Tag Archives: Teisco

Guitar Resurrection – 1954 Teisco EP-3 Guitar

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Teisco EP3 1Part of what makes this hobby of mine so rewarding is to help resurrect guitars like this one.  Just to find something like this EP-3, or know that it still exists and can play music, is astounding to me!  Seriously, I love bringing guitars like this back to life!  Now sometimes a guitar’s needs are just beyond me, and that’s where Scott Frielich comes in to the picture.Teisco EP3 3Scott has been owning Top Shelf Music in Buffalo NY for many years now, and people, he’s one of “us.”  The guy is super knowledgeable and appreciates the odd, interesting, and rare.  One of his good friends was Jim Fisch (author and guitar collector) and this Teisco was one of the last of Jim’s big collection of vintage hollowbody guitars.  This EP-3 was sitting in Scott’s shop when we decided to fix it up and get it playable again.Teisco EP3 4

The guitar was in good condition overall and was structurally sound in many ways.  What it did develop over the years were several stable cracks in the top and bottom.  Scott’s been fixing old Martin guitars for years and is pretty much a master guitar tech/luthier.  He was able to close up the cracks with a humidity bag and add cleats to stabilize the areas.Teisco EP3 2

The single pickup was unlike anything I’d ever seen.  Thankfully it was still working, but the internal wiring had slowly disintegrated over the years, so this old gal needed a complete rewire.  Check out that pickup!!  It reads out at 4.56k and the thing is punchy as all heck.  See those adjusting screws?Teisco EP3 7

This guitar is a very rare model, made sometime during the 1950s in Japan.  It’s a hard model to track down, and to be honest I didn’t know it existed until I found it.  I’ve never seen a headstock overlay like that before, and that Teisco logo is particularly uncommon.Teisco EP3 8

I don’t know were Jim found this guitar, because these are never seen in the USA.  Models like this were often sold only in Japan, since large scale importing didn’t happen until the early 60s.  But the main buyers of these guitars were American servicemen stationed in and around the various ports of Japan.  If these guitars travelled the oceans, it was in the duffel bag or bunk of a soldier.  Even then, these guitars didn’t not travel well since the wood was not used to the constant flexing that large temperature changes bring in the North American climate.  It was a problem in the 60s, and it was a BIG problem in the 50s. It’s the main reason why these old hollowbody Teiscos are so scarce, and still playable.Teisco EP3 5

The neck on this is wonderfully chunky, and check out the nameplate on the back of the headstock.  Notice anything?  It’s just one of those endearing quirks that makes me love the old Japanese electric guitars.  Ah well, Check out Mike Dugan playing this one below…

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The Shark Fin!! – Late 1960s Teisco K4L (ET460) Japanese Guitar

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Yep, that’s what we always called these guitars, “shark fin” Teiscos.  In fact, there was a time that whenever I thought of a Teisco guitar, I thought of this model!  For me, it’s just so iconic of the Teisco vibe.  Plenty of switches, knobs, chrome, combined with those sharp horns and hooked headstock.  To me, this was the iconic Teisco guitar!

That familiar striped pick guard really helps to date Teisco guitars, since the striped aluminum guard started to appear in and around 1965.  And those square pole-piece pickups are just balls out!  These shark fins had a pretty good run, appearing in catalogs from 1966-1970.  Japanese catalogs had these listed as K4L guitars, but the WMI American catalogs had them listed as ET-460, and in other catalogs the Super Deluxe!  I can remember James Iha from Smashing Pumpkins using one of these in a video back in the day.  Here’s the vid, and the Pumpkins had such a thick sound on that album!!

Teisco must have sold a boatload of these guitars in the 60s, because this same guitar was also branded as a SIlvertone in Sears catalogs.  These shark fins were around during the same time span as the famous Spectrum 5, but for whatever reason this guitar here is just so much more plentiful.  I would see these all the time hanging in second hand stores and pawn shops.  Most of the guys I knew bought these for the awesome sounding pickups, which usually read out in the 7k range, but curiously, the pickups read out weaker as the guitars got close to the end of their run, like the guitars from the later 60s.  It’s probably a good way to date the guitar!!  In fact, if you take the pickups apart (you have to be a nut like yours truly), you’ll notice that even the construction of the pickups changed, even though they looked the same from the outside.  Tricky!!!

All of these Teisco guitars had a nameplate or sticker on them that identified the model and serial number, but mine has fallen off!  I suppose a lot of them have over the years.  What I think is really cool about these guitars is the carving around the edges of the body.  Often called a “German carve” on the front, these bodies have a very silky feel and are really comfortable to play.  They are very light, but the necks are slightly heavy so that strap button placement on the neck is a neat way to balance it all out.

I’m a total sucker for blue guitars, although when I look around the studio I have a ton of red guitars!!  Anyway, the blue on these is a really cool metallic color and holds up rather well.  When I was younger I knew about three other guys who swore by these guitars!  They are real road warriors and build well.

