does anyone know what this is?

[lovedub]

It's a 3/4 size, I think

[Paul_C]

probably a Kay of some description

[Bassassin]

Paul's right - you can see the Kay logo on the scratchplate. Kays were made all over the place, originally in the US, but subsequently in Japan, Taiwan, Korea and the former East Germany! This one looks Japanese, if so it probably came from the Teisco/Kawai factory, some time in the 1960s.

As musical instruments, most 60s/70s Kays re-define "crap", but for reasons beyond my comprehension, are becoming worryingly collectable. Do you own it / are you considering buying it?

Jon.

[lovedub]

I know the guy who's got it. He's intends to sell it.

Don't know whether or not to buy it

[Hit&Run]

I don't want to be rude, but it looks like a turd.
No offence intended to anyone.

[lovedub]

[quote name='Hit&Run' post='81974' date='Oct 31 2007, 09:56 PM']I don't want to be rude, but it looks like a turd.
No offence intended to anyone.[/quote]

What have you been eating!!!

[Bassassin]

[quote name='lovedub' post='81970' date='Oct 31 2007, 09:51 PM']I know the guy who's got it. He's intends to sell it.

Don't know whether or not to buy it[/quote]
I've just (coincidentally) spotted it on Gumtree - so you'd better be quick!

J.

[lovedub]

[quote name='Bassassin' post='81979' date='Oct 31 2007, 10:16 PM']I've just (coincidentally) spotted it on Gumtree - so you'd better be quick!

J.[/quote]

Well done, Sherlock

[Musky]

[quote name='lovedub' post='81988' date='Oct 31 2007, 10:33 PM']Well done, Sherlock [/quote]

Just had to chuckle. Sorry.

I wouldn't bother if you want a useable bass - In my experience, any instrument with those bent wire string retainers like that one has are the worst kind of crap there is.

Edited October 31, 2007 by Musky

[lovedub]

Yeah, I know. I was just wondering if it had any "collectable" value.

Some of these oddities do the trick for some folk

[Bassassin]

[quote name='lovedub' post='81988' date='Oct 31 2007, 10:33 PM']Well done, Sherlock [/quote]
No worries, I'm not interested in it - I'd only buy something like that if it turned up at a car boot - and you don't go car bootin' with more than a tenner in your pocket, do you?

J.

[Bassassin]

[quote name='lovedub' post='81993' date='Oct 31 2007, 10:53 PM']I was just wondering if it had any "collectable" value.[/quote]
Depends what you can get it for - it probably wouldn't make 3 figures on Ebay.

J.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

[quote name='Bassassin' post='81996' date='Oct 31 2007, 10:59 PM']Depends what you can get it for - it probably wouldn't make 3 figures on Ebay.

J.[/quote]
It shouldn't really make 2 figures, but I guess some people may see it as a kitch wall decoration. I remember them being sold new in woolies for about £25 in the 70s. They were cheap crappy beginners instuments that well-meaning parents bought for their offspring in the same way argos sell their bottom of the range cheapies these days.

[Bassassin]

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='81998' date='Oct 31 2007, 11:10 PM']It shouldn't really make 2 figures, but I guess some people may see it as a kitch wall decoration. I remember them being sold new in woolies for about £25 in the 70s. They were cheap crappy beginners instuments that well-meaning parents bought for their offspring in the same way argos sell their bottom of the range cheapies these days.[/quote]

Nevertheless:

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1960S-1970S-KAY-SHORT-SCALE-BASS-GUITAR_W0QQitemZ120172094704"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1960S-1970S-KAY-SHOR...emZ120172094704[/url]

Actually, I think that's the same model as the one Lovedub's looking at - the blue's probably [s]emulsion[/s] a refin.

J.

[BigRedX]

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='81998' date='Oct 31 2007, 11:10 PM']It shouldn't really make 2 figures, but I guess some people may see it as a kitch wall decoration. I remember them being sold new in woolies for about £25 in the 70s. They were cheap crappy beginners instuments that well-meaning parents bought for their offspring in the same way argos sell their bottom of the range cheapies these days.[/quote]

But the Argos instruments play like well set-up Fenders in comparison to these...

The only reason to buy this would be if you wanted to experience how cr@p things were for aspiring teenage musicians in the 70s.

Maybe someone should do the musical equivalent of those reality TV shows where they make people live in Victorian conditions... Call it the 70s band. You'd start with a Woolies special like this one and if you had mastered "Smoke On The Water" and a few other rock standards after 6 months and your fingers weren't completely damaged you could upgrade to a Grant Precission Copy. By the end of the show if you hadn't given up in disgust, you'd finally get a classic late 70s Fender, with a body that weighted a ton, had dead-spots galore on the neck that was bolted on at such an angle that the G string was not longer over the fingerboard after the 12th fret and was finished either in sh!t brown or that semi-see-thru white that looked like they couldn't be bothered to do the finishing job properly...