I'm brand new to this forum - and it certainly looks to be the place to be to find out information.
I'm trying to date the earliest possible date that my guitar could have been manufactured - and indeed the earliest date that this model was first produced. Actually, I now have two of these lovely guitars. They are much higher quality than the usual 1960's Kay cheap+cheerful stuff.
Here it is :
The front :
The back :
It's got Kluson Super (aka Waffleback) tuners - these were normally reserved for high end Gibsons, Gretsches and some other brands. It's got the Kanti-Lever truss rod system - but by about 1956 I think, Kay catalogues seem to start calling it the "Speed Demon" neck adjustment system instead - but same thing, as far as I can tell.
It's got real nice rosewood back and sides too.
As far I can see, searching the vintaxe database, this guitar first shows up in a 1958 (Kay) catalogue - mainly showing Barney Kessel endorsed guitars.
Elmore James is shown in B&W photos from 1957 (I assume the dates are correct) with one of these guitars. His looks like he has had it a while as it has quite a few modifications.
- Elmore
The K-26 and K-27 jumbo models, with the same headstock, were available much earlier, so I am assuming it is possible that this dreadnought version was available much earlier.
Both my dreadnought Kay's have the model no. 6000 stamped inside them, if that helps
(NB. could be L6000 - need to check again !)
Here is my other one, with Dearmond pickups on it, just like Elmore's :
And this is what it sounds like, with the Dearmond Rhythm Chief pickup plugged in (without the soundhole pickup even installed) :
(Note - when I made this video, I thought the guitar was from the late 1940's)
