Kay KB24 P-Bass

First off, I owned a Kay p-bass knock off for years, but it is gone now. I don't know for sure it was this model, but I think it was. It was my first bass, bought in haste and ignorance from a guy i learned to hate - not least cuz he sold me this bass.

It's most memorable feature was a slightly warped and heavily bowed neck that made it's action so high no other bass player i met could understand how i played it at all. This feature had two benefits: developing crazy strong fingers and preventing anyone from EVER wanting to borrow my bass.

It sounded okay, but it probably delayed my learning any proper bass playing for years. I had no idea what a piece of junk the action was until much later, so I assumed playing bass required a totally different set of skills (pushing the strings down 7/8" to reach the fretboard) than it really does.

I also recall that it had sharp fret corners and a loose pot.

It supplied a bassy guitar-like signal to an amp. To that extent it was adequate. I was using a cobbled together rig - a peavey guitar head and big 4x12 cabinet (can't recall the make). It was all right - and a right bargain. But nothing special. Playing the Kay through better rigs made me feel that my rig was at least a match for the guitar.

It was used - heavily and non-lovingly - before i bought it. But the neck was a piece of $%^& on top of that. Other flaws mentioned under 'features.'

HA! It had already fallen apart before it came into my hands.

practice pretty much daily, band practice 2-3x a week, and gigs several times a month with it for a couple of really LOONG years. good news was it didn't really get much worse.

I bought it used in 1981 or 1982. It wasn't very old. It had already sacrificed any real quality the mfg. might have shipped it out of the factory with. It hurt to play it, and required my building up some gnarly but otherwise useless muscle sets and skills to wrestle the strings toward the fretboard.

I still have nightmares. I would never ever buy or touch a kay p-bass knockoff because i live in dread of them to this day.

I replaced it with a fabulous rick and finally started to learn to actually play bass and not just poke the strings for each song i was taught.

P-Bass copy, made in Korea, purchased new in 1983.

Composite body (2-ply plywood)finished in 3-colour sunburst with white 2-ply pickguard with thumb rest fitted above the E string.

Neck appears to be maple with 20 frets on a maple fretboard with 4-bolt attachment to body. Neck is 34" long scale, 7/8" thick including fretboard with a 1 5/8" nut width.

Headstock is standard P-Bass shape carrying 4 on a side tuners with "elephant ear" keys and the usual circular string guide for the D & G strings.

Bridge is standard P-Bass style, not string through body, gold anodised with 4-screw fixing and individual string saddles adjustable for height and intonation.

Electronics consist of standard P-Bass style split pickup and passive master volume and tone pots.

All the features of a Fender P-Bass (i.e. not many on a single pickup, passive instrument) on the cheap.

I play for my own amusement in any style I can manage, mainly blues and '70s rock so this bass sounds just fine for that. I can't remember what it sounded like 20 years ago on original strings and setup but other reviewers have described it as "deep" and "heavy". I generally play through a Marshall Bass State B65 combo and it sounds pretty bright fitted with Rotosound Swing Bass strings, a bit too toppy for some styles without backing the tone right down to 1 or 2.

It can also sound a bit hollow and boomy direct into the amp but through a Zoom 506II with a bit of equalisation and compression it sounds a couple of hundred pounds more expensive! I can also get a passable Stranglers' Jean Jaques Burnel sound with the Zoom set to a modified preset C2.

This bass sounds even better through my hi-fi but not at any great volume as I don't want to blow out the woofer cones!

I have always been surprised by the sustain of this guitar. Maybe the cheap plywood body is not too bad as a tone wood, or perhaps it's the sheer weight of the beast, a good 9 lbs by my reckoning.

Overall a passable imitation of the Fender sound. I don't know why my bass sounds brighter than the other reviewers'. I think mine was manufactured towards the end of the production run and maybe different pickups were fitted to later models.

I would rate the sound at 6 in original state but would raise it to 8 since i fitted an active pickup. (See Reliability/Durability).

Straight from the music store, the action was set finger-blistering high with a lot of finger pressure required to fret without buzzing. I adjusted the truss rod to suit the heavy strings fitted as original but ended up with considerable fret buzz higher up the neck. This was cured by increasing the bridge saddle height and with a bit of patience, I ended up with quite a low action. The pickup height was adjusted to suit.

