Teisco

Tokyo Electric Instrument and Sound Company

Type	Musical instrument manufacturing
Industry	Musical instruments
Founded	1948
Founder(s)	Atswo Kaneko, Doryo Matsuda
Headquarters	Tokyo, Japan
Area served	Global

A vintage Teisco Del Rey EV-3T.

Similar designs (early 1960s)
Hagström (ca. 1960)	Eko (1960-1962)	Teisco SS-4L (1962)	Ibanez (1960s)

Teisco (テスコ) was a Japanese manufacturer of affordable musical instruments from 1948 until 1969, and now its brand is owned by Kawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (河合楽器製作所; Kawai Gakki Seisakusho). The company produced guitars as well as keyboard instruments, microphones, amplifiers and even drums. Teisco products were widely exported to the United States and the United Kingdom.

Company history

The Teisco brand name stands for 'Tokyo Electric Instrument and Sound Company'. Teisco was founded in 1946 by renowned Hawaiian and Spanish guitarist Atswo Kaneko, and electrical engineer Doryu Matsuda. The company was originally called Aoi Onpa Kenkyujo (roughly: Hollyhock Soundwave or Electricity Laboratories). In 1956, the company name was changed to Nippon Onpa Kogyo Co., and changed to Teisco Co. in 1964. In 1967, the company was acquired by Kawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (河合楽器製作所; Kawai Gakki Seisakusho), who discontinued the Teisco brand name for guitars in 1969 (1977 in Japan), but continued to use it for electronic keyboards until the 1980s.

Products

Guitars

Original designs (1960s)
Teisco MJ-2L (1965)	Teisco EP-200 (1966)	Teisco K4L (1966)	Teisco Spectrum 2 (ca.1969)

Teisco guitars sold in the United States were badged "Teisco Del Rey" beginning in 1964. Teisco guitars were also imported in the U.S. under several brand names including Silvertone, Kent, Beltone, Duke, Heit Deluxe, Jedson, Kimberly, Kingston, Lyle, Norma, Tulio and World Teisco. Likewise, they were imported in the U.K under such labels as Arbiter, Sonatone, Audition, Kay and Top Twenty. While guitars manufactured by Teisco were ubiquitous in their day, they are now very collectable. In fact, highly sought after models are now being reproduced.

From 1948 to the early 1960s Teisco products were often, like many Japanese products of the period, shared several designs with American and Western European products of the time including Hagström and EKO. However, in the early 1960s Teisco products became increasingly unique. Teisco guitars became notable for unusual body shapes, such as the May Queen design resembling an artist's palette, or other unusual features such as having four pickups (most guitars have two or three). The vast amount of controls; typically an individual switch for each pickup, plus a tone or phase-cancellation switch, along with as many as five tone and volume knobs gave a wide variety of sounds yet were easily switched while playing. After Kawai bought Teisco in 1967, they started to produce all the Teisco guitars, as well as their own brand, Apollo. Hound Dog Taylor famously used a variety of these Kawai-era Teiscos, which he bought at his local Sears department store. Jim Reid of The Jesus and Mary Chain used a Spectrum V.

Many Teisco guitars had a primitive tailed bridge in their extended tail bridges with limited timbre when used in an extended technique. When the strings are attacked behind the bridge, a 3rd bridge sound is created. This is one of the reasons these guitars became popular again during the 90s among many noise artists as a cheaper alternative for the Fender Jaguar or Jazzmaster, which were beginning to attract collector interest.

• 

  Teisco EP-7
  (1955 or 1964)
• 

  Teisco E-110 & EB-110
  tulip guitar & bass (1965)

• 

  Teisco Vegas40
  (1966)
• 

  Teisco May Queen
  (1968, seems origin of Eko/Vox Mandoguitar)

• 

  Del Rey EV-3T
  (produced after Vox Phantom)

Teisco NB-4

Teisco also produced a six-string bass (baritone guitar) similar to the Fender Bass VI which was itself an uncommon instrument. The Teisco six-string bass followed an unusual body shape that was used on one of their guitars. It had an off-set body shape similar to a Jazzmaster, but with an extended top horn, a 'monkey handle' cutout on the left-facing side of the bridge and a Fender-style headstock with an over-sized scroll. This instrument, as well as its regular-scale guitar equivalent, can be heard extensively on Blonde Redhead's early albums of the 90's, where they used its wide range to switch between bass and guitar melodies in the course of single songs.

Basses

Teisco basses are easily identified through a unique pickup design exclusive to the Del Rey series. This design consisted of a large rectangular chrome pickup with black plastic holding the four poles in one place. Other designs may vary, but are all easily distinguishable and unique among subsequent bass designs.

Amplifiers

Teisco 74 R Amplifier

Teisco also produced numerous models of guitar and bass amplifiers which were often sold under the Checkmate brand name, but also named Teisco or Silvertone. In the 1950s, early amplifier models were very basic 5-10 watt tube/valve designs. During the 1960s, more advanced and powerful models were offered, such as Checkmate 25, Checkmate 50,and Checkmate 100 featuring dual channels, reverb and tremolo effects. Teisco also made solid-state (transistor-based) models, some designed no less radically than their guitars of the time. The Sound Port 60 (60 watts/RMS) and Sound Port 120 (120 watts/RMS) amplifiers from the late 1960s were copies of Fender's silverfaced Vibro Champ and Twin Reverb.

Synthesizers

Teisco Synthesizer 60F

Teisco also produced a range of synthesizers, with models including the 60F, 110F, 100F, 100P, SX-210, SX-240, and SX-400.

Bands such as Hot Chip (UK), Pure Reason Revolution (UK), and Goose (Belgium) are known to use Teisco synthesizers.

Drums

Teisco marketed drum sets in limited sizes and configurations during the 1960s, sold under the brand name Del Ray. They were produced by sub-contractors to fill out the company's catalog as a supplier of combo instruments , but discontinued after the acquisition by Kawai.

References

• Teisco timeline by Mark Cole
• Teisco catalog 1964-1965, Nihon Onpa Kōgyō, Co. (日本音波工業)
• Teisco catalog 1965 by Yamaha
• Teisco catalog 1965-66, Teisco Co.
• Teisco catalog 1966, p. 1–2, Tesico Co.
• Teisco catalog 1967, Teisco Shōji, Co. (テスコ商事)
• Teisco catalog 1968 (publisher unknown)
• New Sounds In Music - Solid State Effect Guitars (late 1960s), Teisco Shōji, Co. (テスコ商事)
• Teisco catalog 1974/5, Kawai/Teisco
• Teisco catalog 1980, Kawai/Teisco
• Teisco catalog 1982, Kawai/Teisco

External links

• Teisco Twangers, a site for Teisco collectors
• VintAxe.com, features pictures and descriptions of Vintage Teisco Guitars. Must pay for access.
• Teisco synthesizers pages, with information on various models of Teisco synthesizers
• Vintage Synth Explorer: Teisco synthesizers
• Teisco synthesizer & Sequencer, Sequencer.de
• Teisco Amps
• Japanese Page on King of Kays - information and photos of vintage Japanese electric guitars at KingofKays.com