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Kay custom kraft guitar amplifiers

Do you need an expensive electric guitar to write and perform great music? There is an inherent difficulty in defining what counts as cheap. But what these guitars have in common is that they were built primarily with budget in mind. Many had been forgotten for years, and by the grace of tonehound curiosity, they have been ferreted out of obscurity to soundtrack our lives. Or from a Minneapolis guitar store more plausible?

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WATCH RELATED VIDEO: The History of Kustom Amps

1960's Kay Custom Kraft Bison


The Kay guitar company's origins date back to the 's, starting with the Groeschel Mandolin Company of Chicago, Illinois. The company's name was changed to "Stromberg-Voisinet" in , and shortlyafterwards, in , Henry Kay "Hank" Kuhrmeyer the origin of the name "Kay" joined the company and quickly worked his way up to the top. By , Kuhrmeyer had bought the company and that same year the company started producing electric guitars and amps.

Kay was indeed one of the earliest American manufacturers of electric guitars. Things progressed, and by , the company was officially known as the "Kay Musical Instrument Company". The company became larger and more successful over the years, leading to the addition of a new factory in Elk Grove Village, Illinois in But somehow by , the company had hit rough times and was bought by Seeburg, a jukebox manufacturer that sold Kay to Valco in Syl Weindling and Barry Hornstein of W.

As a result of this, the names "Teisco" and "Kay" were used on Teisco Del Rey guitars for a while in the early 70's. In the Kay Guitar Company was purchased by Tony Blair and is currently active selling Kay brand and Santa Rosa brand guitars, Chicago Blues harmonicas and accessories and of course the Kay Vintage Reissue line of professional guitars and basses.

Kay manufactured guitars under several different brandnames, so for those interested here is our best attempt to match some of the more common brandnames to the stores that distributed them:. The Kay Guitar Company has been the major producer of guitars since Most players do not realize that in , Kay was the first company to start production of electric guitars in the USA.

From through , The Kay Guitar Company excelled at producing quality professional electric guitars with unique designs and features. This unique Blues sound was not available from any other guitar of that time. The Thin Twin was the first guitar that was able to create that unique Blues sound.

The hand-wound pickups and separate center chamber allowed an extra biting natural distortion without feedback. The combination was a mellow clean gritty sound with natural sustain. The pickups are so hot that they needed to be contained in the center chamber, which is why the Twin Thin and Pro Bass made anyone who played it feel there was nothing else like it. The Pro Bass had a unique feature of a switch that cut off the high frequencies to reproduce an "upright Bass" sound but in the off position the Pro Bass gives a punchy Jazz sound.

The Pro Bass comes with electric flatwound bass strings. So why now? At Kay, we knew this project was not just assembling parts and a Kay "Kel-von-a-tor" chevron headstock logo and calling it a Kay Vintage Reissue. The 's guitars of that time not only have a special look, but a special sound. To just make another mass-produced vintage looking guitar, as other companies have already done, was not enough. Only an electric guitar that could duplicate the '50s sound would be successful.

To remake the products in the United States was a challenge, but it was more of a challenge to reproduce the instrument off-shore and still maintain the necessary strict quality control. The Vintage Reissue Line sat on the back burner for many years until all the components were able to come together. Along comes Roger Fritz. Roger Fritz is a professional luthier who makes guitars and basses for musicians like George Harrison and Randy Jackson.

Roger is also a bass player who fell in love with the old Kay 's bass after having a friend recommend he play one. Roger, who had worked for Gibson in Nashville on their Bluegrass instruments, created his own company, Fritz Brothers Guitars in Alabama is making custom hand-made instruments for professional players worldwide.

Roger was so enamored with the sound of the Kay KV Pro Bass that he developed a clone and made them available for sale under the Fritz name. Roger Fritz was the missing link that was needed to make the project a reality: a Luthier that had a love for the instruments to be produced. Roger joined our team in early to help create and develop all the parts and features that made the Kay products different from all the rest.

Most of the parts and molds were no longer available so everything had to be created from scratch. The pickguards, the knobs, the hand wound pickups, the tailpiece, and even the baseball bat style toggle switch cover all had to be manufactured using original parts as templates for the new reissued versions.

