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Topic: Tiesco factory 1954 |
David Matzenik
From:
Cairns, on the Coral Sea
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Posted 27 Sep 2021 2:28 pm |
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Here's an interesting photo that turned up on the Surf Guitar FB page. I wonder if any Japanese players can ID some of these guys?
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Don't go in the water after lunch. You'll get a cramp and drown. - Mother. |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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David Ball
From:
North Carolina High Country
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Posted 27 Sep 2021 3:46 pm
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It's got kind of the Fender factory photo vibe of the time.
Dave |
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Glenn Wilde
From:
California, USA
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Posted 27 Sep 2021 4:35 pm
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| Great pic! |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Jerry Dragon
From:
Gate City Va.
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Posted 28 Sep 2021 6:02 am
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I imagine all of them and the instruments fitting in that little car. Very cool photo. I have an affinity for Teisco.
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A FATE WORSE THAN LIFE |
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Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
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Posted 28 Sep 2021 6:53 am
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| Bandleader I worked with in early 70's in Maryland had a Teisco guitar that "wasn't a great guitar". We, bandmembers, shamed him into buying an American made Telecaster. He played the Tele on two shows, next one we had he was back with the Teisco. |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Jeff Highland
From:
New South Wales, Australia
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Posted 28 Sep 2021 12:38 pm
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I had a Teisco lap steel identical to the one being held upright. Looked cool but everything about it was horrible
I lent it to someone with the proviso that I did NOT want it back.
_________________
Duesenberg Fairytale
1949 Supro Supreme
1950 National New Yorker
2008 Highland Baritone Weissenborn
2020 Highland New Yorker.
2020 Highland Mohan Veena
2021 Highland Weissencone |
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David Ball
From:
North Carolina High Country
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Posted 28 Sep 2021 3:57 pm
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I think that guys like David Lindley and Ry Cooder adopting the old Teiscos/Valcos/Kays/Harmonys and other "consumer level" instruments of the day, (and finding that their tone had a certain charm}, led to the survival of those brands today.
My first electric guitar was an unmarked Teisco, and I played it for a long time. First time I got hold of a Fender, it was a revelation for me how much better it played. But I still have that Teisco, because it did something for me.
No doubt that Lindley and Cooder got some great sounds out of those guitars, and a lot of other folks have too. Probably back into the whole business of "it's not the instrument, it's the hands playing it."
At any rate, none of the mass produced guitars were made as well as the better handmade guitars of the period, but that didn't make them bad. It just put decent guitars into hands that otherwise wouldn't have had the opportunity. Think about some of the blues guys playing their Sears catalog guitars. I've certainly had better guitars than my Teisco, but that's a guitar I still own today.
Dave |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Posted 28 Sep 2021 6:48 pm
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The Teiscos/Guyatone guitars of the 60s and 70s do have a distinctive sound, kind of a raw tone. A lot of blues players like them, especially slide guitarists. And the Teisco gold foil pickups have become legendary in some circles.
I never had much luck with Japanese lap steels, but I do like the sound of their console steels. Especially the ones with a two-pickup neck. I have a super clean Guyatone D-8, Stringmaster copy, and I really like the gritty sound of that.
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Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
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Posted 28 Sep 2021 7:24 pm
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That's a cool shot.
My first electric guitar was a violin-shaped Kawai solid-body with tremelo, made right around when Kawai acquired Teisco. At $39 in 1967 from Boston Music on Tremont St, it was a pretty decent guitar. It played OK, nothing great but decent, but sounded a lot better than it played. Those pickups were good. Great for slide too, although it played OK fretted. It was exactly like this one except mine was redburst instead of greenburst -
I currently have 3 old (circa '64 or '65) Kent-labelled Guyatone solid-bodies for slide guitar. I have honestly never heard a better guitar for slide. Those pickups are magic. Two are Model 545 Polaris II with two pickups, one red, one sunburst, and a Model 532 Copa in red with three pickups and trem, like these:
  
I'll tell you one thing - a lot of guitarists started out on these old Kawai/Teisco/Guyatones or old Danelectro/Silvertones. Used to see guys like Hound Dog Taylor and JB Hutto playing these things, didn't seem to hurt their sound at all! |
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Jeff Highland
From:
New South Wales, Australia
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Posted 28 Sep 2021 7:27 pm
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I think there were fairly major improvements in Japanese guitars between the 50's and the 60's and again into the 70's
Some of the 50's ones I have come across deserve the "Guitar like Object" description.
_________________
Duesenberg Fairytale
1949 Supro Supreme
1950 National New Yorker
2008 Highland Baritone Weissenborn
2020 Highland New Yorker.
2020 Highland Mohan Veena
2021 Highland Weissencone |
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Blake Hawkins
From:
Florida
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Posted 28 Sep 2021 7:38 pm
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I went to high school in Japan. In 1952 I got my first lap steel, a Teisco. Later in 1953 I visited the factory in Tokyo and ordered a double neck. I still have the original double neck which sort of looks like a National. My first guitar got sold when I went into the Army. Later I found the identical model and purchased it. So I still have two Teisco non pedal lap steels in addition to my Gibson and a Fender.
Last edited by Blake Hawkins on 30 Sep 2021 8:43 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Travis Brown
From:
Florida, USA
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Posted 28 Sep 2021 10:06 pm
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| Very cool pic! |
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Dave Broyles
From:
Olympia,WA USA
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Posted 29 Sep 2021 12:31 pm
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Teisco guitar that I just did a set up for a customer. Very nice guitar!
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Glenn Wilde
From:
California, USA
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Dom Franco
From:
Beaverton, OR, 97007
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Posted 29 Sep 2021 5:28 pm My first electric (Standard) guitar was a Teisco
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My first electric (Standard) guitar was a Teisco.
I wanted a FENDER but had to save up money.
So I modified the Headstock with a jigsaw and sandpaper, then painted the body and front of the headstock Metalic Blue. I didn't have a Real Fender to copy the shape and on top of that the Teisco had 4 tuning machines on top and 2 on the bottom, so it was a real joke. Two years later I bought my first Fender but it was a Telecaster and had a completely different headstock design anyway.
Here are some pics:
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Bill Sinclair
From:
Waynesboro, PA, USA
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Posted 29 Sep 2021 5:51 pm
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As long as we're showing off our old Teiscos, here's one I owned a couple years ago. 20.5" scale was too short for my liking but it sure looked cool!
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John McClung
From:
Olympia WA, USA
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Posted 29 Sep 2021 10:39 pm
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I remember seeing Teisco guitars for sale in Thrifty Drug Stores, of all places, in my teens in he 1960's!
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Peter Harris
From:
South Australia, Australia
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Posted 2 Oct 2021 6:45 am
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...in around 1965/66 I had one that was a hollow-body LP copy....unfortunately, it never got photographed... 
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If my wife is reading this, I don't have much stuff....really! |
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Jerry Dragon
From:
Gate City Va.
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Posted 2 Oct 2021 6:17 pm
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I have a teisco preamp from their King amplifier.
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A FATE WORSE THAN LIFE |
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