Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dave Lynas on April 19, 2014 at 11:13pm

Annonimous Pick seems to know a lot. He's the man...

Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on April 20, 2014 at 12:54am

awwwww ,,  ( blush )  ..   :-}

Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on April 20, 2014 at 12:54am

from  what i  can  tell    with  teisco's  history  .  these  inconsistencies  can  be  explained  in a  few  ways  .

 teisco  had  the old custom  door to  door  salesman approach to   dept  stores  .  sears   ,  Woolworths etc ... could actually  pick    certain  design aspects  of   guitar  models  and   even   request    model  mods  (  i  actually  have  a salesman  sample   with  an  un-drilled   neck ...   i  also  had  a body  with  a magnet      though  the middle  to  place   pick up  samples  on  ) .  this  also  explains  some mix matching .

tulips  were    the most  popular  model  ,  some stores  wanted   to  be a  lil  different than   other stores selling  them ..  even   branding them  a different  name  ,  then   you  have to  take into account Canadian    imports,  ..  a Canadian    ";checkmate " branded   tulip  will  look  different that  an  american  of the same  year  .

   then  you  have to  take  into account    the  year  ,,  the  tulip  model  was  a best  seller  ..  so  they  did  not want to   change  it  too  drastically ,  so  they only    added  subtle  changes   for    different  years  .

also   ,  in  many  models  ,, not  just  tulip  ..  you will  notice the  exact  same  model  , same  year  ,  same  factory  ,  same  #  etc  ,,   may  be  made  out of  different  wood  ..  this  is because  in the   60's ,  wood  prices   always went  up  and down,  like  gas  today  ..   lol .. and they     just  grabbed  in  bulk  whatever  was  cheap  at the  time  .

another reason  ..  is  exactly as  you   guessed  ..  sometimes  they    just  said  .. " what the hell"  .. and  tossed  shit together  and  out the  door  .     ;-)

another reason    is  ,,  you  might   not  be looking at a    teisco  ..  it  could be  a st george  or  kawia   etc  ..  model 

anyway  ..   that's  my   free opinion  ..  and   probably worth    every  penny  ;-)

Permalink Reply by Stephan Ziemba on April 20, 2014 at 2:34am

And like all business customers, they all wanted the hands down cheapest! LOL

Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on April 20, 2014 at 1:07am

ps  ..    there  is  no such  thing as a " complete    teisco   history   account "   lol,  ..  but    the links    at the  top  of the  group  page   may  help  ...  

 

http://www.mark-cole.co.uk/teisco/ great info and id your guit

.http://www.myrareguitars.com/1960guitars.html some great guits here .

http://guitar.webinjp.com/catalog_guitar.htm vintage teisco catalogueshttp://www.vintageguitar.com/1745/teisco-guitars-part-i/ teisco guitars part1

http://www.vintageguitar.com/1746/teisco-guitars-part-ii/ part 2

http://www.mark-cole.co.uk/teisco/ this  is great    for model  pics 

Permalink Reply by Stephan Ziemba on April 20, 2014 at 2:44am

Thanks. There sure is a lot missing!

Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on May 31, 2014 at 6:25pm

cool

 

Permalink Reply by Allan Evers on December 9, 2016 at 1:44am

I'll recommend you to join my Facebook group  Teisco Vintage Guitar Owners https://www.facebook.com/groups/teisco/

We are over 1400 Teisco members from all over the world in there and ONLY Teisco badged guitars produced by Teisco/Kawai,  like Beltone, Checkmate, Coltone, Douglas, Feather, Gemtone, Heit, Kent, Kimberly, Kingston, Lafayette, Matador, Melody, Mello-Tone, Marco Polo, Noble, Pearl, Royal, Silvertone, St. George, Starway, Teisco, World Teisco, Zim Gar is allowed in this group.

Hope to see you soon :-)

Cheers & Beers Allan

Permalink Reply by Wade on February 12, 2017 at 1:04pm

My friend Frank Meyers has written a great book on Japanese guitars. He went as far as taking a trip to Japan to meet some of the earliest builders and designers. He also has a great site and YouTube channel-he goes by the user name Drowninginguitars.
Hope this helps.