About
Carbon Fiber Ukuleles and Guitars | KLŌS Guitars
$65,153
137
You can now pre-order the KLOS carbon fiber ukulele and full size dreadnought guitar in six new vibrant colors.
KLOS Guitars has the experience and feedback from shipping over 2000 travel guitars, full size guitars, and ukuleles to over 70 countries and all 50 states. We've taken all of that knowledge and applied it to making six new vibrant colors of our tenor ukulele and full szie guitars. KLOS instruments are completely re-designed with modern materials, new technologies, re-engineered structural designs, and up to date manufacturing methods. The result is strong, reliable, easy to play, and beautiful looking and sounding carbon fiber instruments.
KLOS Guitars produces instruments that challenge each of our customers to keep their music close to them no matter what they do or where they go, hence the motivation for our #keepitKLOS tagline. Our guitar customers have hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, cycled from Montreal to San Diego with a guitar, summited and played Stairway to Heaven at the peak of Denali, traveled to the South Pole, and more. We're excited to see what the next wave of KLOS customers will do with their colorful instruments!
ATTENTION INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS
We’ve learned from previous campaigns - most of the value of the guitar will be written off as research and development as well as a donation to the campaign for the sake of the company growing. For this reason, the declared value of the guitar for customs will be near zero, making the cost of customs negligible for the customer. Please reach out to us with any further questions.
Listen to some of our brand ambassadors play their KLOS guitars and hear how good carbon fiber sounds!
It's better that you find out now about the reality of wooden instruments. Although wooden ukuleles and guitars are amazing instruments, the truth is they are not very durable. Warning, the images and videos that follow may cause you anguish to see instruments being destroyed.
With time, the string tension on the bridge warps the soundboard, which negatively impacts sound and playability. With temperature and humidity changes, the soundboard, body, and neck will all change, making a perfect setup in one environment a bad one somewhere else.
We solve all of these problems by making the body and sound board out of carbon fiber, and adding an optional upgrade to have carbon fiber stiffening rods in the neck. Even a car driving over the KLŌS ukulele couldn't break it.
We protect the body, the sound producing part of the guitar, by making it out of carbon fiber. We make the neck from mahogany wood, giving it a familiar feel and keeping it affordable.
Carbon fiber is an infusion of the most durable fibers and the strongest resin. It is commonly seen in aerospace, automotive, and sporting goods engineering.
Guitars are incredibly multifunctional instruments. They're perfect for travelers, ranging from college students, hikers, to business men and women, especially because our full size guitar folds in half. Children and beginners will find our guitar incredibly comfortable to learn on because of its lightweight nature and its comfortable design. Moreover you don't compromise the quality of the sound by buying a full size guitar. Just like beginners can become experts, and children become travelers with age, the KLOS guitar serves as a sturdy companion in each case. For those that don't travel, the guitar is still an incredible choice because this guitar does not need to be humidified to be maintained over time. Whether your guitar is undergoing the stress of active travel or passive tension from the strings, the KLOS guitar has got you covered.
The same can be said for the ukulele. Though the ukulele neck does not fold in half, it already is a very portable instrument. Our ukulele is an extremely premium build that is immediately felt when you pick one up and start playing it. Though being a standard tenor size, the hundreds of customers who purchased our black model agree that the KLOS ukulele is very loud compared to wooden ukes. Our luthiers and engineers put in a lot of time to ensure that the playability is perfect, the frets are level and smooth, the action is low without buzzing, and the overall craftsmanship is the finest.
The Body
Carbon fiber is a very strong material that is resistant to temperature and humidity changes. Carbon fiber is used in extreme industries, aerospace, high end sports equipment like hockey, cycling, golf, car racing, aerospace. If the material can withstand flight, it can bear the stress of travel and playing. Simply put, carbon fiber is much stronger and enduring than wood. The one piece body makes a very strong structure all around, whereas wooden ukuleles need bracing and kerfing at the juncture of the back piece to the side piece to support the thin wood and corners. On a wooden ukulele, these corners can crack or get banged up naturally. The whole body is one piece, the sides round down to the back, which creates a comfortable feel. There’s no edge on the back, but a smooth beveled transition. Not to mention the artistic beauty that was embedded in the look and style of the KLOS ukulele was designed to carry a unique, confident but humble look. While wood has its unique natural grain, carbon fiber has its beautiful fabric weave pattern that was preserved with resin, ready to last for ages to come.
