Brand: Kay
Instrument Categories: Archtop, Electric, Guitars, SOLD, Thinline
Here is a very cool piece from 1962 – a Kay Old Kraftsman Red Devil model K592, the top of the Speed Demon line, built for the Spiegel catalog and direct mail company. This model was built between 1962 and 1965.
Kay began in 1931 as the successor to the Stromberg-Voisinet, which was itself the 1921 successor to the Groeschel company, founded in 1890. Based in Chicago, Illinois, for a time Kay was one of the largest instrument builders in the USA, and supplied many catalog companies and department stores.
Here we’re looking at a Kay Old Kraftsman Red Devil, under other brands and in catalogs known as model K592. This thin hollow body, double cutaway archtop F-hole model was the top of Kay’s ‘Speed Demon’ line. The Kay Old Kraftsman Red Devi body is Flame Maple laminate, and the bolt-on neck is solid Maple with an adjustable truss rod and bound Rosewood fingerboard. The floating bridge is also Rosewood. It carried a pair of Kay’s ‘Speed Bump’ pickups – so called because of the bump in the middle of the cover. It also has a Bigsby B6 vibrato tailpiece, made for Kay. Tuners are Kluson Deluxe strip models. For controls, there is a three-way lever pickup selector with the original lever, and individual volume and tone controls – the knobs here are not original. The pickguard is also a replacement.
The original ‘Old Kraftsman’ stencilled logo has unfortunately been tinted over, but is still visible in indirect light. See examples of that logo at the JediStar site.
This Kay Old Kraftsman Red Devil is in overall good shape, and plays reasonably well. The frets appear to be original and show signs of having been dressed and recrowned in the past.
This guitar is sold with a non-original hard shell case.
- Model: Red Devil K592
- Year: 1962
- Finish Red
- Class: Vintage
- Serial Number: N/A
- Country of Origin: USA
- Condition: Good
- Date Posted: 23/04/2020
- This instrument has been sold
- Consignment Item
- Including Hard case
- Instrument Weight: 6.78lbs 3.08kg
- Scale Length: 25.75in 654mm
- Nut Width: 1.75in 42mm
