Kay Archtop 1950s Professional Rebuild Handwound Gold Foil Low Action Easy Player Big Boy Body

This is a 1950s era Kay with typical laminate construction and tobacco burst. It has dings, scratches and crazed patina all over it from a long life but is structurally very solid and needed no body repairs.

When I got it the neck was hanging on by a thread and popped off with one good shove. The neck has its share of dings but is in great condition, it is solid poplar originally without a trussrod and large C carve. The walnut fretboard came off clean and while I was in there inserted a fixed carbon fiber rod, put it all back together with a fresh 12” radius, new Jescar 47104 frets, a new bone nut and new Gotoh tuners. I also carved a little off the big C neck and found some nice flamey poplar under the faux paint stripes. It’s a big neck no doubt about it, but the nut is a relatively narrow (for these guitars) 1-5/8” and the overall scale is 26”, the neck is good and straight with the carbon fiber giving it the perfect amount of relief when under tension

I installed one of my hand wound Type13SC gold foil pickups that works great with this big body giving it a clean, rich and full sound. Included are new CTS / Switchcraft components, a new compensated brass bridge to replace the original straight wood bridge and a new trapeze- it intonates and stays in tune as it should.

These guitars were designed for sitting around and strumming in a different era a long time ago that had different musical demands. This is a beautiful guitar professionally rebuilt that you can plug in and strum right now- it plays great and will continue to play great for a long time.

Set up with .010 - .046 strings

gig bag included

 

Very large C

26” scale / 12” radius

New bone nut @ 1-5/8”

New neck reset- poplar neck with walnut fretboard

Internal carbon fiber trussrod

Jescar 47104 frets

Compensated brass bridge

Gotoh tuners

Malinoski Type13SC pickup

CTS / Switchcraft components