Up for sale, a 1940s Kay Archtop with double checkerboard binding and stunning flamed maple back and sides. This rare model was one of the company's deluxe models and is uncommonly clean and complete. With a spruce top and 15.5" lower bout, this Kay delivers a tone that is jaw-droppingly loud given it's modest size. Powerful and rich with the midrange presence you want from a great archtop, this Kay defies its pedigree and produces a sound that truly keeps up with the more prominent archtop makers of the era. This guitar responds well to subtleties in your picking dynamics, with a great sinewy snap when you play near the bridge, and smooth tones when played up near the fretboard that are very warm and hazily defined. Here at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar, we've been blown away by this great sounding and easy to play Kay!
The neck has a very chunky C profile that stays fairly consistent as you move up the fretboard, growing only slightly deeper in the upper registers while still being easy to play. The nut width is a conventional 1 5/8" while the scale length is just a hair under 26", yet it still feels very manageable for complex chords. Kay was a manufacturer who adopted wider fretwire earlier than most, and this archtop features the original frets which have a width just shy of a medium jumbo. The frets are incredibly clean, showing virtually no wear with well rounded crowns and plenty of height left for decades of future play. Both the rosewood fretboard and the headstock are bound, another indication that this one one of Kay's nicest models at the time of production. The headstock retains the original Kay silkscreen logo and stock tuning machines. These early geared tuners retain their original buttons and still turn smoothly!
The body features all of the original hardware which includes a very unique and uncracked bakelite bridge, stock tailpeice with folded brass string retainer, and tortoise pickguard with checkerboard binding that matches the top. It's hard to explain how exceedingly rare it is to see a pickguard like this still intact, especially mounted with the original felt washers and slotted screws. It's a beautiful tort guard and really accents the sunburst top and highlights the body binding. The spruce top has nice tight grain and a nitro lacquer sunburst finish that is in fantastic shape, showing little wear outside the pick scratches on either side of the strings, mostly on the upper bout and waist of the instrument. Unlike many "budget" archtops of the era, this Kay has real flame maple on the back and sides, which turn with the light and have the depth and action of real flamed wood (although the back of the neck features the more common painted flame to match the real figured wood on the body). The original circular blue Kay label is still intact and visible through the bass F hole.
The neck has never been reset on this guitar and the action is still very playable and low, with the low E resting just under 1/8" at the 12th fret and the high E just a hair over 1/16" at the same fret. Cosmetically, the guitar shows various small nicks and dings from over 70 years of careful use, but no serious or structural wear of any kind. This guitar is crack free and a true rarity in every way. A previous owner also took it upon themselves to pencil in the fret numbers from 10-20 on the treble side of the fretboard, and while this would likely come off easily with a bit of fine steel wool, we've left it as a curiosity of a bygone era (pencil markings can be seen in photo #9).
The original hardshell case is included, although at this point it's present more for a sake of completeness than for functionality. The handle and a couple of the latches are present, but the case is not very structurally sound.
Please check out our shop "Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar" on the web, and feel free to call us directly with any questions at [removed]. Shipping in the continental USA will be $50, fully insured. We will happily ship WORLDWIDE, but please contact us for an accurate international shipping quote before bidding or buying, as cost varies by buyer location.
International orders will be declared as “merchandise” and the value of merchandise will be declared as the amount paid. We cannot declare anything as a gift or for a lesser value. No exceptions! The customer is responsible for all taxes and duty, which may be collected upon delivery.
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