c.1960 Kay Jumbo Cutaway Flattop Guitar

 

Cutaway acoustic jumbo guitars from the 50s/60s are pretty rare stuff and it's hard to find them outside of the archtop genre. This is a nice old Kay (a customer's instrument) probably from the late 50s or early 60s with a huge amount of volume and an enormous amount of vibe. It's a cool guitar!

Strangely enough it seems like I wind up working on a good number of these old jumbo Kays and this one is pretty typical as far as bracing and build goes: ladder-braced, solid top and sides, laminate back, and narrow (width) but bigger (front to back) neck. It also has a long scale (just shy of 25 7/8") which means that with a light set of strings you're putting more tension on the guitar than an average set of mediums on a Gibson-y scale length.

At any rate, these design qualities lend this a big, loud, projecting mid-range tone. It doesn't have the huge bottom one might expect with such a big soundboard; rather, the soundboard's size and the extra airspace works to give it more volume. It's an interesting tonality that responds sort of half-way between an archtop and a flattop guitar.


Nice tortoise headstock veneer!

My only "work" on this guitar involved a setup and replacing the (earlier replacement) tuners with some repro Kluson-style tuners that gave this guitar the right look.


This adjustable pin-bridge style design is seen very rarely on old Kays and only on the fancier models. I like it, myself! Note the three "furniture tack" covers -- these hide 3 bolts. It looks like this bridge was also reglued at one point slightly back from its original mounting area.


I love that "firestripe" pickguard! Note also that the fretboard extension is cantilevered over the body like on an archtop guitar.


Cool faux-pearl block inlays in a bound, rosewood board.


Here you can see the sheer size of that 17 1/8" lower bout.



Nice 50s-looking sunburst on the back and sides, too!



These 3-on-a-plate Kluson-style repros are a lot closer to what would have originally been on the guitar. There were single-unit "Keystone" Kluson Deluxes installed on it when it came in but they'd been installed willy-nilly at angles and these clean up the look quite a bit.




It's a lucky fella who owns a Kay like this one and also in such fine shape! These usually wind up having somewhat warped necks and bulged tops due to the long length and players over-stringing them with mediums and such (I'd stick to 54w-12 as a maximum gauge on this guy).

Comments

Anonymous said…
Saw one exactly like this puppy at at my local pawnshop today with the only difference being it was had the Airline brand name; really cool guitar for sure, priced at only 79 bucks- I'm going to rescue this one first thing in the morn! thanks for the great info...Kevin in Ft. Worth,TX