Anyone recognize this? Enclosed tuners like a National ... and what looks like a nice 1-piece maple back ... but no logo.
https://shopgoodwill.com/item/165780163
Anyone recognize this? Enclosed tuners like a National ... and what looks like a nice 1-piece maple back ... but no logo.
https://shopgoodwill.com/item/165780163
Emando.com: More than you wanted to know about electric mandolins.
Notorious: My Celtic CD--listen & buy!
Lyon & Healy • Wood • Thormahlen • Andersen • Bacorn • Yanuziello • Fender • National • Gibson • Franke • Fuchs • Aceto • Three Hungry Pit Bulls
Yes, it is a circa 1941 Kay and it is all original including those Kluson tuners with the cover plates. It will need a neck reset. Here's one that has the less fancy tuners and fancier fret markers but is the same model:
https://jakewildwood.blogspot.com/20...op-guitar.html
Came out of the same place as this one.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
For posterity:
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
I really like these old archtops. I had a good Harmony Patrician, made a very similar pick guard out of mahogany for it as mine didn’t have one. Same or similar choice of woods as this Kay.
WWW.THEAMATEURMANDOLINIST.COM
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"Life is short. Play hard." - AlanN
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DavidKOS: Your guitar has the same finish as many of the Wards versions. Kay made the bodies all right and the dodgy dovetails that really freak people out, who have to fix the necks all these years on. My version of this guitar is the similar Silvertone Crest and it sent my expert into orbit! He finally got it all together having rebuilt the neck and managed to line it up okay, in the end. He actually said at one point: "What you really need is a quiver full of arrows and I can leave the neck as it is."
It is identical to this one that Jake Wildwood sold- equally good cosmetic condition- the original Sears ad mentioned a hand-carved top which I think it has. We went for the cream replacement buttons- the only difference! Arthur Crudup played one of these- so it is now "!The Arthur Crudup Model"!
https://reverb.com/item/436725-1941-...archtop-guitar
Emando.com: More than you wanted to know about electric mandolins.
Notorious: My Celtic CD--listen & buy!
Lyon & Healy • Wood • Thormahlen • Andersen • Bacorn • Yanuziello • Fender • National • Gibson • Franke • Fuchs • Aceto • Three Hungry Pit Bulls
It's hard to say with Kay. In the 30's Kay was advertising laminated tops backs and sides as features. If you can get a picture of the F hole from the side don't be fooled into thinking it's a laminated. If it just looks like two layers the inner might simply be the extra layer that Kay loved to put around F holes inside. This actually looks like a nice instrument. The neck is beginning to lift away from the body and if you had it in your hands you might be able to see if the back was solid through the crack in the binding.
https://www.snathanieladams.com/2019...y-guitars.html
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
My Kaye definitely has a carved top and has a new neck.
We checked it when the neck was off, and it is indeed a solid top.
Most of the Kay's I've seen have pressed laminated top, but not the one we re-necked.
It sounds every bit as good as a solid top Gibson L-50 I owned years ago.
It sounds way better than a pressed-laminate top Harmony 1213 archtop my uncle left me.
David, the H1407 was a cut above other Harmony arch tops, I think, because of the solid spruce tops (albeit pressed, not carved) and solid mahogany elsewhere except for the rosewood fingerboard. Mine was a 1949, found in a pawn shop with good, low action and no neck reset that I could detect. I was enamored with the action and the tone, so I made a u-turn exiting the parking lot and went back in and bought. After a little TLC, including making a pickguard for it, it played so well that it became one of my favorite players at home. Don’t think I ever gigged with it.
Sound clip here: https://youtu.be/-mvKF2rwWR0
WWW.THEAMATEURMANDOLINIST.COM
----------------------------------
"Life is short. Play hard." - AlanN
----------------------------------
HEY! The Cafe has Social Groups, check 'em out. I'm in these groups:
Newbies Social Group | The Song-A-Week Social
The Woodshed Study Group | Blues Mando
- Advice For Mandolin Beginners
- YouTube Stuff
Looks like it sold for $1201.
Jim
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19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
I must have missed Jimi Hendrix's name on it.
Ever tried, ever failed? No matter. Try again, fail again. Fail better.--Samuel Beckett
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'05 Cuisinart Toaster
'93 Chuck Taylor lowtops
'12 Stetson Open Road
'06 Bialetti expresso maker
'14 Irish Linen Ramon Puig
It was actually owned by Senator Downey. He played it at a few inaugurations when everyone was drunk and having a good time.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
It certainly could be a Kay and/or had tuners changed, but I have never seen those tuner covers on anything but a Regal made instrument
Mark
Kay used those tuners on a whole load of models in the early 1940s- even relatively low cost guitars.
This model was usually sold by Wards but it has the Kay decal- it is from 1941 or so. The seller shows the 1941 Wards catalogue and it mentions these tuners as being on all the guitars featured- one is a Regal and the one partially shown is the Kay made Louise Massey.
https://reverb.com/item/28372433-rar...r-gibson-regal
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