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70s Kay electric guitar worth $50?


fuzztone

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It certainly is worth the 50 bucks. That pup sounds pretty good, I wonder if its a p90-ish design, it looks like it. It takes drives well, and I dig the cleans. Pots/jack is junk, but it works.

The neck is actually pretty good, its got some meat and is very stable. The frets/board isnt the best, same with the tuners but it stays in tune well enough and you can get a reasonable action. The zero fret is cool too. They seem to intonate best with 9's.

 

You can tell its a 70's model because the headstock is a strat rip-off, later they changed the shape.

 

Heres what mine looks like, dont know the name.

DSCF0941.jpg

 

edit-I seem to remember you picking up the greta in another post, this guitar has that lo-fi garage rock tone, it will sound awesome through that amp.

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Thanks for the posts! I have a question: How can I get the action lower? The problem is if lower it to much it hits the pickup which is pretty tall and non ajustable any suggestions(besides "learn to play slide")?

 

DSCF2649-1.jpg

 

DSCF2655-1-1.jpg

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I would much rather have the $50 in my wallet than that guitar. Sure it MIGHT be cool to play if- 1) you can get the strings anywhere near the fretboard 2) the trussrod works so the neck can be straightened 3) the plastic tuning pegs don't disintegrate under the tension of standard tuning 4) the plastic nut doesn't leave the strings far from the proximity of the fretboard.

 

This isn't even addressing the electronics and their components and whether they are working correctly. This is just the grousing of an older guy who has wasted too much time on beaters.

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Bag may be worth more than the guitar, but I can say Kays are a little better

quality than Teisco, IMO.

 

 

I'm guessing that Kay in the OP was actually made by Teisco. I had an early 70's Teisco and everything other than the body was dead-on identical to that Kay.

 

Or, maybe it was the other way around - maybe Kay built Teiscos. Or perhaps a third-party built for both brands.

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I'm guessing that Kay in the OP was actually made by Teisco. I had an early 70's Teisco and everything other than the body was dead-on identical to that Kay.


Or, maybe it was the other way around - maybe Kay built Teiscos. Or perhaps a third-party built for both brands.

 

 

I'm pretty sure you were right or close to it with your first guess. The history is a little convoluted, but before and through the 60's, Kay made their own guitar as well as being the primary builder for many other budget/mail-order stringed instruments. They even built some higher-end stuff that was pretty nice. Some time in the late 60's/early 70's, they sold the name to Teisco who stuck it on some of the guitars they exported here. The name changed hands several times, so who knows who manufactured the OP's guitar. It's hard to believe they were still making guitars that look like that in '85.

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how are you liking the Greta??

 

I really like it. In the video below the guy says "it harkens back to the days of the transistor radio" but it is really looks much more like a product of the late 30's or early 40's see. It's a substantial little piece of equipment. The cabinet is not plastic. The front and back are red lacquered wood as are the feet. The top is gold painted metal. It's really pretty heavy for it's size 8.7lbs.

 

gretak-1.jpg

 

[video=youtube;0Btc2iOjvLg]

 

And it is not just the exterior that Fender lavished details on,the amp it's has some interesting details like a choke instead of a resistor like they did with a 5E1.

 

 

DSCF2610-1.jpg

 

2 watts into a 4 inch speaker is pretty loud for a bedroom amp if you dime it but I can get some satisfying tones at lower volumes too.

 

I have question for you guys: How should I mute the internal speaker when using the line out? Do I have to get some kind of dummy load to plug into the speaker jack? I asked Fender and the customer service rep wasn't sure if I just had to plug in a dummy cord in the speaker jack so he asked one of the engineers.He told me the engineer looked a schematic but he wasn't sure either so he said they will have to call back.

 

The customer service rep said this was the 1st time someone asked this question. It's weird that they didn't think some people would want to shut off the speaker to use the line out for recording or as a distortion pedal.

 

(update) I called Fender today and they told me you can't shut the speaker off when using the line out. The only way to do it(with out an internal mod) would be to plug some kind of dummy load into the external speaker jack.

 

 

Oh,one other important feature of the Greta is the Line In for your music player.Now you can hear you music the way God intended: In Mono!

 

[video=youtube;VCzi75bhOcI]

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^^ Thanks.

 

They are just so dang cool looking I find myself very tempted even though the tone might not be something I need. I have a ZT Lunchbox, Vox DA5, Roland Micro and Roland 20X that I use for desktop amps, plus I'm interested in the new Yamaha models as well, but this Greta seems like a cool piece of gear. It just seems like something you'd be proud to have collect dust or play and eventually hand down to the archeologists.

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