My first electric guitar was this strange looking red thing with two white toggles and two pickups that put out a heck of a lot more noise than you had a right to expect from what was obviously a cheaply made guitar.
The head of the thing seemed to be a Fender headstock that had been exposed to lots of radiation.
Oh yeah, it also had about a dozen BBs lodged in the back from when somebody used it for target practice.
My friend gave it to me when he got an Ibanez Les Paul copy. He was in a band, I was his backup rhythym guitarist when the real guy was unavailable and actually played out a couple of times using this thing.
Anyway, I recently discovered the thing (I don't remember it having any kind of identifying label anywhere, I'd named it Buddy Holly and lost it in college when I brokeup with the girl whose house I'd left it at) was probably a Teisco WG-2L. I found this photo on the Web, and it's the same guitar, only with a much better paint job.
http://www.vintagesilvertones.com/forsale_silvertone_wg2l.html
Anyway, from what I've read, Teisco was the brand sold by Sears back in the 60s, so I was wondering, anyone else ever have a Teisco guitar?
I seem to recall that it really wasn't a bad guitar for something that probably didn't cost a whole heck of a lot. Anyone else ever own one?

"We're lousy, we can't play. If you wait until you can play, you'll be too old to get up there. We stink, really. But it's great," Johnny Ramone .

I didn't start out with a Teisco, but I currently own several of them; a Spectrum 5, two "Sharkfins" (one modified), two Mayqueens, an offset, Strat-shaped hollow body, a violin bass, and two Vox Phantom copies. They're actually pretty decent guitars, and would make fine first instruments.

It was a pretty awful guitar, but I probably would have appreciated it more had I been aware of Hound Dog taylor back then. That wouldn't be for another 4 or 5 years or so. I traded the guitar for a pretty decent skateboard when I figured out the damn thing was too microphonic to be of any real use.

When I was in high school in the early 1980's, a friend of mine made a guitar out of a Tony Alva deck and a Teisco neck, thus ruining a perfectly good skateboard and a perfectly cheesey guitar.

Yupp! my first electric anyways was a Tiesco I got off of ebay for $25, it resembled a jaguar mustang hybrid, it was a neat throw around guitar, but it felt hollow, but the pickups weren't half bad in it, or well maybe they were i just wouldn't have know it then..........

Iv only seen one other since iv sold it

You laugh at me because I'm differnet, i laugh at you becuase you are all the same

My first surf rig was a St George guitar through a Danelectro reverb into a Magnatone amp,,should have kept the Maggie!

www.northofmalibu.com

I just bought a Tiesco at a flea market last weekend for 35 bucks. It's not a fancy model but was intact. What's up with that multi-laminated neck? Another vendor had an alligator style case I picked up for 5 bucks that fit the guitar just fine. The guitar needs some attention, lots of scratchiness and buzzing!

http://www.reverbnation.com/theampfibians
http://www.reverbnation.com/thesouthgateboys

tommyalvarado

My first surf rig was a St George guitar through a Danelectro reverb into a Magnatone amp,,should have kept the Maggie!

Yeah, we all have things we should have kept... I really miss my 1965 Lake Placid Blue Jazzmaster with matching headstock, but that's for another thread... Was the St. George guitar made in Japan? I have one that I think might be a Teisco product, but it's unlike any other Teisco I've ever seen, and it has an aqua-sparkle padded case. Anybody else ever seen a Teisco/St. George?

The ST George was a sunburst MIJ...not as bad as some guitars at the time but the pups were weak....you can sure get a better guitar for litlle money now days...

www.northofmalibu.com

I just rewired my Sekova (greenburst like the one in the photo) and finally got everything working properly. It is basically a Teisco guitar with a different headstock made in the early 70s. It is kind of a junky guitar but it makes up for it in looks.
http://www.instructables.com/files/deriv/F2N/H8T3/F6S8RYBZ/F2NH8T3F6S8RYBZ.MEDIUM.jpg

Cool Sekova.
FWIW Sekova was made by Kawai after they bought out Teisco in '67.
They're cool guitars but don't have the quality of the earlier (late 50's to mid 60's) Teiscos before the buy out.

http://www.facebook.com/CrazyAcesMusic
http://www.youtube.com/user/crazyacesrock
http://www.reverbnation.com/crazyacesmusic

Technically, a Teisco was my first electric.. but it went back for a refund in a week. The blasted thing would not stay in tune, had no pickup output (with three pickups no less) and the neck was reconstituted cardboard. I got a better Japanese instrument(a Domino?) for a time then saved my money to get a Fender Mustang. It was OK but once I got rid of it, I never looked back. Mosrites were expensive, so I buckled down, earned some cash and got one - then another...etc. I had some self discipline to avoid the usual Fender Stratocaster-Jimi_Hendrix nonsense of the day.
So now I have many several Mosrites (or so) and I think a Stratocaster (or two) is in the closet somewhere - maybe.
I still don't get the attraction to the cheapo Teiscos of the 60s although I do toy with the idea of getting a Spectrum. An American made Harmony or Kay from the same era is a better bet. At least they are reliable cheapo instruments
So many guitars out there - so little time.
J Mo'

I started on a 1 pickup jag style Teisco, what is strange is that I found it last Summer at a yard sale for $2.00. It was a crappy guitar but it was my first, so I paid the two bucks.