The original strings sound went dull very quickly, particularly the low E. This was cured by changing to Rotosounds.

The A string cut out in the nut is too deep and wide, and this can sometimes produce a curious buzz on a sustained open A string.

I think the overall finish is pretty good for such a cheap instrument. The back of the body has collected a few chips and scratches through to the wood, but it has never been kept in a bag or case and has been thrown in the back of a wardrobe and bashed against other objects within.

The original pickguard was a bit flimsy. (See next section)

I don't play live but if I ever did a gig I have no reason to believe that this bass couldn't handle it. I'm not the sort of person that would get the urge to smash it on the stage, the stage would probably come off worse anyhow, with the weight of this beast.

The hardware has stood up well over 20 years, only suffering when subjected to neglect and abuse. An output jack connection required soldering once when I was too lazy to tighten up the socket when it worked loose, the constant twisting broke the wire. The pots have never become rough or noisy as is often the case with instruments this age.

The finish has stood up well to playing, only suffering from being bashed against other gear in the back of my wardrobe. The anodising has oxidised slightly on the bridge but otherwise it looks pretty good for a 20+ year old.

The strap button screw pulled out of the upper body horn. I fixed this by gluing in a matchstick and replacing the screw directly into this without re-drilling. It has been solid ever since.

Recently I trod on the cable, ripping out the output jack and smashing the flimsy 2-ply pickguard. I was going to throw my poor old bass out as being valueless and not worth the bother of repairing but after stripping it down I had a change of heart and found a Fender pickguard on ebay and also a new Artec vintage P-bass active pickup (only cost 10 pounds!) With the old pickguard removed I chiselled out a space for a 9 volt battery in the body. The new pickguard had to be modified to fit over the new pickup (very slightly bigger) and a slot had to be cut to take a miniature slide switch for the battery power, just above the volume pot. With everything apart I gave it all a good clean and stripped and lubricated the tuners (the E tuner was getting stiff) With a bit of soldering I soon had the electronics up and running. I replaced the pickguard but had to juggle with its position as the Kay routing was a slightly different shape. However there was still a bit of a gap above the output jack which I covered with the thumb rest. I then re-strung with Rotosound Swing Bass 66 extra light gauge round wounds (85,65,50,30) and adjusted the truss rod to compensate for the lighter tension. I spent some time on the setup and now the action is low and beautifully soft. It's lovely to play with tired and blisterd fingers after using heavier actioned instruments. The active pickup looks like a Lace Sensor soapbar and is LOUD, even compared with my Yamaha BB604 active bass, and seems to have a good frequency response for such a cheap item. The battery seems to last forever which is handy as the pickguard has to be lifted to replace it-but then so do some real Fender actives! I was so pleased with the mods that I treated this old budget bass to a Fender Precision headstock decal-well it looks the part at a distance!

I think this is a solid, dependable instrument, especially after spending some time and a very little cash on some mods. The truss rod has only been adjusted twice in 20 years, once because the original setup was crap and again to compensate for extra light strings.

I have never played a gig but if I ever do I would bring the Yamaha as a backup just to look flash, I wouldn't really need it.

The Kay brand is no more so it's either do it yourself or take it to your local music shop/guitar tech.

I started learning classical guitar as a 13 year old kid 35 years ago, and got used to the wide fingerboard of the Spanish guitar. I was given a cheap no-name electric a few years later but always found it difficult to get on with as the strings seemed overcrowded on the much narrower neck. The Kay bass was a bit of an impulse buy, the wide string spacing appealed to me and I was always humming the bass parts of songs in my head, it looked just like a Fender and, best of all, it was dirt cheap so it wouldn't be a waste of money if I couldn't play it. I also own a Mexican Strat which I bought new ridiculously cheap on eBay a few months ago as my wife said I ought to take up the guitar again. However after playing bass on and off for so long I find the Strat needs a lot of concentration otherwise "fat finger syndrome" strikes and I fend myself masking strings which should be played! I also own a new Yamaha BB604 active bass, also cheap from eBay as I considered I was getting on better as a bass player and deserved a "classier" instrument. This was the main reason I was considering ditching the Kay when I broke the pickguard.

