Guitar Info

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Something about this Teisco EP-93T hollowbody electric guitar makes me think it would play like an absolute dog. I'd imagine it would be boxy-sounding and the cheap hardware would make it rattle and buzz, and sure, there's three pickups, but did you ever try those pickups? They were hardly the best; "muddy" is the word I'd use to describe the tone. However, despite all that, I can't help liking the guitar. I like the shape and the general design of the instrument, not to mention those crazy slider controls - you just don't see stuff like that on guitars any more.

Perhaps I'm letting my prejudices have too much say, and maybe - just maybe - this is a great player. Still, I wouldn't like to be the one to shell out the $549 eBay Buy It Now price so as to find out one way or the other.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I'm going to be lazy and lift the details about this Kawai guitar straight from the seller's description on eBay. When it's already been said so well, why re-write it?

The downright weirdness of this guitar may be lost on most of you, but for those collectors of 1960s Japanese vintage, bizarre and lawsuit guitars, this thing is so bad it's good. What we have is a 1968 Kawai knockoff prototype of what was at the time one of the strangest and most novel pieces of guitar technology out there: the Ovation smooth-bowl Glen Campbell model. You gotta give it to the Japanese, they didn't waste anytime. But not only did they copy what is now perhaps the rarest and most sought after Ovation, they one-upped them as well in the strangeness category. First off, the smooth FRP resin bowl is LIME GREEN! On top of that, the neck is triple-bound, the headstock is pointy and devilish and capped with three-ply laminate and an awesome Kawai emblem, and the fingerboard is inlayed with upside down Teisco Spectrum 5 inlays (makes perfect sense as the Kawai factory was turning out those Teiscos at the time). And if that isn't cool enough, the tuning keys have CLEAR enclosures. Talk about space age tech.

Currently listed on eBay with a $400 starting price and a Buy It Now of $600.

Thanks to Jaimie Muehlhausen for bringing this one to my attention.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

We've previously looked at that most desirable of all Teisco guitars - the Teisco Spectrum 5 with its split pickups and stereo outputs - here on Guitarz before, and I would have thought that was about as good as it gets, but look here, Henry Kaiser owns one of apparently only 100 built in plexiglass! Read more here.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This 1960s Audition-branded shortscale bass is quite obviously a Japanese-made Teisco with tell-tale signs such as the bass-side block inlays on the fretboard and the use of metal pickguards, not to mention the particular colouring of the sunburst finish. It's one of those instruments that could either be a reliable old workhorse or else it could play like a dog. Opinions seem to vary from one Teisco owner to the next, and very likely quality and playability varies from one instrument to the next.

Teisco were in operation from 1948 through to 1969 producing a range of musical instruments including guitars, keyboard instruments, microphones, amplifiers and drums. The name actually stands for Tokyo Electric Instrument and Sound Company, which is something that those who consistently mis-spell the name as "Tiesco" should bear in mind. The "Teisco Del Ray" branded guitars, by the way, were amongst those imported into the USA.

The Audition brand name, as seen on this bass, was a brandname that appeared on Teisco guitars imported into the UK (bearing this in mind, it's intriguing that this instrument is currently located in the USA). Other UK brand names included Arbiter, Kay and Top Twenty.

This bass is currently listed on eBay with a starting price of $299.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Whilst this 1968 Teisco ET-440 a.k.a. Spectrum 4 isn't quite in the same league as the then top of the range Spectrum 5, it's still a guitar that is worthy of being included here on these pages as another desireable albeit quirky example of the 1960s Japanese guitar-making.

A couple of interesting features are the four pickups, each marked with the Spectrum legend plus "Bass" and "Treble" alongside the respective group of three polepieces, and the trem-equipped bridge which comes complete with a mute bar, which is especially useful for surf-type sounds.

I'm a little perplexed at how the four pickups are selected, as there appear to be three individual ON/OFF switches, plus a 3-way(?) toggle marked RHYTHM, SOLO and BASS. Can anyone enlighten us further about how these operated? [Edit: looking closer to the photo, there appears to be FOUR on/off switches but one is missing its cover].

As was common with Japanese guitars from this era, the neck is made up from multiple laminates similar to that on the Bruno Bass that David took a look at recently and questioned if it could have been made from bamboo. (We don't think so, but it does look bamboo-like).

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This is another blog post from "off the cutting room floor", so to speak. That is to say, it never made it past the draft stage and because the auction from which the images were culled finished a long time ago, we have nothing to link to. However...

