c.1960 Kay Archtop Mandolin w/Pickup

This is the exception to the rule... normally I'm disgusted by press-arched plywood Kays from the 50s and 60s, but this one... after a neck set, fret dress, and setup... pretty cool! It's definitely a "take anywhere" mando, and it comes with a surprise: ...surprisingly nice folk art on the headstock (not mine) and an oldie-but-goody transducer (I think) pickup under the top on the treble side, feeding this a quite hot, decent-sounding signal for your acoustic amp.

It's all-original, too.

Pretty cool, huh? A vast improvement over the yucky logo we'd normally be seeing.

So, while these aren't my sort of thing, I was happily surprised by the surprisingly good (bluegrassy) tone of this beast and the even more surprisingly good amped tone of it. This would be sweet for barroom gigs. It's solid enough you could knock someone out with it, too.