JObeast
Joined: Jul 24, 2012
Posts: 2762
Finknabad, Squinkistan
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Posted on May 16 2013 05:36 PM
Just thought I'd share my pride in my resurrected Teisco project, which had been languishing uncompleted in its gig bag for several years. The finish is not done by a long stretch but gold is attractive even when flawed/uncompleted. As a playing axe my Swankcaster is all there save for the GFS Vibrato tailpiece I will purchase as funds become available (yes, it's still a bargain guitar). The strange nacelle near the jack was installed to house a clunk 5-way switch for a complex wiring scheme I have since abandoned in favor of the simple GFS Surf90, which fits a HB-sized rout.
I got the notion to make a 'solid gold guitar' while working at New Bohemia Signs in SF (look up their web page – awesome work!). At New Bohemia we gild so many window signs and transom address numbers that I thought, "why not gild a Teisco?". My buddy Damon who runs the shop gave me the ET200 body blank he had and I bought a neck locally. I cut, drilled, routed and polished the slinky pickguard from a sheet of red plexi. We gilded the back and then sprayed it with black paint to protect the gild. In strong light it sparkles and the black backing shows through flaws in the gild like a faint marbling.
I set about prepping the 1" plywood Teisco 'tulip' body for a traditional picture-frame style gild by coating it in hot rabbitskin glue then applying many layers of gilder's clay bole. Then I began my gild by laying down sheets of pure gold leaf using water-based gilder's liquor. I cheaped out on purchasing a $40 gilder's agate to burnish the gild, and using a .50 cent rock the results are less than stellar – tiny flaws in the stone marred the gild and I must do it over with another layer of gold leaf. I ran out of patience as well as gold leaf on the back of the axe and have so far left it ungilded in reddish clay bole substrate.
When I can buy all the supplies to complete the gild, I plan to finish it with an Antique Spanish lacquer job. It will look like I'm playing a frame suitable to an El Greco or Velasquez.
— Squink Out!
Last edited: May 16, 2013 17:39:30
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CrashHardtop
Joined: Jun 14, 2012
Posts: 152
Meridian, Idaho
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Posted on May 16 2013 06:00 PM
Hey, it looks pretty cool the way it is. Congrats!
— More cowbell?? Nah...More Reverb!!
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Teiscofan
Joined: Feb 21, 2011
Posts: 513
Ontario
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Posted on May 16 2013 06:03 PM
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JObeast
Joined: Jul 24, 2012
Posts: 2762
Finknabad, Squinkistan
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Posted on May 16 2013 06:13 PM
Someday, it will be truly awesome. Now, just the promise of a future Solid Gold Teisco, unfulfilled. Kickstart for gilding supplies?
— Squink Out!
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Teiscofan
Joined: Feb 21, 2011
Posts: 513
Ontario
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Posted on May 16 2013 06:23 PM
I really like the red plexi pickguard. How does the GFS pickup sound in the Gilded Tulip body?
— I am not obsolete, I am RETRO.... 
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CrazyAces
Joined: Jul 31, 2012
Posts: 4053
Nashville, TN.
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Posted on May 16 2013 06:48 PM
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JObeast
Joined: Jul 24, 2012
Posts: 2762
Finknabad, Squinkistan
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Posted on May 16 2013 07:48 PM
The GFS Surf90 is situated according to the original Teisco body rout, in a near-mid position. It has pretty strong output, a woody sound like a Strat's middle p.u., not too bright, but wide-ranging. I just installed it yesterday so I am still messing with the pickup height and grokking its tone. I think the dinky mass of the tulip body sets a lot of limits here but it's got a voice of its own.
I was afraid the clay bole gild substrate would kill the resonance, such as it is, of the 1" plywood body, but I can't tell – the guitar rings pretty well acoustically through the dense stuff. I strung it with 11 nickels, and could even see putting 12 flats on it – the truss rod is barely tensioned and there is almost zero neck relief so it can withstand a heavier load. The propeller laminate is pretty rigid stuff.
Biggest drawback is the headstock is heavier than the body (maybe I should fill the empty switch pod with fishing weights to compensate). Also, the bridge is 'student width' @ 1 7/8", a 16th narrower than my Jag's. odd how that should make playing feel so different. The lower bout of the body is so tiny you have to hold the guitar very differently than you would a Fender – only 5" between fulcrum of the bridge and the lower edge of the body. To tremolo pick near the bridge, I have to tuck my elbow back nearly against my body and rotate my wrist @ nearly 90˚, like playing an Armenian Tar or a Saz. More natural position when muting with the heel.
Teiscofan wrote:
I really like the red plexi pickguard. How does the GFS pickup sound in the Gilded Tulip body?
— Squink Out!
Last edited: May 16, 2013 19:49:16
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zzero
Joined: Jul 09, 2010
Posts: 1153
Lillian Alabama
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Posted on May 16 2013 08:35 PM
now that is a SURF GUITAR!!!  
