1996 Breedlove C22 Masterclass
 

For sale is my Breedlove C22 masterclass in excellent condition

Spruce top, maple back and sides, walnut binding

Previous owner installed a LR Baggs pickup

Comes with original hard case

SOLD

Bump- price lowered

Bump - open to offers

Wow. Beautiful guitar! From Breedlove’s early days. I really like the 22’s cutaway. I call it a “fall away”. I bet the tone is incredible.

Mark

Indeed Tele1111^^^

But...notice one point of intrigue here? The label is signed by Kim Breedlove. At this point in time 1996, Steve Henderson was signing all the labels. Larry Breedlove had left somewhere in the 1994/95 time period, to go back to Taylor, and Kim has arrived at that same time. I have never seen a guitar from this early...1992 to 1998/99...time period where Kim signed the label instead of Larry and Steve, or just Steve after Larry left. Also, this looks like the newer "Brand Label" that Breedlove started using after Steve left in 2001.

I wonder what the story is on this?

These are really great guitars, and this model, the C22, was the first model that Ed Gerhard starting playing, though his had Mahogany back and sides.


duff
Be A Player...Not A Polisher

Hey duff,

I can’t see the photo of the label clearly in the post. So I can’t really comment on it. It’s not much of an anomaly though, if the label doesn’t quite match the year.

There are a LOT of mixtures of different “era” features to be found
in Breedlove’s output. I’m not questioning the sellers knowledge of the year the guitar was built, but I would guess it was closer to a 98/99 model year. Which would still not directly answer your question, but does fall in line with the way things were done around that time period.

That’s been one of many confusing things that the company did-mix and matching necks, bodies, labels, and whose signatures were on which labels. I’ve seen quite a few labels that don’t jive with what seems to be common knowledge of their known history. Not to mention the model designations that confused everyone-including their sales force.

My take on it, after many years of seeing this type of thing, is not to overthink it. It seems that sometimes someone found a few (or a bunch) of old stock laying around, and someone decided to use it up. Nothing nefarious, just “oh. We should use these on the next few builds”.

I replied to a different post, that just because Kim Breedlove signed a label, it did not indicate that it was a “masterclass”. In the early days though, before Kim was designated their “Master Luthier”, but was involved in building guitars (he was mostly doing inlay work and making mandolins) some of those guitars were indeed “masterclass”. I believe this is one of those exceptions.
That’s only my opinion.

I can say that I’ve ever seen a masterclass label before Kim arrived. And it was a few years after his arrival before you see guitars designated as such.

It was a turbulent company pretty much after the first few years of production. They were rising fast, and a mixture of bad decisions and missteps were only made worse by people within the higher “management “ that looked to take advantage of a rising company. They never did really recover.

Mark

P.S. I’m a little under the weather.
Don’t get too bent out of shape if I’ve not been completely lucid.

Thanks for the commentary on my Breedlove. The label is signed by Kim Breedlove and says Masterclass c22 Custom 96-151. I am not the original owner and it was sold to me as a 1996 guitar which makes sense given the 96 prefix on the serial number.

I don’t know much about the early history of Breedlove as it relates to when Kim started building for them, but it seems there may be some experts here on the forum. I tried to get some better shots of the label.

Open to offers on this very nice early Breedlove Masterclass.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...99f0427563.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...c23cf0b709.jpg

These are excellent guitars, & this one was built in the peak of Breedlove's prime! I had a Northwest Classic, & miss it greatly. They have a bold, definitive tone, & this one is at a great price point! GLWS!
Steve

Bump, still available

One more Bump for this very nice Breedlove Masterclass

Bump. Still available

I hope you can re-home this one. Those 90's Breedloves from the early days are special. I still miss my 1998 C12 maple cutaway. Keep hoping it will show up on AGF or reverb one of these years.

Bump, hoping to find this beautiful Breedlove a new home

Bump, price lowered to $2200

Bump, still available