c.1955 Kay "Take to the Campfire" Guitar

Slightly smaller than a dreadnought in the upper bout, with a longer scale (25 3/4"), floating bridge, solid spruce top, and solid birch everything else... plus painted on trim -- who could resist? This is a pretty good, crack-free example, original in entirety save a new rosewood bridge, of a budget-priced Kay from the 1950s. If you were looking for bang for the buck -- heck, look no farther! To top it off, they even provided an original bone nut. That's class.

The neck's perfectly straight... thank goodness... and after a fret dress, setup, cleaning, and new rosewood bridge... this guitar roars and plays just as well to match. It's super loud, barky in that gypsy-jazz way, and rumbly in that growly old 1930s ladder-braced way. Terrific blues guitar... sounds swell for lead work, too. Very punchy, alive, resonant, and sustained. Big!

I cut the slots in the bridge pretty deep so that those strings would in no way move around on you while banging out big cowboy chords while serenading your friends at camp.

Nicely painted-on fret markers...




Ah yes, nicely figured, flamed... faux-maple, painted-on... plain-wrap birch.


Good, tight neck join.


Tuners work great.






And even an original end pin... how's about that?