1930's Kay Baritone Archtop Guitar - B Tuning - Extra Wide Fretboard - Hard Case

    Archtop guitar, made by Kay Musical Co. out of Chicago - circa 1935. -- Strung as a baritone now because of its 26" scale and incredibly wide neck - the fingerboard is 2 1/2" across at the bottom - the nut is 1 3/4" inches.

    Solid spruce top - laminated maple back and sides - stained maple fretboard - maple neck.

    All new hardware including Grover Sta-tite tuners.

    This guitar is loud - a deep natural reverb that's loaded with overtones on the chords. -- It was made for heavy gauge strings that could carry the rhythm for an orchestra - one with lots of horns, woodwinds and more strings.

    It has two small repaired cracks on the top - one above and one below the treble side f-hole - both cleated and stable now. I've leveled and polished the frets, and got the action down for big banging blues. The string height at the 12th fret is set at 5/32" bass side - 1/8" treble side and it plays well there up and down the fingerboard. The neck has a mild V-profile.

     This Kay is super rare and one of their first archtops - modeled after the Gibson L-5 from the early 1920's.

     With this guitar you can play Glen Campbell's Wichita Lineman note for note - no amplifier needed.

    String gauges    :  70-47-39-30-20-14
    Tuning is in B    :    B-E-A-D-F#-B

Ships in a new hardshell case.

I've posted a sample on SoundCloud under ClaytonAudio

soundcloud.com/claytonaudio/kay-baritone-test2

Length          -    41"
Scale        -          26"
Lower Bout   -    15 1/2"
Upper Bout   -    11 1/4"
Depth           -     3 5/8"
Nut          -          1 3/4"
Weight     -          5 lbs