it is handmade (without CNC). Great looking and extremely versatile instrument. What differs from current production: maple+mahogany neck instead of flame maple/walnut, knob/switch placement, different wiring schematic (with single stereo output), some differences in headstock and body shape, rosewood fretboard, no cat paw inlay.

Specification:
Body - Sapele + flame maple top (5 mm)
Finish - highloss
Fretboard - rosewood
Neck - 5 piece maple/mahogany
Joint - Bolt on
Frets - 24 jumbo
Pickups - DiMarzio Deactivators
Pots - Volume, Tone, piezo volume
Switch - 5 way for mags, 3 way for mag/piezo
Tuners - Hipshot Griplock locking tuners
Knobs - Hipshot O-ring
Bridge - Hipshot Hardtail with Graphtech piezo saddles
Piezo preamp - Graphtech Ghost
Strap Pins - Warwick straploks
Case - BlacKat softcase (stiff gigbag with 20 mm padding reinforced with pvc boards)
Price - 1600 € (including 23% Polish VAT applicable to EU customers) + shipping.
Export price is 1350 € + shipping. Additional taxes/customs in destination country might apply

Pictures:

[BlacKat Guitars]

BlacKat Leon 7 prototype

This guitar was done in new workshop already, so body is CNC milled. It also has improved highgloss polyester finish (like PRS and Music Man among the others). We designed this proto with DT fans in mind so it is equipped with DiMarzio Petrucci set (Crunchlab+Liquifire). Mahogany neck is very smooth and nice to play, this guitar was reviewed by our friend Mondomg here. This was also our experiment with meranti wood, that we decided not to use on production models after all because a lot of customers asked us to change it in their specs to sapele, ash or alder. Meranti is tonewise somewhere between sapele and alder, it is quite lightweight and takes staining good because it is brighter than mahogany or sapele. Bigger part of the body is actually 20 mm thick maple top. Our wood supplier sold us this one as "quilt maple" and although it definitely has some quilts and swirls it is far from real qm. We had 2 weeks to build this guitar because we wanted to take it to Musikmesse trade show with us so we didn't have time to get qm from another source (and we were still hoping that 3 step finishing would bring more of quilt to the surface). The guitar still looks stunning and very interesting imo.

Specification:
Body - Meranti White + maple top with some figure (20 mm)
Finish - highloss polyester royal blue
Fretboard - ebony
Neck - 1 piece mahogany
Joint - Bolt on
Frets - 24 jumbo
Pickups - DiMarzio Crunchlab/Liquifire
Pots - Volume, Tone, piezo volume
Switch - 5 way for mags, 3 way for mag/piezo
Tuners - Hipshot Griplock locking tuners
Knobs - Hipshot O-ring
Bridge - Hipshot Hardtail with Graphtech piezo saddles
Piezo preamp - Graphtech Ghost
Strap Pins - Dunlop straploks
Case - BlacKat softcase (stiff gigbag with 20 mm padding reinforced with pvc boards)
Price - 1680 € (including 23% Polish VAT applicable to EU customers) + shipping.
Export price is 1415 € + shipping. Additional taxes/customs in destination country might apply

Pictures:

[peagull]

Originally Posted by BlacKat Guitars

Peagull - that's correct

I asked them what it meant afterward and they said it means 'It made my ass fall off' Is that true? If so I think that's a great phrase

It looks super clean, I'm gonna have to do some saving I think. That finish is just amazing.

[BlacKat Guitars]

More like "it tore my ass of"

[peagull]

Originally Posted by BlacKat Guitars

More like "it tore my ass of"

OMG

[Deon]

Hey, is the blue one equiped with piezo?
Would the price be the same when i order it through the Belgian dealer? (mr Candy))
Cheers

Pat

[BlacKat Guitars]

Hi Deon,

I will talk to Baco on that but I assume it shouldn't be a problem. I think he's on holiday now. I'm preparing a nice BlacKat delivery for him next week so I could throw one more guitar in... And yes, it has piezo pu and allows mono or stereo operation with Y-split cable.

[Deon]

Ok, thanks.
As soon as i got the total cost (Bart has to figure out the shipping cost and such) i can decide. I can deduct belgian VAT since i have a company.
Do you give the guitar a poly rub to get rid of any minor scratches due to the testing at the Messe, or do i need to take into account some marks of love and use

[BlacKat Guitars]

It has been refinished after messe so it is mint or near mint.

[BlacKat Guitars]

Matching headstock. Almost ready

[Fiction]

That top is awesome, splendid work!

[BlacKat Guitars]

Family pic.

[engage757]

I must say, the more I see of your work, the more I am impressed. Well done.

[celticelk]

Wow. As a general rule, I hate brightly colored tops on guitars, but this is definitely an exception. Maybe I hate them because they're generally not this well done. =) Outstanding! The fact that it's an 8 just makes it that much sweeter.

[BlacKat Guitars]

Ninja Zebra 8 Lime Blackburst is ready

[BlacKat Guitars]

Tiger 7 Natural

This one is for sale. This is our "basic" model. It has simple looks, but shares all important features with higher series - that is Hipshot hardware (including locking tuners), Bare Knuckle Aftermath pickups, custom wiring with hum-free coilsplitting options, Dunlop Straploks etc. We've built this one for stock so it is for sale at the moment - price is 1360 €+shipping

Myth busting: mahogany=haz it muds?
NO! Although it's made of mahogany (and sapele), it is not an epi lespaul. The guitar is far from muddy, low end is supertight. Our neck pockets fit necks very well so neck-body frequency transmission is very good and high end is not getting lost in the way.

[BlacKat Guitars]

Another new model. This is production version of Leon with some upgrades:
1. Spalted maple top instead of 4A flamed maple (100 € upgrade)
2. Bare Knuckle Painkillers in black covers (without covers in standard) (30 € upgrade)
3. No neck binding (it simply wouldn't fit the looks) (0 € upgrade
4. Alder for body

Here is the spec:
Body - Alder
Top - Spalted maple
Neck - Flamed maple/walnut
Fretboard - Ebony
Scale length - 25,5"
Thickness at 1st fret - 19 mm
Thickness at 12th fret - 21 mm
Pickups - Bare Knuckle Painkillers in black covers
Bridge - Hipshot hardtail
Tuners - Hipshot Griplock tuners
Knobs - Hipshot O-Ring
Nut -Graphtech TUSQ
Strap pins - Dunlop Straploks (dual design)
Finish - Natural satin finish

SRP for this guitar is 1740 € including VAT - BlacKat softcase is included. This one was made for customer but we can do more.

PU wiring:

All positions are hum free. Blue means parallel connection.

And pictures:

[Fred the Shred]

mmmm... spalt...

[Pete27]

beautiful guitar! reminds me of the Manson single cut-aways. sweet playing too dude!

[Hollowway]

I love that you guys make in-stock instruments. As someone that has been jaded by waiting for custom orders, there's a huge attraction to being able to buy a really nice guitar and have it within a couple of weeks.

[BlacKat Guitars]

At this point it takes us approximately 8 weeks from order to completion with capacity of 10 guitars a month which i suppose is very good for a small shop. Add to this some stock instruments that can be shipped next day.

Some progress from current builds:
Quilt ash is such a beautiful wood...


And ruby red blackburst is my favourite finish so far:

[BlacKat Guitars]

Website is up: http://www.blackat-guitars.com/

[Curt]

Originally Posted by BlacKat Guitars

Website is up: http://www.blackat-guitars.com/

Every time you post, the GAS builds.