*US dollar exchange varies daily
Construction features a Maple neck, Mahogany resonator, wooden tone ring, Rosewood fretboard with brass frets. It also has a heavy zinc flange and standard heavy brass tension hoop.
And, it is fitted with rare, original Scruggs tuners !!!
This vintage banjo is fully setup and the brass frets were dressed and polished.
The Kay company of Chicago, Illinois was in operation from 1931 to 1968. Kay built medium quality banjos through the 1940s and 50s, but in later days the quality dropped dramatically and they eventually moved over to Japanese and Korean construction. Kay also built under other names including Silvertone and Airline.
This interesting Kay 5 string banjo has a warmer sound than one would expect from a Bluegrass banjo due to the extra deep resonator and wood tone ring construction. It has the original Weatherking head, tailpiece and rosewood arm rest.
Interestingly, this banjo has the historic Earl Scruggs D-tuners fitted. Long before Bill Keith developed his famous Keith D-tuners, the Wabash company offered these cam-style D-tuners. They are rare and though they did work, few were willing to drill two extra holes in their banjo peghead. I've not seen a complete and functioning set for years.
