1960s Kay Swingmaster (Refinished) Hollowbody Electric Guitar

This cool old Kay Swingmaster is a headscratcher! At a glance it looks like a very legitimate Barney Kessel-style "Airline" Swingmaster (complete with three Kleenex Box pickups) from the mid-'60s save that there's no logo of any sort on the headstock. When you get closer to it, however, you can start to count-up the differences that whisper, "no dice."

The neck might have mostly original finish on it, but the body has definitely been refinished to natural at some point decades and decades ago because it's worn in such a way that it looks factory. The details, however, are the tells -- there's red toner on the inside of the f-holes and here and there you can see faint red stain in the gaps between the binding and the body and in old, filled holes. This body started-off as either a translucent red or cherry-sunburst finish.

That all said, the flipside of this coin is that a bunch of good work was done on the guitar in the past, too. It has newer frets, replacement knobs (cute, Harmony-style "cupcake" knobs), a replacement bridge (StewMac-style with the drop-in bone saddle -- in this case a bone saddle my guy Ancel made for it with 3-plain, 3-wound compensation), and a replacement nut. The rest appears original, however.

Post-repairs over here, this creature is playing spot-on, is ready to go, and sounds downright raunchy at times while sweet and clean at others. It has a classic, semi-jazzbox, semi-rockabilly, sophisticated tone to it. I can easily imagine Chet tunes sounding fantastic on it.

Repairs included: a minor fret level/dress, new bone saddle, cleaning, restring, and setup.

Weight: 6 lbs 10 oz

Scale length: 25 7/8"

Nut width: 1 5/8"

Neck shape: medium C/soft V

Board radius: 7 1/4"

Body width: 14 3/4"

Body depth: 2" + arching

Body wood: ply figured maple

Bridge: recent rosewood StewMac-style with bone saddle (comp'd for electric strings)

Fretboard: rosewood

Neck wood: poplar

Pickups: 3x original Kleenex Box-style single coils

Action height at 12th fret: 1/16" overall (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 46w-10

Truss rod: adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium-taller

Condition notes: I'm pretty sure the body is refinished (it looks right but I think that's because it was done in the '70s) but the neck finish may be original. Knobs and bridge are replacements but all other hardware appears original save the strap button at the endpin. The pickguard is missing.

It comes with: sorry, no case.