The serial numbers have been placed on or in the guitar in different places over the years. At the top of the neck plate, on the front or at the back of the headstock or on the cover plate of the vibrato (Stratocasters), or at the end of the heel of the neck. Between 1973 and 1981 there were periods when this did not happen consistently.
Note that Kay also made guitar with other brand names on the headstock. Serial Numbers 1932 to 1964. Number range Year no number 1932-1934 1005 to 1097 1932-1934 1105 to 1235 1936 1234 to 1317 1937 1318 to 1385 1938 1388 to 1456 1939 1457 to 1508 1940 1509 to 1562 1941 1563 to 1621 1942 1622 to 1658 1943 1659 to 1681 1944 1682 to 1702. The perfect place to find a deal, our Kay catalogs are available seasonally just in time for the holidays. Okay so I want to know what year my guitar is and when it was made and all that but I can't find anywhere how to decode my serial number. GUARANTEE: Kay guitar ig guaranteed to give complete satisfaction. See page for details. VALUE is a matter of getting the most for your money—whatever the price. You will find that though the Thinline Electrics range in price from $69.95 to $169.50—.
Jackson history in short| Until the early 1980s, Grover Jackson worked for the guitar builder and manufacturer Wayne Charvel. Charvel made copies of the Fender Stratocaster and was the first manufacturer with a 24 frets guitar, the 'Superstrat'. In 1980, Grover started his own company and focused primarily on building individual customer requirements. One of the first customers was the guitar player of Ozzy Osbourne, Randy Rhoads. This became the 'RR' model which was based on the Flying V. or Gibson. Due to the high quality of the Jackson guitars, more and more guitar players, especially from the heavy-metal scene, had a custom-made guitar built at Grover Jackson. This resulted in legendary models such as the King V, Soloist, Concert and Dinky. The guitars were produced in San Dimas, California and later also in Ontario, California. In 1985, IMC acquired the greatest interest in Jackson and began to devote more time and attention to a more extensive guitar market. | While Jackson still makes top products, Jackson also began to produce cheaper versions of their standard designs in Asia in an effort to make their products more accessible to people with a small wallet. In late 2002 bought Fender Musical Instruments Corporation Jackson IMC, and American productions were moved to the Fender factory in Corona, California. Grover Jackson |
It's amazing that the MSRP for these Style Leader archtops was only $39.95 in the late '60s.
Hey Zach,
I have someone interested in purchasing this guitar, and I can't find anything out about it. As you can see, it has damage to the neck and a few cracks around the f-holes. The number I can see inside through an f-hole is 'L 5573.' Could you please tell me what I have and what it's worth?
Thanks,
Kay Guitar Serial Number Lookup Numbers
Joseph in Richmond, Kentucky
Hey Joseph,
Cool guitar! Well, we know right away that this is a Kay guitar from the metal plate on the headstock. Along with Harmony and Washburn, Kay was one of the mass producers of guitars between the 1930s and 1960s in the Chicago area. These large instrument manufacturers were also known as 'jobbers' and 'house brands' because they produced guitars for many other retailers and distributors.
Kay can trace its roots back to 1890 when the Groeschel Company in Chicago, Illinois, began producing bowl-back mandolins. In 1918, Groeschel changed to the Stromberg-Voisenet Company and became known for laminating wood tops and backs on instruments.
Caption here
Henry Kay Kuhrmeyer bought the Stromberg-Voisenet Company in 1928 and made a splash by introducing some of the first electric guitars and amps. Three years after purchasing the company, Kuhrmeyer renamed it Kay Musical Instruments and began mass-producing a variety of stringed instruments. By the mid-1930s, Kay was producing nearly 100,000 instruments a year!
Since Kay focused on building a lot of instruments, most of their guitars were of the budget and intermediate grade—the familiar quality versus quantity axiom. All Kay guitar model names consisted of a 'K' prefix that was followed by a three or four digit number and a nickname. (The K161 Thin Twin and K8980 Upbeat are a couple of examples.) Unfortunately, this number was rarely, if ever, stamped anywhere on the guitar. The number inside your guitar is actually a serial/production number, which doesn't really help us in either dating or identifying the guitar.
