Kay Unknown

Wow, a spur-of-the-moment ebay purchase and what a pleasant surprise! Late 70s Japanese manufacture, with some similarities to the through neck "vee" reviewed separately. Appears to be a laminated maple through neck, with ebony fingerboard and maple wings formed to give a Gibson-esque doublecut body. Very attractive wood graining, solid, not veneers. This is obviously an attempt by Kay to shed the low-end image that they (rightly) had at the time.

Two medium output humbuckers, passive electrics with dual volume/tone pots. Interestingly, two microswitches instead of the more usual toggle. One is a dpdt, used to switch pickups, the other reverses the phase of the neck humbucker.

Hardtail strat-a-like bridge with through stringing to give maximum sustain. Unbranded 3-a-side tuners, surprisingly effective. The plastic nut was cut (or had worn) far too deep, giving massive fret buzz when I first tried it.

21 fret neck, with fret positions indicated by one large brass dot with a smaller dot above and below, again, like the "vee" reviewed separately. A brass truss rod cover with large "K" logo is the only identification. No serial number, unless it's in a cavity I haven't looked at yet.

Actually, not at all bad.. I had bought this assuming the worst, but figured that the body/neck might be usable, and I've always fancied a through neck guitar. To find that it was actually a very decent guitar was a real bonus. The pickups won't blow you away, but have good, round articulation and give a surprisingly wide range of sounds. Maybe those seymour duncans can wait a little longer..

Standard, it's good for clean and crunch sounds, but doesn't real do full on filth.

It's been pretty well used in it's 25+ years, and has a variety of dings and scratches, but is a very well constructed guitar. No serious flaws in the body or neck. With a new graphtech nut and some heavy tightening of the truss rod, together with bridge height adjustment, the action is now on the low side of medium and it plays beautifully. Nicely finished medium jumbo frets with plenty of life left in them. If this had a Gibson or Fender badge on it I wouldn't bat an eyelid. Well, except to say that Gibson had obviously raised their standards..

25+ years old, obviously been thrown around a bit - I guess it's solid. The bridge has lost some of the gold plating, but that's only to be expected.

Based on evidence to date I would have no qualms about gigging this beauty, and fully intend to!

Do they still exist?

GBP 88 for a guitar like this??? I've bought a few dogs in my time, so I guess I deserve to get lucky once in a while. I doubt I'll ever see another one again, so I'll just have to look after it. In 30 years of guitar playing I've had all of the usual Fenders, Gibsons etc (as well as my share of crappy ones...), I would put this right up there with the best.

I might get around to a p/up upgrade, maybe throwing in a set of piezos in the bridge, otherwise it's just fine as it is.

If you ever see one of these on ebay BUY IT!! Or tell me, and I will..

I don't know exactly when this was made, but my guess is late 60's to early 70's. On the back it has a sticker which says it was made in Taiwan and it has a number E-100. It has 22 frets but if you want the action to be anywhere near playable the top five frets wont work...the bridge looks like it was meant to imatate a tune-o-matic but it is total crap, and there are no adjustable saddles on it, all the string sit on one peice of metal with a screw underneath it at either side to adjust the action. The neck of this guitar is 'rosewood', its dark, but rubs away as you play it more and more. I have had this guitar about 6 months and under the frets i use most often the finish has worn away. The first few frets are wonky and overall it doesnt play very well. The body is made out of plywood, it has one pickup and 1 tone and 1 volume control. The tone doesnt really work, even after I re-soldered it. The tuners are terrible and made out of some plasitc, the bottom E is the worst.

It used to have a nice warm sound which was good for blues and clean tones, which i mainly use, but ever since i changed the strings to fender nickel wound ones, it sounds kind acousticy. I guess this is the strings. The volume control is good, but if you set it below 3 it cuts out.

When I first got this the pickup was falling off so i had to take off the scratchplate and screw it back on, the circuits all seem in okay condition. The nut on this guitar really needs replacing, but I'm mainly a bass player and dont realy want to spend any money on thsi guitar. Like i said, it has loose tuning pegs and a few poorly aligned frets and the actions a total bitch to set up.

