The Steel Guitar Forum

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?

Wow, that's a cool and rare photo. I like how they show the back of the large amp... showing off the six speakers and the tubes. And the guy peeking through the amp cabinet on the roof of the car!

It's got kind of the Fender factory photo vibe of the time.

Dave

Great pic!

I just posted the picture in that massive Guyatone thread. I thought it should be there.

I imagine all of them and the instruments fitting in that little car. Very cool photo. I have an affinity for Teisco.

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.

a Teisco guitar that "wasn't a great guitar"

I agree. Teisco guitars made Valcos look like Gibsons!

When I was a teenager, the local pawn shops were loaded with Teisco, Guyatone, and other brands of Japanese built cheapos. Most of them were broken and unplayable. I bought a couple of them and tried to learn on them, but it was hopeless. Later I bought a Telecaster and I was blown away by the quality (compared to the Teiscos).

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

Very cool pic!

Teisco guitar that I just did a set up for a customer. Very nice guitar!

Speaking of Lindley, i thought this was funny.
https://youtu.be/qVh2WjL-CnM

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:

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!

I remember seeing Teisco guitars for sale in Thrifty Drug Stores, of all places, in my teens in he 1960's!

...in around 1965/66 I had one that was a hollow-body LP copy....unfortunately, it never got photographed...

I have a teisco preamp from their King amplifier.