Greetings from Germany / Who build my guitar?

[borsten]

Hi,

I'm Torsten from Germany. I play guitar since 1979. Owned some Teles before: Two nice 1997 Korean Squiers and a Cheri HM-Telecaster. Sold them, because I'm more into Strats.

But sometimes I really NEEED to have some "new" guitars so I just bought a strange Tele on ebay (see attached Photos).

I'm sure that the neck does not belong to the body, it looks like it's taken from a German guitar from the sixties with its zero fret. I'm interested in facts about the body. This looks a bit more "modern" with its contoured horn and the non-pickguard body, doesn't it? But who manufactured it??

I googled for some hours, but can't find anything similar. Does anybody know about that thing?

[kman900]

Welcome!

Here's the right place for you. I have the impression that i learned more about guitars during tha last six months than in the 49 years before . .

The neck could be some early Hopf or Höfner .. but could be japanese as well. The bridge definetely is made by Rockinger . .

[Nighthawk]

Welcome to TDPRI.

[jkingma]

Welcome to the forum.

The neck could be late 60's or early 70's Japanese or European.

The body could very well be someone's homemade project (judging by the finish). Hard to say.

[borsten]

I don't really think it's home made, because of the electronics' and neck humbucker's cavities...

Well, I bought it yesterday and did not receive it yet. Let's see what it says, when I remove the neck. Maybe it's an expensive warmoth body

[Televised]

I'll be intereted to hear what that is.....new species of guitar discovered. Looks good though and have a hunch it will sound good, just I've never seen anything quite like it. Is it a humbucker bridge and a P-90 neck pick up?

[jkingma]

Originally Posted by Televised

I'll be intereted to hear what that is.....new species of guitar discovered. Looks good though and have a hunch it will sound good, just I've never seen anything quite like it. Is it a humbucker bridge and a P-90 neck pick up?

I think thats an empty humbucker hole by the neck.

[Maxwell Street]

Santa.... just kidding.....good luck with your quest...

[FrankJames]

Welcome to TDPRI !!

[kman900]

and see what i've found . .



It's in this book:



Weisse Bescheid!

I remember that a friend of mine had one of these. We built a Firebird clone, using that neck. Maybe he still has the other parts somewhere . . ;-)

[KidTelecaster]

Willkommen und viele spass haben.

(Mein Deutsch ist sehr schlect, es tut mir leid)

[Bruce_99]

Willkommen an Bord..!! :-)

[borsten]

Deutsch: Moin moin, kann leider nicht erkennen, was auf der Kopfplatte steht.

For all the others: Hi, unfortunately I can't read, what's written on the Headstock.

Klira? Framus? Teisco?

[kman900]

I only could read it while zooming into the headstock . . it's a little round sticker that says "Top Twenty" . . it's form Japan. I guess it's made by the Kawai factory.

[Groovey Records]

You wanna rock?

[borsten]

Yeah, Kawai and Teisco belonged together. I'm pretty sure now, the neck was made by them.

So, let's see who made the body. Still waiting for the postman bringing the parcel. Here in Germany it's getting winter now. The right time to park one japanese beauty in the garage and care about another one inside the house.

[RiverDog]

Welcome!

Don't know about the guitar but that's a crazy looking bridge!

[borsten]

Finally it arrived. Wow, what a punk-guitar !

Body is very thin, with home made contours. It's either dyed or has been treated with a coloured wax-oil. Neck-Humbucker hole is completely filled with black painted liquid wood (don't know the correct word in english). Pickguard holes (there were a lot of them) are also filled with that. The Instrument is dirty and rusty like hell. Needs a cleaning and polishing urgently.

Pickup seems to be Gibson Dirty fingers. Engraved "Pat No 2 737 842" and stamped "42 78 80".

Tuners are old style, genuine Schaller, with chrome heads, not plastic. Bridge is made for a Headless guitar, but works well. The string holes at the back of the guitar are closed (filled).

Unbelieveable, but the instrument plays very very well, action is a little bit high, but can be lowered without any problem, octave-intonation is adjusted 100 % correct. Neck is straight, no bad fretwear, has white bindings. The guitar sustains well (longer than my US-Stratocaster).

The pickup is tapped and can be switched to single coil mode by turning one of the knobs. The humbucker sounds amazing, powerful, with an emphased mid-range, a bit like a standing filter :-) and a hard "attack". It reminds a bit on early Van Halen recordings. Unfortunately it is not wax potted, so it tends to be microphonic at high gain settings.

Apart from one missing string and a broken grounding wire (soldering point) this is ready to rock right out of the box :-)

Did I mention, I paid 40 EUR for it, that's about 65 US $ No bad deal, or what do you think about it?