We've been looking at a number of Teisco guitars recently. This one is probably about as basic as it gets: simple slab-bodied single-cutaway design, bolt-on neck, single pickup, no complicated vibrato or other hardware. I believe this dates from the late 1950s. It certainly has that old Danelectro-esque charm to it. My guess is that the bridge has been updated so as to allow intonation to be set for each string - I think the original bridge would most likely have been much simpler.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Following on from yesterday's post featuring an outrageously over-priced Japanese-made 1960s Teisco guitar, today I want to show you another Teisco from the same period which has been priced much more realistically - bidding is currently at $224.72 with 15 hours left to go as I type this. The seller tells us that this is a:

...1960s era made in Japan Teisco GPO made for Crown Imports Pasadena. A green flamer to behold, all original very clean with the exception of a missing pick guard and tremolo arm. Structurally fine bolt on cosmetically very nice. Teisco made high quality MIJ with the good Teisco pickups. No modifications breaks or repairs, straight neck with working truss rod. All original working electronics. Neck angle fine but could improve with a shim at set up. This instrument has not been restrung or set we recommend it to be at its best. The guitar is void of any problems with set up this green beauty will be a fine playing, attractive and affordable vintage guitar. No case.

Now that's more like it, an honest appraisal of the instrument, rather than the BS that the seller of the guitar we looked at yesterday was giving us. Funny also that yesterday's Teisco was supposedly "Martian Burst" and this far more interesting green flame doesn't have a ridiculous Sci-Fi-esque name.

However, I am rather curious about the GPO branding (General Post Office?) which makes me feel instinctively that the guitar ought to be in bright Post Office red.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This 1960s Japanese Teisco guitar appears to be in very good condition with all original parts present and current. The seller claims that this was a short-run finish known as "Martian Burst". Well, I have a couple of issues with that. First of all, the finish is in reality rather tame and not exactly "out of this world". It's just a sunburst finish with a slight greenish tinge to it. I wouldn't think it'd warrant as grandiose a name as "Martian Burst", but who knows, perhaps that's what the Teisco collectors call it.

Secondy, how can I be expected to believe an eBay seller who lists this guitar as a:  

RARE TEISCO GREEN "martian" BURST Vintage guitar strat

Strat? Whoah! Where did that come from? Does the seller honestly believe that this guitar resembles a Stratocaster? All it has in common, really, is that it's an asymmetrically-designed solidbody with twin cutaways. Only a fool or someone who knows zero about guitars could ever call this a "Strat".

Despite the nice condition of this piece, with a Buy It Now price of $999 this is definitely one to file under "Optimistic sellers".

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Ah, here's a vintage Japanese guitar that is unmistakably Teisco, despite being quite a rarely seen model. All the usual Teisco appointments are there: the metal hardware (including pickguard has been unexplainably painted black on this example), the offset block fingerboard inlays, the pushbutton pickup selectors, the chunky tremolo/tailpiece...

This model, the Teisco TG 64 also boasts a 4+2 headstock layout (decades before Music Man thought of adopting it as their signature look on their guitars) and what some might call a "monkey grip" (decades before Ibanez adopted something similar on their JEM series guitars). Actually, I was aware of the Teisco TB-64, the Bass VI version of this guitar, before I knew of this model. I always felt that there should have been a regular guitar version too.

Currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $700.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

You only have to take one look at this guitar and you know straightaway that it's 1960s Japanese. It's a Kingston Swinger from 1967, and is currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $499.95. I personally feel that's a tad optimistic for an old Teisco. Kingston was a brandname often applied to Teisco guitars, and the striped metal pickguard seen here is a dead giveaway as to the guitar's Teisco origins.

The seller comments that it "Has an unusual whammy/vibrato bar." Now, I'm not too well up on my old-fangled guitar hardware, so am not quite sure what the deal is here. To my eyes it looks as if there's something missing and perhaps there ought to be an arm and a spring maybe beneath that furled knob sticking out of the tailplate. Does anyone out there know what it should look like? I'd be surprised if that knob itself was the tremolo as the seller seems to be suggesting. Please forgive the gaping holes in my guitar knowledge here; as I've said before, I do not claim to be an expert and am learning all the time.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I don't always get around to blogging about guitars I'm watching on eBay before the auction ends. I try my best to feature guitars while the auction is still active just in case some of you guys want to place a bid or hit that Buy It Now, but I'm usually watching so many at any one time and it's not possible to feature everything at once.

Sorry, that's a long-winded way of me saying this auction has already finished. This Decca-branded bass had a starting price of 99c and sold for $261.79. It's a Japanese-made instrument, and the seller claims that:

It is clearly an early product of the Matsumoko (whose Guyatone bass guitars had these pickups as well) and the pre-Kawai owned Teisco guitar factories as it has recognizable parts from each of those plants.

Well, the neck definitely looks Teisco with those inlays along the bass side of the fingerboard. The metal control plate is an interesting shape and incorporates an angled outward output jack (NOT "input jack" - sorry, pet hate of mine) which calls to mind a Strat style output socket mounted upside down and inside out.

The seller believes that the brand ties in with the Decca records label and that this brand of instruments was primarily produced for sale to small record shops. All of which sound highly feasible, but is conjecture.

Does anyone out there remember the Decca brand or know any more about this?

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

If I'm not much mistaken, guitars like this were rather ubiquitous in the 1970s in mail order catalogues and on displays in Woolworths and bearing the "Kay" brand although they were most likely made by Teisco in Japan. They are not really what you'd call desirable guitars today, although you do see one or two eBay sellers proclaiming their alleged "rarity" and being somewhat optimistic with the pricing.

