Can anyone identify this Kay guitar?

Fuengi · November 2019

Being sold as a E-200 from 60's or 79's but I can't find any info that matches.

Andy79 · November 2019

Spotted it a few times. It’s got cheaper and cheaper and cheaper. Leave it another few months and it might be free.
Its definitely not 60s

Kittyfrisk · November 2019

Well this is very close in terms of hardware etc. https://reverb.com/item/2140321-kay-sg-k2-1961-60-s-cherry
Can't find an LP type though.
Edit: I'd have it for the right price

ICBM · November 2019

I’d guess that it’s post-1973 because it appears to be loosely inspired by the Gibson L6-S.

Fuengi · November 2019

It's now down to £160 delivered. I was looking for a Kay Swingmaster but came across this and at that price...

meltedbuzzbox · November 2019

Paging @HarrySeven ;

prowla · November 2019

They made several which were pretty much the same neck/bridge/pickups, and swapped the body around a bit.

I think that one looks vaguely like a Les Paul - maybe the designer forgot their glasses that day.

Kittyfrisk · November 2019

prowla said:

They made several which were pretty much the same neck/bridge/pickups, and swapped the body around a bit.

I think that one looks vaguely like a Les Paul - maybe the designer forgot their glasses that day.

Could be worse, it might have been a Ricky style body.
Ooh, ooh, you know you want it Sir.

prowla · November 2019

Kittyfrisk said:

prowla said:

They made several which were pretty much the same neck/bridge/pickups, and swapped the body around a bit.

I think that one looks vaguely like a Les Paul - maybe the designer forgot their glasses that day.

Could be worse, it might have been a Ricky style body.
Ooh, ooh, you know you want it Sir.

I'm spent up for a while - I've bought an LP (a Gibbo), a Danno, and a headless doubleneck in the past week.

HarrySeven · November 2019

meltedbuzzbox said:

Paging @HarrySeven ;

Isn’t that a (made in Taiwan) Kay KJP-2?

Fuengi · November 2019

HarrySeven said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

Paging @HarrySeven ;

Isn’t that a (made in Taiwan) Kay KJP-2?

Spot on I reckon!

Henrytwang · November 2019

Certainly not a USA guitar. The pickups are quite interesting as they do have unique character resulting in some interesting sounds. A few years ago I could pick these sorts of guitars up for around £15 at car boot sales but those days are long gone. I blame eBay.

Danny1969 · November 2019

Looks like something sold on mail order catalogs in the seventies ... I had a similar Kay which was my first guitar ..... well I say guitar, my first piece of unplayable shit would be more accurate.

impmann · November 2019

A friend has one that he asked me to sort out.

The truss rod doesn't do anything as its anchored into soft wood.

The pickups are more microphonic than an SM58 and genuinely sound awful.

It has an action that could slice steel (and without hefty shims won't lower).

The fretting is poor.

Its utter shit.

He bought it for the "Gold foil-type" pickups - after I showed him how appalling the guitar was, he was going to put them in a custom build. I've told him not to bother and to buy some replicas from someone who knows what they are doing.

I believe it is going on the bonfire tomorrow night. It probably won't burn properly either.

Don't waste your money.

HarrySeven · November 2019

Henrytwang said:

A few years ago I could pick these sorts of guitars up for around £15 at car boot sales but those days are long gone.

As much as I am attracted to quirky guitars/gear, growing up with these crocks of shite means that I tend to avoid this kind of stuff at all costs (even when £peanuts at bootsales years ago).

I had the misfortune of actually attempting to play a KJP-2 recently, along with some other ultra-cheap 70's Teisco/Woolworths Audition/Satellite crud.

Sadly, the intervening years had not magically transformed them into instruments of any recognisable quality, no matter how much overly-optimistic snakeoil "mojo" they may have accrued...

Fuengi · November 2019

It's a shame really. I love the look of the older Kay and Teisco guitars.

HarrySeven · November 2019

impmann said:

A friend has one that he asked me to sort out.

The truss rod doesn't do anything as its anchored into soft wood.

The pickups are more microphonic than an SM58 and genuinely sound awful.

It has an action that could slice steel (and without hefty shims won't lower).

The fretting is poor.

Its utter shit.

He bought it for the "Gold foil-type" pickups - after I showed him how appalling the guitar was, he was going to put them in a custom build. I've told him not to bother and to buy some replicas from someone who knows what they are doing.

I believe it is going on the bonfire tomorrow night. It probably won't burn properly either.

Don't waste your money.

I wasn't sure whether to award a Lol or a Wiz - went with Wiz in the end...spot-on!

meltedbuzzbox · November 2019

HarrySeven said:

Henrytwang said:

A few years ago I could pick these sorts of guitars up for around £15 at car boot sales but those days are long gone.

As much as I am attracted to quirky guitars/gear, growing up with these crocks of shite means that I tend to avoid this kind of stuff at all costs (even when £peanuts at bootsales years ago).

I had the misfortune of actually attempting to play a KJP-2 recently, along with some other ultra-cheap 70's Teisco/Woolworths Audition/Satellite crud.

Sadly, the intervening years had not magically transformed them into instruments of any recognisable quality, no matter how much overly-optimistic snakeoil "mojo" they may have accrued...

That's pretty damning considering some of the purchases you have made and all

HarrySeven · November 2019

Brand-name roulette...there definitely are numerous interesting (and decent quality) USA Kay, Silvertone, Harmony*, etc budget products, but it's a different kettle of fish/gets a bit murky when instruments were manufactured elsewhere (Taiwan/Japan, etc).

That said, (and as @ICBM often says), some can be made playable.The Kay KJP-2 above was definitely bottom of the range, but further up, Kay K-32's (MIT pancake-construction - not plywood - Strat copies) can actually be surprisingly good with some fettling (for a budget instrument).

There's undoubtedly a kind of charm with some stuff, but there are points where it runs out - for example, (IMHO) Kay/Univox "Effector" LP copies are uniformly dire due to the cheap materials from which they're constructed - and this includes the awful on-board effects. Why people ask upwards of £400 for these amazes me.

*For instance, (a while ago) I had a Harmony H81 Rebel which was excellent.

HarrySeven · November 2019

meltedbuzzbox said:

That's pretty damning considering some of the purchases you have made and all.

I agree. And I'd say that I'm reasonably well qualified to make that comment!

ICBM · November 2019

I have to say I quite like these and they have a certain trashy/punky charm... but to make them into properly usable instruments usually means completely rebuilding them, and if they need fret work - as many do - then it quickly becomes uneconomical. If the frets are OK you can fix the neck angle and intonation problems fairly easily, but even at that you need to get them for free or very close to it.

I’ve rebuilt a few and got good prices for them when finished - £150-£200 - but the price reflects the work and not the inherent value when I started... there’s a lot of time-consuming work filling stripped screw holes (almost all of them usually are) and if the frets are lifting or cut too short for the width of the board, forget it.

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Can anyone identify this Kay guitar?

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