Tiesco Sound?

Ive had my Grandpas old Teisco on the wall for years. Today, I restrung it and lowered the action and it sounds like a cheap Wal-Mart type guitar. Any ideas why?

Which model Teisco do you have? there were a LOT of different types, some of them were really cheap beginner guitars.
Did the guitar sound good to you at one time?

Because it is a cheap, Wal-Mart type guitar.

(Sorry; couldn't resist).

But that's the appeal of those guitars.

Which model Teisco do you have? there were a LOT of different types, some of them were really cheap beginner guitars.
Did the guitar sound good to you at one time?

When he first gave it to me the action was so high and I was young, so im not sure. Ill post a picture later , not sure which model though. Would changing the pups help?

please do not change the pickups! it's yours and you have the right to but alot of the character of those guitars is in the pickups, and depending on the model it might be near impossible to find a drop in replacement for them. Besides unless it's your only guitar and it absolutely has to be a player does it have to sound any better than a cheap wal-mart guitar?

My Teisco mad Silvertone rocks. It's has a very distinct sound, maybe you need to raise the pickups, or flip one of the switches.

Many Tiesco pickups are sought after and sell for more than the guitar they are in on ebay.

Post a Pic of the guitar.

my '66 e-100 "tulip" sounds great, not dissimilar to my '64 harmony bobkat, with maybe a bit more definition playing chords. the non-radiused neck feels odd on leads.

There were lots of different Teisco guitars, pups, and configurations. Most of the ones that have been sitting in a closet or on a wall for the last 40 years are almost unplayable at first, and will be relagated to slide guitar because of the required time and patience to properly set up. They will sound clunky and cheap, but with a bit of work, they will sound clunky and cheap, but in a desirable way. The pickups have a very distinct flavor, and enthusiasts will love them, others will think they suck. For me, no other pup/guitar sounds as good with a Fuzz Face. I also play it direct and clean through a bright setting on my Excelsior( a cheap, nasty peice of work in its own right) and it sounds really good like that.

Generally speaking, Teiscos like bright amp settings. Try that out and play with the pickup height.

Most Teisco pick-ups I've run into are single coil with a very (3K-4K) low output.
They tend to make nice surf (ala' Dick Dale) and grunge (ala' Black Keys) guitars?
Some came with Gold Foil pick-ups (ala' Ry Cooder, David Lindley, & Jackson Browne).
A little higher (5K) output, and really a nice sounding pick-up, IMHO.
And YES, it's often cheaper to buy an entire guitar with Gold Foil pick-ups, than to purchase them individually.

Steve

When he first gave it to me the action was so high and I was young, so im not sure. Ill post a picture later , not sure which model though. Would changing the pups help?

What amp are you playing your Teisco through?

Because it is a cheap, Wal-Mart type guitar.

(Sorry; couldn't resist).

But that's the appeal of those guitars.

But very true.:cool:

Mine sounds something like a Jazzmaster.

The pickups are quite powerful and I can get some decent sounds out of it incl tele neck-like and strat bridge/middle-like sounds, also good with heavy OD.

Fiddle with the amp.

What amp are you playing your Teisco through?

Bugera V22 and Fender Champ 600.

Here she is:

133516

Sorry, my phone tilts the picture.

They have there own sound. That's what i like about them, tough i put an P90 in one of mine.
Mine looks about the same as yours.

That looks like a variation of an ET200... or what we call a Tulip. cool guitars, great for slide.

The pickups on your model are pretty clean sounding. I have a different model but w/ the same pickups. They do have their own charm. If you want more breakup I suggest you use a pedal or turn up the gain.

For my Coodercaster. Got to get some other stuff finished so I can put it together!

Bugera V22 and Fender Champ 600.

Here she is:

133516

Sorry, my phone tilts the picture.

That looks like a cool guitar.

The pickups aren't the sought after "Cooder" style pickups though but I bet you could get a sound that would be usable for something.

Surprisingly, the necks on those things are often pretty straight and I've managed to get the ones I've had fairly playable.

I'm really into Teisco Tulips at the moment - I bought some "broken" ones on Ebay for cheap and managed to get 4 complete instruments out of them.

