1950s Kay Electrified Hollowbody Archtop Guitar

This is an all-ply, '50s-era, Kay-made archtop with their very-cool, "burned blonde" finish. My friend Matt apparently did some work to it and also fit this odd, aftermarket pickup and pickguard contraption to it. A local fellow saw it in the "not-fixed-yet" pile and fell in love. I told him he could have it after I fixed it up because I didn't want to let it loose in the world as-is.

Said fixings included a level/dress of the frets, side dots, compensation and adjustment of the saddle and bridge, a fresh wiring harness (the vintage stuff on the pickguard was garbage), and some modification of the way the pickup was mounted to the pickguard to let the whole thing sit lower on the top so the polepieces didn't fret-out the strings at the extension.

The end result is a quick-playing guitar (it has a nice, thin, C-shaped neck with a 1 5/8" nut width) that sounds pretty righteous plugged-in and decent unplugged, too, though it's wearing 49w-11 gauges in nickel with a wound G.

The pickup is some sort of old Japanese one that's been fit to the guard. I like the old Dakaware-style knobs. The tuners are not the best and someone clearly yanked the older Klusons that used to be on it -- perhaps for Gibson-bound salvage?