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So, this leaves referencing old Kay catalogs, price lists, and Kay books to determine what you have. I found your guitar in a 1960 Kay catalog, and the model appears to be a K6868 Style Leader. According to catalog specifications, it has a laminated 'crack-proof'maple body that's fully arched and super-auditorium sized, a slim steel-reinforced neck with a maple fretboard, and a honey blonde finish with 'attractive graining.' (Kay also made a sunburst-finished companion model called the K6858.) Your guitar appears to be missing the brown celluloid pickguard these models were outfitted with. The Style Leaders remained in Kay's catalogs until the late 1960s and had a final MSRP of just $39.95!
Kay thrived through the booming guitar years of the 1960s and was sold to Valco in 1967. However, financial instability became prevalent and Valco/Kay went out of business in 1968. The rights to the Kay name were auctioned off and import guitars bearing the Kay name (made mainly by Kawai in Japan) began appearing in the U.S. Since then, Kay has been sold several times, but is still active and currently offers a line of intermediate-priced guitars.
Caption here
Henry Kay Kuhrmeyer bought the Stromberg-Voisenet Company in 1928 and made a splash by introducing some of the first electric guitars and amps. Three years after purchasing the company, Kuhrmeyer renamed it Kay Musical Instruments and began mass-producing a variety of stringed instruments. By the mid-1930s, Kay was producing nearly 100,000 instruments a year!
Since Kay focused on building a lot of instruments, most of their guitars were of the budget and intermediate grade—the familiar quality versus quantity axiom. All Kay guitar model names consisted of a 'K' prefix that was followed by a three or four digit number and a nickname. (The K161 Thin Twin and K8980 Upbeat are a couple of examples.) Unfortunately, this number was rarely, if ever, stamped anywhere on the guitar. The number inside your guitar is actually a serial/production number, which doesn't really help us in either dating or identifying the guitar.
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So, this leaves referencing old Kay catalogs, price lists, and Kay books to determine what you have. I found your guitar in a 1960 Kay catalog, and the model appears to be a K6868 Style Leader. According to catalog specifications, it has a laminated 'crack-proof'maple body that's fully arched and super-auditorium sized, a slim steel-reinforced neck with a maple fretboard, and a honey blonde finish with 'attractive graining.' (Kay also made a sunburst-finished companion model called the K6858.) Your guitar appears to be missing the brown celluloid pickguard these models were outfitted with. The Style Leaders remained in Kay's catalogs until the late 1960s and had a final MSRP of just $39.95!
Kay thrived through the booming guitar years of the 1960s and was sold to Valco in 1967. However, financial instability became prevalent and Valco/Kay went out of business in 1968. The rights to the Kay name were auctioned off and import guitars bearing the Kay name (made mainly by Kawai in Japan) began appearing in the U.S. Since then, Kay has been sold several times, but is still active and currently offers a line of intermediate-priced guitars.
The metal headstock plate certainly tells us it's a Kay, but the company rarely indicated the model name or production date anywhere on their instruments. The unfortunate neck damage shown here brings the value of this guitar down to the lower end of the range for Style Leaders.
Kay Guitar Serial Number Lookup Number
Aside from a few electric archtops like the Barney Kessel and Upbeat models, most Kay guitars remain relatively low in value and undesirable to collectors. These Style Leader archtops are typically worth between $200 and $400 today in excellent condition. Because of the damaged neck and cracks on the body (I guess it isn't so 'crack-proof'), I would estimate it to be toward the bottom of that value range.
Kay Guitar Serial Number Lookup Idm
So there you have it: Very few Kay guitars from this era are treasures in terms of monetary value, especially when it comes to the acoustic models. However, they certainly bring many of us back to our younger years since these were the guitars many of us learned to play on. That is a treasure unto itself and could very well be the reason someone wants to buy this guitar from you.