Help Identify this Guitar - Teisco possibly?

[Dazz]

G'day people,

I picked up this guitar at the local Sunday market last weekend. There's semi often cheap electric guitars there, but they are typically newer and obviously Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean etc.

This particular one looked far older, it just has that look of being around for a while. The guy selling it said it had been sitting around for about twenty years that he knows of, but had no idea how much older than that it was. He had no idea if it was even working, and it only had the B,D,G and E strings on it but I figured for the small amount I offered him for it I couldn't lose.

From looking at the various components I can match some of them to various Kawai / Teisco guitars I can find. The headstock shape, tuners, tailpiece with tremolo, and bridge all appear to be identical to various Teisco one.

However, I cannot find another one with the same shaped pick guard, single string tree, and the pickup covers are slightly different to any others I have seen.

Apart from a made in Japan sticker on the back of the headstock, and "REINFORCED NECK" in raised gold lettering on the bell shaped truss rod cover on the headstock there is nothing to go off.

Good news was once home and plugged it it works and sounds surprisingly good. The volume pot is a little scratchy when you turn it, but works fine, and both pickup selectors are smooth and worth with no crackling when switching them. One had had the raised section broken off, but it works none the less.

If anyone has any clues as to exactly what it might be, I'd be very appreciative of it.

Cheers
Darren

[Dazz]

I think I may have found a clue.

On the front of the headstock is an outline of what appears to have been a logo, probably a sticker I would imagine.

I have found a guitar with a logo that matches the exact shaoe of that on my guitar, and it is an Audition logo.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Audition-Tel ... 500wt_1319

Although the guitar it is on is a Telecaster copy, the headstock is identical in shape, has the single string tree, unlike the diagonal full width bar on most of the Teisco branded ones, the tuners are the same, and it has the identical made in Japan sticker on the back.

Audition was a brand that Teisco appears to have used in other countries, so although I still don't know exactly what the guitar is, it would seem looking down the Audition path may get me closer to it.

This is a better image of the logo.


Also of interest is the curved tapered piece on top of where the trem arm attaches which is exactly the same as on my guitar.

[Dazz]

I think I've found a near identical match, listed as a Teisco Vision.
http://keithsguitars.net/Electric_Gutars_all_sorts.html
Teisco. Audition Vision Guitar, Price £125

The same shape guitar is also listed as being called an Audition as well.

http://picasaweb.google.com/10082986078 ... 9HJhcr2Kg#

[Dazz]

Found some more info.

All the same guitar but sold under different brands.

No Name; Avora; Audition and Winner

[wietse]

forget the teisco name that guy on that site is using, he's using the teisco name to get higher prices like often happens.
a lot of these guitars were made by kawai, the company that took over teisco in the late 60's.
i owned a guitar like yours years ago and that one was branded iwama, it's a typical postalorder guitar sold under many brandnames, to find the builder is sometimes near impossible but i guess kawai.
that company produced a lot of models who are mostly unknown.

[Dazz]

Yep Kawai took over Teisco in 1967, but from what I have read they were still using the Teisco factory and tooling, which explains why the same actual parts make up the different guitars.

I can't vouch for the accuracy of this stuff, but this seems to make sense.

"In January of 1967 Kawai purchased the Teisco guitar company, but they appear to have operated the two companies pretty much separately. Both lines featured exclusive designs and different pickups. Teisco continued the vector of evolution it had taken, ending up with the Spectrums and finally the mini-Strats, before become the Kay brand in the U.S."

"In the USA Teisco guitars were imported with at least eight brand names: Teisco, Teisco Del Rey, Kingston, World Teisco, Silvertone, Kent, Kimberly and Heit Deluxe."

"In the UK Teisco guitars (post Kawai takeover) were known to be imported with these brand names: Arbiter, Top Twenty, Audition and Kay."

Mine being an "Audition" seems to fit the above statement, and it makes as much sense as anything that this guitar came into Australia from the UK, possibly with someone immigrating.

It would be near impossible to find out but I am looking to see if there was any sales history of these things being sold new in Australia through the same F W Woolworth and Co. company as they were in the U.K. or simply Woolworths in Australia.

At the end of the day I'm not trying to inflate what it might be worth, which I always assumed was not a lot, I just want to find out as much about it, where it came from, what components it shares with other models, how many are out there etc as possible for pure interests sake.

I only paid $20 (US$20.79c at the current exchange rate!) for it so even if I spend a few dollars fixing a few little things up I don't think I'm over capitalising on it.

[VintAxe]

Hi Dazz.

I agree with wietse that your guitar is a Kawai product. I know of no way to determine if it was built at the (newer) Kawai factory or the (older) Teisco factory. Kawai released an incredible number of models after taking over Teisco and as wietse says, most are undocumented in catalogs and other literature.

The brand name might help you identify who imported your instrument, but has little value beyond that.

You got a good deal at $20.

[Dazz]

I totally agree it would be a Kawai era product even if it was built in the old Teisco factory, there's no way it pre-dates the 1967 takeover I wouldn't thnk.

My challenge now is to clean it up without making it look like new. I want to get rid of the grubby dusty dirty finish without having it all polished up and looking like the pics I posted of the one that looks like new. I really like the character it has at the moment.

Quite honestly for its age and apparent lack of being looked after properly, it is in surprisingly good shape.

I'll be sure to post up any further information I find on it though, like myself I'm sure others like to learn as much as possible about these old and lets face it somewhat puzzling guitars!

[Dazz]

Hi guys,

Thought you might like to see what the old girl looks like now.

I know it's not cool to refinish old guitars, but the original finish just wasn't for me. It has since been redone in an aged shell pink finish, which I know will not be to everyones taste, but I like it.

Finally got it all back together with a new set of strings on it today. I was kind of surprised with how it sounded, the pickups are not overly loud but the neck pickup has a very pleasant warm jazzy tone to it, and it's not as muddy as I thought it might have been.

[BluesHawk]

[Dazz]

Hi Doug,

I'm generally not a "matching colour headstock" kind of guy, I tend to find it looks a bit naff!

However, I've been sitting here looking at the picture and thinking that in this case, you might just be onto something.

This guitar is somewhat quirky looking (or "retro camp", great description), and it's certainly no birdseye maple headstock, so a light dusting of matching pink might just work. I dare say I've got enough left in the spray can to do it!

Maybe next time it's due for a set of strings I might just give it a go.

To be honest the new machine heads are far too bright, so I might also look into relic'ing them a little at the same time.

I was tossing up some other more crazy colour schemes for this guitar, this was one of them, medium relic'd Shell Pink Surf Green "Burst" with a Leopard Print pick guard



Cheers
Darren

[BluesHawk]

[cheepaxes]

Wow. The proposed new guitar looks like something pulled out of the panty drawer of a New Orleans hooker. And I mean that in the Best Possible Way.

[Dazz]