5 replies to this topic

[carrotinbelgrade]

Hi,

I'm new to guitarzone and I'd like some help identifying a guitar I bought recently. If you don't my giant description, you can go straight to the pictures at the bottom.

I bought it for $50. The guy I got it from said it was a 60s Teisco. He was selling another guitar that I'm sure was a 60s Teisco, an ET-100 Tulip. He says he bought them at the same time. The Tulip had the Teisco brand on the headstock, but my guitar doesn't. The Tulip had a nicer neck, but its volume pot was shot and I preferred the sound I got from the unbranded guitar. So, I bought it.

The guitar has two single coil pickups. It has two volume dials, one for each pickup, and no master volume. It has a tone dial and a small black switch that seems to be a bass boost, maybe. The bass boost doesn't do much unless the Tone is set to 0; at 0, the guitar is very quiet and clean. The bass boost adds a lot more volume and bass. But if I turn the tone up past 2 or 3, the guitar sounds like that anyway. The output jack sticks straight out of the body of the guitar, right below the dials.

There are two large white on-off switches, one for each pickup. The two switches are independent of each other, so who knows how the pickups are actually wired. The bridge is an old whammy type thing; the strings thread out of a rod that rotates to tighten or loosen them. It's missing the whammy bar itself. There is another piece of hardware between the bride and the pickups that suspends the strings; it has two screws on each side for adjusting its height. Not sure what the technical name is.

The guitar has a red-on-black sunburst that I really like. The neck is bolted on, and the neck plate reads Made in Japan. The neck is red tinged on the back, with a giant unbranded headstock with six mediocre tuners in a line strat-style. It has 21 frets.

That's it. There are pictures below. Any information I could get on it (make, model, year, parts info, whether the neck is original...) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Edited by carrotinbelgrade, 25 June 2012 - 08:35 PM.

[hyena]

Hey carrotinbelgrade, a Google search brought up this site: http://www.mark-cole.co.uk/teisco/

This site is dedicated to all you guitarists out there who ever owned an old Japanese Teisco guitar, especially those of you who started out with one and still have it today. I created this site out of frustration at not being able to identify the model of my first Teisco despite my best online and off-line efforts. I found out (eventually!) that it's an SS-4L made some time in the early/mid 60s.

I'd have a good look around that site, start a thread and post your pics on there.

All I can think about the headstock not having a Brandname is that maybe the neck / headstock got damaged, and was repaired. If you can find a serial no. that would greatly increase your search results.


Also; Teisco (テスコ) was a Japanese manufacturer of affordable musical instruments from 1948 until 1969, and now its brand is owned by Kawai Musical Instruments.

You may get a response Emailing them, and sending your pics.

Edit: Have a look here, some similar looking Guitars.http://www.theguitarcollection.org.uk/gallery7/bruno.html

carrotinbelgrade: Do a Google search on Teisco - there's a heap of info

Edited by hyena, 27 June 2012 - 08:32 AM.

[dadfad]

Also, Teisco manufactured guitars for quite a few other retailers. They would usually be exactly the same guitar as the Teisco brands being offered at that time, but sometimes had minor changes requested by the retailer. The retailer would then put their own brand or logo on the headstock (for example Silvertone, Kent, etc), often just a simple decal that wasn't even covered over with a clear-coat. They wore off quite easily. Another factor is that back then many guitarists who bought a Teisco or re-branded Teisco guitar (as they were known for being relatively inexpensive entry-level guitars) would intentionally remove the decal. I've owned a couple of Teisco guitars and still have an old Teisco Del Rey EV-3T laying around somewhere!

While they were considered "cheapo" guitars in their day, they were often better made than many more medium-range guitars of today. For example the "cheap" pickups on most of them can deliver a very "raw" sound (such as the old bluesman Hound Dog Taylor. His was branded Silvertone, bought at Sears and Roebuck's.) which in many cases is desirable. (That's why I still have my old Del Rey EV-3T, and actually prefer it to my old Vox Phantom (from which it was copied) which I later bought (and cost much more than the Teisco). If they still are in good condition and very playable, they're becoming somewhat collectible. Because they made so many models for their own brand as well as for so many reatailers, it's sometimes hard to get an exact date and model.

A member of GuitarZone, MrHat, who shows up from time to time knows quite a bit about guitars like that. Maybe he'll show up and be able to help more.

[hyena]

Hey there dadfad. When I researched Teisco above, I certainly came across some fine looking instruments.

[dadfad]

Hey there dadfad. When I researched Teisco above, I certainly came across some fine looking instruments.

Yes, they had quite a few interesting and unusual ones. Teisco's weak points were their tuners, their necks (most had no true truss-rod, just a thin steel bar dropped in to help prevent bowing) and especially their tremelo-systems (to call it a "system" is being very kind ). But they did have some very unique and often very innovative electonics configurarions. When you find them in good playable condition there are definitely musical niches they fill perfectly.

For example, while I don't play a lot of electric any more, instead of my Gibsons and Fenders, my old EV-3T is my "go-to" guitar when I want to play electric slide (like George Thorogood, etc).

[carrotinbelgrade]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the info. I'm gonna send my pics over to Kawai and see if they can help me identify it. It looks like a Teisco from the late 60s, but there's nothing that looks exactly like it on Teisco's Twangers. How strictly enforced were the parts configurations on the different models?

I really like playing it--it has a great nasty bluesy sound. However, the action is super duper high--about 3mm at the 12th fret right now. And the action isn't too high near the nut, so that isn't the problem. Does anyone have any idea how I'd lower the action on this thing. I know there are tons of posts on guitarzone already about lowering the action on a guitar, but this is a special case. The bridge piece is metal (see the pictures) so I can't file it down. It doesn't even have string grooves--they just lay over the metal cylinder. And the saddle is already as low as it can go without it losing contact with the strings. And the truss rod is barely accessible. The bolt is on the body-end of the neck, tucked in between the bottom of the neck and the body. It doesn't take an allen wrench, and I don't have a regular wrench that can fit in there. Any ideas?

I'll let you guys know if Kawai sends me a reply.

Peace