Unknown archtop - can you ID it?

[Michael Ambrose]

Scott,

I don't know why I didn't think to ask this earlier...

How is the neck bolted on? Could you upload a pic of the back?

Toward the dwindling tail end of Kay's American run, in an effort to cut production costs, they began combining imported parts with American bodies and necks.

If you see three staggered bolts in the back, its undoubtedly a Kay.

[bliorg]

Well, my guitar has four bolts and a steel plate:


However, the above linked auction to a suspected Kay with the same switch array as mine does have the staggered bolt pattern:


Considering the eBay gitfiddle has the same pickups and mounting plates, I think this is at least decent evidence that what I've got is a Kay. Wonder what model?

Scott

[Michael Ambrose]

On the contrary, being as how your pickups are imported (looks to be Kawaii in origin), they could quite literally be ANYTHING.

We had a situation come up not too long ago involving a Premier solid-body guitar... whereas this one particular model began its life as a wholly American-made piece, like the "Kay" in question here, Sorkin/Premier began importing parts towards the end of its existence... Bodies from Italy and Germany, pickups and electronics from Japan... etc.

So realistically, we're back to square one.

They only thing we know for sure is that the body is almost certainly NOT an American-made Kay.

[cheepaxes]

There are a lot of Harmony/Silvertones out there with a staggered 3-bolt neck too, though they have a slightly different neck bolt configuration, as I recall.

-Cheepaxe Scott (to differentiate from the other Scott)

[jeng3000]