What makes the B1 incredibly toneful is the combination of tonewoods and a re-engineered top bracing system that provides stability while enhancing the projection of the instrument.Rosewood is an incredibly delicate tonewood to work with in solid form and is prone to premature cracking, splitting and deformation in "guitar" thicknesses. However, the Kepma Wood Process ensures that the finished product is perfect.

This guitar comes alive in your hands and you feel its character throughout your entire body as you play it. It's bright where it needs to be, and gives you an amazingly detailed low end and slightly darker undertones you won't find in any other guitar.Articulation is extremely important and the B1 delivers with amazing precision and clarity. It projects with perfect balance - something every player wants but few guitars deliver.

Every B1 is meticulously crafted with the highest degree of precision to yield one of the finest playing guitars in the world. In addition, it is set up using the PLEK(TM) Fretboard dress & nut system. Latest innovation and state-of-the art technology in guitar manufacturing, PLEK is an entire process that helps achieve the optimum playability of each instrument: with the help of a computerized machine which scans the whole fretboard (all the work performed on an instrument is done under simulated string tension to reproduce exact playing conditions), it files and cuts the frets accordingly, resulting in precise intonation and buzz free playing right out of the box!

Once it passes the final hand inspection test, the B1 is settled in the vibration room for 14 days (that's 336 hours: "playing equivalent" of just over 1 year). This process settles the instrument and provides a warm rich tone and stable performance. In fact, the favored balance, resonance and tonal range of vintage guitars come from hundreds of hours of actual playing time. Kepma's custom designed simulators vibrate the instrument at a prescribed range of frequencies to bring out the tone of the guitars natural wood.

The acoustic-electric B1E Dreadnought and B1E Grand Auditorium models are equipped with the Award-winning LR Baggs Anthem Stage Pro Preamp, which received the Player's Choice Award by Acoustic Guitar magazine.

Coming standard with a TKL Custom Deluxe ABS case, the Kepma B1 is simply... perfect. Every Time.

(*) Hand "Tap" TuningEach top is hand "tap" tuned to measure the overall balance and frequency response of the top. If the frequency profile is not precisely "matched" to the desired profile, then the top is put back into the tapering CNC for additional refinement until the response perfectly matches the desired response profile of the instrument.

BODY

Body Style: Dreadnought or Grand Auditorium with cutaway

Top: HTT Solid North American AA+ Sitka Spruce

HTT treatment: High Temperature Torrefied top = increased strength + stability

Back & Sides: Solid Indian Rosewood

Finish: High gloss

Bracing: X

Sound hole Rosette: ABS and New Zealand shell handcraft inlay

Binding: Rosewood

Bridge: African Ebony

Bridge pins: Ebony and Brass

Saddle: Graphtech Tusq, Triple compensated

Pickguard: transparent

NECK

Neck: African Mahogany

Thickness: 21 mm - 22 mm (1st Fret - 9th Fret)

Width at Nut: 43 mm / 1.7"

Neck Finish: Smooth Satin

Neck Binding: ABS

Neck Reinforcement: Dual Carbon Fiber rods

Truss Rod: Bidirectional

Nut: Graphtech Tusq, 43mm x 6mm

Fretboard: African Ebony, 400 mm radius

Fretboard Inlay: Mother of Pearl white flower shell inlay

Number of Frets: 20

Plek®: computer-assisted setup for optimum fret dressing

Scale Length: 647.25 mm / 25.48"

OTHER

‍Strings: Elixir Acoustic Phosphor Bronze NANOWEB® Coating (.012-.053)

Tuning Machines: Gold K High-Grade Series 18:1

Electronics (B1E models only): LR Baggs Anthem Stage Pro Preamp

- TRU-MIC + Element undersaddle pickup

- Onboard Chromatic Tuner

- Controls: MIX, bass, treble, notch, phase

Case: ABS TKL Custom Deluxe