It looks pretty tough, and its really light, so is great for playing standing up with, which is nice when im used to a really heavy ibanez bass. Seems reliable, apart from the tuning on low E going very quicly.

I've been playing for about 2-3 years, i wouldnt be able to replace it if it got lost, i would really mind, it would be a good excuse to get a real guitar.

mid 60's? i really don't the less i know about this thing the better...but i still love it
19 frets
stock pu's
term is really squeeeeky and fun
small flat frets
shit tuners of course
two silly little pu's
plastic archtop bridge
body is like the deformed child of a strat and...well a kay...
metal pickguard

the pickups aren't grounded adut sound...well theyr'e the fullest, richest single coils this side of an american strat
it does well with nasty punk and nirvana
has a supisingly good distortion, even from a fender frontman 25 combo
two on/off switches are flimsy and easy to hit but are decently reliable

action was off when i got it but i fixed the bridge height so its nice and low now
neck bolts are off kilter but have held up nicely
this thing certainly wouldn't even pass hondo quality control now but it is suprisingly solid
the sunburst color is different on the body than the neck...it's kinda funny
ive gotten the tuners to stay in tune after rigorus exercise

umm...do you want the truth?
like you can't guess by reading every one elses...

did they have customers back then?

ive been playing forsix years and my friend had this guitar he said sounded like a banjo with herpes so i jumped at the chance to take it...he got the thing months earlier for half a 7-11 slurpy. he wanted to be rid of it so i just got it for free.
if it were stolen i wold cry myself to sleep and eat a bowl of baked beans. oh then id totally gut the guy who took it.....i love this thing

I don't know a lot about this one; it appears to be the same model as one of the earliest reviews on this page. It has 19 frets on a huge (girthy) neck; nothing fancy on the fretboard, just some ugly old wood 'dots'. The neck has the classic Kay 3 bolts connecting it to the body (sort of an LP type body). Color is tobacco sunburst; I'm not too sure about the type of wood, but it is very lightweight.

There are 2 single soapbox chrome coil pickups, along with 2 volume knobs, 2 tone knobs, and the 3 way selector. Running the entire length of the body is a rhombus shaped pickguard; it's metal and embossed with a checkerboard pattern.

The head is not the Kelvinator head; it is black with a chrome and black kay emblem (shaped almost like a pointy 't') that appears to be stamped on the head.

I actually like the sound of it; been using it on an old tiny Champ Amp swiped from dad's garage.

Well, it is a Kay, so it would be redundant to say it was cheaply made. Then again, it had made it this long, so I can't say it's total crap.

I just goof off on it at home every now and then when i get the urge, so it's been reliable for me.

Kay isn't really in business anymore, are they? Warranty? Ha!

Honestly, I hate to say it, but I love this one because of it's high crap factor. It's not so nice that I worry about anything that happens to it, plus no one I know has one. Plus I like the swanky 50's appearance. Considering it was free, I'd have to say it was a good value.

This is a Kag SG copy made in 1969, probrably in Taiwan. It has 22 frets and is made of some kind of plywood. It had 1 volume & 1 tone control for the 2 dodgy pick-ups. I dont even know if they are S or H as someone has glued theminto the covers for some reason.
It had a normal SG cherry red finish, with the grain showing through. However I sanded this off and painted it black, to look like the one the guy out of The Datsuns has.
It has a height adjustable bridge and a cheap tremelo tailpiece. The actual tremelo is long gone though.
There are a pair of terible uncovered tuners on the headstock. The neck is quite chumky and is possibly made of Mahogany.

I play mainly blues, rock & punk. The scratchy, tinny sound is OK for some early proto punk stuff but thats where it ends. Low oputput pickups.
To be honest, its of a very poor quality.

I got it 30 years after it came out of the factory so I have no idea. what I do know is that it buzzes like nothing else. There were some finish flaws on the back and all of the controls were stupidly noisy.

Its still together now and it took some taking apart for spraying so I would imagine it would be fine live. I have dropped/kicked/tried to break this guitar on a number of ocassions and have not damaged more than the paintwork.
I wouldn't depend on that wiring though.

