Kay K-22

I bought mine from a vintage guitar shop in Calgary, Alberta. At the time it was all about the size of the body. At 17and3/8" across the lower bout, it is big. Almost immediately the truss rod needed replacing, which I later learned was a common complaint for these guitars.Whilr my friend was replacing the truss rod, he showed me a set of new Kluson Double Eagle tuner pegs. So I said sure go for it.About a year later one of the ladder style braces let go and I decided to rebrace the whole top, which I did. I used an old bracing pattern that I found in a book dealing with gibson guitars. After it was back together I decided that the ugly screwed on pickguard needed to be placed so got that done. At sometime during all of these renovations i also changed the bridge. It is a big solid blunderbuss of an instrument, but it has IMAGE!!! Rebracing the top gave it a much more mellow and quieter sound.The action is very good , all the way to the 12th fret when I use light gauge strings.

I have used mine mostly for outdoor functions where I do not like to take one of my Larrives. It holds it tuning very well. the finish is a bit beat up but not down to bare wood anywhere.It has character.

This guitar has drability written all over it. The original owner died and the instrument lay stashed behind some basement door for years.Whether I chose to used bare fingerpicking or whale on it with a flat pick, it is there for me.

I've been playing guitar for over 4 decades and appreciate that looks are nothing when it comes to a guitar.this one being no exception.I paid less that $70.00 American for it back in the 1990's.

Who needs features? Like the last guy said, it's a real wood six string acoustic.

It may be ugly, I got it at a garage sale with the neck broken off, but it sounds like gold. Even my classical friends like it (I've also got a $2500 hand made classical).

Well, again, it's ugly... I got it for nothing. I had to replace the tuners (kept the originals for posterity's sake). The top was ok when I got it, but now I've scratched the heck out of it. I like heavier strings, but they started to warp the neck so I immediatly removed them and am using a lighter guage. No bloody fingers :(

It's a tank. It's been banged, dropped, cracked (super glued). Basically abused and it seems to have no problem with that!

none. This is the first time anybody has even mentioned that my Olde Man Kay isn't one of a kind!

I wouldn't trade it for anything. But I really should buy a hard case for it before I take it for its next overseas flight.

The Kay K22 is a Chicago made jumbo flat-top acoustic six string in the style of the Gibson J200.

Constructed of mahogany with spruce top and rosewood fretboard with 14 frets to the body join, it has a small black pickguard attached with three screws, a silver metal Kay script logo atop an arched headstock and inlaid mother of pearl markers that start as square at the first fret and get progessively more rectangular to the ninth fret then reducing to the smallest size again at the ninteenth fret. A fine black line is the only decoration around the sound hole.

Inside there are no labels or markings other than the stamped " K22 8110" which I presume refers to the model and serial number. In searching around the web this model was apparently produced from about 1952-1963, with the fret markers changing to double parallelograms in 1955 or so. If that is correct, this one is pre-1955. Assuming the 8110 is the serial number, that could be consistent with the third year of production compared with Kay's stand up bass and cello production of around 1400 units each per year at that time.

This guitar is in very good condition and was apparently used by an old country/blues player for many years. The tuners look too clean to be original, though they look the same as ones in photos of other vintage Kay guitars.

Because of its size and materials used, this guitar has a big sound; I think it'll make a good sing along/campfire guitar.

I purchased it from a vintage guitar home business guy who had a Sigma by Martin dreadnought, a new Aria and an older Yamaha Eterna for sale as well. The yamaha sounded brighter and thinner. The Aria sounded thinner. The Sigma had less character and tone.

The action is too high for me, so I'm adjusting it. Apparently these guitars were set up that way and were often used to play bottleneck blues type stuff...but I read that on newsgroups, so who knows.

I also read that Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy and others of that ilk have all played Kay acoustics at one time or another...given they were made in Chicago and their best guitars were made in the 50's, I suppose that's possible.

More importantly, I like the deep, rich, clear, loud tone this guitar has, playing well across the range up to the seventh fret quite well...after that it gets a bit dodgy, or it just might be the action.

As I said, the action's to high for me. The joinery of the guitar is pretty much flawless, as is its construction. I see no evidence of neck work and all the little parts and tuners are in great shape as are the frets.

It has the usual swirls on the back, some pick brushing in front of the too small pickguard and a couple of minor belt buckle marks on back.

For a guitar that was allegedly a mid market guitar at best 40 years ago...it's very very well made.

Given it's over 40 years old my guess is it's as durable and has probably already seen as much as Keith Richards. I see no reason why it should fail now.

The Kay brand is still out there...but there doesn't appear to be any sense of history with the new owners compared to say the way Yorkville has maintained product info about vintage Traynor gear, for example.

I have an old Traynor 2-12 guitar cab that they told me the manufacturing date of in one day by email...that's service and dedication to your products/customers.

Anyway...it's a 6 string acoustic guitar...who needs the manufacturer?

I don't want to say what I paid for it, but it was much less than a Yamaha A310 entry level guitar, for example.

I've been a hacker for about twenty years; I play mostly rock n roll three chord stuff. I have a Yamaha BB300 bass and DOD bass amp; a Squire Standard Jagmaster, a Trace Elliot Supertamp head with a Traynor 2-12 cab, a Peavy 258DFX , a Peavy Rage 158, a Squier Strat, a Marshall GR50CD and an Epiphone SG Special.

I like the Kay because it's old, made in the USA, has a big rich sound and is solidly constructed of real wood...all for much less than a cheap third world made soulless robot guitar.

I'd buy another vintage Kay product in a heartbeat.

Think about it... an American made 40 year old solid top jumbo acoustic guitar that needs nothing except a pick...for less than the cheapest music store six string.