Teisco Guitars

[Ricardo.]

After my 'what's up with my pickups' question LPCustom brought up Teisco guitars. I checked out the website and I was intrigued; they had a huge 50's vibe and a design apart from Strats and Les Pauls (mostly). And best of all, most of the owners seemed to suggest they sounded nice AND were cheap.

 

So I jumped onto eBay and put a couple on my watch list; they're all under a $100 mostly. Anyone know more about these things? Or any other weird, overlooked vintage guitar makes?

[Phillydor]

You summed it up - weird and overlooked, and long may they remain so.They are the underdogs of the guitar world, love and treasure them.

The Tao that we can talk about is not the real Tao. Ditto the truly weird guitar that is snapped up by collectors.It becomes the norm, not to mention expensive.

For all the answers, I urge you to seek out the one person in the universe who posesses, aside from the late Houndog Taylor, the Truth ........ He who goes by the name Teisco Del Rey

[picker]

Teisco/DelRay guitars were the japanese cheapies of the 60's. I had one that was a copy of a Vox Phantom VI, and it was not really a very good guitar, but I was too young and inexperienced to know the difference back then. The pickups were thin and stinky sounding, but so was my home made amp,s so I don't know if it would sound better through a better amp. There is a music video in which Eddie Van Halen is shown playing a really tatered-up Teisco stereo guitar, and if you are into different(think "weird")sounding and looking guitars, Teiscos will do it for ya.

[Bluesape]

Teiscos are fondly remebered as budget guitars of yore. Columnist Teisco Del Ray would extoll the virtues of "mother of toiet seat" pickguards, too many pickups, odd controls, etc. They've been around forever, and always tried to beat the major brands on price, bang for the buck, and so forth. I've never read a review that praised their tone, playability, or build quality, but that was never their reason to exist. I'm pretty sure they were the first offshore offbrand to gain a cult following.

[Dr. Ellwood]

Egg cutters on a painted board!! Gezzz where they terriable things!!!

[LPCustom]

Yep, mine was a certified piece o' crap. (my first electric guitar, by the way).

[Blue Strat]

You guys are harsh. It is what it is, nothing more or less. It's a budget guitar. Now, I've never played a Teisco guitar, but I'm sure it at least had solid wood, right?

[Prague]

They were very easy to find in the Montgomery Wards showroom. They also had a few pages in their Christmas catalogs (between the race car sets and the sporting goods).

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Well, the main question when dealing with Teiscos is "what do you intend to do with it?".

 

If you've already got a decent guitar to play, then by all means branch out on to weird retro things.

 

But bear in mind that Teiscos were cheap guitars from forty years ago, when mass production technology and quality control were not as good as they are these days, and that cheap guitars from 2005 are much better value for money.

 

If you're interested in retro, there's two sites that may interest you

 

one is http://www.teiscotwangers.com/ but you sound as if you've been there.

 

Another is http://www.fetishguitars.com/ Some of that site is in Italian, but there's a fair bit of English language content as well. And hell, a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

 

And, finally, here's a guy that is into Soviet made electrics http://www.meatexz.com/cheesyguitars/ Mind you, even HE says that these guitars are unplayable, but it's useful for reading up on weird stuff you might find on eBay.

[Guitar Geezer]

My first guitar was a Teisco, also!!!!!

 

Still have a soft spot for those truly wierd guitars

[Blue Strat]

Originally posted by Vince C.:

Well, the main question when dealing with Teiscos is "what do you intend to do with it?".

....

And, finally, here's a guy that is into Soviet made electrics http://www.meatexz.com/cheesyguitars/ Mind you, even HE says that these guitars are unplayable, but it's useful for reading up on weird stuff you might find on eBay.

Most really cheap guitars are great for slide and/or odd tunings.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Originally posted by Blue Strat:

]Most really cheap guitars are great for slide and/or odd tunings.

Funny, that. A lot of good quality guitars are pretty good for slide and odd tunings as well! And cheap guitars are also good for White Stripesey garage punk type stuff as well.

 

But seriously though, I don't think it's a good idea to buy a Teisco off eBay (!) and think that's going to be your main squeeze.

 

Not unless you're a fairly good luthier and are prepared to do some work on the guitar.

[LPCustom]

My first guitar (the Teisco/Silvertone) was nearly unplayable. It could not be intonated properly and there was a buzz in the 6th string that my (fairly knowledgable) cousin could not get to go away. There was no neck adjustment.

 

The guitar had three pickups but only the middle position on the switch sounded okay. The bridge pickup was _really_ tinny. And the neck pickup was like playing a bass. No top end at all (talk about extremes).

 

I didn't know anything about guitars and I bought one of these pieces of crap from Sears. A couple of weeks after that a friend of mine got a Fender Stratocaster and amp for his birthday. It was obvious from looking at and hearing his Strat that the Silvertone I had was junk.

 

I bought the guitar because I liked the way it looked and because it was (very) cheap. But youth hath no wisdom...

[Steve West]

My first Bass was a Teisco Del Rey. I loved it till I broke the A string and went to buy a new set for it. A set of Bass strings cost almost more than I paid for the guitar new

I still wish I had it now

[Jay See Double You]

Yes. I actually have two. One is a stock E-110 (1969 Tulip), and the other one is also an E-110, but when I got it, the electronics had been modified and so had the artwork on the pickguard. I still have that pickguard and electronics, but have swapped them out with a pickguard and all electronics from an E-200 (the two pickup one) So, essentially, I have an E-110 and an E-200. The E-200 still has it's original finish on it and looks good, the E-110 however was given a homemade psychadelic paintjob that is just aweful. I considered painting over it, but decided that it was a time-piece, and so it will remain as is. It has writing on it too, though with the thick brush they used, it's hard to tell what it says...something like: "Tox's O'Grady" (Does that make sense to anybody?)

