~1933 Kay Kraft Style B Tobacco Sunburst

Kay Kraft Style B 'Venetian' c 1933 | $1650 | (v2414) The Kay Kraft instruments were produced by Kay Musical Instruments in Chicago, formally Stromberg-Voisinet. The 'Venetian' style instruments are attributed to Joseph Zorzi (a Kay luthier with Italian heritage who also developed the bolt-on neck seen here) which were offered for sale by the late 1920s and produced in three styles, A (mahogany), B (maple), and C (rosewood), with C being the top of the line. This particular example is a Style B and features beautiful tiger maple back and sides, multiple bindings and snowflake inlay. A real looker, especially if one's aesthetics lean toward curves and points. This particular example is especially clean and quite attractive.

The top is solid spruce pressed into an arch and X-braced. The shaded tobacco sunburst is set off by black and white celluloid binding and a large, pointy pickguard. The back (arched) and sides are laminated tiger-striped maple and feature the same tobacco sunburst. The back is also bound in black and white celluloid. The neck is mahogany and carved in a fairly modern-feeling 'C' shape. The neck is bound in matching black and white celluloid. The fingerboard looks like ebony ..but probably ebonized maple.. and features nine snowflake position markers. The neck meets the body at the 14th fret and features the unique Zorzi bolt-on system where the neck angle can be adjusted by the loosening of a wing nut at the neck block. The headstock is asymmetrically shaped and covered in white celluloid with the Kay Kraft logo and border in gold paint. The tuners are single Grovers with metal buttons. The bridge is maple, painted black. The tailpiece is trapeze style, and appears to be a replacement.

The body measures 14 1/2" across at the lower bout. Scale length is 25 1/8". The neck measures 1 3/4" across at the nut, with string spacing 2 1/4" at the saddle.

The guitar has had no evident prior repairs. We recently adjusted the neck angle, leveled and dressed the frets. The finish is remarkably sparkly and pristine with only a hint here and there of age and use. The binding along the fingerboard has shrunk a bit, but is not gassed-out or crispy. The tailpiece appears to be a replacement since this type of trapese isn't seen on the Kay Kraft instruments we've seen, and there are witness screw holes from a prior tailpiece.

Overall, this is a very cool and original survivor of a certain period of guitar development that plays well, sounds uniques and looks spiffy! As an added bonus, the period/original case is the double-diamond type hard case in near mint condition! A stellar vintage package.

Check out the sound clip!