1. Teisco Del Ray Parts
2. Teisco Guitar Models
3. Teisco Guitars Serial Number

Help Re-Discover Teisco Until the 1990’s Teisco guitars were not considered collectable. Visit the serial number / date chart project page.

The history of the goes all the way back to 1946 with the formation of the Japanese company Aoi Onpa Kenkyujo by Atswo Kaneko and Doryu Matsuda. The year 1948 marked the first introduction of the Teisco brand with its first lineup of products including mics, amps, and a lap steel guitar.

Production of the Teisco brand of products continued until 1969, and during this time the most recognizable line of products that the Aoi Onpa Kenkyujo company produced was its line of Teisco guitars. There are many things to keep in mind when buying Teisco guitars. Date of Manufacture Determining the time in which the Teisco guitar was made is important. There is no exact date stamp on any Teisco guitars, which makes it hard to determine the exact age. A rough estimate can be made with a little bit of homework. Throughout the years, the manufacturer went through many changes including different company names and logos and even complete changes in how they named their guitars.

Reading the serial number or model number on the back of the Teisco guitar will give a decent approximation of the age of the guitar within a few years. Types of Teisco Guitars There are basically three main categories of. These are the, hollow body, and. The solid body Teisco guitars come in several basic designs and have 1, 2, 3, or 4 pickups.

Hollow body Teisco guitars have either 1, 2, or 3 pickups. The usually just have 1 pickup, though there are a couple of models that have 2 pickups. The designs of the Teisco follow basically two different styles. Up until 1960 Teisco guitars followed the.

For the last decade of production, Teisco guitars followed the, since this was becoming more popular at the time. The Teisco Guitar Buyer For the most part, Teisco guitars were and are.

They typically offer a pretty low price point in comparison to many of the other on the market. This is part of the reason for such huge popularity in the 50s and 60s.

There are still a lot of enthusiasts that love Teisco guitars, but there is one issue to be aware of. Teisco guitars were typically made with imported parts that, while inexpensive, did not always meet some of the standards set by some of the other domestic guitar manufacturers. A buyer should be aware of what parts might need replacing and factor that into their budget and expectations when making a purchase. Luckily, there is an easy remedy. The design of the Teisco is actually fairly simple, and most beginners can easily understand what each component is and how it functions to make the guitar work. Over the years, there have been a lot of Teisco guitars manufactured, and thus there were a lot of additional replacement parts manufactured.

When buying a, it may be necessary to check the inner workings of the guitar and replace any of the components if necessary. Teisco Guitar Parts There are not a lot of different parts in the Teisco guitars to worry about replacing, but there are a few.

Replacing them is not that difficult. Teisco Guitar Part Description Pickups Solid body guitars have no way of amplifying the sound from the plucked strings, so pickups are necessary to transmit the sound to the amplifier.

Virtually any pickup can be installed on Teisco guitars, but if you are an enthusiast, you will want to install a. The designs really add to these guitars' character. Tremolo Not all Teisco guitars came with a tremolo, but they can be fitted with one. Tremolos can be purchased as a complete set or as individual components such as the bridge, bar, or spring.

Protect the vintage Teisco guitar with a pick guard. These are plates that are fashioned specifically for certain guitars.

Teisco Del Ray Parts

As previously mentioned, the two styles were the Les Paul and the Fender guitar designs. Guitar Knobs On vintage Teisco guitars, the knobs can sometimes crack with repeated use. These are extremely easy to replace and can actually improve the look of the Teisco guitar quite drastically. Some older Teisco guitars were made with less expensive materials that sometimes rusted. The guitar tuner was one component that was sometimes like this. The tuners can just be unscrewed and swapped out rather quickly. Touch-Up Markers As with any vintage product, throughout time the product can fall victim to everyday wear and tear.

This is especially true for guitars. Most of the Teisco guitars have a wood body, so it is actually fairly easy to repair minor scratches and dings. The easy solution here is to use a touch-up marker. They come in a variety of different wood colors, so you can try to find a touch-up marker that closely matches the wood coloring of the Teisco guitar. Teisco Bridges Another reason the Teisco became so popular is their introduction of the. Not all Teisco guitars were manufactured with this design.

The primitive 3rd bridge actually extends the tail, and there is a little bit of space behind the bridge. When this area is plucked it actually makes a 3rd bridge sound.

