1930s Kay Kraft (Wards Branding) 2-Point Archtop Guitar (Lefty-fied)

I bought this from Picker's Supply for a customer in France. He's a lefty and so after the usual work (neck reset, fret level/dress, new bridge, etc.) I also swapped sides for its pickguard and set it up lefty for him.

I've worked on a bunch of old Kay Krafts of this body shape, now, and I find it pretty wild how different they are from one another in construction details. They all look basically the same but some feature dovetail joints at the neck while others have the adjustable neck gizmo, some have x-bracing while others have ladder, some have 12-fret joints while most have 14, most have plywood bodies but some are solid.

This one appears to be a ply-body/top model with spruce over maple and it has ladder-bracing and a dovetailed neck. One advantage of the dovetailed neck like this one is that they tend to be a little tougher in the neck and aren't warped like a lot of them. This one's nice and straight at tension while strung with 50w-11 strings. That's more impressive for a period box when you realize that the scale length is 25 3/4" and the neck is unreinforced poplar.

Tone on these is bright, poppy, direct, and snappy. They're great for country-blues and also things like gypsy-jazz. They'd be a good "fiddle backup" chord box, too.

Repairs included: neck reset, fret level/dress, new rosewood bridge, side dots install, cleaning, setup.

Top wood: ply spruce

Back & sides wood: ply maple (birdseye sides)

Bracing type: ladder

Bridge: rosewood

Fretboard: ebonized maple

Neck wood: poplar

Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 50w, 36w, 26w, 20w, 15, 11

Neck shape: medium-bigger soft V

Board radius: ~16"

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium-small

Scale length: 25 3/4"

Nut width: 1 3/4"

Condition notes: it's all-original except for the new bridge and in good, clean shape save mild usewear and small amounts of scratching. The decal on the lower bout looks excellent.