Kay Musical Instrument Company Kay Musical Instrument Company Kay Musical Instrument Company was a musical instrument manufacturer of the United States, in operation from the 1930s until the 1960s. Kay was established in 1931 in Chicago, Illinois, by Henry Kay Kuhrmeyer, from the assets of the former Stromberg-Voisinet (founded as Groeschel Mandolin Company in 1890). Kay offered their first electric guitar in 1936 — five years after the Rickenbacker "Frying pan", and the same year as the Gibson ES-150. However, the Kuhrmeyer-owned Stromberg-Voisinet brand had produced the Stromberg Electro even earlier, in 1928, making the short-lived model arguably the first commercial electric guitar. The
Lujon (musical instrument) Lujon (musical instrument) The lujon ( ) is a bass metallophone consisting of individually-pitched metal plates that are attached to the resonance chambers of a partitioned wooden box. The lujon was invented by William Loughborough. At his Sausalito, California studio, Loughborough created a variety of new percussion instruments, including the boobam and lujon, after working with Harry Partch in the mid-1950s. The lujon is played with soft mallets and produces a sound that is dominated by its fundamental frequency. The instrument is also known as a loo-jon or metal log drum. In a 2009 Web post, Loughborough provided the following