N/A

I have been playing for about 7 years now and own:
Yamaha pacifica X,
Encore strat an a Hokada Acoustic.
Its not really a great gitar, but it is very light. The worst thing is the action, which makes things worse.
Anyway, its now an SG junior. I sprayed it black, wired it to hve only the one bridge pickup and it is now my 'Punk' guitar. I think I'm just gonna hang it on my wall though, seeing as the action is so bad.

I don't know where this guitar was made. It had s 23 frets, laminated top. classic sunburst- the color darkened due to the age. a pickgaurd with the white floral design. tune-o-matic chrome bridge. it has a volume knob, a tone knob, and two switches which seem to act as 4 way switches because the arrangement of the knobs lead to either very bassy, somewhat-bassy, or not-much-bass, and a clean quiet interlude-like drive. it's weird how it all works out. the pickups are chrome with the 6 magnets on it- it's an odd pickup when it's compared to about every guitar pickup i hae ever seen. the pickups are unknown, but sound great for most types of music styles. the body style resembles a strat, but it has it's uniqueness to it. the headstock looks just like the strats. the tuners suck, but they do the job. when i recieved the guitar, it came with nothing, not even with strings.

this guitar has been excellent! i can actually play some ska riffs, death metal, punk, alternative, and acoustically. i know htat's a wide range of music styles, but i'm not kidding! this guitar can handle a lot! the age shows with the yellowed nut and rings on the tuning pegs, and a few dings on the body, but what i look for is real sound. as long as it sounds great and it's original, it's mine! i use a fender amp, and sometimes i use it with a zoom gm-200 guitar amp modeler. it sounds great. it has the capability in having a rich and full sound, as well as a bright sound- i like that, i really like variety. the guitar currently hums, and i hate that, but i got used to it. if everything goes well, i plan on having the guitar shielded over the weekend. i dislike the fact that no one is aware of this great sounging guitar! i love everything about it, even the dents, because i think of the dents as 'imprints' of history, for what it has been through, and yet manage to stay in tact and yet produce great sounds!

the string action somewhat sucks, but it's alright. does anyone know how to fix that? the strings have a distance from the fret, and it's not a normal distance that would make guitar playing easy. the hardware is a bit oxidized, but it still cranks out good quality sounds; i'm astonished. like i mentioned, the tuning pegs suck, but they do the job; while i'm out shielding the guitar, i'm going to buy replacement tuners, and keep the orginals.

this guitar has survived though live playing. the hardware seem to be everlasting. the finish has gone through so much, i don't think it's going to give up any thime soon. yes, i can totally depend on it. i'll use i without backup, why? because it's rock solid! my bro was playing with it once, without my permission, and he's only 5. he dropped it, stood on it, and everything else a 5 year old boy does to things, and it still works great.

the company seems to not exsist. does anyone have any info on kay manufacturers?

i've been playing with it for approx 2 years, and i use it every single day. i use it to start my day off before i go to school. if it were stolen, i would be heartbroken. i would then buy one of them fender custom shop guitars that are over $1,000. i like everything about it. the tonal capabilities can match up to a strat if it's on the correct settings. it can sould like a b.c. rich warlock if it were on another set of settings, and there are a number of settings that can make this guitar have so many sounds- i love that! i wish i could have more info on the manufacturers, and on the guitar.

the model number on the chrome plate on the back is "et-200."

About a year ago I stumbled onto this old Kay at a swap meet. It had been dropped on it's head and the headstock was cracked and barely attached. The nut and bridge had been worked over by someone without a clue, the truss rod had been untensioned and the strings tensioned for about 20 years, judging by the 3/8" relief curve, and there was not a 16" of finish surface that did not have cold checks. The nineteen skinny frets on the 25-3/4" scale bound maple neck were playworn, the pick-shaped inlays all yellowed with age, and the finish chipped away from areas of the well worn binding. I figured, "what the hell, I'm tired of just building new guitars, and I can practice my bound-neck fretting techniques on this piece of junk," and bought it for less than a song. It's a thinline single cutaway, single coil, single pickup laminated archtop with a laminated arched back, and has a single gold-painted "K" on the headstock. Any label in the body is long gone. The original tuners are 3-on a plate exposed gear, plastic oval knobs, with user-bent shafts. The non-compensated height-adjustable bridge is slotted deeply and I am making a new compensated saddle for it, as well as replacing the original nut. I'm also replacing the broken mirrored acrylic pickup surround, the frozen pots, and missing control knobs. The crosshatched Kleenex box single coil is scarred, but quite functional. The trapeze tailpiece is the one piece of this guitar that has survived the years without noticeable damage. So I have this old Kay as a project guitar...

