1930's Kay Kraft - Recording King
This is one of the more rare models and it's been restored to faithful original condition. It was a real basket case when I got it but I was thrilled to find the neck block and all the critical parts present and repairable. I never realized how much work this one would end up being but I learned many things about these interesting historical guitars. There was a huge variety of them as you can see in my article on 1930s Kay Kraft. This particular model had the most notable use in the early blues recordings of artists such as Curley Weaver, Buddy Moss and Joshua White. The Recording King was a special edition of these that was probably sold in limited numbers and featured all trimmings including a 14 fret fingerboard, bursted finish, pickguard and mother of pearloid head stock and a gold leaf design. This guitar has an instantly recognizable sound that brings your mind back to the old 78 rpm records. It's just a very unique and special guitar.
One of the most difficult tasks I had was recreating a black dyed mahogany shim that goes into the neck block area which is the heart of the system. The necks are adjustable on this model with a huge wing nut located inside the guitar. Here are some photos of the completed guitar. This guitar plays like a new one now but it feels and looks like a museum piece. A true time machine. Listen to the video and I'll explain more about the guitar and play it for you.
Click WATCH
VIDEO #1 DEMO - Standard TuningYou can tell in these recordings how these guitars eat up a microphone and sound even louder because they are projecting forward. That is something very special about this guitar and probably one reason it made a great recording guitar in the 1930s for companies like "Perfect Race Records" and others. Keep in mind in the video I have the action set very low for easy play but you can easily adjust the action any way you like it.
