Teisco bandmaster

View a catalog dating from 1968 costs $ 48.00 this guitar for beginners has been manufactured in Asia between 1964 and 1968 by TEISCO for "Tokyo Electric Instrument Company Sound" distributed in the United States under different brands, Silvertone, Kent , Beltone, Duke, Heit Deluxe, Jedson, Kimberly, Kingston, Lyle, Norma, Tulio and the United Kingdom under the brand Arbiter, Sonatone, Audition, Kay and Top Twenty Swan.
The three-piece body is completely carved in cons-plated rather thin and very light.
The handle is in one piece wooden "exotic" kind okume ...
Wooden key reported a gasoline unidentified tinted ebony.
Two typical Teisco single coil pickups in the mid-sixties.
A switch for each pickup.
A volume, a tone.
The tuners are kind of classical guitar in one piece 6 key online, buttons are plastic.
The bridge original is constituted by a threaded rod on which are screwed six bridges, one can regulate the action and the gap between the ropes but not the pitch ...

UTILIZATION

The first impression when you take that guitar in his hands, is that we are dealing with an object of a very different conception of what the state was united at that time, the lightness of the instrument is almost Surprisingly, it was like having a small guitar, yet compared to a Stratocaster, the dimensions are quite similar. With this form "stratabound" Access to treble is fairly easy, the handle is quite thin and flexible, we quickly realized that vibrato is rather a decorative element, and the accuracy is very approximate. No doubt, this is indeed a very economical instrument invoice for beginners in 1964 not wealthy, and in 2013 the decoration instead!
However, the sounds you can get from playing both pickups and tone remain attractive in a register rather blues-rock, the neck pickup is more comfortable and clear sound in the bridge pickup "Crunchant" fast enough.

SOUNDS

I tried this on a guitar amp all-tube class "A" to remain faithful to the spirit of the time, to be quite honest, I have not done too much last test, the instrument supporting not compare guitars with whom I used to play.
The sounds are interesting but very poor accuracy with the flexibility of an instrument handle are almost unplayable.

OVERALL OPINION

Being a bit of a collector and amateur violin, a friend turned to me to restore this guitar that I was in pretty bad shape though almost complete, so I completely disassembled sounded, I replaced the nut was broken, a mechanical eye level, I redid all the welds and cleaned all the contacts in the electronics, all polished chrome and screw heads, fully cleaned, I set all its possibilities would allow me, and equipped with a set of brand new rope pulling a not too big not to bend the handle, she found her place as a design element, it is my opinion the best she could do.
I saw in a magazine that you could find this type of instrument "in its own juice" to around € 150 a little more in good condition, book collectors, do not think the use of stage Zenith!