Kay Archtop Acoustic Guitars from the 1940's and 1950's

Kay primarily manufactured "department store" style, inexpensive guitars from the 1930's to the 1960's. But they also made some hi-end, quality archtop guitars.

The most collectable Kays are any model with the "Kelvinator" plastic headstock overlay with art deco patterns. Used from 1957 to 1960, this headstock was named after the brand of refrigerator that looked quite similar. This overlay was injection molded with clear acrylic plastic and then back-painted either white or black, with gold highlights in the crest and gold dots outside of the crest.

Starting in late 1960, Kay switched to a less expensive "half" Kelvinator that used just the triangle Kay crest from the full Kelvinator, screwed to a simple black plastic headstock veneer. This "half" Kelvinator dropped the black or white back-painted acyrlic "lunchcountertop" surround with gold dots. This design only lasted till the end of 1961 when the Kelvinator headstock was completely dropped.

This is the acoustic archtop, 17" wide, veneer maple body, spruce top, ebony fingerboard, split-block fingerboard inlays, scalloped fingerboard extension, ebony bridge, Kluson sealfast tuners, ES-300 style trapeze tailpiece, large scalloped pickguard. I bought it from a guy on eBay about 3 years ago.