Picked up an old Kay LP copy

suspiciousminds · September 2023

So,i popped into a local auctionhouse yesterday and there was this old LP “effector”? copy by Kay up for auction, looking similar to the Gibson recording model, with built in effects.
whacked a £65 bid on and won it.
i had a real crappy kay electric from the catalogue in the mid 80’s (truly awful thing with some sort of a bigsby type thing on it that was so rough cast it scraped my hand when i used it).
Anyway, bar the low E tuning peg missing its all there and actually sounds quite decent on some settings - the effects - echo,tremelo,wah,whirlwind are crappy and all sound similar, but its got in and out of phase options and quite a cool sounding fuzz built in, quite a “punky” sound actually.
The only real issues i can see so far is the missing low E tuning peg and the stop tail bar looks to be at an awkward angle - leaning towards the bridge.
Anybody know much about these?

ICBM · September 2023

Made in Japan, 1970s. As you say the effects are a bit crap, but they have a trashy punky character that's quite cool in some ways.

Can you post a pic of the machineheads? They used quite a few different types, but I'll almost certainly have a matching one.

The stopbar post inserts may need epoxy'ing into the body - they're often not a tight fit.

suspiciousminds · September 2023

Thanks ICBM, i’ll try work out how to post the images and pop some up

HarrySeven · September 2023

Nice catch!

Quelle surprise, I’ve had a few of these.

If your expectations are low enough, it’s quite cool. They can be made to play reasonably well and the effects are…interesting, in a lo-fi way.

In other words, any purchaser dropping £400 on one of these, buoyed up by eBay and Reverb hyperbole, fuelled with ‘Vintage Mojo’, ‘Lawsuit Era’ and all that shite would be sadly disappointed.

suspiciousminds · September 2023

I agree, tbh, i wasnt expecting it to work at all but, it does, like you say in a very lofi way.
https://imgur.com/a/csAc9Ze
https://imgur.com/a/jdaOAFq
https://imgur.com/a/Lroh3SY
https://imgur.com/a/7v3r1Zg
https://imgur.com/a/31aWtHP

Funkfingers · September 2023

The leaning tailpiece studs are because the arched top of the guitar is steamed ply. There may well be an air gap between the ply and the blockboard beneath. This is too insubstantial to withstand string tension. There must be ways to remedy this but they may involve separating the ply from the blockboard, adding small wood blocks and, then, drilling into those.

At the end of the day, the guitar will still be a Seventies plywood horror. Perhaps it would be good for slide?

suspiciousminds · September 2023

Funkfingers said:

The leaning tailpiece studs are because the arched top of the guitar is steamed ply. There may well be an air gap between the ply and the blockboard beneath. This is too insubstantial to withstand string tension. There must be ways to remedy this but they may involve separating the ply from the blockboard, adding small wood blocks and, then, drilling into those.

At the end of the day, the guitar will still be a Seventies plywood horror. Perhaps it would be good for slide?

Yes you are right.
With a quick look i can see that the studs are actually slightly bent forward in the actual anchors - i’ll have a better look tomorrow.
https://imgur.com/a/unW4HBt

ICBM · September 2023

suspiciousminds said:

With a quick look i can see that the studs are actually slightly bent forward in the actual anchors

Yes, the studs will be loose in the anchors as well, they’re just very poor quality threads.

I may have some spare ones of those that fit better as well. You will probably still have to epoxy the anchors into the body though.

CarbonCopy · September 2023

My Dad had one. I think he bought it from a catalogue. Even as a beginner, I could tell it was crap. I was lucky enough to be bought a Japan Squier Strat and even with its HDF body, crap tuners and weak pickups, it was miles better than the Kay. It was incredibly heavy I seem to remember, poorly made and the effects all sounded similarly poor and didn't really do what they describe (e.g. Echo was a slight variation of tremolo).

I'm not sure the pickups were actually humbuckers, but I could be wrong.

I wish you the best of luck with it!

thermionic · September 2023

https://i.imgur.com/YNwi1ki.jpg

Penn · September 2023

Might not be a brilliant guitar but it does look cool.

thermionic · September 2023

I never noticed until now that they lacked a pickup selector switch.

guitars4you · September 2023

The guts for the effects on these LP's - Are they the same guts as per their pedals from the day - See below - I recall they are as simple as inside, with a 'rubber' base cover

Image: https://www.tonehome.de/s/cc_images/cache_66198189.jpg?t=1508599735

axisus · September 2023

I remember hankering after one of those way back in the early 80s I guess. They had one on the wall in the local junk shop. Couldn't afford it.

My first electric guitar was a Kay LP. I tortured it to death in the name of learning, one mod being trying to convert it to a double cut. I had no skills for anything back then!

suspiciousminds · September 2023

thermionic said:

I never noticed until now that they lacked a pickup selector switch.

You’re right, there’s no selector switch, and underneath each pickup cover there’s what looks like a single coil with magnets packed around it to fill the cover..
As i say, for 65 quid i’m not complaining, and even with only 5 strings on it, it sounds pretty good.

guitars4you · September 2023

suspiciousminds said:

thermionic said:

I never noticed until now that they lacked a pickup selector switch.

You’re right, there’s no selector switch, and underneath each pickup cover there’s what looks like a single coil with magnets packed around it to fill the cover..
As i say, for 65 quid i’m not complaining, and even with only 5 strings on it, it sounds pretty good.

More than enough strings for Keef

ICBM · September 2023

suspiciousminds said:

You’re right, there’s no selector switch, and underneath each pickup cover there’s what looks like a single coil with magnets packed around it to fill the cover.

Yes, that's normal with this quality level of mid-70s Japanese Gibson copies - a very crude single coil with a u-shaped bent steel channel for the poles, with the 'polepiece' screws going into it through the cover. I fixed several of them back in the day by rebuilding the innards of both pickups into one casing, putting that in the neck position, and some form of hot humbucker, usually a secondhand DiMarzio Super Distortion, in the bridge.

Funkfingers · September 2023

If one or both of the output jack sockets were relocated to the customary position on the edge of the body, a short three-way toggle switch could be mounted in one of the vacant holes.

suspiciousminds · September 2023

Funkfingers said:

If one or both of the output jack sockets were relocated to the customary position on the edge of the body, a short three-way toggle switch could be mounted in one of the vacant holes.

I’ve looked at the wiring and decided to leave well alone…

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

Picked up an old Kay LP copy

Comments