Kay SG Style Bass

I was told it was made in the 1960's-1970's. It has 20 frets and 4 strings and has pearl markers. It has two volume knobs and two tone knobs and has two humbucker style pickups. The color is cherry red transparent. The body style is of a Gibson SG. The bridge has the old ashtray cover on it. The neck is extremely comfortable and the scale is pretty short scale.

I play punk and some metal and it sounds great. It has a nice low and and sounds great on overdrive. I like everything about the sound of this bass.

I would use this bass without a backup it is that good.

This bass is super light weight and extremely comfortable to play. The sound is great. Everything about this bass is great.

This is an early 70's Kay Model K-2B Serial# 10591 SG style bass I believe made in Japan

It is a beautiful sunburst finish with 22 frets. It has a maple neck & rosewood fretboard with pearl inlaid blocks & there are 2 blocks on the 12th fret

the pickups look like humbuckers with 2 volume & 2 tone pots (they will need replaced) & has 3 way selector switch (also wore out).

I play classic rock & some country (you gotta play some Willie Nelson if your gonna play in Texas),so the sound is a good fit. I play it through a Fender Showman with a 4-12 cabinet. It may be a little brighter then I like. I've only had it about 3 weeks so were still getting used to each other

I have done some adjusting on the action and still have some work to do ,but it plays pretty nice. It has a very pretty sunburst finish, & its in pretty good shape for its age.All of the pots & the selector switch will be replaced in the near future

Seems like a solid bass i've gigged it only twice, but no problems,other then the volume pots. I also has an Epiphone Thunderbird, & I wouldn't use it at a gig without a backup.So I think the Kay will fit right in.

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Adding to my 5/19/03 review below - ths SG-style bass is a model KB-1. It was made overseas from the early to late 70's. More information can be found in the book Guitar Stories, Volume 2, by Michael Wright.

Some of these models had a single pickup, some had two; some had basic pearl dots on the neck, some had larger rectangular pearl inlays on the neck.

This is an excellent bass. This is a 60's 4 string bass with 22 frets. Body is Laminate and thin. Two fat single coils(look like humbuckers), two volume, two tone, three way toggle switch;passive electronics. Transparent cherry red color. SG style body with a top load bridge with "ashtray" style cover. Kay stock tuners. Short scale with zero fret and vintage frets aka "mandolin wire".

Awesome bass. Wide varieties of sounds with this bass. I currently alternate between 3 amps, A Hartke Model 3500 bass head with a one 15 cabinet, A Acoustic Bass/Guitar amp Model 470 with a two 15's, and a Traynor bass amp with four 10's. With all three amps, the end result was total subharmonic pleasure. My father brought me up on the type of bass sound that can demolish a skyscraper. That's his tone, and mine as well but I like to change it up to fit the music more appropiately. The trick to the deep tone is setting it to the neck position, turn the volume from 4-7 and the tone control to zero. Set the pickup to the bridge and turn the tone to 4 and you've got yourself the classic 70's high bass range sound. May not be adaptable for slap bass but I don't really play that much slap. I started playing my dad's Kay but I did something really stupid. It was the same style as I am describing here except a couple of years older and no zero fret. I told my dad, because of my mccarteyism favoritism,that I wanted a voilin bass. I was ten and he hacked the old body and gave me the bass with a bass body of a violin. I realize that a bass has been lost forever but I still use that bass in the studio. New body but same great sound. He also made it fretless a few years after he gave it to me and thats the condition its in now. Two Kay that are monsters. In fact, afellow bass player said that the mccartney kay sounds almost like an uprihgt. No dislikes, all likes. Both are good onstage or instudio.

This bass is in great condition. A few nicks here and there but practically brand new. No oxidation anywhere. Evrything is perfect.

I would use this bass without a backup. Truss rod is minutely concave but I'm working on it. Action is a little high for me but it's understandable because of the zero fret. Bass with a nut acting as a zero fret(standard) will always have lower action than a zero fret w/ a nut behind it(hofner,gretsch).

So sad that kay is in instrument heaven. RIP.

I've been play professionally for 6 years. I was taught by my dad when I was 9 and played my first paying gig at 12. I'm 18 now. I have tons of other intruments:ibanez basses, a dean fretless bass, a peavey foundation bass and a 1973 fender musicmaster bass. I also have a ton of guitars:epiphone casino, fender tele, epihone les paul custom(florentine style), Dearmond starfire(the squier of guild[doe not exist anymore either]). I have a fender rhodes Mark 1, stage model. I also have a tama drum kit.

