my pink kay strat

ah yeah playin my kay strat

Company History
Kay Guitar Company primarily produced
inexpensive department store style guitars from the 1930's to the 1960's. Kay guitar is a part of the Kay Musical Instrument Company that has manufactured professional and student instruments since the 1890's.


Kay also produced a high end guitar that today is extremely collectable. In 1957 president Sydney Katz introduced the Gold "K" line of archtop and solid body electric guitars to compete with major manufacturers like Fender, Gibson, and Gretsch. Valued among collectors, the headstocks from 1957-1960 featured a reverse painted plastic overlay similar to the Kelvinator logo. The guitars featured art deco patterns. It was difficult to get players to take Kay's high end entry seriously, and the Gold line was discontinued in 1962. The company was sold to Valco in 1967 and driven out of business two years later by low cost Asian imports.[citation needed]


Kay's current line includes low priced acoustic, electric and bass guitars, and moderately priced banjos, ukuleles, mandolins and resonators. They also sell the Chicago Blues line of inexpensive harmonicas.


Kay manufactured guitars under different names: 'Old Kraftsman' guitars for Spiegel, 'Sherwood' and 'Airline' for Montgomery Wards, and 'Silvertone' for Sears.

Gold "K" Line
The gold "K" Line featured the Jazz Special, Artist, Pro, Upbeat, Jazz II, and Jazz Special Bass.


Gold "K" guitars used the same hardware as top manufacturers. There were truss rod and neck issues. Gold models had single coil pickups with clear silver plastic covers and phillips head bolt adjustable pole pieces. The Upbeat model came with an optional transparent black plastic cover. These pickups appeared on Kay instruments through the late 1960's and are sometimes referred to as "Kessel" or "Kleenex Box" pickups.[citation needed] The Jazz Special Bass has a single coil chrome pickups.

Notable Players
Barney Kessel, American jazz/ blues guitarist/ session musician prominent in the 1950's and 60's. Kessel endorsed the Jazz Special, Artist and Pro guitars, but left to join Gibson after three years.

Big Joe Williams, American blues guitarist/ songwriter.

Jack White, American singer/guitarist of rock bands The White Stripes and The Raconteurs

Eric Clapton , Singer and lead guitarist of the Band Cream

Paul McCartney of The Beatles

Robert DeLeo and Dean DeLeo of the Stone Temple Pilots

American Singer and Songwriter Bob Dylan

Blues Singer Jimmy Reed

Sarah Mclachlan

Ry Cooder[1]


[edit] Kay Basses
Kay also began to produce in 1937 an "upright bass", which is widely believed to be the Concert or C-1 bass. Much like the guitars manufactured, the basses were hand crafted by skilled craftsmen using special ordered machinery. They even had a hot stamping machine that could emboss the trademark KAY cursive script.

http://www.kayguitar.com/products/ke04.htm

Category:

Music

Tags:

• manwhoami
• jam
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[champsinger]

is that the same sound as elc. kay established 1890 guitar

[MANwhoamI]

yes, but guess where this one was made...

[metalrocker1131]

awsome

u in a band?

[MANwhoamI]

not currently, but am doing some rehearsing for new recording

[TomTaxine]

nice guitar. could it fetch a lot of money?

[MANwhoamI]

it's a new guitar, probably not until I become super famous, which should be any day now...

[TheInboil]

wow. its like being stabbed in the cock and balls with icepicks.

[treborillusion]

cool guitar

[treborillusion]

cool guitar

[guitarplayer1338]

check out my vid of some new kays o and i have one theres a store that sells alot of them mine is a better version than this guys

[guitarplayer1338]

check out my vid of all the newer kays

[guitarplayer1338]

i live near a store that has a good amount of them they hav daneville kay washburn harmony new york pros thats where i got my kay

[guitarplayer1338]

i got a red kay vintage series strat copy with custom ernie ball strings and a performance plus amp it sounds great!! o yea and great playing man

[JSarmbru]

I had a cheap Kay I bought new from a pawn shop in about 1965. It's one of the reasons I gave up guitar for the next 3 or 4 years. Thing was a brick.

[quiveration]

i have a red kay speed demon but i dont have a pick board do u know where i can get one?

[Sockmonkey78]

Ok so i have a semi hollow k guitar and it has a gold symbol, my grandpa got in in Japan good condition can anyone tell me if it is a Gold "K" or not and how much it could be worth. Thanks

[champsinger]

how come i dont see kay guitars any more

[tab1990]

Idiot

[jonadam1975]

LOL!!!!! LMAO!!!! harmonyuke....what the hell dude? plugged into the wall? are u blonde or are u just naturally that stupid?

[timoulete76]

Lol plugged in the wall mouhahahahaha XD open your eyes !

[bongquisha]

harmonyuke, you don't actually think its plugged directly into the wall do you? look closer thats a different cable

[Filumz]

Ahh, the unmistakable tone of a vintage AC30. Only 30w but enough valve power to completely drown out the bass in the second half. Odd headstock shape, is this a modern Kay?

[harmonyuke]

Oh my god ! That's what they call an electric guitar... Plugged directly in the wall !