Kay Guitar Brand Origins





Disclaimer: Brand names were often shared as distributors changed who they wanted to buy instruments from. There are brands listed here that were made by both Harmony and Kay as well as other companies.



Also would like to shout out to Guitars from the Kay Musical Instrument Company were often sold to distributors labelled under that specific distributor's chosen brand name. This was a cheaper alternative to having to build your own in house brand of instruments. Often times tracking down the origins of brand names and the manufacturers of those guitars can be very difficult and so I've decided to try and compile a comprehensive list of all the brand names that Kay instruments were listed under. For the purpose of this article, I will only be including the US-built guitars by Kay and ignore the entire era of the 1970s and 80s where Kay outsourced their guitar brands to Japan.: Brand names were often shared as distributors changed who they wanted to buy instruments from. There are brands listed here that were made by both Harmony and Kay as well as other companies.Also would like to shout out to Jedistar.com for having one of the largest searchable index of guitar brand names. I took quite a bit of info and some brand names from his site and simply compiled them into my list. All credit for those discoveries goes to him and the respective owners.

Ai rline

Image credit, unknown author

Airline guitars were sold by Montgomery Ward through catalogs and physical stores. The brand was used from 1958 to 1968 and more recently reissued by Eastwood Guitars [5]. Airline guitars were also built by Harmony at some point in the brands lifetime.





In my experience these guitars seem to be the most highly priced Kay guitars around; even the basic acoustics tend to be more expensive for the brand name. Airline guitars are probably most recognized for the "Res O Glass" body construction and unique design styles that you see artists such as Jack White using.



A lamo "Interesting factoid. Alamo purchased many parts from Kay when they went out of business and you see Kay tuners and fretboards on some of their guitars for a while after this." [Brian R]



A rch Kraft

Budget archtops produced from 1933 to 1937 [Wright 172]. Distributed through the Vitak-Elsnic Company catalog which was based in Chicago, Illinois [25].

















B arclay





























B eltone

Distributed through Sorkin Music Co in the 1950s [26].





Distributed by Monroe or P&H according to the Kay Vintage Reissue Website [20]. I'm not able to find any definitive info on what either of those companies are.



















































C atalina

"House Brand name for Abercrombie and Fitch" [Brian R].









The Catalina brand name might've also been used for guitars built by Harmony [22].





















































C ontinental



C oronado Image Credit: Casey G Produced for Gamble-Skogmo, a retail conglomerate based out of Minnesota [34]. This particular guitar is a typical 60s Kay archtop with faux-flame and painted binding.



























Produced from 1929 until the late 1940s [Wright 169, 170]. Produced for the Continental Music Company.

C ustom Kraft

Custom Kraft Archtop: Image credit, mine

Custom Kraft "900" Amplifier: Image credit, mine





I challenge this information based off of instruments I have seen in person and on the internet. My archtop, pictured above, has a 50s Kay tailpiece. I have another Custom Kraft archtop built by Harmony with the date stamp "S-36" meaning the second half of 1936. You can see more 1930s and 1940s instruments labelled Custom Kraft on one of my Custom Kraft was a line of instruments produced for St Louis Music Supply Co. The guitars were made by Kay and the amplifiers were produced by Valco/Supro [2]. An article on Premier Guitars claims that the line was launched in 1961 and were produced until Kay was purchased and subsequently went under in 1968 though some instruments still bearing the name appeared into the early 1970s. [3]I challenge this information based off of instruments I have seen in person and on the internet. My archtop, pictured above, has a 50s Kay tailpiece. I have another Custom Kraft archtop built by Harmony with the date stamp "S-36" meaning the second half of 1936. You can see more 1930s and 1940s instruments labelled Custom Kraft on one of my articles about Custom Kraft Numbered Models



El Ranchero Image credit, Reverb - Rivington Guitars Produced in the late 1950s and distributed through the Sorkin Music Company [27].

































F ischer Produced in the late 1950s and distributed through the Sorkin Music Company [27].





Possibly produced by Harmony later in the 1950s. See



F ranklin Music House Made by Kay in the 1930s [17].



Distributed through its name-sake, Franklin Music House based in Newark, New Jersey [Spann 207]. F uturamic Produced for the Carl Fischer catalog from 1929 to 1936 [Wright 169, 170]. The company is based in New York, New York [24]Possibly produced by Harmony later in the 1950s. See this Reverb listing for evidence of a Harmony construction (headstock shape)

Guitars built in the 1950s for an unknown retailer [16].



The headstock design includes two rockets and two airplanes flying towards themselves. The "F" in Futuramic is also very similar to the font used on Fender guitars.





G alaxy

Image Credit, Facebook Marketplace





























G retsch

Kay produced guitars for Gretsch during the 1940s [Wright 171]. I have a 1947 Gretsch New Yorker archtop that I have heard was a model built by Kay as well.

G roehsl

Groehsl was founded in 1892 and later acquired by Stromberg-Voisinet which rebranded itself as Kay [11]. Their instruments were produced between 1918 and 1921 [Wright 169]

H oliday

Distributed by Aldens [20]. Also manufactured by Harmony. Commonly seen from the 1960s.