This short-scale Kay dates to the 60's or 70's. What little I've been able to learn about Kay's history indicates that they only made solid-body basses after the founder's death(?). It's a copy of the Gibson SG-style, including the headstock design. Finish is a transparent cherry with a brownish tint and appears to reveal laminations in the body, which is only about 1" to 1-1/4" thick (don't have it to measure at the moment). As a result, between the thin body and short neck, it's very light - perhaps 2/3 the weight of my '63 P-bass. The neck has a "skunk stripe" and is slightly v-shaped, but not thick enough to be difficult to play. The scale is 30", so it's about as short-scale as they come.

Has a black pickguard with a REALLY old Kay logo which almost looks like a peace symbol, one neck pickup with chrome metal cover, and controls for volume and tone; that's it except for the output jack. The pickup is not microphonic, which can be an issue with older inexpensive basses. The bridge is an interesting design - has a chrome cover with a single bolt in the center holding it in place. With the cover removed, I see there's a metal strap coming up from the bridge for the bolt to meet. The bridge has an unusual design - two long set screws adjust the overall height up and down over a range of almost 3/8". String height and intonation are also adjustable for each string - not a bad bridge design.

Tuners have a bit of wear after 30+ years, but still hold tune well. The neck has been de-fretted and fret lines filled with a tan substance. No re-finish was applied afterwards and it hasn't been played much since being de-fretted. There isn't much fretless tone, as the bass tends to sound somewhat bright in character.

This was designed to be a simple bass. The bridge is more adjustable than most of this vintage and scores at least one extra point. The overall look is very attractive and the less-informed might mistake it for a Gibson of similar vintage.

I play classic rock, surf music and some blues. This will be a bass I cycle back and forth with my P-bass depending on the character of the music to be played. It tends to sound pretty bright, but with the 30" scale it's nearly a baritone rather than a bass. It came with roundwounds, and I'm not a roundwound guy - I'm very much a fan of flatwounds. I can hear my fingers moving clearly over the roundwounds when I change positions, and I've never liked that sound. It will have flatwounds soon. I use a Bassman 120 or a 60's vintage blackface Bassman 50 head on a twin-15" cabinet, and on either one, the Kay requires setting controls to heavily favor bass or it sounds bright to my ear. (OTOH, my ideal bass sound is my 63 P-bass with 10-year-old flatwound strings, so don't get he idea this Kay is all bright and no bass - I'm just used to hearing a "thump" when I hit the strings.)

The Kay tried to feedback a bit at volume until I took Carol Kaye's suggestion (hey, learn from the best!) and added a chunk of foam rubber under all four strings tucked inside the bridge where it can't be seen. This kills the lingering string vibrations and gives me better control of sustain without a tendency to feedback.

This bass does have a sound that will be perfect for surf music, as the tone will fit that genre of music nicely. For blues, the P-bass is probably a better fit. I've only had the Kay for a week or two, so I'm still finding out what it will do. Changing strings to flatwounds will also change the sound a bit, and I think I'll like that change.

Overall, this bass sounds as it was designed to - so I won't complain about it. I'm enjoying getting used to it, and it's a sweetie to play.

The Kay is very easy and fast to play, as the short 30" scale makes it easy to get around on. The 4th fret is almost 1/2" closer to the nut than than my P-bass! I wanted a short scale bass to see if it was easier to play and required less stretching, since my hands aren't that big, and this Kay promises to be easy and pleasant to work with. It helps that it's so much lighter than the P-bass. If you're wondering if it would be fun to play with a short-scale bass, DO IT!

As it came to me, the strings were set almost 1/4" off the neck and the truss rod was completely slack so the neck was slightly bowed. I tightened the rod and have the neck almost straight, but I'm being careful not to stress that 30-year-old rod too much. The unique twin-set-screw adjustment of the Kay bridge made it possible to lower the strings considerably, and the action now is much better than when I got it. After I change strings I'll see how the neck looks - I may get low tension strings just to minimize loading on the neck and avoidn having to take another turn on the truss rod.

