Vintage Acoustic Guitar

early 1950's Kay made Silvertone model '618' Jumbo Flat Top Acoustic !

This is an auction for an early 1950's Jumbo Acoustic model 618 flat top guitar made by the Kay Guitar Company under the name Silvertone. The Silvertone label was made for direct sale through Sears catalogs, and had folks like Harmony, Kay, Danelectro, Valco (Supro/National), and later even Teisco making the actual guitars and amps for them. This was a common practice at the time (and actually started long before that in 1910's) to have outside companies making a specific line of guitars for them, but Silvertones have had a sort of life their own that has drawn in a specific group of fans. Some of this is probably due to the fact that (unlike a lot of guitar lines that were made for catalog companies), the Silvertone models were often completely original to the brand. Whereas you might see almost the same exact guitar from a manufacturer under several catalog brand names, the Silvertone line was often mostly original to itself. Their models often varied quite a bit more than with other, as this 618 model does. This has resulted in the many Silvertone fans putting up great websites like this one here. And, no...you are not seeing double. Some of the photos up on this website are of the last 618 that I had a couple of years ago!

This guitar was part of the first wave of higher end Silvertone acoustic guitars Kay produced in the early 50's (click here for a similar one with the Kay label). In fact, they referred to this line of jumbo guitars as their 'Master' size. This was part of their 'golden era' that also included a revamped electric and archtop line. They had many more top of the line models to offer, and even today it is clear the quality of some of the work Kay produced in the 50's with their Thin Twins, Upbeat and Barney Kessel models. The now famous Silvertone version of the Kay Thin Twin K-161 model was marketed along side this in the Sears catalog(as well as other Kay electrics, acoustics, and even a lap steel), but this over 17" large 618 was their top of the line flat top! They offered nothing more deluxe as a Silvertone than this one, and you can see why. There is some serious real estate on this guitar, and it is not your student great Stella you are looking at here. It has top of line materials and craftsmanship, and was intended to compete with any other American guitar of its day. These have long been a hot model for collectors, and just about every friend of mine who has played this guitar has tried to talk me out of it at one point or another. It has the size and sound of J-200, but with no where near the price! Which is great, because if you intend to actually use a guitar, who can afford to bang up a Gibson worth more than $10k? I have only owned only one other version of this exact guitar, and it had some serious attention paid to it when I went to sell it. This one is in great shape and sounds amazing. It is in a nice 'vintage players' condition that is collectible and playable and yet relatively clean, but is not so minty that you would be afraid to haul it around. This is one I have held onto for a long time for that reason, and although I am sad to let it go, I know it will find a good home.

I was lucky enough to score this one at a Midwestern guitar show from a guy that I often buy guitars from a while back. I felt my heart racing a little when he handed this one to me. He had this and another Jumbo Harmony I bought from him in similar shape. And by that I mean by that is rough. They both needed neck resets. Bad. This one had about an inch high action at the 12th fret. They both had their tuners all banged up or the buttons shredded (this one had 'No Line' Klusons from '51-'55 that were totally frozen and destroyed buttons, so it is easy to date it from that). But none of that scared me. It was easy to spot the diamond in the rough. The guitar was pretty clean overall, and had no major issues apart from this repair it needed. The solid spruce top and what looks to be a solid mahogany back and sides were all in good crackfree shape, and the bracing and bridge seemed very solid. The neck was HUGE, which got me really excited. Thankfully, everything was there it needed (except for new tuners, I guess). I paid their fair price to get my hands on it and drove it directly to my luthier after the show. I brought that 50's Harmony, too, but I have long since flipped that one.

When I got to my luthier he saw what it needed and was not afraid, so he took it inside and began the long slow process of breathing life back into it. I had a smile on my face, because I knew the next time I saw it it would be a reborn as the cool old piece you see now. In the following weeks he reglued the neck with the proper angle to it so the strings sit like they should. He then dressed the frets and set the guitar up. A new set of Gotoh made Kluson copies was installed and this bad boy was ready to roll. And man, does it roll!

He spent a good deal of time hemming and hawing over setting it up after it had been strung up, and now it plays and sounds terrific. The action is a medium height and pretty comfortable to me, but high enough that you could break out a slide on it still if you wanted. I have a photo of the height at the 12th fret below if someone wants to check it out. I guess it is pretty normal to me, but it takes a little more effort to play than your average modern acoustic I will say, but some of that is the size of the neck, too. Sort of like an old Martin factory setup I guess. He did this sort of setup so that the guitar was at 'maximum tone and volume' as he put it. He said he could set it up lower, but in his words 'needed to be where it was at to show off its potential'. And, man he was not kidding about the potential. A louder acoustic than this I do not think I have ever owned! But if someone wanted to lower its string height, there is a fair amount of height on the bone saddle and bone nut to come down (the original nut is pretty tall!), so it could be made to play more 'modern'. But why would you do that? I ask. It seemed to me when I first strummed this after he reset the neck that it was like a crack of thunder. So powerful. So full and so projecting. It records like it is its own orchestra. Seriously. I do not think it would be a fair fight to take this out to a jam session. It is like bringing a Howitzer to duel where the other has a .22 single shot. Ha. Don't take my word for it. Hear for yourself below.