If it were lost or stolen I wouldn't look for another, I wouldn't find one this nice. I would trawl eBay looking for oddities like a Squier Protone 5-string or a Ric 4001 copy or something different but cheap.

What I like most about this bass is the easy action and playability, there is nothing I actively dislike about it.

When I bought this bass I didn't compare it to any other, it was the cheapest in the shop and that was good enough for me!

If there was anything I wish it had, it would be a second pickup, probably a J-type in the bridge position. A future project maybe.....

Overall I have to mark what should be a crap budget bass quite highly. With a little time and effort and a very little cash outlay I have transformed it into nice to play, reasonable sounding instrument that belies its cheapo origin. It has been kicked around for over twenty years and treated with no respect whatsoever until recently and has never given up totally. It helps me keep things in perspective when I think of the difference in sound and playability between my Kay and the vintage Fender P-bass in my local music store. It's just not worth the inflated four figure price tag on the Fender. But then I'm not taken in by designer label clothes either....
A great ultra-cheap bass for a beginner or hobby player like me. Trouble is they don't make them anymore.

Well, I purchased this instrument 'stripped down to the wood' (though it still had its Kay label) from a local junk shop: a bit of a 'project'. So I can make no judgement on its original electrics etc.

The body is a two-ply laminate of overlapping planks, probably built by the mile and cut off as required. I will not pretend to know what wood it is built of, though my instrument is finished in clear varnish.

The neck was dreadful - beautifully thin and easy to play, but bendy as hell. So eventually I stripped off the frets, refinished the neck and turned it into a very usable fretless!

I put a decent bridge, pickups and tuners on it but will have to re-do the electrics (again).

Mine is evidently a ballerina amongst Kay basses as it weighs in at just 9.lb 4.oz.

The solid lump of wood gives it a deep sound, as others have said, but the weak neck means that it will never give great sound.

Neck is a bit of a disgrace - very weak wood - but then, the whole instrument can be classed as 'unpretentious'. The original finish on the body was a hard clear varnish, which is very tough.

Built like a tank, and the neck would bend on impact rather than break, I would guess. The truss rod is probably all that holds it together.

n/a

There are things you can do with an old hunk of a guitar like this, that you would never think to do if it had a respectable maker's name on it.

I turned a really rather poor P-bass into a pretty nice fretless one, which was a good move.

i bought this second-hand so im not sure when it was made or much of the original spec (previous reviews say it all anyway) mine is finished in clear varnish, the body is a 2-ply laminate type thingy. when i got it the control knobs and thumb-rest were long gone, there was an ash-tray bride cover that i took off and the old owner had taken off the bit that goes over the pick-ups (apparently the guy in the recording studio told him it would cause nasty echo or something) another wee thing that i like is this guy had put rings of black electricians tape round the neck at the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 12th frets, that makes it really easy to see where the frets are
mega thick strings hurt my fingers until i got use to them

i like playing grung and punk and its good for that but it works pretty well for blues and '70's rock type stuff.
once i got it set up right it gave really nice deep sound

when i got it the neck was set up pretty bad and i had to put the bridge up way high which made it hard to hit the high notes(12th fret up) then one day i got really bored and took it all apart and then when i put the neck back on i tightened the two screws (on the neck plate) more than the ones nearest to the body theni could drop the bridge back down and its much better now
another problem is the pick-ups, the screws at teither na dof them are stuck solid and now the cross on the top of the screw in sheared so its gona be a pain in the ass ot replace or adjust
the strap button on the top fin is a bit small so the strap slips off a bit easily, at first i tied it down with good ol' grungy duck tape! but then i took off the button and put on a washer who's hole in the middle is bigger that the wee end of the button but smaller than the other end of the button...know what i mean? thing with that is you have remember to put it throught the hole in the strap before you put it back into the wood!!

this thing is bloody solid!! in one of the other reviews the guy says you could "hammer in fence posts", i dont think you could, this thing would destroy a fence post!! except for one or two wee cosmetic problems (control knobs etc.) there is nothing wrong in this direction that would stop me gigging with it, in fact i have a dance coming up that im gonna use it at.

kay???????????????????????????? if anyone has heard of them please e-mail me (neelydoogz_99@yahoo.com)

i really like this thing it is nice and solid and feels like if wont fall apart in your hands and i like that. it doesn't look too bad either really, the black scratch-plate looks nice against the light (colour!!) wood
if you can find one somewhere not too expensive then i totally advise it! anyway, at least its not just another blood fender p-bass like everyone else

Purchased new in the late '70's w/ orange pimp fur lined OHSC. Three color sun burst, black pick guard, black plastic thumb rest, chomed metal ash tray bridge cover and a pickup cover (both removed ASAP), maple neck (solid), p-bass type split pickup, usual control knobs. Original strings where like piano wire, but luckily didn't last too long and where replaced w/ a set of lite gauge flat wounds (can't remember brand.