At least with this example, currently being offered with a starting price of £150 and a Buy It Now of £250, the guitar has seen some serious upgrades. If I were being uncharitable, I might say something along the lines of "polishing a turd", but the seller claims that this was always a nice player and deserved an upgrade to get the best out of it. Here's what he says about it:

The old, worn pickups have since been replaced with Rickenbacker-style "toaster" pickups, which produce a beautifully warm and unique sound (the scratchplate was carefully re-cut to accommodate them). The old vibrato/tremolo has also been replaced with a Fender Jaguar-style tremolo system, which works perfectly (some of the body was skilfully hollowed-out to accommodate this larger tremolo system).

Furthermore, a tune-o-matic bridge has been added; the tuners/machineheads have been replaced with Wilkinson Deluxe "Kluson-style" tuners; the volume/tone knobs have been replaced with Jaguar-style knobs; and, the input jack has been replaced. [Why do people insist on saying "input jack" when it is an OUTPUT jack? - GLW] The pots, switches and electronics have also been thoroughly cleaned. The cost of parts and labour exceeded £200.

The overall result is a revitalised, utterly unique and beautiful-sounding guitar. You simply won't find another one like it; the pictures alone demonstrate this. I also believe that the guitar has not so much been modified as improved.

No doubt the guitar has been improved - I'd say the pickups, trem system, bridge, etc are worth more than the original instrument itself. Whether it'll appeal to anyone other than the guy that put it together remains to be seen.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's yet another one for all you guitar detectives:

Hi Gavin,

I bought a lovely vintage teardrop guitar off of ebay, but am struggling to find the manufacturer of it... It's likely Kawai or Teisco, but I can't find a similar/same one online in Google searches. Usually the selector switches/plate are what doesn't match. Any ideas?

Cheers,
Bobby

Hey Bobby, any chance of a look at the headstock? Also, is there any indication of where it was made, like a stamped neckplate saying "Made in Japan"?

My guess would be it was made in Japan, and I think I'd incline more towards Kawai than Teisco, but I have to confess that I really don't know. Perhaps other readers may have some better ideas.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I find that this 1960s Prestige 4-pickup guitar bugs me a little, for try as I might, I can't think we're I've seen this guitar before - most likely with a different brand name. I may even have blogged about it before, although I've not turned up anything similar in a search through the archives. I've certainly seen those pickups before; they seemed to be on just about everything guitar-wise coming out of Japan for a period. It reminds me of those guitars we used to have for sale in Wolworths here in the UK, badged with the Top 10 and Top 20 brands. I believe those were made by Teisco; maybe this is too - even though, having said that, any "unknown" Japanese guitar usually ends up with Teisco being given the credit.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Next up today, we have another red Japanese guitar, although this one is from two decades before the Kawai Aquarius we looked at earlier.

This 1968 Kimberly/Teisco Vamper would appear to be a rare beastie. As the seller points out:

Aside from a picture on the Teisco Twanger's Paradise site, a few small mentions and queries by persons attempting to discover their value, there's almost no info at all on the 'Net about the Vamper.

Basically the same hardware and appointments as its sister instruments, the somewhat more common May Queen and the uber rare Fire Bird. Like her sisters, the Vamper is at least a level or two better quality than most ordinary Teiscos. Great playing guitar!

Semi hollowbody construction with an obvious Mosrite influence. Red/orange finish, almost like Fender Fiesta Red...

We looked at another Kimberly guitar in October 2008 - I couldn't find out very much information about that one either!

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Bertram

EDIT: the model of this guitar is EP200.

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Wil McGrath writes:

I've been enjoying the blog for a while, and I've finally found something to contribute! My girlfriend picked this up from a local store that deals with goofy vintage guitars a while ago, and we've been unable to find any information out about it. It's obviously a Kay-badged Teisco, and while I've seen similar hollowbodies with sliders instead of pots (you featured a Harmony a while back, ferinstance), I haven't been able to find another guitar exactly like it. At this point it doesn't really matter what it is, I just figured I'd share (and if anyone asks, it isn't for sale)!

Thanks for that! I hadn't actually realised that Teisco built guitars for Kay, but it doesn't surprise me at all.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:
The Teisco May Queen was a late 1960s design possibly borrowed from the Vox Mando Guitar of the same period, or maybe even the Eko Auriga (which had a much cooler reverse headstock design). After all these years, it is very difficult to say with any authority which came first. Anyway, there have recently been a couple of the Teisco May Queen reissues offered for sale on eBay (see here and here). These re-issues were intended for the Japanese market only and few are seen outside of Japan. The quality and playability is said to be much higher than that of the originals, although curiously whilst these two examples (see photos above and below) are supposedly both from 1999, they each have different pickups, vibrato, control knobs and even different Teisco logos on the headstock.

By way of furher comparison, here is an original Apollo-branded May Queen which was allegedly the deluxe version compared with those branded with the Teisco name.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!