1960s Kay K6130 "Calypso" 000 Flattop Guitar





A friend of mine sold this to me the other day, and as I was regluing some other bridges, I did this one up, too. It turned-out a fine player with an old-timey, mids-y, typically "Kay" voice. Their dreadnoughts are pretty similar.

This style of Kay was made in the mid-60s and sports a solid spruce top (x-braced) over laminate mahogany back and sides. It's roughly 000 in size but has a very long 25 3/4" scale length and big 1 15/16" nut width and accompanying big D-shaped neck profile. If you've played any old 60s classical guitars from Japan, you might be familiar with the feel.


There are no cracks but there's plenty of weather-check in the finish and average use wear.


My work on this one included a new bridge, new bone nut and saddle, a fret level/dress, and general setup. The strings are 50w-11s.


I also added side dots. The board is rosewood, bound, and has the usual big old brass Kay frets. The dots are faux-pearl.



The blue decal rosette is wild, huh? The binding is all 3-ply tortoise/white/black.


The new rosewood bridge is a huge improvement over the original, bolted-on, funky Kay bridge. A drop-in saddle also makes action adjustments easy.

The guitar is playing with 3/32" EA and tiny-hair-above 1/16" DGBE action at the 12th fret. The neck deflects just a tiny bit under tension -- which is bog-standard on 60s Kay and Harmony products with the non-adjustable-rod necks.




The mahogany looks pretty spiffy for an old Kay, huh?


The neck is poplar and has a steel rod in it.


I sunk (and covered) a screw/bolt into the heel and said "there's that." You can see it in the above pic as the discolored area.

If I'm not doing a neck reset, I don't trust the joint's future stability unless I do something -- and on a guitar of this caliber, a neck reset is really just not worth the time. It's stable and good to go.








There's the x-bracing -- just in case you didn't believe me. A lot of older Kays are strictly ladder-braced things.

Comments

Nick R said…
This is the K6130 Calypso which debuted in 1960 and was made until 1965. This info comes from that great book Guitar Stories- The History of Cool Guitars Volume 2. I must get a copy of this book. I have one of these retailed as a Truetone Calypso. My guitar man referred to it as "That thing of yours" but I have told him that somebody has to champion the underdog guitars and they are okay- even pretty good- especially when they are tweaked. This guitar has a neck nearly two inches wide at the nut and mine came with its own film of nicotine and tar- its owner had been a man that repaired the highways in Ohio and presumably like to smoke. The inside of the box still smells- he may be gone but his spirit lingers on.
Jake Wildwood said…
Nicholas -- thanks so much for your comment. Gotta love the funky old dogs, right? :)
Unknown said…
I just got one of these today and its got me smiling. I love this tone for picking blues and ragtime tunes.
This is the first one i ever seen and I'm very happy i got it.
Al Milburn said…
Hi Jake,
I'm a luthier in CA., and I'm looking for a Kay Calypso to convert to 12-string as an experiment. I think there may be some potential for a low-tuned 12 with the long scale and x-bracing.
Thanks, Al Milburn
Kim L. said…
Re: Al Milburn's comment: I had a Kay Calypso (with no logo on the headstock) that my parents bought from Montgomery Ward around 1963. Unfortunately it was stolen in 1970. But a couple of years ago, just after buying a new Washburn classical guitar, I found a Calypso online that needed some work and bought it from Mark Silber for a very good price. It has the Trutone logo like Nick R's (see above comment)--of all things a Western Auto brand, I think. Silber has others for sale and has done 12 string conversions with them. http://www.marcsilbermusic.com/
Unknown said…
Hello Kim,
I just traded a few guitars yesterday for one of these beauties from Marc; I’m fortunate in that he spent some time tastefully reshaping the back of the neck with comfort in mind! It’s beautiful, and he redid the bridge and nut so it’s got perfect low action, and sounds lovely. I need to color match and touch up the neck work and I’ll probably cherish this thing forever….Marc mentioned that he converted one of these to 12 string for one of his musician friends ( a minor icon of the early sixties IIRC, but forgot the name) over fifty years ago-the fellow sold it and said it was a huge mistake!
Marc showed me a Calypso he found at a junk store recently….It’s on his bench and he’s converting it to a 12 string to send to that very friend….said he’s going to tell him that “I found your old guitar!!”
He’s the coolest guy ! Be well, Shawn