 

Now, what do I think of them? Well, it goes without saying that they are not as good of guitars as my Strat, or my Dot Archtop, but nevertheless, I kinda like them. One has frets that are too large and stick out a little too much, but the other one is the best playing guitar I've ever played as far as fast and easy action goes, better than the strat and dot, even. So, to conclude: I like my Teiscos, and they will get used, both on stage and on albums...but not to the extent tht the strat or dot will. I'll try to get some pictures of them put up.

[Jay See Double You]

I should mention that even between only these two Teisco guitars, three pickguards, and three sets of tuning key assemblies, I can tell you first hand that fit and finish on them varies more than anything I've ever encountered on a guitar before.

 

None of the screw holes in the pickguard are the same, for one, one of the two necks is one of the worst I've ever played, while the other is absolutely the best I've ever played (though the bad one is salvageable by grinding down the frets and cleaning off the fretboard), and one of the seven screw holes was positioned differently on the good tuning key assembly I used to replace the bad tuning key assembly (the metal band on the bottom was longer on the replacement by almost a full centimeter.) And the tuning pegs (where the string feeds) were not as tall and therefore didnt stick out as far on the replacement as they did on the original.

 

Fit and finish and build accuracy on these Teiscos is absolutely terrible and I can totally believe how some people could end up with a totally crappy guitar and some could end up with somewhat of a gem. I believe I just happened to end up with a gem.

 

Dont get me wrong, going toe to toe with just about anything put out by Fender, Gibson, Epiphone or probably even Squier, not to mention a miriad of other popular well respected brands, the Teisco is gonna lose. Yet, they have a distinct sound that I actually find enjoyable, the body on the E-110 and E-200 are very small and very very comfortable, and they just have this novelty to them that makes them totally cool. In short, I believe they are more than just cool novelty items to be looked at and shown off, but decent guitars for stage and studio use to boot, so long as they aren't your main squeeze.

[Ricardo.]

Hey Jay See! I still remember when I was considering buying one of these I suppose some time in the future when I've got a stable job, a more complete set of gear, and maybe more knowledge I'll come back to these...

[Jay See Double You]

Yeah Starcaster, for the price and the novelty factor I don't think you will be disappointed, and I think it'll make for a fine addition to any line-up. You just have to promise me it'll get played on stage at least once, and not smashed to bits when it's over. At the risk of sounding cheesy, I am proud to be a Teisco Player.

 

I've actually considered going after two more E-110s.

 

One to convert to the E-200 so I can "de-convert" the current 200 and return it to the state it was in when I got it from my late Grandpa (modified electronics, an american strat pickup, which would be replaced with an ibanez single coil to diversify the sound without altering the cosmetics, the absence of the flower pattern art on the pickguard and the addition of silver holographic metallic tape on the pickguard)

 

And another one so I can just hyper-mod the heck out of it. Make it my ultra-project guitar. Strip it down, paint it with automotive paint in a silver fade to blue fade to black fashion and then clear coat it. Then try to cram a Les Paul pickup in at the bridge, a strat single coil in the middle and maybe a gretch jazz box pickup at the neck and wire it with toggle switches so I can have just one, any two, or all three on for some really cool sounds.

 

I am also looking into the possibility of using a gibson bridge, fender tuning keys and gretch knobs just for effect, and lastly have bible verses painted in each fret and a Jesus fish on the headstock. The pickguard would be painted the same as the body only inverse (black fade to blue fade to silver instead of silver fade to blue fade to black.)

 

I haven't really looked into the logistics of this last guitar. It may be too grand in scale and not work. But it just sounds like a really cool idea. One that I will look into in more depth to see if it'll work.

 

Anyhoo, I think you'll like Teisco, even if you don't love it. And at the price, liking it is good enough.

[EmptinesOf Youth]

I really want one of these now:

http://www.teiscotwangers.com/Images/IDpics/solid-4/69_et-440.jpg

[WornNeck]

My first guitar was also a Teisco. It was sort of a hollow-body Strat, with a whammy bar, a couple toggle switches. Nice action. Really, really light. Sounded OK to me for a starter guitar.

 

Brings back the memories!

[Jay See Double You]

[wietse]

some teisco's are great guitars, this is mine http://www.wietsesguitars.nl/teisco2.jpg

plays great, the neck is very smooth, and the four singlecoils, though slightly microphonic, sound great,perfect for blues and rock.

i love the looks of these oddballs.

this model is available new from eastwood, if i'm right,and costs about 1100$us.

a lot of money for a copy of a cheapo guitar.

[Kendrix]

A teisco was also my first geetar circa 1966.

I toosed it when its started to look more like bow than a guitar and the truss rod lost its ability to straighten it out.

 

I really dont remember the tone being too bad.

All my pickups worked. That teisco through my maestro fuzz tone and lafayette electronics amp was not as horrendous sounding as you might think. .. To the best of my recollection.

[Lightningdan]

I remember the teisco that the guy couldnt sell on ebay so he ran it as a haunted guitar. That was truly funny. I had a friend who had one of those. It really stank. Couldn't keep it in tune, shrill reedy tone.

[Jay See Double You]

Okay, I'll give it to you that there is a bit of an issue with keeping it in tune, but that shrill, reedy (negative) sound, I would consider a bright, vibrant tone (positive)