Kay Guitars

Here are my Kay guitars.  I don't know why I fell in love with these mass produced Kay archtop guitars but I did and still am.   If a blonde cutaway comes up on ebay I will still try to buy it.  Maybe it is because they are cheap and when I first started collecting archtop guitars I didn't have much money.  

I have several Silvertones which were also made by Kay as well for Sears and Roebuck department stores.  The only difference between the Kays and Silvertones is the trim and logos.  They were all made in the same factory in Chicago.  

What is fun about them is you never know what you are going to get.  There is a great variation in the way they play and sound.  Most of the time I have to get the necks re-set because the majority of them did not have truss rods.  The more ornate fancy good acoustic sounding ones that I like were made before they used truss rods.  

More people seem to like the Kelvinator headstock Kays of the late fifties and early sixties.  Most of them have truss rods but for some reason I think the older Kays just look better and were made better except for the necks warping.  I have a few Kays that play and sound as good (to me) as any guitar I own.   Maybe I just have cheap ears or a vivid imagination but I love these old babys and will keep collecting them.