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Rickson - Posted - 04/27/2012: 07:12:26
A "laminate spruce top" ?
Ben Venuti - Posted - 04/27/2012: 08:26:06
They're not such great mandolins,it's plywood mostly and it needs a refret which means it's not $200. But then again $200 isn't much money in the mandolin world. Kay was big on pressed laminate tops. Maybe pioneered the process. It would be a great beach mandolin once it's up and running. There are some beater "A" Gibsons selling on ebay in the $400 range and when that gets fixed up you really have something. You might even find a Gibson ready to play for not much more than that.
TSSN - Posted - 04/27/2012: 10:24:47
Let me clarify: if one is truly a collector, is it worth having in your collection at that price (construction aside)?
Buttonwood Bob - Posted - 04/27/2012: 11:57:35
In this person's opinion. "No." I doubt an astute collector would look at one once, and certainly not twice. Laminated wood is not capable of the resonance of a solid spruce or maple back and top. Then there is the fairly recent new word in our vocabularies, "delamination." Good, solid wood is the first thing I look at when considering a stringed musical instrument. There are a lot of laminated instruments being played out there, so I would expect a lot of folks to disagree. Heck, there are some that are not wood and glue...just "glue".
Peter Summers - Posted - 04/27/2012: 13:50:18
If it truly needs a refret, I'd say $200 is a bit much. If it didn't need that and was in excellent condition, maybe. IMO, in this condition, more like $100 or $125. These old Kays are all over Ebay, some reasonably priced, some outrageous. I'd say this is half way between the two price groups.
As for tone, some of these old laminates have a pretty good, booming sound and are ok. Strad-o-lins are pretty highly thought of by collectors, I believe and reputed to sound pretty good, but I think Kays, though interesting, are probably a bit lacking in the tone department. I say that, having actually never heard one (that I know of) and stand ready to be corrected by those who have them.
TI_USER - Posted - 04/27/2012: 14:17:19
I have never played a Strad-O-Lin, but I know that certainly the solid models are more highly sought after, but I have heard many times that the laminate models are pretty good too. If the fret job is not needed immediately than you could but it and do the fret work sometime down the road. It looks to be in good shape otherwise. I don't think it's a bad price.
Ben Venuti - Posted - 04/27/2012: 21:41:57
I don't know --it's Elderly selling it and if they say it needs a refret it more than likely needs one. This is no "collector" grade instrument. There are some instruments that came out of the Kay-Harmony line that are kind of cool. Some of the old Stromberg Voicenet mandolins, and the decalomania models, the Roy Smecks, and the Shutt style mandolins but this one isn't...if this one had a Kelvinator headstock it wouldn't be any better but would look better hanging on a wall. I think if you have an notion to collect and a budget you should look more at some of the old Regals or the Lyon and Healy line, Brunos and Vegas, Stetsons. Actually there are quite a few manufacturers of mandolins that made very nice looking and sounding mandolins but they were rarely arch tops,that, for the most part , belonged to Gibson. I have a list,actually it's Michael Harts list and I have a copy, of a couple of thousand manufacturers of fretted instruments prior to WWll. There is no end to and it's a great deal of fun to try and know something about them. Do some research first,like your doing with this Kay, and figure out what is good and what is not. There was a little L& H syle "G" that came up on ebay and sold the other day for $120 and it was light years better than that Kay. I had one once and it was a little fire cracker of a mandolin. There are many other really pretty nice flat top mandolins produced in the early 20th century that can be had for pretty good prices. $200 isn't a bad price for any musical instrument short of a harmonica or maracas maybe..........