— Enjoying the surf,sun and sand!!
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JObeast
Joined: Jul 24, 2012
Posts: 2762
Finknabad, Squinkistan
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Posted on May 16 2013 09:32 PM
Not until the whammy is installed.
— Squink Out!
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JObeast
Joined: Jul 24, 2012
Posts: 2762
Finknabad, Squinkistan
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Posted on Jul 05 2013 10:21 PM
 In case anyone has been wondering what I've been doing the last 7 weeks with this project, I have two words:
French Polishing.
It's the slowest way to finish an instrument and you have to wait a month after you're done to put it in service... but it's worth the wait because it's so gorgeous, and a sensual experience applying the laquer coat by coat. A very forgiving technique (unlike gilding, which requires much previous practice to do well) because you rub out prior application flaws with each successive rubbing on of shellac. I used pure Lemon Flake lac which has a strong orange tint, giving a very red-gold (like Russian gold) result. I don't know how much further I want to go with the lacquering – I feel it's just getting good now, what the luthiers call 'bodying up' so I may keep going with it for a few hundred coats more. Then comes wet sanding and polishing to a mirror finish... next month. Maybe playable by September. 
— Squink Out!
Last edited: Jul 05, 2013 23:16:55
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Noel
Joined: Mar 15, 2011
Posts: 8528
Back in Piitsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I grew up.
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Posted on Jul 06 2013 12:24 AM
Wow!
— This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.
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JObeast
Joined: Jul 24, 2012
Posts: 2762
Finknabad, Squinkistan
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Posted on Jul 06 2013 12:30 AM
Next time I think I will just use gold paint like Fender and Gibson do. A French Polish over even spray paint looks fabulous. My gild was so bad it's just a pathetic waste of nearly 70 sheets of 23 karat leaf, and my burnish marred it further. It will look OK from a few feet away, and be nice to hold.
— Squink Out!
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bamboozer
Joined: Jan 18, 2010
Posts: 672
Delaware
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Posted on Jul 06 2013 03:20 PM
A new appreciation of gold guitars grips me, no fan of the Teisco Tulip but this one is perhaps the ultimate. As Noel said: Wow!
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CrazyAces
Joined: Jul 31, 2012
Posts: 4053
Nashville, TN.
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Posted on Jul 06 2013 03:34 PM
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Squid
Joined: Aug 22, 2010
Posts: 1019
Portland, Oregon with Insanitizers
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Posted on Jul 06 2013 09:47 PM
Maroon and gold colors look dramatically elegant together. They are the colors of the schools I graduated from. They look great on your guitar.
The GFS Bigsby-like vibrato sets are said to be made of aluminum. Because aluminum is much less dense than brass or steel I expect sustain to be much less than with a genuine Bigsby.
— Insanitizers! http://www.insanitizers.com
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JObeast
Joined: Jul 24, 2012
Posts: 2762
Finknabad, Squinkistan
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Posted on Jul 06 2013 11:04 PM
The GFS Höfner-style is close to an exact replacement for the type that would have been installed on fancier Teiscos. I really don't care about sustain as it's for surf pickin'! I don't think Bigsby makes one small enough to fit the tight space behind the bridge on this very short guitar. Like I said, you have to tuck your elbow back against you body when you tremolo pick, bending your wrist close to a right angle. It must have been designed for a little kid to play.
— Squink Out!
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CrazyAces
Joined: Jul 31, 2012
Posts: 4053
Nashville, TN.
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Posted on Jul 07 2013 02:23 PM
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JObeast
Joined: Jul 24, 2012
Posts: 2762
Finknabad, Squinkistan
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Posted on Jul 08 2013 12:18 AM
To christen your 201, did you immerse it three times or just sprinkle it? And no matter what the form, intention is everything.
Nice Teisco stable you got there. How do you like the whammy action?
— Squink Out!
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CrazyAces
Joined: Jul 31, 2012
Posts: 4053
Nashville, TN.
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Posted on Jul 08 2013 08:27 AM
"To christen your 201, did you immerse it three times or just sprinkle it?"
It was hot and humid so I soaked that little guitar, Ha!
I really like the Vibratos on most of the actual Teiscos. A little minor work here and there and they stay in tune great for me without babying them.
— http://www.facebook.com/CrazyAcesMusic
http://www.youtube.com/user/crazyacesrock
http://www.reverbnation.com/crazyacesmusic
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JObeast
Joined: Jul 24, 2012
Posts: 2762
Finknabad, Squinkistan
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Posted on Jul 08 2013 11:10 PM
Let me know about any recommended tweaks to the whammy. My French polish is coming along. I just wet-sanded it today and am applying maybe the last 100 rubbings...
I was near Crashville in 2009-10, 40 miles NW in Clarksville. You know Hendrix was stationed at Fort Campbell and supposedly lived in Clarksville for a while. You'd never know it.
— Squink Out!
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