Please click on hyperlinked text for a pictures.
This hollow body, triple pickup archtop with original soft case hails from the 50's. And though the guitar proudly proclaims Truetone on the headstock, this guitar was made by Kay for Western Auto who owned the Truetone brand name, just as Sears owned Silvertone and Speigel and then later Penney's owned Old Kraftsman. Like those other big retailers, Western Auto did not make their own guitars but contracted with Kay, Harmony, and Danelectro for guitar production.
Along with the three, single coil pickups, you get 6 volume and tone knobs and a 4-way pickup selector for a complete variety of tone from jazzy blues to vintage rock 'n roll. Only the tuners are not original. Even so, they are a perfect fit and hold tuning perfectly!
The body and neck are completely bound with real binding which has turned a vitnage cream color with age. The guitar has a spruce top, single f-hole, and maple sides and back.
The bolt-on neck is perfectly straight with just the
right amount of relief, allowing action of 2/32" at the
14th fret with no buzzing! The truss rod works, but you won't
need to use it as this guitar is setup perfectly with
D'addario flatwound 11's. The flatowunds give the guitar
a bit more amplified volume with slightly bassier tones.
There are no repairs and none needed!
In addition to finish checking and a few small nicks on the rim to be expected on a 40+ year old guitar, this picture shows the only major finish problem: a 1" scratch located near the bridge. Other than that, this baby is excellent! The finish is shiny and the guitar even smells good - no cigarette smoke! All electronics work perfectly with no noise and no scratchy pots (cleaned professionally).
The case is so cooo-ool
and completely original! And the
guitar looks great
in the case!
Now to the tone and playability... The tone is very versatile due to the 3 humpback, single coil pickups. Now, this is a 50's guitar with single coil pickups, not a new guitar with high distortion humbuckers. As such, the tone of this archtop is sweeter and thinner than you might find with humbucker-equipped guitars. As such, you can go from jazzy blues tone to Mark Knopfler jangly tones with this guitar!
The playability is excellent! Low action of 2/32" at the 14th fret with no buzzing makes this guitar pure joy to play!
The intonation is excellent, too. You can play octaves and chords up and down the neck without wincing on out of tune notes!
