Kay / Trutone Vanguard K310 Hot-Rod Custom Electric Guitar (1965, Desert Sand)

Purchased this beautiful monstrosity a year ago from Jack's Guitarcheology, Nashville Tennessee. I love it dearly, such a radly unique piece/super cool vintage surf sounding thing, but have only played music with it a couple of times since (I'm always looking at it).

It needs to go somewhere where it's new owner has time to play now and I need $666 (which is what I paid, not including a whole lot more in taxes/customs and postage from USA).

This guitar is in the same nick as it was when Jack sent it, so, below, I'm gonna quote from his detailed listing. He said it best (also using his pics with a couple of mine, as nothing has changed).

"Consider if you would a world where you want to buy this guitar: a highly customized Kay Vanguard K310 in a custom desert sand paint job. I am calling her "Ronin" because this guitar has certainly gotten around.

This guitar was made by Kay in Chicago in the late 60s. It plays really well given the age. Neck is good and straight with excellent playability.

This guitar would have originally only had the one DeArmond pickup that is concealed under the guard in the middle position. The extra two pickups seem to be MIJ/Matsumoku make pickups that were skillfully added in later. They are identical to the pickups found on "Victoria" brand guitars I have had in the past. Someone added them years ago, but did so very cleanly, it took me doing some Googling to realize the guitar didn't come like that.

The rout under the pickups is a "unirout" and I am not sure if that guitar came like that, or if it was done by the unknown mod wizard. Said unknown wizard modded the pickups to be on the switches that were on the MIJ guitar to control the three pickup positions on this guitar. The top switch is on/off for the neck pup, the second switch is on/off for the bridge, and what WAS the rhythm/solo circuit now is the on/off for the original DeArmond pickup. The switches are all functional, but have "loose action" from years of use, so they sometimes need a little wiggling to lock in. In all honesty, I am super impressed by this unnamed mod wizard's ingenuity, wiring and routing skills. I don't think I could have done this better myself, or conceived such a cool concept for a custom guitar.

TL;DR for the top two paragraphs: This guitar has a bunch of really cool mods that all work and make for one truly unique marriage of vintage MIJ and vintage MIUSA dimestore guitars.

The only issue is some finish damage on the back of the guitar. It is all finish checking though, nothing structural, and IMO looks pretty cool as far as a "relic" is concerned! The fretboard is most assuredly Brazilian Rosewood, but I am not 100% certain. The pickups alone in this guitar are worth ~$300+.

As always, I cleaned it up, polished the finish, oiled the board, changed the strings, cleaned the electronic components and set the action as low as I could. This guitar is proudly strung with Stringjoy Custom Guitar Strings made right here in Music City! This guitar comes with it's original chipboard case. I pack all my guitars super tight and insure every package for the full purchase amount."

That's right!