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bought this guitar for $20 from a coworker today

MLC2006MLC2006 Posts: 861
edited March 2008 in Musicians and Gearheads
my friend said he inherited a guitar from his grandfather that he'd sell for $20 sight-unseen. so I said, yeah. I actually liked the guitar. the neck feels halfway decent. I brought it home cleaned it up and put some new strings on it. pretty hard to get it in tune. once I plugged it in, ehh. not that it sounds so bad, but it's very weak. I took the pickup cover off, and the pickup is not down in the guitar, it's just a wrapped magnet that's sitting on top of the guitar, under the cover. also, can't figure out how to raise the pickup height. but hey, it's $20.

anybody ever seen a guitar like this? I mean, other than nailed onto the wall of an Applebee's? it says "Japan" on the neckplate. and on the back of the headstock it says "Steel Reinforced Neck". I take it that it was made some time in the 60s and probably sold at a dimestore for a few dollars.

here's a couple pics. the first is a group shot. see if you can figure out which guitar I'm talking about.

http://s40.photobucket.com/albums/e228/Pontius2000/?action=view&current=101_0173.jpg

http://s40.photobucket.com/albums/e228/Pontius2000/?action=view&current=101_0174.jpg
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Jam10Jam10 Posts: 654
    Those are some nice guitars you have there.
  • MLC2006MLC2006 Posts: 861
    Jam10 wrote:
    Those are some nice guitars you have there.

    thanks. 2 of them at least are nice. the one plays like you'd expect a $20 guitar to play. at least it looks cool I guess.
  • Pacomc79Pacomc79 Posts: 9,404
    looks like a telstar or hagstrom

    I had one years ago my first electric. fun to play around with.


    get a really buzzy fuzz and play punk stuff on it. Very Thurston Moore esque.
    My Girlfriend said to me..."How many guitars do you need?" and I replied...."How many pairs of shoes do you need?" She got really quiet.
  • MLC2006MLC2006 Posts: 861
    Pacomc79 wrote:
    looks like a telstar or hagstrom

    I had one years ago my first electric. fun to play around with.


    get a really buzzy fuzz and play punk stuff on it. Very Thurston Moore esque.

    yeah, I can definitely see why Cobain liked these type guitars. because the only way to get a loud sound is to throw a lot of distortion on it and then it's 100% "grunge".

    I can't even remember what my first guitar was. but messing with this harkened me back to the days that I had an Epiphone ET-270 (a guitar that was also played by Cobain) like these http://www.flickr.com/photos/sumlin/199441306/ . that guitar was mostly crap, but I wish I'd never gotten rid of it. I didn't like the pickups. but I think now my next guitar may be an ET-275 (either a Crestwood or Coronet) with humbuckers, like this one http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-70s-Epiphone-Crestwood-ET-275-Electric-Guitar_W0QQitemZ300206946746QQihZ020QQcategoryZ33037QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

    vintage guitars that are actually affordable, and probably better guitars than the modern affordable models
  • Pacomc79Pacomc79 Posts: 9,404
    mosrite/univox stuff is kind of that same slab+ pickups thing that is really fun to wail on.
    My Girlfriend said to me..."How many guitars do you need?" and I replied...."How many pairs of shoes do you need?" She got really quiet.
  • mccreadyisgodmccreadyisgod Posts: 6,395
    I'd bet my lunch that's a Teisco guitar. I have one in my basement, released under the "Audition" brand name. These guys made guitars back in the 50's and 60's and sold them to other brands who re-branded them and sold them, kind of like Samick does now.

    They're not really worth anything, not very collectible. The pickups are kind of cool, you'll never get anything else that sounds quite like them. They have gotten a little more interesting over the past ten or fifteen years due to the Nirvana / Sonic Youth influence as mentioned already, but also due to Jack White's infatuation with off-brand vintage guitars.

    Do a web search for Teisco, I believe there are a half-dozen good pages with info out there.
    ...and if you don't like it, you can suck on an egg.
  • ianvomsaalianvomsaal Posts: 1,224
    Looks like it was made by the company that made Teisco (Aoi Onpa Kenkyujo).
    Brands made by the company include: Tesico, Teisco Del Rey, Kingston, World Teisco, Silvertone, Kent, Kimberly, and Heit Deluxe.
    In '56 the companies name changed to Nipon Onpa Kogyo Co., Ltd., and in '64 the name changed again to Teisco Co., Ltd.
    In '67 the company was purchased by Kawai.
    After '73 the brand was converted to Kay U.S.
    Teisco went into hiatus in Japan until being revived in the early 90's.
    Yours looks similar to the Heit Deluxe (which has the same Headstock, Neck, Tuners, Bridge, Tailpiece, and even the same Strap Button Position).
    Heit Deluxe made many different models: here's one: http://panafonic.blogspot.com/2007/11/heit-deluxe.html
    Regardless, I'm sure it was made by either Teisco or one of it's subsidiaries.

    - Ian
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