Kay Kraft El Trovador?

[Deleted]

Hello, lurker turned new guy here. I have been playing Nationals since the late 1960s but one recently showed up at the door that not only had I never seen before but never even heard of.  The beast in question is a Kay Kraft.  Looks all the world  to be a Kay Kraft-badged El Trovador but with a 14 fret neck and "zipper" binding on the top.  So has anyone ever run across one of these and if so can you fill in the back-story?  Here is a quick pic.  My thanks.

 

[zak71]

I don't think that's an "El Trovador" even though they did use the same body. Kay shoehorned a different type of cone in those.

Hey, I remember your name - you're the guy with the unusual 14-fret Oscar Schmidt!

[Deleted]

Yeah, I own the 14 fret Schmidt-made Galiano jumbo. Love that guitar.

I tagged the Kay with the El Trovador name only because Kay, of course, built them for National in 1933. As I noted though, this one has a 14 fret neck and different top binding. I have not removed the cone to poke around inside plus do not know enough about how the Nationals were made to identify variations. But the Kay Kraft name seems to dissappear in 1934 being replaced by Kay Kraft Deluxe with Kay Deluxe being on the headstock. The 1934-1936 Kay Deluxe resonators look very similar only with a 12 fret neck. So I felt there was a good chance Kay Kraft made this guitar in 1933 when making the Nationals.

[zak71]

The odd thing is that Kay kept a resonator guitar of some kind or other in their catalog well into the late 40s, almost a full decade after National ceased making theirs. I am assuming they had a LOT of unused bodies stockpiled, and needed to do something with them.
The coverplate appears to be a Schierson, I am guessing Kay acquired their unused stock when National put Schierson out of business.They turn up on Kay-made "Del Oro" faux-bros, as well. I'd be curious to know if the cone in your guitar was a Schierson as well?

I take it you're familiar with this oddball Kay "resonator" guitar which featured a wooden resonator and some kind of cabinet-style porting system?
These came out in a cheaper version under the Del Oro name, as well.

[Deleted]

I got my hands on one of the Kay Amplifying guitars a few years ago. Problem was the owner wanted to trade it to me for a guitar I was not willing to part with at the time.

The Schierson info looks real plausible. Again, though, the Kay Kraft name seemingly disappears from the catalogs in 1934 so it would seem that Kay would have purchased the cones and hardware while they were still being made.

[sebii]

HI … if you go on www.palmguitars.nl
and there to "resonator" you find a pic of an guitar with the name "kay Artist F" … It has the same coverplate but different headstock … maybe this helps some kind of

Best Regards

[Mark Makin]

Hi Sebii
As Zak says, they were manufactured by Kay on the same lines as the Trovador but were all cheaply fitted with Schireson cones. Consequently, as they were top mounted cones, there was no well.

They were sold with dozens of different brand names - another one I can think of is the Monarch "Recording King"

I have seen a few of these that people have attempted to convert into Trovadors. You can usually see the small screw holes around the edge of the coverplate when the (slightly smaller) National coverplate is fitted. One was for sale on ebay a short time ago. It was being argued over because someone had deviously applied a replacement Trovador logo.

You have to be very careful sometimes!!
Best Mark

[Deleted]

I went ahead and forked over my hard earned scratch and kept the guitar. I paid a couple hundred dollars north of stupid but as I knew it and the guitar makes me as happy as a pig in clover I ain't complaining.