N(WTFHIBTF)BD Kay KJP-1B

[Maude]

That's right word puzzle lovers, that's 'new what the f**k have I bought this for bass day'. 

I saw an old Kay bass listed cheap enough on Facebook just ten minutes away so I went to have a look. I really quite liked the look of it and fancied another little project (like I'm not trying to do enough already) and expected it to be awful. But it looked OK, good frets, reasonable action, all original parts bar the bridge, and when plugged in I was even more surprised, it didn't hum, crackle or buzz and sounded really good, apart from a fairly non existing tone control. 

We had a chat and it turns out it is a righty, but was converted to lefty and then put back to righty, hence the upside down painting of the hotrod (yeah I don't know why you would either). 

Anyway it looked and sounded so good that I bought it, it's great in a kitsch, tacky way but I don't know whether to refinish it in a totally different style as per original plan, or try to remove the painting and just restore it. 

Also if anyone knows from the serial number what year it is that would be interesting, calling @Bassassin 😉

Here's the awful thing in all it's, erm glory? 😂

[hooky_lowdown]

Saw this bass on fleabay a while back. I'll tell you a neat trick, as the pickup is microphonic, plug it into an amp and speak into the pickup, it's basically a microphone. Also run it through an overdrive or fuzz, sounds awesome!

It's an early 70s bass, you can tell by the headstock, if it's wooden it's early to mid 70s, if it's painted black it's late 70s to early 80s. They were mass produced and sold at the mighty Woolworths, back in the day.

Edited February 29, 2020 by hooky_lowdown

[Pea Turgh]

I like it!  I can see that in black or gold like a Les Paul, or sea foam green for something a little different.

[Reggaebass]

What a great project, I like that, I’m looking forward to seeing what you do Maude 

[Maude]

The bridge is in the wrong place as the seller said he can't get the E string to intonate and the spacing is all to pot, as you can see by the G string nearly hanging of the edge of the board. It'll need a new nut as the one on there has been filed for a lefty and then just left as is when put back to righty, so G string in an E string sized slot. But with a new nut and bridge I can narrow down the string spacing to how I like it. 

 

[Maude]

14 minutes ago, Pea Turgh said:

I like it!  I can see that in black or gold like a Les Paul, or sea foam green for something a little different.

I was thinking along the lines of surf green, or something 50's and pastel. 🤔

[Maude]

Also notice the red painted on fret markers on the wrong side of the neck, I didn't even see those until I got home. 😆

Silver flake would look kool and suit the kitschness of it. 

[Bassassin]

I don't know if anyone's ever bothered to work out whether these can be dated from the serial! Agree with @hooky_lowdown, it's early 70s but beyond that it's hard to be specific.

Bit of interesting (to some!) info is that these Taiwanese Kays are sort-of Teiscos. Kawai/Teisco acquired a factory in Taiwan in the mid 60s for production of their lower-end instruments and that's where these were made, Kay having been one of various rebrands 60s MIJ Teiscos were sold under. Some MIJ Teiscos & MIT Kays were the analogous but I don't think there was a Teisco version of your bass.

 

[BreadBin]

My 1969 Kay (which I just sold) had the date of manufacture on the neck. It didn't have a serial number however.

[Maude]

36 minutes ago, Bassassin said:

I don't know if anyone's ever bothered to work out whether these can be dated from the serial!

Bit of interesting (to some!) info

.... production of their lower-end instruments and that's where these were made, 

 

I'm not sure I like your tone young man! 😂

Are you suggesting my lovely new bass isn't really worth bothering with? 😉

Haha, thanks for the info, I know it's a bit shite but that kind of why I like the poor thing. We're having a bit of a quiet spell at work and this'll give me something to potter with. It'll be lovely when I'm done, just wait and see. 😁

[BreadBin]

5 hours ago, BreadBin said:

My 1969 Kay (which I just sold) had the date of manufacture on the neck. It didn't have a serial number however.

By which I mean you had to take the neck off, just like an old Fender.

[Drax]

if you really wanted to make good on your investment, trim that bass off that lovely picture and have it properly framed 

[Bassassin]

8 hours ago, BreadBin said:

My 1969 Kay (which I just sold) had the date of manufacture on the neck. It didn't have a serial number however.

What was it? I've had a couple of Kay Ps and  a Strat, can't remember which it was but one of those had 1969 on the heel.

It wasn't a date, the simple fact being that no-one was making remotely accurate Fender copies that early, certainly not a Taiwanese Teisco subsidiary. The pickups, for example, simply didn't exist. The number's more likely to be something like a production line reference or model code.

