"Stratocaster meets Mosrite"

This somewhat rare mid-sixties, American made guitar weighs 8.10 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Assymetrical solid alder body finished in original metallic wine. One-piece maple neck with a comfortable medium profile. Slab rosewood fretboard with 22 medium frets and pearloid dot position markers. Headstock with "Kapa" decal in gold with black trim and "Made in U.S.A." on the back. Double-line Kluson Deluxe strip tuners with oval metal buttons. Single "butterfly" string tree. Four-bolt neck plate. Three Hofner "Staple" Nova-Sonic twin coil humbuckers with outputs of 9.12k, 9.24k, and 8.93k. Three-layer (white/black/white plastic pickguard with sixteen screws. Three controls (one volume, two tone) plus three-way pickup selector switch, the three controls on the lower treble side of the pickguard and the three-way switch on the bass horn of the pickguard. Black plastic "Guild" type knobs with metal tops. Adjustable bridge with six individual plastic saddles and mute assembly. Jaguar/Jazzmaster style "floating" vibrato tailpiece. The potentiometers are all stamped "137 65XX" (CTS 1965) - the week of manufacture is covered by solder on all three potentiometers. This guitar is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition, with some finish checking, minimal fretwear and virtually no wear to the fretboard. There are a few very small marks on the edge of the body and some minor wear spots to the lacquer on the back of the neck. Housed in a mid-sixties brown hardshell "poodle" case with reddish/brown plush lining (8.75).

The three-pickup Kapa Challenger is rather like a cross between a Stratocaster and a Mosrite, but with a slightly thinner (1 1/2 inch) body. All three of the pickups have two metal ears on the pickup covers that are taped to the pickguard instead of the normal method where these would go through slots on the pickup's bottom plate and be soldered. But for the Challenger there is no bottom plate and the ears are used to somewhat crudely attach the pickups to the pickguard. Apparently this was the method used at the factory… and If you see Challenger with height adjustments for the pickups, then it has been tampered with. The body, neck and pickups are Hofner built, but painted and assembled by Kapa in Hyattsville, Maryland so they could write "Made in U.S.A." on it. The three-way switch activates the three pickups as follows: bass position - neck and middle pickups; middle position: all three pickups; treble position: bridge pickup only. The vibrato tailpiece is similar to a Fender Jaguar/Jazzmaster unit - but without the never-used locking assembly. The guitar has great sustain and sounds more like a Les Paul than a Stratocaster - an ideal blues alternative.

The KAPA company was established in 1963 in Hyattsville, Maryland by Dutch immigrant Kope Venemen, They made their guitars with imported German-Parts and assembled them in the US. The company was sold to the Mosrite company in 1970.