Kay Upbeat

This particular model is the full Kelvinator headstock Upbeat. It has a two-tone sunburst finish with a single neck position Barney Kessel "Kleenex" box pickup. The body measures 17" at the lower bout. It has a laminated spruce top with maple back, sides and neck. Rosewood fretboard with large rounded block pearloid inlays. It has the "batwing" sparkle pickguard (very cool looking). Closed back Klusons.

This archtop sounds full, warm and woody. The Kessel pickup can be described as similar to the P-90, however differs in that it doesn't have as much growl and output, yet retains much of the same crisp articulation. There is a bit of sustain in the output which makes this guitar a joy to play. Acoustically, it is very loud pleasing to the ear.
I bought it solely for use as a Jazzbox, mainly for home use, as it is so old. The sound can be desicribed as something close to a Super 400, except with a little more bite, because of the single coils.

I bought this guitar very used. I believe it dates to circa 1958 or 59. It has a good deal of play wear on the frets, but still sounds good with hardly any noticeable buzzing. The action is slightly high, but I'm not taking any steps to lower it, as I think there is a tonal improvement because of it, and that I think that it is good practice to play on it as it serves to strengthen your fingers so that when you go back to your regular player, you play faster and with greater ease. I must point out that the neck profile is on the thicker side, not quite baseball battish, but definitely chunky, which I definitely dig. Given the fact that this guitar is very far away from its factory condition I will omit a rating for this category, but I will say that it has held up nicely.

This guitar is obviously durable, having survived nearly 50 years, largely intact, aside from some play and finish wear. I would be ok bringing it to a gig from a reliability standpoint, but would watch it like a hawk. There are so few of these things left that it would be near irreplaceable.

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I used to have a Kay Upbeat a while back that was Blonde. I had sold it and regretted it ever since. Thus, when this one came around I jumped at it. I would eventually consider aquiring another as I think these high end Kays are truly unique.

Tobacco burst finish, big jazz-box with single cutaway, simple mahogany floating bridge, closed tuners. Neck is thicker, frets medium to jumbo, mother of peal inlays looking good after 50 years. This model dates from 1956-59 era. 14 frets to the cutaway, I think 21 in all. I believe these bodies were typically laminated maple, top might be laminated spruce. Theres a 3 way selector switch and separate volume and tone knobs for each pickup. The pickups are Kay's Gold K type, black, similar to P-90. Neck must be mahogany w/rosewood fingerboard. It's a good looking vintage guitar.

My Upbeat is actually an Old Kraftsman, made by Kay but with a simpler headstock than the usual Kelvinator emblem. I play blues/roots/country/swing music and this guitar is perfect for those styles. I play through a low-watt Univox tube amp, with a Digitech multieffects pedal for volume boost and reverb. The single coil pickups are a little noisy, but have great lively tone and balance, good as P90s. A lot of variety from the tone knob on both pickups, mellow jazzy to bright twangy; using both pickups cuts out any noise factor. The sound really jumps. No dislikes.

The guitar is about 50 years old, has a set, non-adjustable neck, action was too high when I bought it, but not wanting to spring for a reset, I had my guitar tech lower the pickups and sand down the bottom of the top of the floating bridge, now action is fine. He balanced the pickup poles. The finish is a bit crazed, but overall the guitar is in solid shape with original hardware (but pickguard is long gone).

I've gigged with it a couple times, and it really stands out, just a great-sounding guitar. But I always have a backup on a gig.

Kay is long out of business.

I've played 30 years, have about 25 instruments of various types (archtop acoustics & electrics, solid body electric, flat-tops acoustics of various sizes, banjos, mandolin, mandola, tenor guitar, resonator). I paid about what the guitar is worth knowing what I was getting. I love it, wish the neck were adjustable, but it plays fine as is. Range and punch of pickups is my favorite feature. The Kay "kleenex" box/Barney Kessel pickups are ultra cool.