1920s Stromberg-Voisinet (Kay) 2-Point X-Braced Conversion Parlor Guitar

This guitar didn't last long! It's a Stromberg-Voisinet-made 2-point guitar from the late '20s. In 1930, the company renamed itself to Kay and the rest is history. This one arrived via a local customer and we've worked on several very similar models -- some decked-out just like this one in checker trim and gold-speckle celluloid details -- and some more-restrained in a Martin-like vein.

This one pulls-out all the stops, however. Ancel went to town on it -- removing the back, rebracing it with carbon-fiber-laminated fir stock in a simple x-pattern, giving it a neck reset, board plane and refret, relocation of the saddle slot and a new bone saddle, and setting it all up to play like a champ.

The result (too bad we didn't get a video) was a guitar that punches-out easily with a woody, balanced, somewhat L-00-like sound. The top is solid spruce and the back and sides are solid maple with some nice birdseye figure on the sides. It has a poplar neck with ebonized maple fretboard and a rosewood (ebonized) bridge.