A true fusion of design technology and old-world craft. That’s how you’d describe Murray Kunn’s custom-made instruments if you ever had a chance to play one of them. His latest guitar – dubbed “Kind of Blue” – definitely qualifies as a super-hot design.
This particular model has a solid mahogany body and neck with quilted maple top finished in satin, “African Sky Blue” translucent nitro. The fingerboard and headstock cap is made from Indian rosewood, while the “P90” pickups can be either the Bareknuckle brand or Seymour Duncans.
After a lifetime in furniture design, Murray incorporated his love for music with his nimble fingers: “I’ve always been a fan of music,” explains Murray, who was inspired to build his first violin after a trip to see Michelangelo’s David in Florence in the early 1990s. “For me, it’s all about the sound.”
He first built a few dozen traditional violins, but later experimented with alternative 21st century designs for the ancient instrument. Some years later, frustrated with the violin fraternity’s aversion to a modernised violin, he started working on classical guitars with modernised aesthetics. “I then designed and built a jazz-arch top guitar as part of my Norma Jean family of stringed instruments. This design went down rather well with the jazz musos.”
Murray has now moved on to making electric guitars as well. This genre, more than any other, gives him opportunity to add his own personal touch to original design instruments.
Interestingly, he notes that the concept of “boutique”, custom-made guitars has become a popular phenomenon in many overseas countries and is now slowly catching on in South Africa. If his guitars are anything to go by, it’s an industry well worth supporting… More information: www.murraykuun.com
