The 1949 Kay S-9 bass is completed, waiting for her trip to Nashville and the IBMA’s.  If you see this pretty gal ask to give her a swing!

Waiting for her ride to Nashville

 

All finished and looking good.  See the new leather bumpers added to the G side bouts

 

Beautiful quilted maple back and sides

 

 

The real inlaid purfling and bound FF holes are the signature elements of a Kay Swingmaster

 

She has a new end pin, tail gut, Zyex strings and cosmetic TLC that makes her sound and look great.  This bass is in excellent condition with its beautiful flamed maple back.  The new Zyex strings made her a bit more dark and thumpie.  I being a gut string player the tension was stiffer but I got used to it quickly.  I do feel these strings need some time to settle in; they felt a bit stiff and zingy.  With a few hours play time they began to come around, it felt like the bass began to open up and sing.  Hopefully she gets some serious playing time at the IBMA’s and she will come home tired and her strings broken in.

 

With this project behind us we are looking towards the next project.  I asked Lonnie to choose what bass inspires him…a 1941 Epiphone B-2 with a crushed top.  He wants to see if he can rebuild the top and make the bass playable again.  If the top can not be saved we have a second 1941 Epiphone B-2 as a donor bass.  We would much rather save both basses but one playable bass is better then two broken basses.  The Epiphone B-2’s are very rare we want to try and save both basses. 

 

Stay tuned…there is always a story behind the story.

Progress on the 1949 Kay S-9

The Kay S-9 is coming along.  Tonight was a good night, lots of progress. All the hard work is completed.  Its tweaking from this point forward.

 

Getting started on the end pin.  Reaming the hole with a tapered end pin reamer.

End pin installed, Clef High Tec tail gut installed.  The edges are detailed and the first layers of color have been applied.

The new strings are installed with the Realist pick up re-installed.

Beautiful flamed maple...can you see the edge repairs?  Seamless!

A little seam repair at the neck for open plys.

The Bass Monkey speed neck treatment...smooth as a baby's butt.

 

If all goes well we plan to get a bit of jamming to fine tune the sound post and break in the new Zyex strings.  She will be ready for the IBMA's before you know it. 

Sweet!