Kay K42 Artist Archtop Guitar

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Kay K42 Artist Archtop Guitar:
$999.00

This beauty is a 1949 Chicago built Kay K42 Artist jumbo archtop jazz guitar. There\'s a red ink stamped number inside, visible through the f holes. (K42- 8449) She\'s a big girl - the lower bout measures 17\" wide. She features a spruce top and stunning birdseye maple sides and back with some flame. Kay guitars are constructed using laminate woods, and this one follows that tradition. The neck is straight with no dead notes. The pickguard and top and back binding are tortiseshell celluloid. There\'s also a tortiseshell celluloid headstock veneer with painted logo and finial accent. She comes with her original Geib chipboard hard case. The case is in good vintage condition. the hardware is a bit rusty, but all latches and hinges work.
This instrument is in very good to excellent vintage condition. There are some dents and scratches here and there. The worst of them are on the lower treble bout and around the base of the floating bridge. There\'s minor pitting on the chrome. The neck heel has a significant finish crack. I\'m not sure but I think it\'s finish only and it shows no sign of a repair or overspray. The heel has been stable as long as I\'ve owned the guitar and there\'s been no movement in the heel. The joint is tight with no gap and the action is not affected. There\'s a 1\" crack at the very top of the headstock (visible in the headstock back photo) that gaps a bit on the top but doesn\'t affect playing or structural integrity. The tuner buttons are dessicated and shrunken. I\'ve replaced one button that broke off the first time I tuned her to pitch, and the other five replacement buttons are included. The remaining original buttons are stable and functional at this point, however.
With her jumbo body, she\'s loud and boomy with a solid bottom, full midtones and nice highs. She\'s a head turner and gets a lot of comments. I\'ll be sorry to see her go, but I don\'t play her any more and she really should be in the hands of a good jazz player who can appreciate a fine mid century American jazz box.