Kay K-46 / 1947-1951 / Carved Top, Bowed Neck

Here is a Kay K46 arch top, made somewhere between 1947 and 1951, in remarkably good shape except for a seriously bowed neck and resultant high action.  We’ll list it in Fair Condition, as it is currently entirely playable as a slide guitar.  The Kay K46 featured a solid, carved spruce top, and laminated Maple back and sides, with a Brazilian Rosewood fretboard. It has a 17” wide lower bout, a C-profile Maple neck, and a 1 13/16ths inch nut width.  The scale is 25 1/2”.

The scoop on this guitar is as follows.  It came into the shop having had a failed neck reset.  The neck was bolted to the body with one long screw through the heel and into the neck block, and two screws through the fretboard and into the top of the guitar.  A previous owner had also filed the frets of the fretboard extension down as far they could go, in an effort to get the guitar to play without buzzing.

We removed the neck, which had been overset, shimmed it and reset it with hide glue, using dowels and stain to fill in the screw holes and blend things in.  The neck reset went perfectly, but the action just won’t come down.  The degree of bow in the neck is very high, and the guitar has no truss rod, so there is no way to easily adjust it out.

What are your options with this guitar?  As we see it, there are essentially three.  

First, you could play it as is and use it exclusively for slide guitar (maybe add a pickup to it).

Second, the neck could be removed, and a truss rod installed.  That would involve the removal the fretboard, steaming and flattening the bow in the neck, routing a channel for a truss rod and installing one, before re-gluing the fretboard and resetting the neck. If steaming the neck is not enough to remove the bow, the neck would have to be planed prior to routing.

Third, you could remove the neck, toss it in a dumpster, and install a new one.  Ultimately, this might be cheaper and a more suitable fix than trying to repair this neck.

From our perspective, the carved top makes this an interesting piece, but probably not enough to merit a huge investment.  We’d keep it as is and play slide on it.

Check out the photos carefully, as we have tried to capture this guitar from all angles.

This Kay K46 is sold AS IS and is not returnable unless it arrives in a condition other than as described or photographed, here.

Price: $495.00 plus $135 shipping (Lower 48 USA only)