Here’s a great piece of real vintage American guitar building, at a price anyone can afford. If you want the instant vibe of a vintage axe, but don’t have the bucks to lay out on a ’65 Strat or SG, then this one is for you!

Built at Kay’s plant in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, the Vanguard series was brand new for 1965. (The series consisted of three models, with one, two and three pickups) Featuring a Sunburst finish over a solid Maple front and back, with a hardwood core, plus an exclusive new Vanguard single-coil pickup, (“newly designed powerful magnetic pickup unit,” the catalogue proudly announced), this is a guitar with some serious bite!

The “sharp, biting tone” of the new mesh-covered pickup was designed to give American bands the same great punch that the British Invasion bands – such as the Beatles and the Stones – were getting, at prices somewhat more affordable than the Gibson, Gretsch and Rickenbacker models those bands were playing. Almost perversely, the volume and tone from the pickups in the Vanguard range was more akin to that of the British-made Vox range!

As well as the new pickups, the Vanguards featured Kay’s new ‘Thin-Lite’ neck with adjustable truss-rod “on all top models”, a fully bound Rosewood board with lovely inlaid MOP fan position markers, and a dual-spring tremolo system.

You can see by the photos that the guitar has been well played, but aside from the various small dings here and there, and the Red primer showing through the dark Sunburst finish in a few places here and there, this is a guitar you can plug in and play straight away.

Almost completely original, the only changes are a couple of the bridge screws, the bridge cover is a replacement, (adapted from a vintage Telecaster Bass), and we believe the trem arm may be a re-issue Jazzmaster unit. A previous owner has also oversprayed the headstock in Black or a dark matt Brown. One nice bonus is that the scratchplate is the original celluloid – not plastic!

Your instant-vintage 1965 Kay Vanguard ships in a very nice, non-original hard-shell case

Price: AUD$910.00 GST Included