In 1960, Barney Kessel's signaturewas removed from the pickguard.Ĭompleted with the Gibson L-5CES. Single cutaway archtop, 15 1/2' wide, veneer maple body, spruce top, bound F-holes, 1 or 2 single coil 'Gold K' pickups, block fingerboard inlays starting at the 1st fret, rosewood fingerboard, 'Barney Kessel' signature on the silver colored acrylic pickguard, 'Kelvinator' peghead, chrome Melita bridge, nickel Grover tuners, sunburst or blond finish. Kays are notorious for having bad neck sets and broken truss rod systems.Usually, this can be corrected by a good repair person for around$150 to $200. This design only lasted till the end of 1961 when the Kelvinator headstock was completely dropped. This 'half' Kelvinator dropped the black or white back-painted acyrlic 'lunchcountertop' surround with gold dots.
Kay guitar serial number lookup full#
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 headstockveneer. 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 thenback-painted either white or black, with gold highlights in the crestand gold dots outside of the crest. The most collectable Kays are any model with the 'Kelvinator'plastic headstock overlay with art deco patterns. But they also made some hi-end, qualityarchtop guitars. Kay primarily manufactured 'department store' style, inexpensive guitars from the 1930's to the 1960's. Note the Hofnersection has been greatly updated and moved to its own section, and removed from here.
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But theseare the 'big' ones that I have some information on. There are lots of other cool makes of instruments out there. Like some other serial schemes, this one may require you to know something about the ESP guitars of the period because the 'Y'.Ĭontact the Vintage Guitar Info Guy. So the serial number '02112777' would indicate a guitar produced the 2nd day of November in 1982 OR 1992 and was the 777th guitar off the production line.
Kay guitar serial number lookup how to#
Okay so I want to know what year my guitar is and when it was made and all that but I can't find anywhere how to decode my serial number. Kay guitars are just plain cool! From the world-famous and instantly recognizable 'Kelvonator' headstock all the way down to the 'Blade' and 'Kleenex Box' pickups, Kay guitars pay homage to an 'art-deco' era where sophistication and style were just as important as sound and playability. Note that Kay also made guitar with other brand names on the headstock. Jackson IMC, and American productions were moved to the Fender factory in Corona, California.Other Vintage Guitar Makers: Kay, D'Angelico, Stromberg, Hofner. In late 2002 bought Fender Musical Instruments Corporation While Jackson still makes top products, Jackson also began to produce cheaper versions of their standard designs in Asia in an effort to make their products more accessible to people with a
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In 1985, IMC acquired the greatest interest in Jackson and began to devote more time and attention to a more extensive guitar market. The guitars were produced in San Dimas, California and later also in Ontario, California. This resulted in legendary models such as the King V, Soloist, Concert and Dinky.
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or Gibson.ĭue to the high quality of the Jackson guitars, more and more guitar players, especially from the heavy-metal scene, had a custom-made guitar built at Grover Jackson. This became the 'RR' model which was based on the Flying V. One of the first customers was the guitar player of Ozzy Osbourne, Randy Rhoads. In 1980, Grover started his own company and focused primarily on building individual customer requirements. Charvel made copies of the Fender Stratocaster and was the first manufacturer with a 24 frets guitar, the 'Superstrat'. Until the early 1980s, Grover Jackson worked for the guitar builder and manufacturer Wayne Charvel.