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PRELIMINARY DETAILS! - 04/10/2024 - Finally after waiting in the queue for workshop time for quite some time, restoration, or more like overhaul has now been completed, once replacements were found for just a couple of inappropriate earlier swapped fittings it came with.

Complete set of post-restoration photos now added, plus illustration of K1 from Kay 1956 Catalog....see Description notes below.

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This superb vintage guitar should correctly be called model K1-S, as shown in the vintage catalogs...K1-B for the blond/natural finish, and K1-S for the sunburst, in line with the catalog description of...."Shaded dark violin brown finish with large golden sunburst on the top and back."....see link at foot of page.

Stock Number: VTG1574.

This guitar came in a little while ago, with advice that it had ben purchased around 1959, on Tyneside, second hand, believed to have come over with a touring American Bluesman....that was the advice anyway. Since then it had been apparently in one ownership, father and son, kept in very smart, clean condition, but with a couple of fittings alterations, which I did not appreciate.

Initial Dating Research:

The guitar came to me with suggested production date of 1959, but purchase around that time mentioned above would suggest slightly earlier production.

I also have another KI, this time with "Old Kraftsman" branding, and some specification variations. The suggested dating for that one was 1955, which appears likely to be correct, as the guitar had been in single ownership since purchased new in the USA. Some initial research suggests that this guitar also would have been produced by 1955 at the latest, and appears to have been introduced in 1952.

I have not been able to locate a useable image of the K1 for earlier than the image displayed here, which is from the 1956 Kay Catalog....printed in colour, rather than the black and white images which appear in both the 1953 & 1954 Catalogs (and probably also 1955, but that one has not been located). I have added an Additional Link below to the 1953 Kay Guitar Catalog, on page 9 of which the K1 can be seen with 9 dot inlays to the fingerboard, whereas the 1956 colour illustration clearly shows block inlays, but still details it as K1 model....this ties in with the embedded YouTube video from Jake Wildwood of a K1 with block inlays.

The next available catalog, for 1959, shows what appears to be a repeat of the '56 illustration, but this time the guitar is named "Combo" model, number K8091....again with the block fingerboard inlays.

Both this and my other K1 have the 9 dot inlay fingerboards, which from the evidence available suggests that they were made not later than 1955. In addition to the 1953 catalog link a further Kay Guitar Model History page available from the Kay Reissue site...... (https://www.kayvintagereissue.com/pdf/kayhistory.pdf)
.....shows production of the K1 from 1952 to 1956, and the K8091 in 1957-1958.

The intriguing thing about the K1 entry here is that it indicates a Carved Spruce top...whereas the corresponding entry for the K8091 just shows Spruce top. In Jake Wildwood's blog on the K1 he worked on described the Spruce top as "pressed"!

Speculation only on my part, which I hope to investigate further, but the question would be, did the production of the K1 (and subsequently the basically identical K8091), at some point by 1956 switch from a Carved Spruce top to a Pressed top, and at that point was the change combined with the introduction of flashier block neck inlays? Academic question really, so I would invite you to make your own assessment of the qualities of the guitar on trial

I think that the dating & model identification is fairly clear, even if elements of the construction details remain to be confirmed, but if I come across any further information I will update the details.

This superb guitar arrived in excellent condition, but with a couple of non-original fittings and overhaul/restoration has only been delayed by my preoccupation with other projects, before getting the appropriate fittings needed to replace rather distinctive fittings from other makers, which really didn't do it any favours, in my view.

Previous owner had swapped the characteristic, large cream pickguard, for a smaller Gibson style unit (but fortunately retained and included the original), the tailpiece for a Framus unit and the bridge for a Gretsch stepped design. After looking at various options, sound correctly fitting units have been the priority, so a new repro Gibson-style tailpiece, not dissimilar to the originally fitted trapeze unit, and an Ebony adjustable floating bridge have been fitted, whilst the distinctive pickguard, which was the only detached original to come with the guitar, has been re-fitted.

As for the rest of the guitar....it came with newly fitted repro Kluson Deluxe tuners fitted, and the original '50s Kluson Single-line enclosed machines included, in generally good shape, so were re-installed....as shown in the photos. To me they work fine...only issue is that following re-use the cracks in some buttons have become more obvious, and are a concern. This gives us two options...firstly I have a set of matching cream buttons, and will replace all the originals....secondly, the matching new set of repro Kluson Deluxe machines can be re-fitted... I am happy to go with whichever option the buyer prefers...no price change.

Body is in good shape, no damage, only very slight age/use marking....one of the cleanest original vintage '50s guitar you are likely to find!

The neck angle is good, the fingerboard effectively level, the original wide brass frets remain, original nut (said in the catalogs to be bone, but well fitted so has not been disturbed to check), headstock retains original chromed "Kay" headstock badge on traditional shaped Kay headstock of the time, and non-adjustable neck reinforcement (catalog description, "Metal reinforced hard Maple neck")....quite a rarity to find one of these original logo badges still in place!

Hence the fingerboard has been retained s-is, but frets lightly stoned/releveled, re-profiled and polished. Fingerboard has 12" radius, with the 9 large inlay dot position markers, 42mm./1.65"/1 21/32" nut width, with 660mm./26" scale length.

With good neck angle and fingerboard alignment the guitar plays very well, with a reasonably full C-profile neck, typical of similar guitars of the period, and with action appropriate for a large, longer scale archtop, of around 3.5mm./4mm. at the 12th fret. It has been strung with a set of Newtone Archtop Double Wound Nickel 12-54 strings.

No original case with the guitar, and cases this large are difficult to source, but I may be able to obtain a Hiscox hard shell jumbo case at reasonable additional cost if required, or include a good used large gig bag.