1930s Oahu (Kay) 68B Squareneck Hawaiian Guitar

It's a beaut! A local customer of mine found this guy at a good price and we both enthusiastically embraced the guitar "as itself" rather than obsess over converting it to a roundneck. Click here to see and hear another one of these and click here to see and hear a converted one. He was looking for a Dobro/Hawaiian guitar anyhow and, for what it's worth, I think these do sound best used for the original purpose. They have a big, wide-open, pushy sound that lends itself to slide/bar/Hawaiian playing.

My work was light -- I reglued the bridge, fit a pickup, reglued one brace, cleaned it up, and set it up. It's currently living in open D and sounds righteous.

Materials are -- solid spruce top, ply maple back, solid maple sides. The neck is mahogany and the fretboard is ebonized while the bridge is rosewood and original. It's x-braced and has a deep, Nick Lucas-style, 00-size body. The tuners are terrible but they are original. Actually, everything save the pins and nut are original.

The nut is, by the way, a brass one I installed Danelectro-style with glue and a screw. Why brass? Well, it keeps the tone very similar going from open strings (at the nut) and closed (with the bar).

Kay (in Chicago) made this model for Oahu's mailorder catalog.