Some months ago I picked up a very battered Teisco K-2L for pretty cheap. It's in serious need of some work; the nut was lost at some point and has been replaced with on that's far too narrow, it really needs some fret work done, the vibrato arm is stiff, tuners loose, etc.

But aside from all that, one thing stuck with me: the pickups on this thing sound absolutely incredible.

I have no idea what they are, how they're made, anything like that. All I know is that the bridge pickup with some reverb on it is one of the best guitar sounds I've ever heard.

Very twangy, but not piercingly so. Much fuller sounding than my Jaguar, for comparison's sake. Higher output than my Jag too, if the volume of the thing is anything to go by. The bass-cut switch is less useful than on a Jag, but other than that it holds up very, very well.

Now, it's not the best guitar in the world. The bridge is fixed, unintonatable, it's got the classic 60's backwards tone pot, and the strap button is on the back of the neck. But the sound is there, and that's pretty important.

I did record a quick demo, but it's only a phone video so the sound isn't great. Pretty sloppy playing too, but I hope it get's the point across though.

But yeah, anyone smarter than me know what makes these pickups sound like they do? I wouldn't mind a similar sounding set to put in another guitar!

Earth. Atomizer. Let's go.

The Atom Jacks
The Tridents

Welcome to the wonderful world of Teisco square pole pickups!

I've long been a collector, restorer, repairperson of these Japanese treasures (yeah, yeah, I know, to many folks they are junk) and our band have used them extensively live and in our recordings.

As far as construction goes they are nothing like a Gold Foil pickup.
These "square pole" pickups have a coil wrapped around a standard, plastic bobbin, steel pole pieces that are actually connected to each other or one cast part and they have two rather huge ceramic magnets under the coil/pole piece assembly.
As stated above, this construction can often times lend itself to some serious microphonics however the pickups often respond well to being wax potted.
If you are looking for an additional set try to find some that have a grey or white insulator sleeve over the red, white and ground wires, as pictured below. After Kawai took over Teisco in '67 this pickup was changed for the worse with less windings and weak, un-defined output/tone.
The two period pickups look almost identical but you can spot the Kawai era versions easily as they have three, small individual wires coming out of the pickup base as opposed to the insulated wire.

With the three wires that all of these had you can flip the phase for fun sounds or to correct phasing issues with another pickup.
Pretty cool stuff for the time period.

Here's a few pictures of one dissected on the bench.

Cheers,
Jeff

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Last edited: Jul 30, 2018 18:44:24

For some time I have loved the sharkfin body design - they look awesome in blue or red. And I too love the Teisco and other random Japanese guitars from the 60's. Some of them are true junk (especially after 5 decades), but others can be made quite playable with some work and many can sound great, like yours.

The different designs of pickups for those guitars is mind-boggling and I appreciate they didn't all just settle for copying single coils, humbuckers, and P-90s. I'm all for trying out any of them to see what they bring, as I'm often looking for something that doesn't sound like so many other guitars out there.

That being said, the more converts there are to these guitars, the more the prices go up...So what I meant to say is Teiscos suck!

That's truly great, it sounds just 'right'. Wish I'd caught up with your band in Hastings, my home town. Plus, what reverb and amp were you using in the video, very cool.

Smart_Patrol wrote:*

Some months ago I picked up a very battered Teisco K-2L for pretty cheap. It's in serious need of some work; the nut was lost at some point and has been replaced with on that's far too narrow, it really needs some fret work done, the vibrato arm is stiff, tuners loose, etc.

But aside from all that, one thing stuck with me: the pickups on this thing sound absolutely incredible.

I have no idea what they are, how they're made, anything like that. All I know is that the bridge pickup with some reverb on it is one of the best guitar sounds I've ever heard.

Very twangy, but not piercingly so. Much fuller sounding than my Jaguar, for comparison's sake. Higher output than my Jag too, if the volume of the thing is anything to go by. The bass-cut switch is less useful than on a Jag, but other than that it holds up very, very well.

Now, it's not the best guitar in the world. The bridge is fixed, unintonatable, it's got the classic 60's backwards tone pot, and the strap button is on the back of the neck. But the sound is there, and that's pretty important.

I did record a quick demo, but it's only a phone video so the sound isn't great. Pretty sloppy playing too, but I hope it get's the point across though.

But yeah, anyone smarter than me know what makes these pickups sound like they do? I wouldn't mind a similar sounding set to put in another guitar!

Last edited: Jul 31, 2018 13:15:46