Don’t get us wrong we love a good Jazzmaster, Jaguar or Mustang. Let’s have a look at a forgotten classic the Teisco TG-64, now being reissued by Eastwood. Offset Guitars have been, for a long time, a favourite amongst alternative rock and indie rock players.
The Norma brand has guitars that were made by Teisco Gen Gakki, Sakkai, and Tombo, as well as several other manufacturers.This guide looks at all of the different guitar manufacturers working in Japan in the 1960s so that you can begin to differentiate between their products and get a better idea of what you're buying. They were mostly manufactured in But the reality of the matter is that while Teisco did produce over a million guitars during the course of its history, there are also a few million more Japanese–made guitars that are decidedly not Teiscos.Before we jump in, it’s important to note that all of these companies we’re about to discuss were Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) producers for a variety of brands both in Japan and abroad.This means that a company (for example, Strum and Drum of Wheeling, Illinois) could approach a Japanese manufacturer (in this case, Sakkai) and ask it to produce a guitar branded for that contracting company’s in–house brand name (Norma).Often, these guitar brands would source guitars from multiple manufacturers to fit different price points in their catalogs. Musical equipment, or just old things in general. GA 30115 77 Vintage Teisco Super Deluxe Melody The Teisco Super Deluxe Melody Tune Amp is an extremely rare find for any collector of old amps.
Kawai used this feature on a majority of its solid bodies, while original Teisco guitars never used string bars and instead favoured pitched headstocks.Kawai continued to produce Teisco–branded guitars, amps, and even synthesizers in dwindling numbers up through the mid–‘70s. But with Zen-On’s (or several other manufacturers’) gold foil pickups, these set–screw pole pieces run through the middle.There is one good way to distinguish a Kawai (or a Kawai–era Teisco) from an original Teisco: look for a string bar on the headstock. On a true Teisco gold foil pickup, these six screws are on top of the pickup. But beware, many Japanese manufacturers made gold foil pickups that share some characteristics with Teisco’s, yet are not the same.How can you tell these gold foils apart? Look for the fake set–screw pole pieces. Using Gold Foil Pickups to Identify Teiscos and other Vintage Japanese GuitarsOriginal Teisco factory guitars from before the Kawai sale can be some great players, and many of them feature highly sought after gold foil pickups made famous by Ry Cooder. The company enjoyed increasing success right through the big Japanese guitar boom in 1965, but a 1967 downturn in fortunes resulted in the company and brand being sold to Kawai.Teisco’s subsidiary manufacturing plant Teisco Gen Gakki (Japanese for “Tesico Stringed Instruments”) was not included in the sale, as Kawai decided to transfer manufacturing to its own plant in Hamamatsu.
The Fujigen hardware is the easiest way to tell these guitars apart from Teiscos. But Fujigen’s work in the ‘60s is our focus. Zen–On also used plywood on almost all of its guitar bodies, though its top of the line and Morales–branded guitars sometimes featured two–piece sandwich style construction.Fujigen went on to achieve lasting fame as the manufacturer of Greco guitars in the ‘70s and Fender Japan in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. The Zen–On brand name is relatively unknown outside of Japan, but it produced a large number of OEM guitars for overseas brands.As mentioned earlier, many of its guitars included a gold foil pickup that looks deceptively like the original Teisco’s. 2 on the list of guitars most often mistaken for Teiscos.
Just check out any Univox Hi-Flier or the early ‘70s Epiphone guitars to get an idea of this factory’s quality and consistency.Guyatone guitars are well known enough that they are rarely confused with Teisco guitars. MatsumokuOriginally a wood factory for Singer sewing machine cabinets, Matsumoku switched to guitar manufacturing when Fujigen was searching for a factory that understood woodwork and the proper wood curing.Matsumoku had some amazing designers on staff, and its creations have produced some of the most lasting and durable guitars on the vintage guitar market. Fujigen also used solid woods for the bodies, and worked closely with Matsumoku factory in the city of Matsumoto. This is just one example, but it requires a bit of reading and studying about the nuances of that hardware to positively identify the Fujigens for what they are.Fujigen was the largest exporter of guitars to the USA, with Kawai coming in a close second.
Though only active for a short time, Pleasant produced an incredible number of guitars, generally of high quality.Exported to the US under names like St. PleasantThe Pleasant brand of guitars was manufactured by Shinko Gakki from roughly 1965 to 1967 when the company suddenly went bankrupt. This is especially true of the late ‘60s guitars. Even the cheapest ones can be solid players, whereas some of the cheapest Teisco guitars (especially from the Kawai–era) can be a real headache to get playing well.Guyatone mainly focused on electronics and pickup design and often used other factories to produce the wood parts.
Teisco Guitar Ebay How To Distinguish All
But when the guitar boom collapsed, they quietly returned to their original manufacturing purpose and disappeared into the mists of time.Want to know more about how to distinguish all these guitars? Until a few years ago there wasn’t a good (or any!) English language reference book for Japanese guitars of the 1960s. They would then turn to small local manufacturers of wooden items and request them to start making guitar bodies or necks.These companies would sense a business opportunity, so they would start producing their own original brands during the height of the boom. During the 1960s guitar boom, demand for guitars was so great that many factories were running at maximum capacity.
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