Ken Bebensee has been designing and building custom electric/acoustic stringed instruments since 1984. He built his first guitar in high school and continued to learn more skills through trial and error, and also, “asking lots of questions to anyone who knew anything about instruments.” Ken found inspiration in the fine work of Stradivarius and D’Aquisto who invented improvisational designs that have continually influenced the techniques of all luthiers to follow.

In 1989, whilst studying in San Luis Obispo for a degree in Engineering and Industrial Technologies at Cal Poly State University, Ken Bebensee began his business, KB Guitars and Basses, in his garage. Since then, Ken has been busily building custom orders for many musicians including Robert Hurst, David Gross,  and as of 2013, completed 150 custom orders, so far.  Ken produces highly functional works of art combined with musical instrument  engineering.