Very heavy, deep tone. With right amp setting can be alot deeper than a standard p-bass, yet can produce fairly lite tones on upper frets. Great sustain.

Fairly well constructed. One huge and massive piece of wood (previous reveiw est. in 13-14lb. range is not far off). Knobs came loose in fairly short order, but a little lock tight and fiddling around fixed that. Neck appears to be a solid peice of hard maple and body is some type of really, really dense plywood/laminate. It took a looonnnggggg time and several musican friends help to get this piece in truely playable order. Neck was fine for straght and no warp, but action just really sucked. Strings are on a pair of ajusters (two strings per saddle/ajuster, screw on each end, two screws per saddle, four total to adjust height)and a period bad assed bass brige would not have been a bad investment. Pick up was raised slowly as action was lowered and and tweeked, over time set up up final was worked out.

Has held up really well. Sold it to a freind in the mid '80's and he still has it. Other a few minor problems (prev. noted loose knobs and piss-poor set up) has been fairly reliable. I think the pots have been cleaned a couple of times and some resoldering has occured, but fairly tough axe (it's been used as main choice for pracitce, weekly live perfomances and recording for about 20 yrs.). Could really use a stap lock, I've had it pop off, as has the current owner, mid live performance w/o any real damage (maybe little paint chipping). I think you could drive fence posts w/ this thing and it wold do more damage to the posts than to the bass.

Never used.

I've been playing for about 25 years off and on. I would have asked for the store to throw in a strap lock system and a bad assed bass bridge if I had though about it. Incredibly heavy, even for a bass. I'm not sure I could lug this thing around let alone play it for several hrs. now (ah the joys of mispent youth). If it had been stolen when I owned it I would have looked for a used Fender p-bass or jazz bass. Great weapon to keep drunken boobs off stage during late '70's early '80's punk slam gigs and parties.

This is an early 1970's Kay P-Bass Copy, Model KB24. Sunburst w/black pickguard, ashtray, bridge cover. The bass looks great. I think it weighs 12-13 pounds though, one heavy ass piece of wood. MAde in Taiwan. Neck is laminated layers of wood as many cheap guitars were then. Body wood-??? Looks like two pieces glued together in the middle though. Standard p-bass pickup, tone and volume knobs. Tone knob used to work, I think it is shot now. Only two saddles on bridge. THe neck on this bass is twisted and warped. Truss rod stripped(guitar center tech-Chicago). Action is high around fret 12 and low towards fret 19-20. BAsically shot. I got this bass from my grandparents who had a music store 30 years ago. Has no name hard shell case with orange interior. Overall, features are as good as any P-bass, since this is almost an exact copy.

Sound is boomy. Not great but not bad. Better than my Squier affinity p-bass but worse than my MIM JAzz bass. I would like this bass more but the neck the downpoint.

Action is crap due to warped neck. Got left in a shed in Florida with the strings on tight for 10 years. I guess Im lucky the bass even plays at all. Tried to get a guy at guitar center to fix it, he just stripped the truss rod. If it was between a used Kay p-bass and a new Squier affinity p-bass, get the squier. At least they have a maple neck(though it is thin and weak), but it is better than laminated layers of wood.

If this bass had a real neck, I would fix the tone pot and probably would have kept it. Neck was the only thing wrong. A new neck would run me $150 at least and the bass itself isn't worth that much. Everything else was solid. Tuners were good too. Except the screws were stripped(cheap neck again)and tuners were sorta falling off.The neck gets a 1 for durability, the rest gets a 9. AVG=5

KAy who?

Overall, put a new neck on and play some tunes. This heavy ass bass didn't bother me much, just the neck.