These old guitars are not collectible like an old Martin or Gibson. Please understand that the changes I’m making to this guitar are strictly for improving the sound. The sealed tuners are superior in every way (in my opinion). I don’t like having the bushings in the peghead.
I’ve been happy with the way these cheap, sealed tuners work for me through the years. I drilled the holes out carefully and fitted some modern Asian 12/1 ratio tuners in the larger holes. I’ve never shared the attraction that some folks have for these old tuners. I don’t like the Kluson Tuners because you need some vice grips or need to wear gloves to turn them without hurting your fingers. Some of these old Martin guitars had the pickguard glued on the bare wood and the finish was applied over the pickguard. I always thought the shape of these pickguards was ugly and I don’t like the mounting screws. I like the color of this aged top and the tobacco sunburst color. It doesn’t matter because it is going to stay the same whatever it is. The wood in the guitar top looked like western cedar to me but I’m not 100% sure about this. My plan was to reduce the size of the braces, reset the neck, replace the bridge and pickguard with a Martin style and try to do this without disturbing the old finish. This guitar appeared to have seen some use and it had the normal wear and scratches and dings that you would expect from a 50 year old guitar. The back and sides of the body were mahogany and I’d guess that they were plywood and not solid wood. The guitar wasn’t strung when I got it and the dovetail neck joint was obviously loose. It had those Kluson Deluxe 3 on a plate tuners on it with the plastic knobs. It is wider and thicker than most Martin type necks but it has a Gibson style truss rod in it. These braces were around 7/16 inch square and were spruce. These guitars had some very heavy braces in them in the top and back. This small sound hole not only changes the amount of sound that comes out, but it also makes it extremely hard to work on the braces through this small opening. The sound holes in these guitars are smaller than a Martin size and are bound with plastic material surrounding them. The pickguard was attached with 3 small wood screws. It was a really thick bridge which was rosewood. They used a Kay style bridge which was held on by glue and 2 screws and nuts. These guitars had a solid top and probably a plywood back and sides. It has the original brass colored frets which showed little wear, although someone had run a rough file over them at some point. The fingerboard is bound rosewood with large dot inlays which are some kind of plastic or acetate material. I have since determined that is was probably made in the 1960’s or somewhere in that time period. These pictures show what it looked like the day I received it in the mail. I also liked the fact that it was x braced and not ladder braced like so many of those old Kays and Harmonys were.Īnd so, I bought the guitar. The waist is not as narrow as a regular Dreadnought. I think they called this body shape a “western” style. I’ve had some of these shaped guitars in the past. I liked several things about this guitar and debated whether to make another offer on it. I already have more guitars than I need so I just let it pass.Ī few weeks later this same guitar popped up on Ebay for less than my original offer. I made an offer on the guitar and they declined it. The end result was usually that the sound was greatly improved. These guitars were made by the Kay Company and I have remodeled some of these old Kay and Harmony Guitars in the past. I saw this guitar listed for sale on Ebay and it caught my eye.
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