The Kay ThinTwin guitar. One of the most sought after Kay guitars from the 1950's, the Kay ThinTwin was commonly referred to as the "Jimmy Reed" guitar. Introduced by Kay around 1952, the same time as Gibson introduced the Les Paul, the ThinTwin was a semi-hollow body guitar and larger than it's name "thin" implied.

Started in 1890 and based in Chicago, the Kay Musical Instrument Company introduced, in 1957, the Gold "K" line of guitars. These included electric guitars as well as archtop and flattop acoustics. Before then, the company's guitars had been known mostly for student and department store grade instruments. They made instruments for many companies under different names; "Old Craftsman", "Airline" and "Silvertone" were just a few of them used. They stopped making the "K" Gold line in 1962. Kay had got Barney Kessel, the top guitarist in the late 50's, to endorse three models (Jazz Special, Artist, and Pro) of the series. This only lasted for three years then Kessel left to join Gibson

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