Kay/Harmony N-3 Player-Grade Archtop (1960s, Dakota Red)

For your consideration, a Kay/Harmony Archtop that someone (not me) has put a LOT of time into.  

The refinish seems to have been done unprofessionally, but it looks good.  Love the deep "Dakota Red" -esque Crimson finish.

The hardware is all upgraded:  The bridge is Gotoh, the  tuners are probably also Gotoh, the tail piece is really nice and upgraded as well.  

When I got this guitar, the neck has a bit of a front bow (as this guitar does not have an adjustable truss) and so I have had to get a little creative to lower the action to a comfortable level.  

First, I modded the bridge mount to sink the tunomatic style bridge between the posts.  That lowered it a lot.  I also slotted the nut a little lower.  

When the strings are in the saddle, the action is still a little high, but not unplayably so.  Just a little uncomfortable.  Would make the perfect slide guitar like this.  

After a while of messing with it, I dropped the strings into the gaps between the saddles, and this lowered the action to near perfect levels, but it is not the best for the intonation -- even still it intonates from about the 9th fret lower like this.

I have included pictures of the bridge and action at the 12th with the strings on and off of the saddles so you can see what I mean.   As always, I cleaned it up, polished the finish, oiled the board, changed the strings and set the action as low as I could. This comes with a Harmony "dust cover" gig bag, which is a little dingy, but beats no gig bag at all.  As with all pre-1980 acoustic guitars that do not have adjustable truss rods, this guitar is excluded from my returns policy.  (See my shop policies.)

This is really a great modernization of an American classic. Would be great for blues and country players alike.