A mystery for the Shortscale brethren.On the way to work I saw this in a shop window, walked out with it five minutes later. It's Korean-made, "Amena" brand (I think an Australian importer of Teiscos and so on). Looks 60s to me but since the body is clearly a Mustang copy it must be post 1964. 24" scale, quite a flat neck, action is high but nothing a shim won't fix.
Plenty of rust and grime but it's in basically good shape apart from a loose nut and two tuner pegs broken off. Anyone know of a source for replacement pegs? They are open-back tuners in a strip and the pegs are white plastic with a gear thread on them.
Better pics to follow ... if my wife lets me into the house with it ... !
ok, ok. that one wasn't mine per se, but it was exactly the same. the only differences were a lot of finish checking, grime and no trem bar. the pickups look identical to yours, broheim.
Yeesh, no way. I'm totally in love with the look, it will get cleaned and set up, and two new tuner pegs, that's it. Unless the electronics are shot, in which case we will need to get the soldering iron out. Seller claimed it made a sound plugged into an amp, so here's hoping.
It's so weird, I had been thinking no way do I need another guitar, but I could really go for a sunburst Mustang with a black guard. Someone in Korea heard my wish 45 years ago.
that's weird. i just noticed you mentioned yours was korean, but mine said "made in japan" on the volute.
the tuners are going to be a tough one, because iirc, they're spaced really weird. finding replacements will be tough, because sight unseen, you'll never know if they're in the same position.
Not a Teisco, as those were made in Japan, but a similarly cheap guitar from the '70s. They were usually branded Kay in the UK and sold through Kay's (mail order) catalogue.
Everyone with one of these for sale claims it's a) a Teisco, b) from the '60s and c) has the same gold-foil pickups Ry Cooder uses....but they're nothing but black-hearted liars, those people.
The tin bridge is the same type you find on dirt-cheap 'early '80s Satellite guitars, presumably from the same factory, also sold through the catalogues.
The Koreans were waaaay behind the Japanese - who had become pretty good at guitar-making by the mid-70s - and most of those guitars are barely playable, with uber-cheap hardware and plywood bodies and necks.
If you manage to turn it into something you can enjoy, then more power to you, but it'll be an uphill struggle. The most obvious way to replace the missing/broken tuners is to cannibalise another incomplete set if you have them or can find them locally. I've had to do this a few times with weirdly-spaced strip tuners and it's an easy enough fix. If you really care how it looks, you could chuck in all 6 posts/buttons from another set so they'll all match, or try to find a set of individual ones that'll fit the spacing.
eh, when i originally got mine, it had a teisco foil badge on the headstock that was original, and said MADE IN JAPAN on the headstock, so i'm quite certain it was a teisco that was made in japan. but it's unfortunate that i am all-round a black-hearted liar.
Maybe the production of these guitars shifted to Korea after Kawai ditched the Teisco brand name in 1969. They might have even used left-over parts to make them.
I wasn't trying to cause offence - just highlighting the fact that there's a lot of wishful thinking attached to these guitars, particularly on eBay where it obviously suits sellers to claim they're older and better than they actually are.
Interesting stuff, thanks. Mine has a foil sticker on the volute saying Made in Korea with a separate serial number sticker. The good news is that the neck is neither chunky nor unwieldy, it's maple-like wood and has almost the same profile as my favourite Telecaster. That's why I chose this over the more-expensive, Made in Japan guitar in the same store, which had a lumpy neck made of some kind of porous crapwood with orange stain on it. The neck is also straight and has a truss rod (working?) but the drawback is that the fretboard seems to be absolutely flat, i.e. no radius. Being a lover of 7.5" radius that is a drawback.
The pickups are interesting, they have the same cover as the legendary gold-foils and the internal construction is the same. However the screws on the top have a large head, and the "inside cover" material is black cloth not gold foil.
I had the same idea about cannibalising another tuner strip. The spacing seems to be exactly an inch, i.e. the E-to-E measurement is 127mm = exactly 5 inches. When I can get it tuned, then I can think about an intonable bridge or at least optimising this one (which is only held on by 2 tiny screws so easily angled).
BUT - the process of surviving the "ANOTHER guitar?" questioning was that it became a Christmas gift, so I have to put it away for a month ... ! Plenty of time to find some tuners.
Thanks again guys. Better pics to follow.
Considering I've bought it, that's not exactly an option. It's actually a fair way toward playable already!
Also I've realised I can disassemble the junk tuners from my five dollar strat and use the pegs/gears to replace the broken ones on this. The strat is getting some Kluson copies anyway.
That's plan B - basically the existing bridge uses 2 tiny screws to anchor the base to the body, so I can undo those and make it float, allowing the best placement to be figured out. If that gets me there I will drill and screw in the new location. If not, I have a tune-o-matic in the parts bin including mounting studs etc. and I will check that for spacing.
I also did see some of these guitars on eGay..from brands like Kay, Teisco, unnamed..seemed the were sold by warehouses in the 70ies. Thurston Moore played one, too ..
I had some japanese guitars, looked funny but made of mahagony! the neck often was beefy..
endsjustifymeans wrote:My advise, back away slowly.
Unplayable monstrosities they are.
Do any other bridges drop in? Seems like that would be the place to start if the neck is Ok.
Finding some sort of intonatable top-mounted bridge as narrow as the original - 67mm post to post - is going to be a tall order. If you went with something broader wouldn't you have to place it further back to get manageable string spacing, and wouldn't that lead to the intonation being out by a country mile?
These are the kind of challenges that make these guitars more effort than they're worth (for me, anyway).
I think sticking with the original bridge (or maybe using the base, posts and rollers and making/adapting a more substantial metal or hard wood bridge) and living with the less-than-ideal intonation might be the best compromise.
