Teisco?

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Pirateking

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I'm looking for a show guitar, one that's cheap (so I don't have to worry about various dings and nicks - we play hard), doesn't have to sound that great (we also play loud and very distorted), looks cool, but plays ok. I've been looking at Teisco guitars on ebay, which look awesome. My main concern, however, is the action. Can anyone tell me if the action on these guitars is really high, like I'm guessing it is? I have to be able to play pretty fast (rhythm, not lead), so that's my main concern.
 
Ok if you want a coolooking guitar that plays ALRIGHT then buy an ibanez Ax or something like that. Tesico is pure disgustingness. The action is horrible, then necks are thick and unfriendly and you will have to change the pickups as they go microphonic at extremel;y low volumes.

Thot i would let ya know about my experience
 
Are we talking about the same appalling Teisco del Rey guitars they used to sell in drug and discount stores in the '60s & '70s?

They were the cheapest, worst guitars ever made, I believe, or at least have the reputation. I can't imagine how anyone anywhere would have been dumb enough to resurrect the name.

YOW! I did a search on E-Bay! They ARE these same firewood guitars! Total ten-buck garage-sale crap.

They sold these at places like Walgreen's, S.S. Kresge and Woolworths. As far as I know, no real music store ever sold them or let them in the door.

I am astounded that people are buying these on E-Bay, which truly is "Where the Fool and His Money Are Soon Parted"...like the part where the guy says he got it in a thrift store.
 
I have had a teisco guitar preamp for the last 25 years. Its really cool looking and maybe a collectors item. It never worked. My first guitar was a 4 pickup whammy totin teisco. Pure trash but man it worked for me. I found a picture of my father who had only 1 finger on his left hand playing it a few years back.
 
My guess is that the reason these things are pulling down more than $15 on EBay is that there's a certain nostalgia for them by lots of people who had them as a first guitar.:D

Fortunately, I wasn't among them. When I went electric, I went through a couple of respectable imports quickly and then got a Gibson ES-335TDC for $200 and never looked back.

But paying like $100 for a stinkin' Teisco is nuts, pure crazy. You can get _good_ used guitars for that. For only a very few bucks more you can brand new imports on sale that are objectively very nice instruments.
 
Not to sound mean, but if the criteria is "it doesn't have sound that great" and it must "look cool" why do you need anyone's opinion. Just go to Target and buy one of their Mark V guitars for under $100. Now if you are looking for a guitar that will sound great, with or without distortion (you never know, you may want a talent scout know that you have talent) then you will find some great (and varied)opinions in this forum. Anyway, cool is in the eye of the beholder.

Peace, Jim
 
Teisco's don't look "cool". They look like a shit pile. They sound like one, too. And that's what they are. Don't be fooled. Bongolation is right. Their only "value" is the nostalgia.

However, musicians are crazy people. If it's a real shitty sound your looking for, Teisco Del Ray may be just right for you.
 
If you want a guitar that looks cool and sounds decent, in the Tesico vein, get a Danelectro. At least it will be playable and sound pretty good. There's a company called Subway guitars (http://www.fatdawg.com/danelectro.html) that takes old danelectros and puts them together with certain fixes for the parts that suck, like the tuners... and sets them up, and they're still real cheap. Far better than a Teisco, though still not a great guitar, but really good for the price.
 
If I remember correctly my 4 pickup whammy totin teisco cost about 40.00 (1964) My Dad bought it at Two Guys (from Harrison), anyone remember them (Voronados).
After he saw I was serious he bought me a second hand Strat 75.00.:cool:
 
Two Guys From Harrison! Yeah! They were like New Jersey's (or the nation's, for that matter) first K-Mart type store, in the '60's, long before there was any such thing as K-Mart.
 
Or, on this coast, White Front, CBSS, Gemco, Thrifty Drug, Kresge, Pay Less...

Teisco dealers one and all. My theory is that Teisco was distributed by the same company that supplied their tube socks, TV trays and dog vitamins.
 
The Teisco story is connected with lipstick pickups as well as Dano formica axes.I recall a Guitar Player article some years ago.I was a young picker in the early 60s but luckily my dad got me a Gibson instead.But I do recall them as laughable almost-guitars.Teisco turned into Cortez guitars after the surf craze ran out,which now sells as Cort,with Larry Coryell an endorcee.

Tom
 
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