Kay
Kay Guitar Company primarily produced inexpensive department store style guitars from the 1930's to the 1960's. Kay guitar is a part of
the Kay Musical Instrument Company that has manufactured professional and student instruments since the 1890's.
Kay also produced a high end guitar that today is extremely collectable. In 1957 president Sydney Katz introduced the Gold K line of
archtop and solid body electric guitars to compete with major manufacturers like Fender, Gibson, and Gretsch. Valued among collectors,
the headstocks from 1957-1960 featured a reverse painted plastic overlay similar to the Kelvinator logo. The guitars featured
art deco patterns. It was difficult to get players to take Kay's high end entry seriously, and the Gold line was discontinued in 1962.
The company was sold to Valco in 1967 and driven out of business two years later by low cost Asian imports.
Kay’s current line includes low priced acoustic, electric and bass guitars, and moderately priced banjos, ukuleles, mandolins, and
resonators. They also sell the Chicago Blues line of inexpensive harmonicas.
Kay manufactured guitars under different names: 'Old Kraftsman' guitars for Spiegel, 'Sherwood' and 'Airline' for Montgomery Wards,
and 'Silvertone' for Sears. Also, Kay produced a line of Archtop Acuostics called Kamico, which have become rather rare.
The gold K Line featured the Jazz Special, Artist, Pro, Upbeat, Jazz II, and Jazz Special Bass. Gold K guitars used the same
hardware as top manufacturers. There were truss rod and neck issues. Gold models had single coil pickups with clear silver
plastic covers and phillips head bolt adjustable pole pieces. The Upbeat model came with an optional transparent black plastic cover.
These pickups appeared on Kay instruments through the late 1960's and are sometimes referred to as Kessel or Kleenex Box pickups.
The Jazz Special Bass has a single coil chrome pickup.
Notable Kay guitar players have included Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Jack White, Sarah McLachlan, Ry Cooder, and Howlin' Wolf.