Posted 13 years ago
acconciar
(2 items)
Just trying to identify this vintage guitar. I was thinking late 40s to early 1950 Kay Archtop full bodied electric guitar. I was told by someone that the neck was slightly bowed. No modications as i know of. Grover tune keys and has 2 pickups by Kent wc-25. I only had one shop take a look at it and said its worth 100 bucks!. I at least want to identify what Kay model this is. There is a number stamped in blue with L1358. Any help would be appreciated.
Ca 1961 Kay K6845 "Mercury" arch top with added Ca 1964/8 Kent WC-25 double pickup set (pickups came with the pickguard) and added Grover rotomatic tuners.
Hope that helps!
Identifying Kay guitars
Posted by Yet_another_Dave on Thu, 03/24/2016 - 05:08.
http://www.guitarsite.com/database/Guitars/rec/6753/
Kay catalogues available for free download here:
http://kayvintagereissue.com/downloads.html
The numbers stamped inside hollow-body arch-tops beginning with the letter L in the format "L-xxxx-xxx" are not the model numbers, but factory-specific batch and serial numbers, and do not identify the year or model. Kay model numbers begin with the letter K in the format "K- xxxxx". Identification is complicated by the fact that Kay re-assigned these numbers around 1960, so many models have two different model numbers, one which was used in the '50 and another in the '60s, despite being the same guitar.
But it's not hard to go through the catalogues, and to date most guitars by noticing slight changes in the models over the years -- such as pick-guard shape, tail-piece type (open or closed end), etc. By going through the catalogues, most guitars can be pinned down to within a couple of years. More specific dating is possible with electric models by checking the stamp on the back of the pickups, in the format "mmddyyyy" e.g. 12251964 would be Christmas Day 1964. Of course, that only dates the manufacturing of the pickups themselves, which may have been in stock for some time before they actually went into an instrument, so strictly speaking that stamp only establishes an easliest possible date for the instrument as a whole.
The K head stock line ran from the late 1950's 57? to early 60's 62?