At the moment one of those is the guitar I leave around to grab if I want to noodle for a bit.

Here is a bunch of Teisco pickup info I copied from an ebay ad.


Jason Lollar, the renowned pickup designer, and considered by many to be a noted authority on nearly everything related to electric pickups (he wrote "Basic Pickup Winding and Complete Guide to Making Your Own Pickup Winder" and contributed to Bart Hopkin's book "Getting A Bigger Sound: Pickups and Microphones for Your Musical Instrument") covered them as follows.....

One has the large screw pole pieces running along the center with a chrome surround.
Another type has smaller pole piece screws and a chrome surround with four fixing screws somewhat like a Rickenbacker toaster or a DeArmond. These use a strip of magnetized rubber.

A third type, with small pole piece screws along the edge (the type used by Ry Cooder) are considered by many to be the best sounding of the three with a slightly higher output, roughly 5.6k ohms, and alnico magnets in the pole pieces. The coil around the alnico magnet sits off to one side, the six (visible) srews sit on the other - the end result is a single coil with a "sensing area" more akin to a humbucker and in a very low-profile pickup - similar in concept to Epiphone's "New Yorker".

This is one of the third, and most desirable, type, from a Teisco SS-4L imported in to the UK by Rose-Morris and re-branded "Top Twenty" and given the model name "Orbit 4". The guitar itself was an early 1964 model (later in '64 the headstock went from 6-in-a-row to a 4/2 layout). Great sounding and low noise with good screening. They have the advantage of that low profile - making it possible to install them on all sorts of guitars like National Resonators and Dobros as well as most electrics..... I know Ry has one fitted to the neck position on a 1960's Fender Stratocaster he used for blues bottleneck, a pup he got from David Lindley on the strength of Dave Hill out of Texas playing one - rumour is DH built the second ever Coodercaster for Ry when techying at either Soundgarden or PearlJam in Seattle. I think Ry has one at the neck on a later (probably 1990's) Telecaster which is a Bajo Sexto Telecaster Customshop model. Other users are the aforementioned David Lindley, Elvis Costello and Jackson Brown..... and dear ol' Hound Dog Taylor.

Considered a trifle "dull" sounding by some players, others find them "warm" with a nuance added by being slightly microphonic that modern pickups lack. They have a single coil wrapped directly around the low grade ceramic magnet. Since the coils are very thin, most of the turns are pretty close to the top of the pickup, making them quite efficient. The bottom plate is steel, to carry the magnetic field to the pole pieces which do not have winding around them. Several folk who have dismantled them reckon about 8,000 turns of #44 wire and thus about 10kOhms. This is pickup # 3 of 4 in total (yup, the Teisco SS-4L guitar had four pups !)
It reads 6,200 Ohms DC (analogue meter, fresh batteries)

I will include the original mounting screws - and, if you buy pairs, the progressive shims and mounting plate for each pair - first come first serve on which of the three shims you want (1.5mm. 2mm or 2.75mm by eye/ruler) The early 60's Teisco gold foil pickup is (vaguely) a Japanese version of the American DeArmond foil type pup. Made when Teisco actually WAS Teisco (1948 to 1969) rather than Kawai - though later than their wonderfully named "Hollyhock Soundwave" incarnation.

Teisco in the USA were badged "Teisco Del Rey" from 1964 and also imported as Silvertone, Kent, Beltone, Duke, Heit Deluxe, Jedson, Kimberly, Kingston, Lyle, Norma, Tulio and World Teisco. UK imports were Arbiter, Sonatone, Audition, Kay and Top Twenty. Below is an SS-4L setup - you can see the plates - the shims sit under the pups, dropping to the neck with no shim.....) Below are the two common types often listed "as used by Ry Cooder" or Coodercaster pups when in fact they are not, and they don't sound as good either. Note the central pole pieces on both - larger on the right, and the 4 mounting screws on the left hand pup. Ol' Ryland Cooder knows of what he speaks - the pups he likes are the off-centre pole piece and two-hole models - as fitted to the SS-4L he is holding here:-