H ollywood

Made for (or with) the Shireson [sic] Brothers in 1933 [Wright 170].





The company is properly spelled as Schireson Brothers Manufactured Musical Instruments. The resonators were made by Kay with cones and hardware supplied by Schireson Bros [12].

K amico

Kamico Parlour Flat Top: Picture credit, myself





Kamico was marketed as a cheaper line of Kay guitars and distributed as a lower priced version of Kay's regular guitar line [1]. They were introduced in 1947 and continued to be manufactured until 1951 [Wright 130, 173]





































K ay Kraft

Image Credit: Jake Wildwood's blog

Kay Kraft were an early brand of instruments produced from 1927 to 1937 by the Stromberg-Voisinet Company which later became Kay Musical Instrument Co [Wright 94]. This brand is occasionally confused with Custom Kraft due to both having the same spelling of "Kraft" but they are entirely unrelated.



Kay Kraft guitars are also known for having an adjustable bolt-on neck construction which allowed for the angle of the neck to be adjusted by a plate between the neck and the body. They are also known for the "Venetian" mandolin style shape. Kay Kraft were an early brand of instruments produced from 1927 to 1937 by the Stromberg-Voisinet Company which later became Kay Musical Instrument Co [Wright 94]. This brand is occasionally confused with Custom Kraft due to both having the same spelling of "Kraft" but they are entirely unrelated.Kay Kraft guitars are also known for having an adjustable bolt-on neck construction which allowed for the angle of the neck to be adjusted by a plate between the neck and the body. They are also known for the "Venetian" mandolin style shape.













K aywood

Produced for one year only in 1934, these resonators featured either a curly maple or mahogany construction with a wooden resonator plate [Wright 170].





























L ark Jr

Likely made between the 1930s and 1950s













































































L ee Gibbs / Concertone































L iberty Image Credit: Craigslist (archived) Appears to be built in the 1940s with open-back Kluson tuners with stamped posts (not screwed on) and a distinctly Kay bridge. Blonde finish with painted white binding on the body and painted blue binding on the headstock



























Brand name of Montgomery Ward used from 1914 till the 1930s.

M arathon

Marathon flat top: Picture credit, myself

Nathaniel,

Marathon was a house brand for the original Southland Musical Merchandise Corp. in Greensboro, NC. It was primarily used for cheaper guitars mostly of Japanese origin. If yours was made by Kay, in those days, Kay was a US made brand. The original Southland ceased to exist in about 1990 after being sold to a company called Onsite Energy Systems in 1972. I went to work for the Original Southland on Aug 1, 1972 as a stock clerk. I became a road rep for them in April of 1973. I still do the same thing today, 46 years later, but with different companies these days. In 2003 I "resurrected" Southland. Whatever history of the company that exists is in my brain. All the older employees have passed on.

Sorry I can't give you specific information about your guitar. Kay Guitar Company still exists today. Perhaps they can help you; http://www.kayguitar.com/

Best,

Ed Rider

M arvel

Marvel guitars were marketed by the Peter Sorkin Company out of New York, USA. Made in the 1950s through the 1970s according to Jedistar [9].





I've played the model pictured to the left and it feels like a normal, low end Kay arch top guitar. Nothing particularly impressive about it except the name and headstock logo.

















M arveltone

Notable model, 1933 Marveltone Arch Kraft No.778 archtop [Wright 172]. Also produced or distributed by Regal [13].









M arwin Distributed through the Barth-Feinberg catalog based in NY in the early 1950s [28]. Also might have been constructed by Harmony M ayflower Guitars and banjos manufactured by Stromberg-Voisinet in the 1920s [Gruhn 442]



M elody King "Was a Bronson guitar and amplifier brand [31]". Also produced by Harmony.



"The Bronson Music Corporation was established in 1931 by George Bronson the half-brother of Harry Stanley, who owned the O'ahu Publishing Company in Cleveland OH. Bronson lap-steel guitars were made by Rickenbacher, National, Valco and Magnatone. [32]" M ontclair No apparently relation to the Marvel line of Kay guitars.





O ahu





Distributed by Unity Buying Service in the 1950s and 1960s [20].Alamo guitars had a model of lapsteel called the Futuramic and Noble released accordions under the same name but there is no apparent connection.Marathon branded guitars were distributed by Southland Musical Merchandise Co in Greensboro, North Carolina. The brand's origin date is unknown but my acoustic (pictured above) has Kluson tuners that date it to the late 1950s. Youtube user Joseph Macey dates his collection of Marathon guitar picks to the late 1950s at the earliest and continuing into the 1960s [4].Many thanks to Mr Macey for his video led me to the Southland name and then to Mr Rider who gracefully responded with his knowledge about the brand.Produced during the 50s and 60s by both Harmony and Kay [19]Oahu was a brand of instruments produced for the Oahu Publishing Company based in Cleveland, Ohio. These instruments were built to appeal to the Hawaiian genre of music and commonly feature square necks. These instruments likely were made as early as 1927 [Wright 116] and as late as 1938 [Wright 170]. The Oahu Publishing Company closed in 1985[8].