Finding the parts was difficult and surprisingly expensive since we needed to search stores, eBay and contact collectors to find perfect originals to reproduce. But after finding the parts and vintage instruments from avid collectors like Gary Walko, Vintage Kay historians like Michael Wright and Jay Scott, and dozens of avid fans, the project was able to take form.


18 pro guitarists who play cheap guitars

The Kay guitar company's origins date back to the 's, starting with the Groeschel Mandolin Company of Chicago, Illinois. The company's name was changed to "Stromberg-Voisinet" in , and shortlyafterwards, in , Henry Kay "Hank" Kuhrmeyer the origin of the name "Kay" joined the company and quickly worked his way up to the top. By , Kuhrmeyer had bought the company and that same year the company started producing electric guitars and amps. Kay was indeed one of the earliest American manufacturers of electric guitars. Things progressed, and by , the company was officially known as the "Kay Musical Instrument Company". The company became larger and more successful over the years, leading to the addition of a new factory in Elk Grove Village, Illinois in But somehow by , the company had hit rough times and was bought by Seeburg, a jukebox manufacturer that sold Kay to Valco in

This is a Kay Custom Kraft Ambassador. These guitars were part of Kay's house brand during the s and were offered by St. Louis Music alongside amp.

Custom Kraft 500 Guitar Amplifier Tube Tremolo Kay Lectrolab Sound Projects 1963 Harmonica Harp


Order by:. Available to:. Kraft Bubble Mailer 8. NEW Funko Pop! White Kraft Bubble Mailer 7. Warhammer 40k Thousand Sons Rubric Marines x10, some paint, Premium 8.

Kay Musical Instrument Company

kay custom kraft guitar amplifiers

This seller has not set a shipping cost for Russian Federation. Please contact them to ask about shipping. This item is sold As-Described and cannot be returned unless it arrives in a condition different from how it was described or photographed. Items must be returned in original, as-shipped condition with all original packaging. Your purchases also help protect forests, including trees traditionally used to make instruments.

This seller has not set a shipping cost for Russian Federation.

Custom Kraft guitars and amplifiers


The company name was a combination of the three partner's first initials V. Valco manufactured Spanish acoustic guitars, metal-bodied resonator guitars, electric lap steel guitars, and vacuum tube amplifiers under a variety of brand namesincluding Supro, Airline, Oahu, and National. They also made amplifiers under contract for several other companies such as Gretsch, Harmony, and Kay. In the s they began producing solid body electric guitars. Here we have a 's Custom Kraft guitar.

Anyone know where to find these tremolo covers? (Custom Kraft/Kay?)

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Buy, sell, and trade vintage and new electric guitars, acoustic guitars, basses, amplifiers, home audio, pro audio, keyboards and synthesizers, and effects.

The Reader View of Wikipedia. Voisinet, and Charles G. The company produced instruments in its plant until , when it ceased operations after a brief merging with Valco. The brand has been used by several manufacturers since then, mainly attached to Japanese import guitars.

Great Article! My first Electric guitar in was a used Kay Upbeat. It was gigantic for a 9 year old and you could have flown airplanes under the strings they were so high: But It worked and I was hooked for life I had a lat 's Harmony Patrician for my first guitar.

The lobby is filled with activity this morning: to my left, an elderly couple collects their mail; to my right, a woman rushes past them toward the elevator, nearly bowling over two small dogs as their owner lazily shuffles down the hall; the doorman in front of me mumbles under his breath in a thick accent, surely concealing choice words.

It was also known as the Swingmaster, and could be found under the Kay brand and the Old Kraftsmen brand. Read More ». One cool thing about liking oddball old guitars is they always contain hope…and a challenge. That being said, this Apollo Deluxe was kind of the exception that proved the rule, in that it followed a reverse pattern, sort of backing into discovery. There are tons of ironies in this story, but one of the most amusing aspects is that companies such as Gibson have been one of the most egregious copyists of its own guitars over the years. Witness the Korean-made Epiphone Firebird seen here.

One of the more successful Japanese-made guitar brands of the s was Electra, the brand name used for electric guitars sold by St. Louis Music of St. Louis, Missouri. SLM was founded by a violinist named Bernard Kornblum in as an importer of European string instruments.




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