I purchased this guitar late last year in Newark, DE, and it was in a rough state. The body and major components were all there, but most of them were in separate boxes. The floating pickguard, pickup mounting rings and bridge were missing, as well as the tremolo spring and spring cup.The list of jobs to do on this one was long, but started with cutting and shaping new pickup mounts by hand. The appropriate size tremolo spring and spring cup were acquired, and I purchased a fully adjustable gold roller bridge for it. The bridge has been lightly aged to match the patina of the rest of the guitar. With the pickups mounted and adjustable once again, I set to the wiring, and dispensed with the old series pickup switching, that isn't very usable and makes even less sense. The pickups measure 3.8 and 4.0 ohms, and were rewired in parallel with vintage cloth push-back wire, so now they function the same way the pickups in a Les Paul do, nice and predictable. The control plate was shielded with copper foil, and a new .047uf orange drop tone cap was installed. I color-matched the pickguard bronze-gold with pictures of other vintage K900G's, and resprayed the back of the control plate. The floating pick-guard was cut out of a piece of clear pick guard material to shape, the edges smoothed and buffed, and the underside sprayed the same color. The chrome spring and spring cup got a touch of gold metallic paint as well, to help them blend in better with the bridge and the tailpiece.
It took forever to track down replacement slider switch style knobs for this one, but I was able to find some after-market, and spray them the appropriate silver color, then scuff them up a bit so they wouldn't look too "new." The tone selector switch made absolutely no sense the way someone had wired it, so I replaced the old junk caps with a .1uf and a .015uf, so that the guitar now switches between three very usable "rhythm" (up, .015uf), "bass" (middle, .015uf + .1uf) and "solo" (down, clean) tones. The string retainer nut was replaced with solid bone, and a new zero fret was also installed. As for the tuners, I had a set of grovers lying around that hold their tune well, so I slapped those on. I was initially planning to install a Kluson vintage 3x3 on-a-plate set on this guitar, which would look really sharp, but never got around to it. The Grovers are a little large for the peg-head profile and the shafts are a touch low on the peg-head face, but they function very well.Finally, the guitar got a complete fret level, crown and polish, and with a full setup she was ready to go! This Kay plays like butter and has a warm jazzy tone with plenty of spunk in the pickups, and rock-solid intonation. A true vintage player's piece.SummaryFinish: Original.
Top Material: Mahogany Top
Body Material: Mahogany Body
Body Details: Solid mahogany body.
Neck Material: Spalted Maple
Fingerboard Material: Brazilian Rosewood
Neck Profile: Medium "C"
Neck Thickness (IN): 1st- .82" 12th- 1.07"
Fingerboard Radius: 12.00"
Nut Width: 1-5/8"
Electronics: Original single coil pickups and potentiometers.
Pickup Measurements: Neck 3.8k ohms bridge 4.0k ohms
Hardware: Original hardware except for replaced nut, tuners and roller bridge. The tremolo spring and cup are NOS.
Weight: 6 lbs 11 oz
Modifications: -The original switch configuration has been replaced with .015uf and .1uf caps, for improved "solo," "bass" and "rhythm" tones. The wiring harness has been rewired for parallel pickup switching with vintage style cloth pushback wire, and the tone cap has been replaced.
Case Details: No case.
Cosmetic Condition: 8/10
Tech Notes: The guitar plays well with low action and .006" neck relief at the 7th fret. The frets are wide and low. The serial number/model plate is missing, a common occurrence with these guitars. The tone slide functions in reverse from a standard auto tone pot, and gets darker as it is slid up to 10.
