Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I got this at a local store yesterday for $399. It is a Kay Swingmaster. This model was around since the 50's. Most I have seen came with the Kay Barney Kessel "Kleenex Box" pickups which were a pretty hot P-90 style pickup.This guitar seems to date from the late 60s (The pick shaped fret markers and "flame" headstock).That's the period after Valco bought Kay from Seeburg. In order to use up Kay's stockpile of old parts Valco made what is now referred to as "floor sweeper" or "Grabbag" guitars". This one came from at the factory with Kay Speedbump pickups and a vibrato tail piece that I think was made in Japan.

It's not a collectors piece,the tune-O-matic bridge and Grover tuners were added by a later owner. The case it came with looks nicer than a Kay case so I don't know where that came from.Anyway,I think it is a pretty cool guitar,that plays great and has a sweet sound. I think it look great too.With the "checkerboard binding" around the fireburst maple laminate top top it almost looks like a a poor man's Rickenbacker 360F.

Very cool, Mitch, even ignoring the 360F similarities!

Thanks Paul!

Several '60s Kay models had checkered binding. Here'a a Swingmaster II from 1962:

I've got a totally beat Kay Les Paul-style short scale bass ant it too has checkered binding.

libratune wrote:Several '60s Kay models had checkered binding. Here'a a Swingmaster II from 1962:

KAY003003.jpg

Did Roger Rossemeisl have any connection to the Kay Swingmaster body design?

Didn't both the Swingmaster and the 360F both first appear around 1957?

octagon wrote:

libratune wrote:Several '60s Kay models had checkered binding. Here'a a Swingmaster II from 1962:

KAY003003.jpg

Did Roger Rossemeisl have any connection to the Kay Swingmaster body design?

Didn't both the Swingmaster and the 360F both first appear around 1957?

Or was there a Kay mole at Rickenbacker?

johnallg wrote:... a Kay mole ...

1 kmole = 10^3 moles = 6.02 x 10^26 ...

doctorwho wrote:

johnallg wrote:... a Kay mole ...

1 kmole = 10^3 moles = 6.02 x 10^26 ...

Chemists...

cjj wrote:

doctorwho wrote:

johnallg wrote:... a Kay mole ...

1 kmole = 10^3 moles = 6.02 x 10^26 ...

Chemists...

Right...

Interesting guitars but a lot of these old Kay's are really quite poor instruments, having played a few. They fall into the "shopping catalogue" variety that were sold through retail stores and magazines. Sears, for example.

Most of them were all made by the same Japanese company, Teisco, and imported under a plethora of brands. Kay, Harmony, Silvertone, Audition, Norma, Kingston, to name a few.

Amazing how much some of these are fetching on eBay nowadays due to their quirky looks.

Grey wrote: Most of them were all made by the same Japanese company, Teisco, and imported under a plethora of brands. Kay, Harmony, Silvertone, Audition, Norma, Kingston, to name a few.

Say what you like about the quality of Kay guitars, but from 1938 to 1968 they were made in America, specifically in its Chicago factory. The company was dissolved in 1969 and the "Kay" brand was acquired by an affiliate of Teisco.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kay_Musica ... nt_Company

[RIC content: Kay also made some of the bodies of Rickenbacker's early Spanish guitars, such as the S-59 (p. 50 of Smith book).]

Similar story for The Harmony Company, which made its stringed instruments in the US from 1892 to 1975, also primarily in Chicago. The Harmony name was later acquired by an importer for "reissue" Asian exports.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_Company

Harmony used DeArmond pickups, made in Toledo Ohio, in its electric guitars. Some recording artists today use vintage Harmony-made instruments and value the sound of the DeArmond PUs.

Grey wrote:Interesting guitars but a lot of these old Kay's are really quite poor instruments, having played a few. They fall into the "shopping catalogue" variety that were sold through retail stores and magazines. Sears, for example.

Most of them were all made by the same Japanese company, Teisco, and imported under a plethora of brands. Kay, Harmony, Silvertone, Audition, Norma, Kingston, to name a few.

Amazing how much some of these are fetching on eBay nowadays due to their quirky looks.

I remember how poorly those brands played and were not able to be properly set up. For those who had parents buy their first instrument or couldn't afford a good instrument. To see them sought after today and the prices they fetch is interestingly funny. American Kays were actually pretty decent. Never met a decent Harmony or Silvertone.

libratune wrote:Say what you like about the quality of Kay guitars, but from 1938 to 1968 they were made in America, specifically in its Chicago factory. The company was dissolved in 1969 and the "Kay" brand was acquired by an affiliate of Teisco.

I was not aware Kay was at one point an American company. The guitar in the pictures here has a typical Teisco-style headstock which is why I made the comparison. If it was not made at the Teisco factory then I was incorrect.

Grey wrote:I was not aware Kay was at one point an American company. The guitar in the pictures here has a typical Teisco-style headstock which is why I made the comparison. If it was not made at the Teisco factory then I was incorrect.

Highly recommended!

http://www.amazon.com/American-Guitars- ... can+guitar