1960s Kay Pro P-3 Thinline Doublecut Vintage Guitar Barney Kessel Kleenex Box w/ Case, Swingmaster

Up for sale, an early 1960's Kay "P-3" Pro doublecut thinline hollowbody electric guitar, with the same trio of "Kleenex Box" pickups as the top-tier Barney Kessel series of instruments. The double cutaway design and highly figured flame maple top and back set this Kay apart, and this guitar is simply a joy to play, with glassy cleans and rich, cutting overdrive when played through your favorite tube amp. A very rare iteration made in the USA by Kay for the Airline brand of instruments sold exclusively through the Montgomery Ward catalog, this Kay is 100% original and one of the nicest examples we've ever had available for sale. The Kleenex Box pickup is one of the cooler sounding "off the beaten path" 1960's single coil designs, delivering chime and twang equally, along with warm, complex jazz tones when the neck pickup is engaged. The four-way pickup selector rotary switch and individual Volume and Tone knobs for each pickup present a huge range of classic Kay tones. The fully hollow maple body has the benefit of both the low end fullness of its construction and the attack and brightness associated with maple as a tone wood. Professionally setup and strung with fresh strings here at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar, this Kay plays great, intonates well and is an excellent example of vintage Kay tone!

The neck has a chunky C profile that's just shy of "baseball bat" depth, measuring .920" deep at the first fret and feeling very consistent as you travel up the fretboard, filling out to .980" at the 12th fret. The original frets retain their full height, with well rounded crowns and sparingly little wear. The Brazilian rosewood fretboard has the triangular inlays seen on this particular series of Kays, with white binding as well. On the headstock, the original Kluson Deluxe double line tuning machines are intact, turning smoothly with stock white buttons. The face of the headstock sports the original truss rod cover and the "Airline" white silkscreen text which should be present at the top of the headstock has been worn off in the last half century.

On the body, all of the electronics work as they should and all of the stock hardware is present including the adjustable rosewood bridge, trapeze tailpiece, batwing "tortoise" pickguard and six transparent amber DeArmond knobs with chrome inserts. The curly flame maple on the body is stunning, turning in the light and showing great depth in the figuring. The figuring is consistent across the entire top and back of the instrument, and this Kay is certainly worthy of its natural finish to highlight the ripples of flame. Cosmetically, the guitar shows some light scuffing on the 100% original gloss lacquer finish, with a bit of light wear on the headstock edges, as well as one very slender and repaired crack extending from the neck heel into the treble side body cutaway. Overall, this is a very clean and well kept instrument, and easily one of the rarest and most desirable thinline Kay models of the '60s!

A modern hardshell case is included.