Members turnip Posted February 7, 2010 Members Share Posted February 7, 2010 Anyone have one? Are they worth picking up for cheap and fixing up, or are they pretty much stinkers all-around? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members m90guy Posted February 7, 2010 Members Share Posted February 7, 2010 Ive got a few, all of them are sucky at best with one of them being decent enough to play slide with. All cool looking though. Some of them can be really good players, but most are trash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members citizens_X Posted February 7, 2010 Members Share Posted February 7, 2010 most are stinkers:thu: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jtr654 Posted February 7, 2010 Members Share Posted February 7, 2010 Calling them Junk is being Kind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rex Machete Posted February 7, 2010 Members Share Posted February 7, 2010 Its a shame that the ones shipped to the States are all crap, because the ones made for the Japanese market were supposed to be nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members turnip Posted February 7, 2010 Author Members Share Posted February 7, 2010 So not worth $15 and whatever it takes to get them up and running? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mr_GoodBomb Posted February 7, 2010 Members Share Posted February 7, 2010 Cheap? Go for it man. Don't let other people tell you how much a guitar is worth to you to make it playable. Enjoy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stormin1155 Posted February 7, 2010 Members Share Posted February 7, 2010 They are kind of fun to have, but not to play.. I've had several and made a pretty good profit when I sold them because there are a lot of sentimentally minded baby-boomers out there that would like to have their first guitar back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vespertine Posted February 7, 2010 Members Share Posted February 7, 2010 They are cool looking but that's about it. I've had a couple and they are not worth it. The only way of making them playable is by replacing almost everything on it, including the neck. if you can get a cool looking body for dirt cheap, and manage to fit a custom neck, that another story Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members flummox Posted February 8, 2010 Members Share Posted February 8, 2010 The higher-end ones could be very decent. But most of them were unplayable junk right out of the box. Warped, unreinforced necks made of mystery wood, horrible fretwork, unusable intonation, pickups that actually sounded great but were essentially microphones that fed back uncontrollably. The Japanese were not always synonymous with quality workmanship. With a few exceptions (like cameras and Sony products) most Japanese goods imported here in the 60s were on the level of the crappiest Chinese and Indonesian products today. Think "Harbor Freight" quality at best and Soviet Union quality in general. That didn't start to change until the mid 70s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wedgehed II Posted February 8, 2010 Members Share Posted February 8, 2010 All three of my Teiscos say "bite me!". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members flatheadpete Posted February 8, 2010 Members Share Posted February 8, 2010 I have a '65 single pup DelRay. My dad's first new guitar. Real brassy, ballsy pup. Neck like a ballbat. Cool stripes aluminum pickguard. I like it. Will I ever rid of it? Nope. Like my other '65 (crappy old Strat) it belongs in my family and it'll stay here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members m90guy Posted February 8, 2010 Members Share Posted February 8, 2010 Dont have pics of all mine as most are in pieces awaiting one day to be put back together and hung on the wall, but the ultra rare zenon is the slide guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members C1993 Posted February 8, 2010 Members Share Posted February 8, 2010 Yeah, I had a Kawai variant. Nice sounding pickups but the build quality was awful. The body was probably plywood and the metal parts were terrible. I wouldn't waste your time or money. Old USA Peaveys are the way I'd go... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members labtechguy1313 Posted May 5, 2013 Members Share Posted May 5, 2013 They were among the first guitars I had along with Vox and Kay. You bought these things as Sears, JC Penny, JM Fields and the like. I have a soft spot for them, but you really have to like them, I don't think anyone of the US shipped ones will ever be valuable, unless you wait a long time, like Planet of the Apes long time. Two biggest problems I have had is that most did not have a compensating bridge, though a very few did, but that is no biggie to replace. The other problem could take a higher tech skil. Some of there necks had no truss bar so if those are badly warped neck is pretty much toast. Mine had a truss but necks were utterly round in the back, like a baseball bat.Necks like that will cramp and exhaust your hand, but if you are okay will pulling the necks off flattening the back down some and re finishing the wood it will help alot.I build both complete modern instruments as well as medieval ones, so its soemting I have done, but like I said you have to like them. Still if you get any guitar for like 20 bucks there is a way to turn it enough to get more than you put in, at least material wise. Just what I think though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted May 5, 2013 Members Share Posted May 5, 2013 Since this thread is over three years old, I don't know if anyone still cares. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Elias Graves Posted May 6, 2013 Members Share Posted May 6, 2013 I'd love one. They can't be any worse than the Korean Eastwoods. Yes, they can.At least they had the cool quirky sounding pickups. That was their only high point.From a build standpoint, the Eastwoods are all over the originals, but unfortunately, the Eastwoods use generic pickups that don't sound like the originals at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BG76 Posted May 6, 2013 Members Share Posted May 6, 2013 The only one I would consider buying would be a May Queen. IIRC someone here has one. Other then that I'm not interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bucksstudent Posted May 14, 2013 Members Share Posted May 14, 2013 Elias Graves wrote: I'd love one. They can't be any worse than the Korean Eastwoods. Yes, they can. At least they had the cool quirky sounding pickups. That was their only high point. From a build standpoint, the Eastwoods are all over the originals, but unfortunately, the Eastwoods use generic pickups that don't sound like the originals at all. I owned a Saturn 63 for several years. It felt like a toy. I was fourteen and could have spent over 600 dollars on a better guitar. Do you know how hard it is to get that money when you're fourteen? It didn't help that the owner of Eastwood was a dick to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Roy Brooks Posted May 14, 2013 Members Share Posted May 14, 2013 I have owned and played some Teiscos that had no issues that needed to be addressed. The one I owned, a mid-1960s WG-2L, was a decent player with a twangy sound. I was pleasantly surprised to find a playable older guitar for around $100. All I had to do to it was to change the strings to the kind I liked. The fact that I was able to locate a Teisco in decent playable condition is a good indication that you could too. But it is also very possible that you may come across several old Teiscos that have plenty of issues that you may not want to bother with until you find one that doesn't need a lot of work or possibly doesn't need any work at all. Though if you are persistent and actually serious about locating playable old Teiscos you can find them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Malcolm Ramone Posted May 15, 2013 Members Share Posted May 15, 2013 Just remember they were the First Acts of the 60s-70s, and not intended to be much more. The fact that they often do have cool sounds and funky style, and are still relatively cheap, is gravy! -Adam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Buttcrust Posted May 15, 2013 Members Share Posted May 15, 2013 I played this until the neck fell off. I think it cost $19.95 1967 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Emory Posted May 15, 2013 Members Share Posted May 15, 2013 I am old enough to remember seeing those at the local discount department stores. Even though I was new to guitar, I also curled my lip at those POS. I pitied the poor kids that spent their money on an item almost guaranteed to make them give up guitar playing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ruffruffdeacon Posted July 28, 2016 Members Share Posted July 28, 2016 So..... I drive like 100 miles (7 mi. of it on a rocky dirt road) to buy what I was told was a guitar made in 1971 woodshop from a kit that the students could pick for a graded project. The guy obviously lived in the boonies and had no working utilities. (Hence no pics to go by) So, I get there and at first I believe it. Then I pick up the covered in dirt guitar wipe it off a little and realize it's an old Japanese guitar. It looked in really bad shape. I could barely see the tobacco burst paint under the thick layer of dust. I am not exaggerating. It was very disappointing at the time. Something told me that I didn't drive all that way for nothing and maybe the parts might be worth something, who knows. I payed $30 that I was pissed at myself for paying at the time after the Hellish drive and all. I carefully took the entire guitar apart, and thoroughly detailed everything and put it back together. Beautiful. I research it the next day and find out it is a Teisco ET 300 with the RY Cooder Gold Foil Pickups. Everything worked on the guitar perfectly!!! The pickups sell all day long for $100 each and there is the complete set of 3 on it all working and sounding great. So should you buy one of these guitars??? People eat these parts up for big bucks - trems body, bridge, tuners, necks, etc. So... It's kind of a novelty thing for the most part, but those Ry Cooder pup's do sound sweet as Hell. No denying that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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