I will tell you a story on what people have thought of it, actually. Last summer I had a friend of a friend over (who had just started playing guitar) for a small get together. Everyone was outside and I had this guitar inside on a stand and this person sat down with it as we were all outside. I came back into the house and this person had the guitar in their lap and were picking out a G chord with the widest eyes you can imagine. "This guitar sounds great, and it is big and all, but...it is so loud!!", this person said with a huge grin on their face. Everyone sort of filed into the room and sat and listened to this person pick out a three chord song. They were pretty blown away, and that is exactly the way you will feel when you strum it.

But you do not get that sound out of a small bodied guitar. No way. The real estate on this guitar is no laughing matter. The body is huge and lovely, and just vibrates with each chord like you are sitting in front of a giant speaker. I love the 'hourglass' look to it, it is almost like the Washburn Jumbos from the 20's, with a small waist and big hips. So cool! This is well built, but not like heavy dead weight of a tank. It is vibrant and alive feeling when you play it. Much more like an archtop in this way than most flat tops I have owned from Kay. Playing it is a physical affair, and it is pretty intoxicating to just sit and soak in the sound. And it is a lot to get your hand around on this one, thanks to that beefy neck. It certainly adds a lot to the tone and sustain and besides I love the feel of it. And the neck is pretty straight and true. This guitar is great to play, which is not something you can say about most of the vintage Kays from this era. Between the neck reset and the new setup, it is like playing it was when it was new! And it is clear what this guitar can do you play it and how it can really do a lot of amazing thing. So, they are great for stepping into a time machine if you are someone doing an older style of Blues, Rockabilly, Americana or Country, but also wonderful just as a modern sounding solo instrument. It has the low end punch and volume that makes it absolutely perfect for doing an unaccompanied instrumental, Bluegrass, or Folk thing. It also sounds amazing in open tunings or tuned down. I loaned it to a friend who used it to record something with tuned down to low B like Leadbelly's guitar! He said once he tuned it there it was good to go and played through the song a couple of times without having to retune. Part of this magic is the fact that it is so long scale (just around 26" to my measurements). Heck, fender makes a full deal 'Baritone' made to be tuned to B with only a 26.5" scale, so you know you are in business with this bad boy. That might actually be the thing this guitar does best. The fingerstyle sound really kills with it tuned down a step or two. It turns it into a beefy bass monster with a nasty wallop. Wow! Anyways, I demonstrate some of this stuff below in the soundfiles for you to listen to, so check it out. It is super fun to play that way!

Lately these Kays have really been fetching some serious attention in the vintage market, but with good reason! I remember when you almost get laughed at by those vintage snobs in high end stores if you walked in with one of these, but now they think they are cool. Just like Supros. It used to be the black sheep guitar, not anymore. Whatever. Most of those guys can suck it anyways. The truth is that these are still unbelievably affordable when compared to any other jumbo acoustics made in the same era (again, think of how much a J-200 from the early 50's is these days), and deliver a sound that is unique and soulful to say the least. Certainly some of that recent appreciation in price and respect may be the new found appreciation for some of the less mainstream brands like Kay, Supro, and Harmony, but I think it is also because the 'big boy' vintage models of Gibson, Martin, and Gretsch are all in a place that no one who actually plays out could ever afford to take it to a show. At least without your own security guards that is.

Argh. Don't get me going on that. I will just leave that one alone.

Kay has a long history that stretches back almost 100 years, and have many amazing models that span that time. Most of their early designs where for folks who did not have the means to buy your Gibsons, Epiphones, or Gretsch guitars in a time that was marked by the poverty and cultural strife of the Great Depression (and later during WWII), but they had a lot of very professional grade models and some of the earliest electric Hawaiian. In the 20's and 30's, Kay (as they were known as the Stromberg-Voisinet Company at around this time, and were first introducing the Kay brand) and offered many different stringed instruments that were a great value, and also well made and uniquely designed. Not only are they one of the big powerhouses in Chicago stocking huge catalog companies at this time, but they slowly evolved a ling of many models far extended into the professional playing arena, with features that to get on a guitar today you would be spending thousands of dollars. A lot of these early guitars today are very sought after for their lovely Art Deco aesthetic alone. Kay made the transition to electric guitar designs in the late 40's and by the early 50's had the introduction of the now classic 'Thin Twin' model line. Kay continued streamlining its designs into the 60's under their own name (including the famous Barney Kessel models of the late 50's), but also provided similar designs for brands names like Silvertone (like this one) , Airline, Kay Kraft, Old Kraftsman, Sherwood and more for different catalog companies, department stores, and music distributors. The quality of this guitar cannot be understated, and it certainly offers a fabulous vintage sound you simply cannot buy in a new guitar.