[hooky_lowdown]

To clarify 1969 was the model number, not the year!

[BreadBin]

20 minutes ago, Bassassin said:

What was it? I've had a couple of Kay Ps and  a Strat, can't remember which it was but one of those had 1969 on the heel.

It wasn't a date, the simple fact being that no-one was making remotely accurate Fender copies that early, certainly not a Taiwanese Teisco subsidiary. The pickups, for example, simply didn't exist. The number's more likely to be something like a production line reference or model code.

Referenced here 👍

 

[Pea Turgh]

53 minutes ago, hooky_lowdown said:

To clarify 1969 was the model number, not the year!

I had a (terrible) P copy with 1969 Stamped in the heel and neck pocket, but that Les Paul type one @BreadBin referenced had 1969 in the heel & neck too.  Maybe they were all 1969, with the “day/month” being the actual model?

@Maude  - what does yours say?!

Edited March 1, 2020 by Pea Turgh

[Maude]

55 minutes ago, Pea Turgh said:

 

@Maude  - what does yours say?!

I don't know yet, I'll be stripping it down later so will let you know, I'm guessing it'll say 1969 though. 

I'm always amused at the absolute contempt for a plywood body or neck but the self wetting excitement of a multi-laminate construction. As far as I'm concerned, if this is from the early seventies and the neck is still straight with a good action then that's a decent neck construction. Of course it's cheap shite but it's made it through nearly half a decade and I'm going to show it a bit of love. 

The money side of it doesn't matter, it's a bit of fun. Folks happily spend money down the pub on a few drinks or a meal with nothing to show at the end, I'll have a good condition terrible bass at the end 😂

[BreadBin]

I have some really nice Washburns with plywood bodies. 👍

[Maude]

Yeah I've got an Hohner Arbor Series fretless P with a ply body and it's just perfect. 

[BigRedX]

13 hours ago, Maude said:

The bridge is in the wrong place as the seller said he can't get the E string to intonate and the spacing is all to pot, as you can see by the G string nearly hanging of the edge of the board. It'll need a new nut as the one on there has been filed for a lefty and then just left as is when put back to righty, so G string in an E string sized slot. But with a new nut and bridge I can narrow down the string spacing to how I like it. 

 

Are you sure that’s the original bridge. IIRC Kays from the 70s had either a very primitive Gibson style bridge or a two piece that allowed you to adjust the string spacing but not the intonation.

Edited March 1, 2020 by BigRedX

[Maude]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

Are you sure that’s the original bridge.

 

15 hours ago, Maude said:

, all original parts bar the bridge, 

👍

I think it's meant to have a weird L shaped bridge with a bracket through the A and D strings to screw the ashtray to. 

Edited March 1, 2020 by Maude

[Maude]

Well whadya know, it's a '69 😆

Pulled it all apart ready for refinishing, I think I have a colour scheme in mind but we'll see what stupid ideas pop into my head today. 

The heel had a balsa shim superglued to it and after a bit of scraping the numbers were visible. 

The bass was disgustingly manky under the controls and scratchplate, and some quality routing of a plywood cavity. 

All the hardware has been cleaned and the scratchplate will be polished tomorrow, being careful not to remove the Kay logo, everyone needs to know what this beauty is. Talking of such, does anyone here make waterslide logos for the headstock? I want a gold Kay logo on there as well.

 

Edited March 1, 2020 by Maude

[Maude]

I've been looking at the neck and can't decide if it's ply or not. Certain things say most definitely ply but from other angles it looks like a 'normal' neck. 

 

These look 'normal', 

 

Where as these look like ply, 

 

and these two scream ply, 

 

Also when cleaning the gunk of the fretboard it reveal a rather nice wood pattern, but I think it may just be the stain coming off a cheap wood that's been stained to look like rosewood. I quite like it though. 

Also, who needs frets that go all the way to the edge of the fretboard, possibly a result of the 'plek' treatment these clearly went through. 😂

Edited March 1, 2020 by Maude

[Ricky 4000]

One man's 'cheap ply' is another man's 'expensive laminate'. -- Friedrich Nietzsche

[Pea Turgh]

Maybe 1969 was a really good year for Kay instruments?!  Apart from mine - body could have been made of lead, neck looked like yours but might as well have been balsa.  I remember splinters!

Yours looks ace though @Maude - looking forward to watching the journey!

Edited March 1, 2020 by Pea Turgh