What is a Kay bass?

What is a Kay bass?

Kay Bass. From the time the first Kay bass was produced (1937), the majority of the wooden parts were made at the factory. Necks were contoured from hard maple, peg holes drilled, tops and backs formed-sanded, ribs bent and bass bars installed on tooling either made for or developed under Kuhrmeyer’s direction.

How do you date a Kay bass?

So find the first number on the chart that is higher than the serial number on your bass – your bass was made the year before that. Example 1: if your Kay Bass serial number is 25521, your bass was made in 1951. Example 2: if your Engelhardt Bass serial number is 88000, your bass was made in 2005.

Where are Kay basses made?

Elk Grove Village, Illinois
Manufactured in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, Engelhardt basses and cellos are sturdy instruments, widely used by students and touring professionals.

Where are Kay guitars made?

Kay guitars are not currently in production. However, Kay also produced cellos and basses. Engelhardt-Link purchased the acoustic line of instruments from Kay. These are still being produced in Elk Grove Village, IL.

Are Kay guitars worth anything?

Aside from a few electric archtops like the Barney Kessel and Upbeat models, most Kay guitars remain relatively low in value and undesirable to collectors. These Style Leader archtops are typically worth between $200 and $400 today in excellent condition.

What happened to Kay guitars?

Kay came to be in 1931 after being renamed from Stromberg-Voisinet. They hit their peak production in the early 1960s and were dissolved by the end of the decade.

What is a bass violin called?

double bass, also called contrabass, string bass, bass, bass viol, bass fiddle, or bull fiddle, French contrebasse, German Kontrabass, stringed musical instrument, the lowest-pitched member of the violin family, sounding an octave lower than the cello.

Is a bass violin same as double bass?

The name “bass violin” is also sometimes used for the double bass. Occasionally historians have used the term “bass violin” to refer to other various instruments of the violin family that were larger than the alto violin or viola, such as the tenor violin. This use can be synonymous with “harmony violin.”

When did they stop making Kay guitars?

1968
Kay offered their first electric guitar in 1936 — five years after the Rickenbacker Frying pan, and the same year as the Gibson ES-150….Kay Musical Instrument Company.

Is Kay a good guitar brand?

Kay is best known for their large production of student-grade, budget instruments but also built higher quality instruments that were used by professional artists of the time including a line of electric guitars endorsed by Barney Kessel.

What kind of Bass did Kay bass make?

Prior to 1940 Kay produced a model C-4 bass which was a blonde concert model. In 1940 the cataloging of the S models began and continued until 1969. There were models were advertised as Supreme, Swingmaster , or Slapmaster basses (S-1, S-3, S-4, S-5, S-6, S-7, S-8, S-9, S-10).

How to register a Kay bass in the US?

Go Directly to Registration Four questions are included to properly register your Kay bass. After answering the questions, send the info, and I will be able to add your Kay Bass to the database. Hopefully with enough input we can learn about Kay Bass Serial Numbers and Model Types.

What’s the shape of a Kay bass maestro?

The Maestro model (M-1), having a shape similar to a violin, known as the Viol shape, where the middle ribs form a point at their junction with both the upper and lower ribs was manufactured after Kay was well into production.

Is the Kay bass B-180 the same as the M-1?

The B-180 is the same as the C-1 or student model, brown finish; the B-220 was the same as the M-1 model, brown finish; and the B-300 was the same as the top of the line S-9 model, blonde finish. Kay bass model 89, I have a few of these basses listed and they appear to have been  manufacturedbetween 1939 and 1945.