Back in the Spring of this year I was at Action Music, my favorite guitar store in northern Virginia, when Matt, the owner, told me he had seen what looked like an old Kay bass at a consignment furniture store down the street. He knew I played guitar in a gypsy swing band and figuring he didn't have space for it in his shop why not do the world a favor and let somebody know.
My bassist and I drove over to see about buying it a few days later. Matt had warned us it was janky looking. It was a Kay alright, but there were issues: the sound post was glued in and it was not in the right place, the tailpiece (if you could call it that) was handmade from a few pieces of metal that were bolted together like they'd just come off of a lawnmower, and the nut was literally a sawed off piece of a broom handle from the looks of it - a big wooden dowel about the size of a fat thumb.
The body and neck were sound and my bassist buddy said he was happy to help me get it playable with some hand-me-down strings and a few replacement parts. It was at one of those consignment furniture stores where something automatically gets cheaper the longer it sits. I think I paid $324.
A few weeks ago I took it to be set up by Tom Wolf out at Wolf Instruments in Plains, Virginia, and I just brought it home today. It now has a properly fitted Teller bridge and ebony nut, an ebony tailpiece I got for $8 on eBay, a new set of Evah Pirazzi strings, a soft case, and a modest CF bow. The post has been reset and the glue scraped away. Tom even gave me a recommendation for a teacher near my place in DC. He explained that my Kay is one of the nicer models from that year, with an ebony fingerboard and real purfling inlay.
I'm looking forward to a long relationship with this bass, and I wouldn't be surprised if that meant bugging you guys about stuff from time to time as I'm finding my way. So thanks in advance. I'd like to give a shoutout to my bassist as well, he's the one who told me about TB and I'm sure he's on here, but I don't know his user name.
And now, without further ado, pictures:
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My bassist and I drove over to see about buying it a few days later. Matt had warned us it was janky looking. It was a Kay alright, but there were issues: the sound post was glued in and it was not in the right place, the tailpiece (if you could call it that) was handmade from a few pieces of metal that were bolted together like they'd just come off of a lawnmower, and the nut was literally a sawed off piece of a broom handle from the looks of it - a big wooden dowel about the size of a fat thumb.
The body and neck were sound and my bassist buddy said he was happy to help me get it playable with some hand-me-down strings and a few replacement parts. It was at one of those consignment furniture stores where something automatically gets cheaper the longer it sits. I think I paid $324.
A few weeks ago I took it to be set up by Tom Wolf out at Wolf Instruments in Plains, Virginia, and I just brought it home today. It now has a properly fitted Teller bridge and ebony nut, an ebony tailpiece I got for $8 on eBay, a new set of Evah Pirazzi strings, a soft case, and a modest CF bow. The post has been reset and the glue scraped away. Tom even gave me a recommendation for a teacher near my place in DC. He explained that my Kay is one of the nicer models from that year, with an ebony fingerboard and real purfling inlay.
I'm looking forward to a long relationship with this bass, and I wouldn't be surprised if that meant bugging you guys about stuff from time to time as I'm finding my way. So thanks in advance. I'd like to give a shoutout to my bassist as well, he's the one who told me about TB and I'm sure he's on here, but I don't know his user name.
And now, without further ado, pictures:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
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