... I got it home, and carefully brought what looked like the original strings, all rusty and corroded, up to near concert pitch without pulling the broken headstock off the neck. I wrenched the frozen pots to some output level, plugged the thing straight into my old Music Man RD112 (E-V speaker), and was totally awed by the tone I was hearing. This was BLUES with a capital everything!!! Yeah, I'm a blues nazi. So is this axe. So what if the pickup buzzes a little? Blues, man. So, I pulled the strings off, did the headstock repair, straightened the neck, and am preparing to reproduce the pickup surround with some mirrored acrylic I obtained, have replaced the pots and control knobs, and will soon replace the nut and bridge saddle. I can't wait to get this beast onstage. I won't refinish the axe. It has a character that is like the tone. Vintage. The neck is chunky. I like that. The tone is exactly what I've looked for a long time. The things I didn't like about this venerated veteran were mainly related to the treatment it recieved while a POW. So call me Doctor. It feels better now.

The action of this thing will be great when I'm done. That was a challenge. Hey, I'm good. I have no idea what it was like when it was new, how the factory set it up. I do know the previous owner(s) could have learned a little about instrument care... I wonder if they treat their old and feeble parents the same way?

The axe barely lasted this long. It was on its deathbed. I have revived it, and it is recovering nicely. It will be back in action with all its battle scars very soon. I never go onstage for more than a couple tunes without a backup, but yes, I would depend on this axe to get me through four strenuous sets. At my age (which is older than this axe's), if I can make it, so can the Kay. It's a lot lighter than some other guitars I use. I chuckle over the questioning of the solidity of the strap buttons... they fell out. So now it sports Straploks, as do all my guitars. The original tuners are getting replaced with the same 3-on a plank style open gear tuners.

Ha! Call me, I'll fix your Kay.

I've been doing blues since 1964. I've done a lot of other styles, but alway come back, and am in the blues to stay. When I found this Kay, it answered all my questions itself. I have nothing to say to the original and subsequent owners. If it were stolen or lost, I'd be heartbroken. It's already been lost too long. I love this old blues axe for it's character. I don't compare it to other guitars I play. It has it's own voice and it's own story to tell. And it's very a definitely a story of pain, mistreatment, new and lost love, good times, and bad times.

Hi, in response to the person that posted about the "unknown Kay". I believe i recently purchased the same guitar, and like yourself, i am somewhat clueless as to what exactly it is. I bought it for $50.00 in a pawn shop in the United States. It has 22 frets, a single pick up on a black scratch plate. The scratch plate is framed with a white flower like design. In the bottom right of the body it has one volume and one tone knob and then below that is the output. It has an adjustable bridge and a tail piece, both in chrome. Behind the head stock is a sticker that says it has a steel reinforced neck. Also on the head stock (which is similar to a traditional Fender strat) it has the label of Kay, which on this paticular guitar is just a circle, with a "K" inside. The model number is E-110 and it was made in Japan. I've been researching online for the actual name of the guitar, along with the original and current price of the guitar but I can't seem to find any information. If anyone happens to read this and has any information, please email me at coa50@hotmail.com or post an answer here on the site. thanks.

I haven't got a chance to put strings on it yet... so i haven't heard it.

The company of Kay seems to have dissapeared from the face of the earth... i have found no information.

I have no idea about this guitar at all. It was my first guitar and I brought it for #30 off of a friend. Basically, it is a lovely sunburst colour with a black scratchplate with a kinda floral design on. It has one thin, covered pickup and a volume and tone knob, the output is on the front of the scratchplate. It has a bridge saddle and a tailpiece, all in chrome. I dont know the year or country of origin, but if anyone can help then please post a note on this web site (Sorry I dont have my own email address.)

