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
EWI (musical instrument) EWI (musical instrument) EWI (from electronic wind instrument, pronounced "EE-wee") is a type of wind controller, an electronic musical instrument. It was invented by Nyle Steiner, who conceptualized the idea in the 1960s, and developed the first working models in the 1970s. The early models consisted of two parts: a wind controller and a digitally-controlled analog synthesizer in a rackmount box (which also houses the instrument's electronics). Japanese company Akai took over the instrument from Steiner and released several models (with his design help). The current top models, EWI4000S and EWI5000, contain a built-in digital synthesizer and don't require an