c.1955 Kay K15 Auditorium Guitar


Just for the sake of your eyes... this guitar's red coloring is actually more of a dark red/brown... old Mr. Sun (Ms. Sun?) brightened it up for us a bit.

That said, this guitar is the bee's knees. Big, vibrant, saucy tone, easy player (now), and fun vintage looks. It also fingerpicks as good as it picks. Solid spruce top, maple neck, rosewood fretboard and bridge, bound top, back, and fretboard in white celluloid... new bone nut and new bone saddle (tone!) and ladder-bracing for huge open sound.




The (realistic?) "Kay" on the top of this headstock was painted on at some point by a past owner.


Brass frets, plastic/celluloid dots. Rosewood board with radius.



Rosewood bridge was hastily reglued at one point. Good strong glue job but has some yucky finish blemish around the sides.


Faux-flame on back and sides. The back and sides look like either birch or 3-ply plain-Jane maple. Can't really tell. I'd guess on the ply maple, however, as the guitar sounds more maple than birch... ie crisp and gutsy rather than bottom-heavy with slightly muted highs.



Original Kluson pegs with at-some-point-replaced ivoroid tuner buttons.






Totally cool guitar with really fun vintage vibe. When this leaves I'll be feeling regrets hovering up through my subconscious.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I have the same guitar. I use it for slide because of it's mellow and baritone sound. Good for playing in open D tuning.