I play loud grunge and punk, wich is bad news for this guitar as it sucks with loads of distortion. I use the clean sound in recording though, which isnt too bad.

I like it.In fact I love it. Without distortion.

This is a single-cutaway, single-pickup Kay thinline hollowbody. It's been refinished (more on this later) and has new Kluson tuning pegs and an N.O.S. floating rosewood compensated bridge. otherwise, it's original. This guitar was made in Chicago, probably between 1958 and 1961. It has a 19-fret, LONG (26"!) scale neck made from a single piece of maple. The fingerboard is rosewood, bound, and with odd pick-shaped inlays at the 3d, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, 13th & 15th frets. The neck is bolted to the body with three screws, a design typical of Kay and Harmony thinlines. The top and back are laminated maple and I don't know what the sides are made from, possibly also maple. The top and back have been lovingly sanded to natural and laquered, revealing beautifully flamed maple on the top and back of the body. Unreal quality, considering it was originally obscured by a cheap sunburst paintjob. The tailpiece is simple yet elegant, a design used by Kay on many of their upscale hollowbodies. Unlike the generic tailpieces seen on many cheap 50's hollowbodies, this design is unique to Kay. The pickup is a Kay "Barney Kessel" model, a.k.a. the "kleenex box" pickup. It's a huge, Jazzmaster p.u.-sized unit encased in a clear plastic shell, very art-deco! The polepieces peek through the transparent cover and are fully adjustable. Two pickup-height-adjustment screws are hidden under a plastic mounting ring. The controls are volume and tone knobs. The less-than-stellar rating for this category is simply an indication of the Kay being a no-frills, one-purpose guitar. It is actually a rock-solid, great sounding guitar with a bare minimum of knobs and no switches.

This guitar is simply useless for modern playing styles. It is excellent for swing, jazz, blues and rockabilly. The single-coil pickup hums somewhat, but that's the trade-off for great vintage tone! The sound is dark and somewhat midrangey. Even acoustically, the Kay's immediate sonic character is cutting and articulated, despite the jazzy, thick tone. Unlike many "jazz" sounding guitars, it doesn't get mushy or muffled-sounding, thanks to that pronounced midrange honk. This is the kind of guitar that sounds best without any effects, just straight into a good tube amp, like my '62 brownface Fender Super. Maybe a little slapback echo, that's all. Disclaimer: since this is a true hollowbody with no center block, it will feed back at high volumes, so forget about pushing it into overdriven amp territory. Sounds great clean, anyway.

This guitar was refinished by a previous owner, and it simply looks stunning. You'd literally have to spend thousands on such an incredible piece of maple! Looks like the tailpiece was moved about 1/16th of an inch towards the bass side at some point, probably to correct "high E falling off the fingerboard" syndrome. The guitar plays really well now, the neck is straight as an arrow, the original frets, though flat, are even and exhibit almost no wear. The action is quite low with no string buzz, even when strummed violently. The neck profile is very clubby, with lots of "shoulder," so the guitar feels really old-timey. If you have a "modern" playing style, forget it! If you play Chuck Berry or Link Wray style, it works pretty good. Really excels at jazz chord four-to-the-bar strumming, big band style. Considering that this is not original, I'll rate it "as is" with present playability in mind.

Considering the age of this instrument, it is astounding how well it has held up. It's obvious that it will last many more years, because it's simply rock solid.

What, are you kidding? Kay ceased to exist long ago, and was sold to a Japanese company before its demise.

I've owned numerous Kay hollowbodies, along with Harmony and Silvertone specimens. Compared to those, this is an amazingly good one. It's unfair to compare this guitar to anything outside that. It's a bolt-on neck, for God's sake! How do you compare that to a set-neck hollowbody??? The good qualities of this guitar are the beautiful appearance, simple yet efficient electronics, awesome vintage tone, and solid construction. The only downside is the extremely archaic neck profile, almost like a letter U. I don't really mind this, as I am quite used to playing cheapo hollowbodies. My main guitar is a '65 Jaguar, but nothing feels quite like a good old hollowbody, it's just a different instrument altogether. The other upside of this guitar is that my girlfriend fell in love with it, instead of asking me if I needed "another guitar" again. Now it's hers.