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