Who plays Kay electrics?

Electric guitars by Stromberg Voisinet and Kay
(Chicago 1928-1968).

 “Stromberg-Voisinet”  in Chicago changed names to “Kay Musical Instruments” in 1931, after its President Henry Kay Kuhrmeyer. The company s heydays were in the late ' 50 and the early ' 60, the period of greatest popularity of the guitar. By this time it produced large quantities to dealers like Sears, Montgomery Ward,  Spiegel and many others. Demands were high, but the quality gradually decreased. By 1967 the market was saturated and Kay was taken over by Valco, which had produced guitars and amps, with brand names like Supro, Airline Oahu and National. The acquisition accelerated the demise of this guitar giant by the end of the Decade. The name Kay was later only used by manufacturers of foreign guitars.
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Del Oro faux resonator"

An intriguing headline in the journal "The Music Trades", dated October 20, 1928, heralded the launch of the first guitar provided with an electric device. Unlike previous inventions Stromberg-Voisinet instruments were developed into a commercial product that was marketed to the public. The pickup was later built in a faux resonator guitar like this one, manufactured by Kay, successor to Stromberg-Voisinet. The 1929 catalog states: “The tone in these instruments is amplified many times, through a magnetic pickup built into the instrument which takes the vibrations direct from the sounding board.”

Kay K 161 Thin Twin and Kay (Old Kraftsman) Jimmy Reed

These guitars, released around 1952,  were also called the "Jimmy Reed" model, after the blues musician who used one. He brought out an lp with on the front a K161 leaning against a Chair. This model also pops up often on pictures in the hands of other blues guitarists like Howlin' Wolf. The one on the left has no name on it, while the one on the right was branded "Old Kraftsman".

Kay Vanguard K102 and K311

 Throughout the 1960s, Vanguards were probably the most common and popular of the solidbody Kays. Featuring models with one and two pickups and with optional tremolos, these were budget guitars with simple appointments and basic construction. The pancake pickups are riveted onto the guards, but raising these pickups with screws or shims can produce outstanding results.
Like most of the guitars offered by Kay after 1965, the one on the right bears a 6-on-a-side headstock with a Kay badge glued on. The pickup is still a single coil, but of lesser quality and hidden behind the plastic pickguard.

Kay Value Leader guitars and bass

The Kay Value Leaders first started appearing in 1960, and they were exactly as described: the most affordable thinline electric guitars in the catalog. A one pickup model (the K 1961) was favoured by bluesman Lonnie Johnsons, while the two-pickup model, like the one here in the middle, was called the K1962. The bass version on the right had four strings, but was otherwise completely identical to the one pickup K1961 guitar model. The guitar on the left (a K1963) was sold as "Old Kraftsman" by wholesaler Montgomery Ward.

Kay K 673 Swingmaster

Kay tried to gain a place in the market of the "better" guitars, on the same level as Gibson, Epiphone, Gretsch and Rickenbacker. The more expensive models, often archtop guitars designed for jazz, had so called “tissue box” pickups. The Swing Masters were thin line models with two or three pickups. The three pickup model like this one was fancier and had a bound neck.

Kay (Truetone) K 573 Speed Demon and Kay Red Devil

Although Kay had been producing this model in the late ‘50s, by 1962 the company had dubbed this thinline the “Speed Demon.” These are auditorium–sized guitars (40–¼” x 15”) but were only 1 ¾” thick. The pickups are often called “speed bumps,” and a three pickup version (the K573) can really get a great rockabilly tone.
The Red Devil is in fact a double cut variant of this type of guitar, with only two "speed bump" pickups and in this case six on a line tuners, characteristic for the second half of the sixties.

Kay K 300

This shiny solid body from 1964 is somehow inspired by the Fender Stratocaster, but it is a different breed all together, with tortoise shell" headstock and pickguard, gold plated hardware and "speed bump" pickups, " Unfortunately the fancy celluloid material is prone to oxidation, which causes the pickups and the yellow varnish to start corroding.

Kay Value Leader Archtop

This Kay "Value Leader" archtop had pancake pickups similar to those of the thinline series with the same name, but this is a full bodied jazz guitar with f-holes. It clearly appealed to a different public, and in fact it can easilly be considered a member of the big family of Kay acoustics.

Custom Kraft guitar amplifier model 600 (Kay model 705?)

Lectrolab manufactured amplifiers for brands under private management as well as for distributors and producers who used their own brand names.
This all tube Custom Kraft amplifier was identical to a model created for Kay.

Kay

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