This design method produces the sound of a 3rd bridge for less cost of construction than with some of the competing designs. The result was a less-expensive alternative. For the most part, Teisco guitars will be advertised as having this 3rd bridge. There may be some instances where the Teisco has the 3rd bridge but may not necessarily be listed as having one. The easiest way to know if the Teisco has the 3rd bridge or not is to look at the last bridge and see if there is a pickup between the last bridge and the tail. This is a telltale sign that a third bridge was included in the design. Again, this is not a necessary component, but is popular among vintage collectors of Teisco guitars.

Finding Teisco Guitars on eBay Throughout the years, there were a lot of name changes both for the brand and the models of each guitar. Having a good understanding of which guitars fall under which years should make it a little easier to properly search for the right Teisco guitar on eBay. The easiest way to search for is to search by the brand and type of guitar you are interested in, followed by the year it was manufactured, if this is an important selling point. There have been so many model name changes over the years that it can actually get a little confusing determining which guitars are actually the same but with a different model name.

It's helpful to know that Teisco exported to both the United States and the United Kingdom under different brand names. For the United States, Teisco exported under brand names including, Teisco, Teisco Del Rey, Kimberly, or World Teisco. For the United Kingdom, the brand names used for the Teisco guitar included, Audition,. Conclusion Many guitar enthusiasts loved Teisco guitars because they were simple and offered a lot of value. They were not as overpriced as some of their counterparts. Today the Teisco are no longer in production, though the name still resonates among guitar enthusiasts, and they still have an influence with the designs of the.

That makes it hard to place an exact figure on the value of Teisco guitars, simply because they do carry a lot of sentimental value to a number of collectors.

Help Re-Discover Teisco Until the 1990’s Teisco guitars were not considered collectable, nor were they given any respect as a vintage instrument. In 2009 the Official Vintage Guitar Price Guide contained less than half a page to cover the vast range of models made by Teisco. Even their description of the models is very general and the values were completely wrong compared to what the market was paying at that time. It demonstrates the lack of respect that collectors had towards these guitars. Given that some of these models were selling well past the thousand dollars mark, it seems useless to print in a price book the most a Teisco guitar is worth is five hundred dollars.

This is the type of problem faced with Teisco collecting. There is no guide, or references to base anything on.

The biggest issue with collecting Teisco’s is that there is no records kept of the models and their original state. The original company is long gone and any records that existed would have been in Japanese. Unlike American guitar companies, trying to contact people in Japan regarding Teisco history is almost impossible. A lot of models had several versions while others constantly evolved over several years. There was also a few model numbers that were re-used several years later for different shaped guitars. This adds to the confusion as to what is your guitar and what is it suppose to look like. Then try to determine when it was made and what it is worth becomes confusing.

Teisco Guitar Models

Then to confuse the matter even more, Teisco some how got the credit for manufacturing almost all the Japanese vintage guitars during the 60’s. Many cheaper quality instruments manufactured by other companies were assumed to be Teiscos, bringing down the reputation of the brand. There was actually about eight manufactures during the 1960’s in Japan, producing a wide range in quality. So where does all that leave us?

Well there are a couple of sources of information on the World Wide Web. There is a lot of misleading information on Teiscos and just because it is on some ones page does not mean that it is true. But given the amount of information they had to start with, they did a pretty good job collecting what information they have. For the past 10 years we have been quietly compiling data to provide all the answers relating to the history of Teisco Guitars. We have identified and recorded about one hundred and fifty seven models of guitars and basses produced by Teisco, plus there are additional models with other brand names.

(eg Silvertone, Kimberley etc.) For more information on what we are trying to achieve, visit the But more information is needed so all the gaps can be filled before we start publishing any material. This is where we need your help to rediscover Teisco. Stuff We Are Looking For!!!; Well if it’s Teisco, we are interested. The main categories of stuff we are looking for are as follows, but anything else is always welcome.

Click the links below for more details on each topic; 1. Also If you are convinced that you have searched the web far and wide for days and weeks and you think you have a very rare vintage Japanese guitar, then send it through. We may be able to help you or at least point you in the right direction. How to Get in Contact With Us Contact us if you think you have any other information that may be relevant in discovering the history of the Teisco Guitars. So don’t be shy, we need your help. We can be contacted at; Please note that any photos, information etc.

Teisco Guitars Serial Number

May be published in either electronic or print form, in the future. By providing us photos, documentation or information, you are giving your consent for us to use the material provided for publishing. If you want to share something, but don’t want it published, then please make that very clear in your email. We will respect your wishes.

Thank you for your support. MIJ 60s Guitars This site has been visited times.

(Last Revised: 15 th Jun 2013.) © 2012 MAI Music Publications.