Yesterday morning, a hunt in the attic/loft was needed. I was listening to a few early David Bowie songs where he was playing, often, on a 12 string acoustic. Distinctly, the lovely blue one he was playing on Starman on Top of the Pops, brought back memories of a sound that was transforming my musical expectations. It was what led me into listening back to the early Bowie vinyl albums yesterday. Relaxed and enjoying ‘back when’….a lightbulb moment occurred. I remembered that Angie (my wife) bought me a secondhand 12 string Kay dreadnought acoustic guitar back in the very early days when we first met.

VIDEO OF GUITAR SOUND AT BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG.

It was a very nice, now vintage, Kay 12 String KDG812 Acoustic Dreadnought Guitar. These were made in Japan back in approximately 1970 to 1974. The fretboard shows slight string pressure indentation through frequent use. So was loved and played by its original owner. I certainly never used it so much to cause this, so it was therefore probably made around the 1970 to 72-ish date. Angie bought it in 1974 secondhand. Internet research suggests it was probably made in the Terada factory in Japan and by Matsumoku. Ace quality from that source apparently. I believe my Kay guitar is a bit rare now according to other internet information. I saw the almost identical body design in the 6 string Kay KDG88, which sold for £427.50 (weird pricing!), yesterday morning and stating being made in the same factory. Apparently, high end quality was always considered despite being made for many European and USA markets.

Back in the early 1970s, I had played the Kay a few times, but found, in my naivety, it was very difficult to tune up. I was blowing through old pitch pipes with the standard six notes to tune a 6 string guitar by. So was guessing the extra 4 octave harmonic strings by ear. I still use the pipes now. But nowadays? It is all electronic/digital clamp on ones attached to the guitar head stock. In line tuners within amplified gear on stage. Or the Apple Mac/GarageBand computer tuning through the microphone the acoustic is played into or the audio interface with an electric guitar on a lead. So, so much easier.

Writing songs on the 6 and 12 string acoustics was regular and exciting back in the old days. I believe that the 12 strings, harmonically, gave me song melodies I wouldn’t have come up with usually. I used it eagerly and experimentally back before the Punk/New Wave sound of the three piece XCerts band I played in was formed. Once the XCerts were formed though, I changed to only playing Bass Guitar in the band. I began playing the Eko 6 string acoustic dreadnought much more regularly for writing trashy punk songs. So the Kay, and its softer 12 string sound, was relegated to becoming an overlooked lovely sitting in the corner.

After leaving the role of being a musician in earnest, I unfortunately left the intensity of daily guitar playing. Sold my beautiful 1960s Fender Jazz Bass guitar to buy a small potter’s kiln. Silly me! But money was really tight and a wedding/marriage was looming too. Needs must and money was tight.

Career decision, at first, was still based in the ‘arts’. I became a potter. That was a fantastic blast. Loved that period in my life. Exhibitions and Craft Fairs. Even started thinking of writing songs that suited the ceramic mythology vibe for playing in the background for an ambience at exhibitions. Medieval or New Age atmospheric. I did write a weird atmospheric piece on an old Casio keyboard I managed to obtain in those days. Poetry from the stories of the pottery characters I made recited on top of the instrumental backing. Not great! But a mortgage had to be paid. And two children to bring up too. Selling pottery became an ‘up and down’ monetary wise. So a ‘real’ job and career was required.

Moving on from making ceramics/pottery for ten to twelve years, it was then that Sign Language/Lip Speaking/Note-taking for Profoundly Deaf and Hard of Hearing students in colleges and universities started that new career. Leading on from that experience, the finality of working career to my life was realised in the role of a Staff Nurse. The latter chosen Sign Language and Nurse professions being working alongside many people. Not such a blast. An introvert within a role of ‘daily interaction with others’ was very uncomfortable. Stress, due to working with a significant amount of people on a ‘one to one’ basis, entered life and made a huge worrisome impact. Supporting and working alongside students and patients means that high responsibility is involved. And you always felt vulnerable in own self belief that, possibly, you may not have the adequate skills to do gold standard justice in your role. Self criticism borne from a life of insecurities. Characteristics of oneself never really change. They still exist in some form or other. Bravado in presenting oneself isn’t in Summers’ nature. I notice that I even refer to myself in the third person often. Nowadays?

From 1982 to 2023 my guitar playing was at a minimum. Ignored playing anything on guitar for months on end sometimes. So when moving to Wales in 1995, there were about half a dozen guitars, electric and acoustic, put into the attic and out of sight. I only kept my first owned Eko dreadnought acoustic guitar for picking up and playing downstairs. Songwriting was no longer important. Well….little oddity songs and some that were quite promising were always flying around my brain. But stuck on back-burners within the neural pathways of the mind were more meaningful captures. You can’t stop a musical brain writing internal melodies. You have to let them journey freely and lightly along the neural pathways to eventually find little rooms at the end of deep mind-scape tunnels where they hide within.

So, back to this morning. The attic was searched and down in a corner of the gable end to the house, the forlorn and miserable Kay was found. Filthy with debris, dusty spidery webs and the metal work very rusted in places it humbly presented itself. Albeit with an inner leap of joy at the sight of human presence again. The wood of the guitar felt rank. A house built in the mid 1880s with its original slate roof in situ can let the outside weather dust from this world in from time to time. I also felt emotionally rank…..basically for my behaviour towards such a wonderful item. So five hours of working on it has been yesterday’s activity. The string holding nut was broken, the strings dull and rusty and the metal machine heads were gummed up with age.

Photographs below can be enlarged. Just tap on the image. Thank you.

I took all the head stock metalwork, bridge saddle and neck string housing nut off and pulled them all apart. Using fine fountain pen emery sheets to rid rust spots. Then used a spray can of general cleaner/polish to break through the dry dust grime on the guitar varnished body and followed up with some Fender Fingerboard Remedy oil to clean, hydrate and protect the guitar neck’s fretboards. It was truly therapeutic. I’ve bought the nut, saddle, pegs to hold in the strings and some D’Arrio strings to give it a more solid update. The original parts were still in place, but worn or broken. And being 55 years old, they were getting brittle.

Now having attached the 12 strings, I find the action (distance between strings and frets) quite high. This means having to push down harder on the strings to get a decent sound of fret/string contact. Chords played are then cumbersome as no smooth transitions are possible. Also, 12 strings instead of 6 brings their own added difficulties in tactile application. Plectrum rhythmic strum is strangely different and more notes to hold down and ring out cleanly and true is tiring on the wrist and hard on the fingertips. It’s like driving my 1972 VeeDub Bus (camper van). No power steering. So all manoeuvres are achieved with a lot of effort and energy to turn the steering wheel. But! Luckily the Kay does have a neck adjustable truss rod. So it can be worked upon to get the strings closer to the fretboard. And maybe lighter gauge strings will be useful too.

Anyways. Here’s how it sounds below. Tap to hear the video. Excuse the ad hoc rawness. Just switched on record on the iPad MOTIV app and iPad internal microphone, after tuning the guitar up quickly, to hear how it sounded in this basic recording form. Pleased with the richness captured. No idea as to what I would play.

On the Apple Mac home studio, after the ‘action’ being improved for playability, it should be a great addition to my songs.