Kay guitar serial number lookup serial number#
Kay guitar serial number lookup full#

Made from 1957 to 1961.Full Kelvinator headstock from 1957 to 1960, half Kelvinator headstock in 1961. Available with 1 or 2 'Gold K' single coil pickup from 1957 to 1959.In late 1959, 3 pickup 'ES-5' type model available. Singlecutaway archtop, 17' wide, veneer maple body, rosewood fingerboard with pearloid block inlays starting at the 3rd fret, rosewood bridge, closedback individual Kluson tuners with metal buttons, large scalloped pickguardsometimes with silver sparkle, sunburst, blond or black finish. Kay's less expensive alternative to the Barney Kessel Jazz Special. In 1960, Barney Kessel's signaturewas removed from the pickguard. Single cutaway archtop, 17' wide, veneer maple body, spruce top, bound F-holes, 1 or 2 singlecoil 'Gold K' pickups, split-block fingerboard inlays, ebony fingerboard, 'Barney Kessel' signature on the silver colored acrylic pickguard, 'Kelvinator' peghead, chrome Melita bridge, chrome Grover Imperial tuners, sunburst or blond finish. In 1960, Barney Kessel's signaturewas removed from the pickguard.Ĭompleted with the Gibson L-5CES. Single cutaway archtop, 15 1/2' wide, veneer maple body, spruce top, bound F-holes, 1 or 2 single coil 'Gold K' pickups, block fingerboard inlays starting at the 1st fret, rosewood fingerboard, 'Barney Kessel' signature on the silver colored acrylic pickguard, 'Kelvinator' peghead, chrome Melita bridge, nickel Grover tuners, sunburst or blond finish. Kays are notorious for having bad neck sets and broken truss rod systems.Usually, this can be corrected by a good repair person for around$150 to $200. This design only lasted till the end of 1961 when the Kelvinator headstock was completely dropped. This 'half' Kelvinator dropped the black or white back-painted acyrlic 'lunchcountertop' surround with gold dots.

Kay guitar serial number lookup full#

Starting in late 1960, Kay switched to a less expensive 'half' Kelvinator that used just the triangle Kay crest from the full Kelvinator, screwed to a simple black plastic headstockveneer. Used from 1957 to 1960, this headstock was named after the brand of refrigerator that looked quite similar.This overlay was injection molded with clear acrylic plastic and thenback-painted either white or black, with gold highlights in the crestand gold dots outside of the crest. The most collectable Kays are any model with the 'Kelvinator'plastic headstock overlay with art deco patterns. But they also made some hi-end, qualityarchtop guitars. Kay primarily manufactured 'department store' style, inexpensive guitars from the 1930's to the 1960's. Note the Hofnersection has been greatly updated and moved to its own section, and removed from here.īack to the Table of Contents Kay. But theseare the 'big' ones that I have some information on. There are lots of other cool makes of instruments out there. Tag No.1 Earliest tag says simply (Kay Musical Instrument Co. So far, eight different inner tags have been identified. The one inch high letters in blue or black ink stamped with an automatic stamper started appearing during WWII.

Kay guitar serial number lookup serial number#

Kay went away from the hand written number beginning with Serial number 10,000 (approx). Like some other serial schemes, this one may require you to know something about the ESP guitars of the period because the 'Y'. So the serial number '02112777' would indicate a guitar produced the 2nd day of November in 1982 OR 1992 and was the 777th guitar off the production line. Unlike other guitar manufacturers, Kay rarely placed a serial number inside its instruments, so to determine the age of a guitar a visual inspection of a model's specific characteristics must be made and checked against photographs of vintage instruments. After 1968, Kay guitars were manufactured under an Asian import company. Use this site for a pricing guide and source of information on all guitars. The number one source of guitar and amplifier pricing and information so you can find the price and value of your used guitars and amplifier. Find the current Blue Book value and worth of your new and used guitars, both acoustic, electric and amplifier. That will give you the earliest date the guitar could have.

Electric instru- men ts should have American-made potentiometers whlch are date- coded.

Kay Guitars Kay instruments have never featured meaningful serial num- bers, so basically there is no way other than approximation to de- termine when a specific instrument was made.