Kay bass guitars--who's playing them?

[devnulljp]

View attachment 3690255 This showed up on local FB. Now I'm curious.

Those were 70s mail order catalogue guitars, and utter crap. First bass I ever touched was one of those. Luckily it didn't put me off.

 

[Tunk]

Todd Phillips... now there's a name I wouldn't have expected to see on the BG side. Ons of my earliest bass heroes... who is he playing with these days?

(with apologies for the derail... all the Kay basses I had are uprights)

Todd plays that bass on stage. It sounds great and is easy to transport.

 

[Dang75]

Here you get a nice sample of David Sutton's tone I mentioned above:

Love that Teisco Del Ray guitar. My first bass was a Teisco Del Ray.

 

[Steven Ayres]

Todd plays that bass on stage. It sounds great and is easy to transport.

It's a cool instrument, but it's a guitar conversion, not a production bass.

 

[Clipped]

Very cool bass. I just didn't play it often enough.

 

[Danny O Danny]

I've got a Kay Truetone K-5924, which is a blast to play. It's quirky as hell--for example, the input jack is on the back of the body, and the controls go: neck pickup tone, neck pickup volume, bridge pickup tone, bridge pickup volume (so the volume and tone knobs are reversed from what is standard).

Here's a cool video I came across that showcases the K-5924's sound. The bassist in this is Anna Butterss, who is now playing with Jason Isbell.

 

[GretschWretch]

All you need now is for one of the tone controls to be wired like it is for lefties, a la the Custom Kraft Bone Buzzer Bass.

 

[Steven Ayres]

(so the volume and tone knobs are reversed from what is standard)

That was the standard layout spec for Kay, however, across its electric line — tone close, volume next.

 

[TomB]

View attachment 3176375

That Kay was my first amp! Not too loud, but loud enough to drive the folks out of the house! …or was that my playing? . Not sure, but I only paid $40 for it at a Chicago pawn shop.