Instead, this is one of a series of Kay-made instruments with appointments similar to that of the earlier Gold K generation, but overall, more in the mold of the other guitars then being sold through catalog partners.
While often vintage dealers and others label any Kay with the Kleenex box pickups a Barney Kessel model, this does not appear to have been the actual designation. Sold under the Airline brand name exclusively through Montgomery Ward, this guitar shows up in a 1965 edition of their catalog simply as an Archtop Dual Cutaway. Big, bold and righteous, the G2410TG Streamliner Hollow Body Single-Cut with Bigsby® and Gold Hardware is designed for the modern guitarist who yearns for something beyond the norm. Mine looks just like this with amber knobs, though. Though they are some very, very nice knobs. Moving through the '60s, as Kay shifted away from the original Gold K guitars, these pickups-a variation on the P-90, with larger pole pieces-continued to be used on other models including today's featured instrument, the hollowbody Swingmaster P-5 archtop. I saw another place that had knobs for like 70 USD or something but I'm not replacing knobs on a 59 LP or even a reissue lol. The Gold K and Kessel models (along with the Thin Twin, which was played by bluesman Jimmy Reed) are the most recognizable vintage Kays and are set apart by their higher-end hardware-flourishes like the ornate "Kelvinator" headstock (which, along with the pickup frames and pickguard, resembled the appointments of that company's line of appliances) and the distinct Gold K pickups, sometimes called Kleenex box pickups, for obvious reasons.