The Soundboard
The soundboard is the primary sound producing part of any guitar or ukulele. That’s why we put a lot of energy into engineering the perfect design. The KLOS ukulele soundboard is a sandwich panel composed of three layers - the first layer is carbon fiber, the second layer is a lightweight, low density composite core material, and the third layer is again carbon fiber. In engineering terms this is called a sandwich panel because of the 3 layers. This sandwich panel creates a very strong and durable structure. The benefits of carbon fiber is that it is strong and resistant to temperature and humidity, and will not warp or crack over time, which is very common with wood. In theory the sound board acts as an I-beam with the strength being on the outsides of the structure. An I-beam shape will always be more strong and stiff than a thin rod of the same material. This creates strength efficiency with less weight. The lightweight low density composite core material however simulates properties of wood, in that it makes the soundboard lightweight and able to resonate well with the sound waves produced by playing.
The Neck
There are many different aspects of the design of the KLŌS neck that really makes it stand out from the crowd. Most importantly, the KLOS neck has incredible playability that allows technical riffs to come with ease. We make this happen by hand leveling each neck to make sure that the fretboard is perfectly flat, making sure that the strings can be low without any buzzing or issues. We precision install and file the nut and saddle to the perfect height, which makes this ukulele easier to play than most ukuleles because the strings are close to the neck to make it easy on your fingers, and allows you to play faster. We hand polish every fret to make sure all the fret ends are smooth and beautiful.
The neck to body bond uses the strongest aerospace grade epoxy, and in addition a little steel bolt that goes through the body to the neck, this creates a very strong connection between the neck and body, which is a common area for breaks in wooden ukuleles. Because the neck to body joint is so strong, the heel of the neck does not go down to the base of the body, but rather stops shorter, which provides a more comfortable hand position and better access for playing on the higher frets which simulates some benefits of a cutaway. Furthermore, the 14th fret is a weak point for wooden ukuleles, because what supports the fretboard after the 14th fret transitions from being the solid neck to the hollow body thin soundboard. However, that transition on the KLOS ukulele goes from a solid neck to strong carbon fiber, so the fretboard angle will not change with time.
The compact minimalistic headstock design makes the ukulele even more portable and strong. The shorter the headstock the less torque is created during an accident, hence stronger. The tuner positioning minimizes the side string angles at the nut, focusing the string force into a downward pressure into the nut. On top of all of that, the neck can be even further strengthened with the optional carbon fiber stiffening rod upgrade. Carbon fiber stiffening rods are located in the neck and run parallel to the fretboard from the body to the first fret. These rods don't change with temperature or humidity changes, translating that support to the wooden neck, further strengthening the neck and also ensuring your perfect playability won't change in different environments.
Fishman pickups are among the best in the industry, and after testing many different pickups, we've decided to partner with them on our acoustic-electric model. The pickup that we install is the Sonitone Electric Pickup. You can read more about the type of pickup we'll install here.
Read more in depth reviews and stories on our blog. Our customers have tested the guitar in ways we never thought possible: biking over 10,000 kilometers with a guitar, summiting the 20, 310 ft Denali with a guitar, accompanying Doctors Without Borders to Tajikistan and more!
How it all started
One winter evening in early 2014, cofounder Adam Klosowiak forgot to close the windows to the bedroom of his college dorm for the duration of his winter break. Upon returning to school after vacation, he found the wooden body of his travel guitar had cracked from the bridge to the edge of the soundboard due to the cold and dry winter air. The sound was damaged for good! So his brother Ian decided to come up with a solution.
How we fixed it
Ian Klosowiak had plenty of experience both with playing guitar and working with composite materials (see Our CTO's Building Background). In an effort to have fun working with innovative materials for one of his college courses and to create a durable solution to Adam's problem, Ian crafted the very first KLOS guitar. The original KLOS guitar was very primitive compared to the model you see before you. We arrived to this model through an iterative prototyping process, which you can read more about in our blog. The final product is one that does not create a fear of damaging it when you travel with it, but rather enhances your motivation to play and travel. The KLOS guitar does not limit your sound when you're around the bonfire singing and playing, but rather booms forth your righteous tunes. The KLOS guitar does not compromise the status of your wallet, but rather leaves a small indentation that is quickly filled with love in the form of a six-stringed carbon fiber beauty!
Along with cofounder Jacob Sheffield, the small KLOS team has made it thus far with the help of hundreds of Kickstarter and Indiegogo backers, Princeton University's summer business accelerator, numerous business competitions, and the help of many friends and family members.
Risks and challenges
As in the previous five campaigns that we ran and successfully fulfilled, there are aways risks and challenges that are unforeseen. We feel adequately prepared to take on any challenges that might come up, and having successfully delivered on three Kickstarter campaigns, we’re confident we can do it a sixth time. The biggest risk in the past has been related to supply chain, however, through our previous campaigns we feel that we have mitigated this risk by now.
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Funding period
- (29 days)