I'll give it a 9 for ease of play - it would get a 10 if I were sure I could get that last bit of bow out of the neck. The bridge design and adjustment make it easy to adjust string height, and the neck is fast!

This may be a light bass, but it's solid as a rock. I still need to get used to the electronics, but so far the only reliability issue is that I may need to clean the guitar cable jack. I suspect 30 years of use has made it a bit slack or it has some oxidation, as it has tried to cut in and out once or twice, but only when the cable has been pulled. This bass would definitely stand live performance and could be used without a backup once I've used it long enough to learn its quirks.

Kay is long gone, so you're on your own. It's not even easy to find any history on their electronic stuff. They seem to have been a bit of a footnote in solid-body instruments.

I played string bass and electric bass in the 60's and early 70's, then got back into electric bass in 2002. Long layoff! I still have my '63 P-bass and blackface Bassman 50 head with twin-15 speaker cabinet, and recently bought an early 80's Bassman 120 combo amp. There's a great contract between the Kay and Fender basses, but hey - guitarists trade instruments during sets, why can't bass players??

This Kay will stay with me for sure - I love the short scale and light weight, and the sound is versatile enough that I can use it as my instrument if necessary. If it were stolen or lost, I'd definitely search out another short-scale bass. Unfortunately, my chances of finding another Kay like this would be slim to none!

If anyone knows more about the history of Kay electric basses, please email me with info or a website. I'd like to learn more about its history.

Kay SG style bass.
Not sure when a nd when made, was told 60s.
4-String, short scale neck
sunburst body and black scratplate (complete with faded flower picture)
Metal bridge
pickups like the ones on a violin bass - look VERY cool with the sunburst SG body

I use a pick to play and it sounds great - big bottom end.
Warm sound, and distinctive.
Not a ton of variety, but its still the best.

I had to get a bit of wiring done, and needed to get it intonated, but that was about all.
The bridge is not rust-free, but I think it was replaced at some point and then left. I am going to get it replaced soon.
The silvery (half-faded) flower on the scratchplate is well ace. I think it was probably put on it when made (not a sticker)
I am used to a low action, so the high action took a bit of getting used to, but it is good as long as you're not planning on doing some soloing.

If it was a bit better looked after, it probably wouldn't have required rewiring, and the bridge wouldn't be a bit rusty.

But, its been around at least twice as long as me and it still works, so its great really.

The company no longer exists.

I think it is just worth mentioning that in the last few minutes of the auction (I got it off e-bay), me and this other guy were bidding and I got the last bid in with ONE SECOND to spare.
I feel sorry for the loser, 'cos he missed out on a real good bass.

Very simple design. Short scale neck. Candy apple red, with white pickguard. One lipstick pickup near neck with a volume and tone control. very light weight. No idea what year it was made.

Unbeliavable sounding. Huge subsonic low end with nice tone character in upper register. Sounds great with a pick. Very unique tone warm and woody. Great for almost any traditional music-style, the closest sound i've ever heard to an upright also.

It's built very solid, had to get it intonated and thats it. Also replaced the wood bridge with an adjustable metal one.

Its worth playing live 'cus it looks sexy and sounds huge. No problems so far. It's also very light.

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Best spontaneous bass purchase ever. It just sounds unbeliavalble, have wowed live and studio engineers with it. Besides a fretlless Fender, it's my #1.

This bass has two humbuckers, a sunburst finish, toggle switch, two volumes and two tone knobs, and was made in the 70's.

I used this for bass sessions in another band. Slap is extremely difficult. It sounds good with a pick. It wasn't noisy, has a very bassy sound.

This was badly set up. probably from years of misuse from the owner. The strings are almost half an inch from the neck. it's difficult to play. i tried to set t up myself and even as exerienced as i am with this it didn't work. But, Kay has a lot of charachter, and i love these old basses. Their guitars are great and very collectable. and they last. i've owned two kays, this bass and a strat copy, and loved them both. you can get them at pawn shops for cheap, and theyre lovely.

They last. All Kay's i've played were from the 70's and theyre still here.

Kay is long gone!

This bass is fun. My favorite bass in the world is a Vision bass. If anyone has any info on these, contact me please!! I love the looks and its small sg body. im a little guy so most basses look wierd on me. but not this one. I recommend anyone to buy a Kay, at least if you know how to set them up properly.