Teisco-rific!

[MWaldorf]

I picked up this guitar on craiglist last week; I was looking for a cheap guitar to knock around. Well, I'll be darned if this isn't one terrific plank of (ply)wood! The neck is remarkable - many 60s budget guitars I've played have thick necks and rough frets. This one is in the realm of Mosrites - thin, super low action and honest to goodness speed frets. Maybe somewhere along the line it was owned by a Mosrite fan who filed the frets down?

So, today I gave it a proper run through at a friend's block party jam. The pickups are pretty low output so I had to turn up the amp pretty high, but it sounded great, didn't feed back and generally stayed in tune.

I have no idea what this model is called, but whatever it is, I have to say "Arigato, Teisco!"

[Sarah93003]

Cool! It has some serious horns on that thing!

[dubtrub]

....and it has a zero fret. Wonder where they got that idea? Looks great with that Ampeg.

I learned a long time ago that a guitar didn't have to be expensive or even a top brand seller to be great guitars. Even if they aren't great to start with, most any guitar can be made to play great with a proper setup. How's the vibrato?

Too bad you didn't have a Teisco baritone instead of a Fender a few years ago when it decided to disappear.

[dorkrockrecords]

I'm not sure of the model, but it's from the late '60s and more commonly appears in a 4-pickup, greenburst version under the Kimberly moniker.

Congrats!

[Veenture]

Nice find, glad it pleases you!

[MOSDAN]

I have several of the old Teisco guitars and all of them have the zero fret. I don't know if Mosrite came out with the idea first or if Teisco came out with it first. However, it really doesn't matter who had the idea first--it's just a great design that at least 2 guitar makers in different parts of the world applied at similar times.

[dubtrub]

As for the zero fret, I do belive it is predated long before Semie or Teisco came along.

[Dennisthe Menace]

Danny, I had heard that the '0' fret goes back several hundred years.
The Selmer-Maccaferri guitar played by Django Reinhardt had the
zero fret set up as well and LONG before Mosrite, Gretsch,Teisco, etc.....

[MWaldorf]

I've seen pictures of the four pickup Kimberly greenburst. Four pickups would be cool, three would suffice but two will do for the moment.

The vibrato is functional. Not a huge range, little more than 1/2 step, but it stays in tune, so that's the main thing.

Again, for me, it's the neck that makes the guitar. I've become quite partial to guitars with a zero fret; the action out of the box is great. The output of the pickups is so low that I had the Ampeg on about 7 to compete with the drums. I prefer more headroom, but it was a nice raunchy sound!

[KRamone27]

I'm not sure of the model, but it's from the late '60s and more commonly appears in a 4-pickup, greenburst version under the Kimberly moniker.

Congrats!

Funny you mentioned the Kimberly label as I used to own one. Green burst, 4 pickups 4 slide switches 2 vol 2 tone, cheap tremolo.