Kay 500 preset

verified · 88/100 confidence. Complete schematic. All component values readable. Parameters derived directly from the circuit.

The Kay 500 is a small tube amp from the Kay Musical Instrument Company of Chicago, sold alongside its student and budget guitars. It is a transformerless AC/DC design: a 12AU6 pentode preamp with a volume control feeds a single-ended 50L6 beam tube driving an 8-ohm speaker, with a 35Z5 rectifier. A 12AV6 oscillator with a neon lamp provides tremolo with a depth control and a switch on a jack. Low-powered and quick to break up.

• Made in: USA
• Wattage: 4W
• Channels: 1
• Preamp tubes: 1× 12AU6, 1× 12AV6
• Power tubes: 1× 50L6

Tags: american, vintage.

Schematic-derived preset files for the Neural DSP Quad Cortex and 16 Fractal and Line 6 modelers: Axe-Fx II/XL/XL+, Axe-Fx III, FM3, FM9, and the full Helix family (Floor, LT, Rack, HX Stomp, HX Stomp XL, Native).

Gridleak extracts amp parameters from original circuit schematics using AI vision — component values, gain staging, tone stack topology, tube types — then generates native preset files for every supported modeler. Every extraction is scored 0–100 and the score is published.