I've been away for a while. I've missed you heathens.
I have a story to tell here. Last year I spoke with a friend in southern Illinois about a guitar that he's had forever. It was an old, beat-up Kay acoustic. And when I say old, I mean old. It was a 1937 model. He had often talked about restoring it but, finally came to the conclusion that he would never get it done. He offered to sell it to me. He said he wanted to be sure he got it to someone who would restore it and play it.
I didn't know at the time that it would be the last conversation I ever had with my friend. A couple of weeks after I got this beat-up guitar in my hands I was informed that he had died. So, getting it restored was now not just an honor for me but, an obligation. One that I took seriously. The restoration is now complete and I will try to get a video recorded playing it in the next week or so.
I have attached a "before" and "after" picture. I think she looks rather splendid for 81 years old.
Magnificent. I look forward to hearing you make the old girl sing in honour and memory of her first owner.
I just saw this posted on Everything Guitar on facebook. Great job!
Welcome back and my condolences on the loss of your friend.
Oh my god (pardon the expression), she's beautiful!
Nice story! Can't say I've ever seen a configuration such as this.
Oh! My gosh...the guitar looks beautiful, how special... that I would imagine it is to play!
That's a treasure. Question: Does that one have an arched back as well?
If it's genuinely from the 30s, that would be one made right after Kay hooked up with that violin company whose name I can't remember. I had a friend with an old Kay during my pickin' an' grinnin' phase, but it had a really weird body shape. Your finished product looks yummy. Nice work. How does it sound?
Beautiful. How was the neck? Does a guitar that old have a truss?
The neck was in really good shape. The dovetail joint where it connected to the body was destroyed and had to be reconstructed. Other than that, the neck was pretty solid and well constructed. Just needed the original frets smoothed and polished and the neck cleaned and buffed. The neck was like new.
Really nice work! I look forward to the recording. Is that fingerboard made of Rosewood or Ebony? It's hard to tell from the pics.
I believe it's rosewood. I'm not 100% certain though. It's so old it's become discolored. So, it could be rosewood that's darkened with age or, it could be ebony that's faded a bit. But, its the original fretboard and, I think Brazilian rosewood was the go to material in the 30's.
That guitar is awesome. I love old Kay guitars.