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Horrid looking Kay bass guitars


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[quote name='Fionn' timestamp='1388950052' post='2328045']
The rug is AMAZING though!
[/quote]
I knew a girl who had a carpet like that in the 70s.

It used to make my eyes go all funny even back then. Oh, hold on a minute, that could have been something entirely unrelated to the carpet.

Cosmic, man. :P

Edited by BetaFunk
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[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1388950922' post='2328068']
... that could have been something entirely unrelated to the carpet.

Cosmic, man. :P
[/quote]

All things are related in the zone! Become one with the geometry, yeahhhh!!!

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[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1388949930' post='2328042']
There seem to be a number of not very nice looking Kay basses on ebay at the moment.

E.g. this.

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-KAY-Bass-GUITAR-/161190918422?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item2587ba3916"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item2587ba3916[/url]

Now, where's that 'Do not want!' image when I need it?
[/quote]

That's one of three of those Gibson EB type Kays on eBay at the moment.

But there is a nice looking later model Kay bass on there as well:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KAY-Bass-guitar-Thru-Neck-Vintage-Japan-/121245668282

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[quote name='chriswareham' timestamp='1388959048' post='2328225']
That's one of three of those Gibson EB type Kays on eBay at the moment.

But there is a nice looking later model Kay bass on there as well:

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KAY-Bass-guitar-Thru-Neck-Vintage-Japan-/121245668282"]http://www.ebay.co.u...n-/121245668282[/url]
[/quote]

That is nice, and it's already at a quite healthy price after two bids.

If it hasn't finished yet, there's also a Kay which is a very poor copy of a bass by a well known litigious American company as well.

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[quote name='chriswareham' timestamp='1388959048' post='2328225']
That's one of three of those Gibson EB type Kays on eBay at the moment.

But there is a nice looking later model Kay bass on there as well:

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KAY-Bass-guitar-Thru-Neck-Vintage-Japan-/121245668282"]http://www.ebay.co.u...n-/121245668282[/url]
[/quote]
There is also this.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-1960s-Kay-K-2B-Electric-Bass-1964-/181292808458?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item2a35e4b90a

This is much different to the three similar ones on ebay that owe a more than a nod to Teisco.

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[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1388959518' post='2328231']
That is nice, and it's already at a quite healthy price after two bids.

If it hasn't finished yet, there's also a Kay which is a very poor copy of a bass by a well known litigious American company as well.
[/quote]

And a Hondo. It's been listed before, but got pulled for mentioning that word. Listed again minus the offending word, but I'd not be surprised if it's pulled again.

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[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1388959769' post='2328240']
There is also this.
[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-1960s-Kay-K-2B-Electric-Bass-1964-/181292808458?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item2a35e4b90a"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item2a35e4b90a[/url]

This is much different to the three similar ones on ebay that owe a more than a nod to Teisco.
[/quote]
To me, this is the only one that looks like it might be anythging to do with Teisco! I don't think so (although lots of Kay sellers claim them to be) but the pickups, inlays, knobs etc are very reminiscent of 60s/70s Teiscos. I don't think it's quite as old as he claims - I'd go for mid 70s, and interestingly there was actually a reissue of this bass a few years back - this one's so clean, that's what I thought it was initially.

Shame about the P type bridge cover someone's bunged on. Better with nothing.

Jon.

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[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1389349679' post='2333067']
I've got some rocks that must be a few hundred million years old. I wonder if I can get big £££££ on ebay if I describe them as 'rare'.
[/quote]

I'm old, rare, yet seemingly worthless if you listen to some of the people I've worked with over the years...

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[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1389396819' post='2333949']
I remember playing one around this time, it was uniquely awful. :)
[/quote]

I find it quite interesting how things have moved on.

Those Kay cricket bats (as we used to describe them back then) were the entry level for newbie bassist.
Look at the entry level stuff now and there's no comparison.

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As a young boy, I was always hankering after a 'Top Twenty', the Woolies brand. Not sure if they did a bass, but here's the guitar version, perhaps only slightly less hideous than the Satellite and Kay offerings... same factory, perhaps?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Top-Twenty-single-pickup-model-from-the-sixties-/290870375530

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[quote name='lowregisterhead' timestamp='1389448767' post='2334262']
As a young boy, I was always hankering after a 'Top Twenty', the Woolies brand. Not sure if they did a bass, but here's the guitar version, perhaps only slightly less hideous than the Satellite and Kay offerings... same factory, perhaps?

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Top-Twenty-single-pickup-model-from-the-sixties-/290870375530"]http://www.ebay.co.u...s-/290870375530[/url]
[/quote]

Found one of those guitars in a junk shop when I was a teenager. Paid £20 for it in 1991 or thereabouts. Took it round to a guitarist friend's house, all excited at the prospect of learning lead guitar, only to be told that it had a neck so warped as to be unplayable. Gave it to another guitarist friend who had built his own guitar at sixth form college, and he cannibalised it for the electronics.

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[quote name='lowregisterhead' timestamp='1389448767' post='2334262']
As a young boy, I was always hankering after a 'Top Twenty', the Woolies brand. Not sure if they did a bass, but here's the guitar version, perhaps only slightly less hideous than the Satellite and Kay offerings... same factory, perhaps?
[/quote]
It's easy to say that now but at the time the Top Twenty was the only chance you had to own a guitar owing to the fact that they were affordable while the US built ones were way out of reach for the average 60s teenager. Looking at them today of course they look poor when compared with the budget stuff coming out of Chine etc but at the time they were all we had and served a purpose. With a bit of setting up were playable guitars and yes they did make a bass.

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A lot of Top Twentys were rebranded Teiscos, made in Japan, so unlikely to be more than cosmetically similar to the Kays, which I think started appearing 10 or so years later.

For anyone with a genuine interest (or a morbidly perverse curiosity) about these crude & faintly disturbing instruments, there is, as there is for any slightly unsavoury personal predilection, a website:

[url="http://www.mark-cole.co.uk/teisco/"]Teisco Twangers[/url]

J.

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