1950s Kay-made Old Kraftsman "Thin Twin" Semihollow Electric Guitar




The "Thin Twin" is about as iconic as you can get for a Kay electric outside of the Barney Kessel series of crazy-looking archtops. These are known as the "Jimmy Reed" model for his use of the tigerstripe-pickguard version. They also sound like nothing else, too. The Kay blade pickups are odd and come out of the design of Kay's mid-'40s electric designs -- they sound mellow and sultry with lower output, but if you add a bit of drive to them they give-up the blues grit right-quick. Not to mention the looks -- this thing embodies mid-'50s design like crazy. It looks a bit like Kay knocked-off a hybrid between a Bigsby, maple-bedecked electric and an early-'50s National solidbody.

Work included a fret level/dress, some massaging of the bridge/saddle, and a good setup -- but it was otherwise in good shape. It's also fairly clean and all-original except for the tuners (perhaps late-'50s Klusons?) and the bridge topper/saddle. It's playing spot-on with 3/32" E and 1/16" ADGBE at the 12th fret, has a straight neck, and is wearing something like 50w-11 with a wound G string.

Specs are: 25 3/4" scale, 1 5/8" nut width, 1 7/16" string spacing at the nut, 1 15/16" spacing at the bridge, 15" lower bout, 10 3/4" upper bout, and 2 11/16" side depth. The neck has a medium C-shaped profile and something like a 12" radius to the fretboard. It's chunky but still pretty quick.

The body is ply figured maple with a chambered/semihollow build. Overall the guitar weighs about like a solidbody but has the footprint of a smaller archtop guitar.




The fretboard is rosewood and has big, faux-pearl block inlay. the frets are jumbo-sized but lower in height -- though they have plenty of life to give.


How about that binding?




The bridge is a simple, compensated archtop-style saddle on adjustable posts set into the body. I shimmed-up the mounting holes a little bit to snug its fit and also found some proper vintage washers for it to ride on that fit the posts correctly as the originals were long-gone.



The switch tip is rad! These Kay switches have a pretty loose feel, though.


There's volume and tone for each pickup.











It comes with a hard/semirigid/flight-style case.

Comments

Yahman said…
I'm considering purchasing a Kay jumbo archtop with the same truss rod adjustment setup as on this Jimmy Reed model; consisting of a lever-action steel rod controlled by a key wrench, it is/was called the "Kay balanced tension system" and featured guitars with 'Speed Demon' necks which were "thinner and faster but could still "withstand the tremendous string tension" or words to that effect.

Do you happen to know the size (or location) of one of the key wrenches? Better yet, do you have any advice w/re to maintaning/setting up one of these lever-action truss rods?

Thanks so much for any suggestions!

Best Regards, Robert Smith.



Peter said…
I purchased this guitar from a shop in Berkeley a few months ago. Not sure what the chain of custody was like going from you to them, they mentioned they bought it from a different luthier in Santa Cruz I think. Love the instrument!

Peter B
Yahman said…
Should anyone be seeking information re: the key wrench for the balanced tension neck I posed a question about, it turns out that a tuning key for a banjo will work.

I ordered my "Hall 3-way Banjo Bracket Tuning Key Wrench by my-banjo" on Amazon - it's made to fit 1/4", 9/32" and 5/16" hexagonal sockets and is the correct width/length to fit into the opening on the back of the neck of the guitar.

Cheers, Yahman
Jake Wildwood said…
Peter: I think my friend Wayne brought this out there at some point if I recall and probably traded it to the shop.

Yahman: Yep, those work great!