This particular shark fin had two pickups wired out of phase, FROM THE FACTORY!!  Too funny!  Dano had to sort out a bunch of things with this guitar because of the neglect I had laid upon it’s sharp shoulders, but hey, any good tech can sort it out!  This one got a refret, which can be a dicey proposition.  See, often a refret will involve sanding the neck to work out all the humps and bumps, but the neck inlays on these Teiscos are really thin, and sometimes just wear right off with sanding!  Dano is the man, I keep tellin’ y’all!  Dano also had an issue with the rotary switch because mine just kept turning round and round.  The rotary switch on mine was a two position switch, and those buggers are hard to find!!  Buyer beware!!  Anyway, after fixing it all up I have a great guitar that plays better than it ever did, even straight from the factory!!  And to think I played it for so many years, fighting it all the way!  Too bad I don’t play out anymore!  And then here’s good ol’ Mike Dugan giving it a demo.  He seriously did not want to put this one down.  Enjoy everybody!

Pawn Shop Silver – 1960s Demian Guitar

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Pawnshops used to be some cool places to shop for the starving musician.  I mean, when you’re totally poor, or living on a friend’s couch, or paying for gas with change, then your guitar choices tend to be rather limited.  This was the position many of us were in during our youth (I hope you’re still not living on your friend’s couch) and the local rough pawn shop was like a revolving door of cheap gear.

In my neck of the woods, there were six pawnshops that sold gear.  It seemed like every weekend I’d drive around and scour the new stock.  Sometimes there’d be guitars hanging in there for months before I would notice them and other times I’d grab a guitar immediately off the walls.  Some of the shops were a little smelly, others a little scuzzy (do you use that word?), and others had some genuine charm.  But they all had one thing in common, cheap gear!  Oh man, I just get all giddy thinking about the treasures I picked up at my local pawn shops!

Well, times and places and fortune sometimes change as most of you know, but there are some places where the rough pawnshops still exist.  And this guitar right here was found in one of those throwback pawnshops about a year ago.  This guitar is a weird one, and a rare one, no doubt.  This Demian had been hanging in that pawnshop for many years, and it seemed like the owner had grown a little attached to it as he wasn’t really into accepting offers, which was strange.  I learned many years ago some items hanging in pawnshops had been there so long they had become part of the decor, as if they were a sign or trophy signifying the status of the goods therein.  Something like that anyway.

So getting back to this guitar, it has lots of cool features.  Four pickups, cool.  Tremolo arm still there, awesome!  Neck binding, stylish.  One-peice neck, oh yeah!  Chromed plastic knobs, huh?  Carved horns, wha?  See where I’m going?  The knobs here are like run-of-the-mill plastic knobs, but they’re chromed out!  That’s sorta weird!  Then the carved horns…see, most body carves on vintage Japanese guitars didn’t have interesting bevelled carving like this.  Maybe there was some subtle carving around the body (like on this guitar), but to have this “sharpened” carve around the horns is just really cool.  One of the only other examples of this is on my Shaggs guitar.  Distant cousins perhaps?

Lately I’ve been really able to discover a lot about Japanese guitar manufacturing.  I’ve been talking with several nice Japanese dudes, including many former guitar craftsmen.  I’ve learned a lot about various factories, and I’ve learned a lot about identifying various guitars.  Right away I thought this one was a Fujigen made guitar, especially since the Demian name was used.  But as I looked closer I realized it wasn’t consistent with Fujigen manufacturing techniques.  So then I figured Kawai, but once again a lot doesn’t match up with what I know about Kawai techniques.  So at the moment, I’m stumped as to who made this guitar!

The pickups are really hot, and they read out at 7.25k at the bridge and 7.15k for the next pickup.  But then two pickups towards the neck read out much lower (probably a capacitor affecting the reading) at 2.77k and 2.72k.  Weird huh?  It’s something I’ve never seen before, and when you play this guitar, there’s no noticeable change in output when you switch through the pickups.  It definitely uses some weird wiring schemes, but that’s just one other weird factor with this guitar.

The tuners are also of a higher quality than the average tuners of the time and place.  I have seen these covers before, but the gears inside just seem tighter and of a better quality.  Maybe they have a different ratio than what I’m used to?  I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there’s just something about this guitar!  The pick guard is also interesting because of the material used.  It has a pattern and quality that seems a step above as well.  It’s a 3-ply guard and it’s precision cut.

Of course the guitar sets up very well and Dano was able to get the action way down to 2/32″ at the 12th fret.  In fact, when you’re buying a vintage Japanese guitar like this, a good question to ask the seller is how low is the action at the 12th fret.  If the action is above 5/32″, and the bridge is lowered all the way down, then you’ll need to make some serious adjustments!  Just like mechanics knowing how to work on carburetors, guitar techs knowing how to work on these quirky guitars are a dying breed.  So as with all my posts, we’ll end with Mike Dugan giving the guitar a test drive.  Hope you dig it!