Help with Kay Archtop ID

[robbyd]

I just bought this Kay archtop, which seems to be in nice shape. It measures 15 1/2" lower bout by 41 1/2" length. Can't find a serial#/Model# inside or out. The kluson like sealed tuners say made in japan undernieth of the gearbox, and seem to have plastic bushings inside, bent over tabs so you can't remove the covers. They may be replacements, but fit the indentations perfectly where they are mounted. Any ideas as to model or year of manufacture? Kind of a reddish to yellow sunburst finish. Bound top, back, neck, headstock. Small black and white checkered binding on the top.

No trussrod

Was told that this was a K-45, but the size tells me it may be a K-34.

Thanks,Robby

[robbyd]

[Spud1950]

Wow,looks like new.Where did you get it from? Checked the Kay catalogs in the VintAxe collection. Definitely not a K-45. Beside being bigger, the K-45 looks totally different.It has a single cut away body, a bit of fancy headstock decoration,fancy pearl fret board marker inlays, different shaped pick guard and different tail piece.It's a more expensive upscale model. Yours looks exactly like a K-34,the size of which is described as being 15 1/2" wide by 40 1/4" long. Of all the Kay catalogs in the collection,it appears in the 1952,1953 and 1954 editions. There are two differences from yours though, the finish color,which is "shaded violin brown" sunburst and the pick guard is "white celluloid". Can't find any version of it with the same finish color or tortoise pick guard like yours. The tuners are described as "Deluxe patent heads with built in covers", which is most likely describing Klusons, which would have of course would have been American made.