As I mentioned, the construction on this was top of the line for Kay. It has a similar look to other Jumbo 'Master' sized Kay guitars they made under their own, but with a different pickguard, logo, and inlays. It is ladder braced, and has a solid spruce top that is crackfree and clear. It has binding on the top and back in cream, and a black/white pattern around the soundhole, and up the sides of the neck in cream as well. I love the Silvertone logo on this model! Such a cool floral pattern. It has a Brazilian rosewood wraparound bridge that is 'pinned' with two decorative button screws so that it does not come free or loose. This was a good idea and since then many manufactures do this to keep the bridge properly anchored to the top. The bridge seems very firmly attached. It has some wear where the strings wrap around, but nothing that effects anything to do with the performance of the guitar. It has its original curved bone saddle, and a tall original bone nut. The pickguard is a black single ply that is held on by three screws. The fingerboard is a lovely Brazilian rosewood as well, with lots of gorgeous figuring to it. It has cream celluloid dot inlays up the neck in the 40's Kay 1/2/1/2/1/2 pattern like you see. Its original medium tall frets that have a golden hue to them. The frets have a lot of life left in them and it does not go dead anywhere or flatten out. This is helped by the fret dress it had when I got it to my luthier. It was clear that it was not a kids guitar by the Kluson tuning machines it had on it. Those were shot, though, so I put a set of new repros on, and they function like a dream. It stays in tune as well as any new guitar out there, that is for sure.

The neck is a giant size like that of an early 50's Tele or late 50's Les Paul Jr might have. If it was on steroids. And had really tall parents. It is tremendous, a handful at least. Not for the weak of heart or tiny of hand. Comparisons to a baseball bat and an axe handle come to mind. Seriously, this may be one of the biggest necks I have in my collection right now. Or maybe ever. The neck has a nice three piece mahogany/maple/mahogany construction that was common for Kay before '53. The nut width is almost 1 3/4" (see the photo), but the radius is round in shape. See the photos below for a shot of the nut width measurement. Its sustain seems really insane and long for an acoustic, and I think this must be due to the huge neck. These necks were supposedly steel reinforced with a truss rod that is non-adjustable, and looks pretty straight to my eyes.

It has a nitrocellulose original finish all around, with a tawny brown sunburst top and deep dark brown black finish on the back and neck. Wow! I love that look. The spruce top looks almost 3-D when it hits the sun, so the sunburst shows it off well. It has the usual finish checking and ding or scrape here or there, but it is in good shape overall without any serious defects or major areas to point out. Check the photos to get an idea of details. Sure, it has the obvious wear and nicks like a almost 60 year old guitar should have. But no real major gouges, and no real wood cracks I can see either. There are some areas of where there is obviously pick wear, but nothing surprising. Pretty clean overall. What else? Did I forget something. Well, if so, feel free to write in and ask a question. I am happy to answer them.

Ok. Now it is time. You made it this far, here are some soundclips to check out. Here it is with a heavy pick tuned standard...

Here are some more sound files to click on and hear streaming audio, it was mega good times recording these...

...here's a minimal old school country bit of minor riffin'...

...here's one with some deep and lovely fingerstyle in open G...

...now some more fingerstyle that goes into a little chording...

...some fast picking (it is pretty loud here!)...

...tuned down a half step...

...some piano like single notes...

...here is one doing an old school proto rock n roll/bluesy sorta sound...

...some serious rumble tuned down a step...

...some more strumming in an open tuning...

...a simple Alt Country chord progression..

...open chords that end with a few single notes for comparison...

...a minor open chord part...

...booming (!!!) deep fingerstyle...

...a quick scale run...

...one more fingerstyle one, but with a sloppy bluesy feel...

I gotta say that this is one of the cooler original old Kay made Silvertones I have had. And I have had a bunch lately. Like 25 this year or something, including 4 with the Thin Twin pickup. So, I am a big fan! And this one made it through all of those. This guitar comes without a case, but I can get a modern one that will fit it for about $50 if someone is interested. Either way, I will make sure it is well packed and will arrive to you in one piece. So no worries there. Wow, what a find....snap this bad boy up!!!

UPS Ground or Expedited US Postal Service in the USA. I prefer a certified cashiers check in the US, but take Paypal as well. Paypal only on international bidders, please email me for your shipping rates oustide the 48 contiental states. Payments must be made or confirmed within 48 hours (unless otherwise stated by me personally) or I move to the next bidder on the list. I hope this goes to a happy home! Auction is as is, no returns whatsoever. Please do not bid unless you have the money to buy it and plan on following through with your bid. I will be so sad I will have to cry if you back out. Like a sad little girl. You will ruin my day. And then maybe a call down a voodoo curse or two. Don't blame me if you grow warts on your face when you don't pay. Its the spirirts' will, not mine. I know this is not of the majority, so thanks for bearing with me. All sounds, songs, text and images are copyrighted material, so pirate them at your own peril. Seriously, I have a team of trained rabid attack dogs that do nothing but cruise the internet looking for interlopers to feed upon. You probably aren't even reading this, but if you are...beware their wrath. Anyways...feel free to ask questions! Email me if you want to see any more pictures, I have tons of them that probably did not make it into the massive picture show below because I am nuts about this guitar! I am going to be doing some remodeling this week in my home, so there may be a day or two in there that my internet connection is down, but never fear...I will answer your questions as fast as I can. I promise. Thanks!

CLICK HERE TO ADD ME TO YOUR FAVORITE SELLERS!