Pickups to pair with Teisco body.

[JuanHalen]

So a Teisco body (an ET-200 Version 11 to be exact according to the internet) came up for sale on Ebay and I couldn't resist. Received the body today and it's smaller than I thought it would be, maybe 2/3rd the thickness of a typical strat body and a good inch or two shorter. It's also really light, in fact on closer inspection of the cavities it looks as though this is a laminate plywood body made up of several sheets of wood glued together.

Anyway, I'm looking for pickups or mods for this guitar and as it's a rather weird little thing I'm looking for weird/interesting sound/tone. I'm tempted to go after some modern versions of gold foil pickups, as would be on the original guitar but just wondered if there was anything really radical or bizarre sounding I could fit. The guitar itself I just want to be a bit of fun, the kind of thing someone would look at and think, gee, that's a really interesting looking guitar, then plug it in and get a sound they don't really expect. Still want it to sound good of course but I already have guitars that'll do your conventional tones and I have a rule not to own two guitars that sound the same, so it kind of has to justify its inclusion in the stable of guitars.

So yeah, open to ideas.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Pickups to pair with Teisco body.

They often had very shallow gold foil style pickups. Guitar Fetish has cheap pickups in that style.

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[Chistopher]

Re: Pickups to pair with Teisco body.

Are you good with routing? Because you will likely need to route both the body and the pickguard to do the mods that you want to do.

Do you have a picture of the guitar you are referring to? There are many styles of guitar with that name off of a quick google search.

 

[JuanHalen]

Re: Pickups to pair with Teisco body.

Are you good with routing? Because you will likely need to route both the body and the pickguard to do the mods that you want to do.

Do you have a picture of the guitar you are referring to? There are many styles of guitar with that name off of a quick google search.

Well the body is very thin, like 29-30mm, a standard neck will sit much higher than a recessed pickup on this and traditionally on these guitars mounted on the top of pick guard, kind of similar to a semi-acoustic. They are odd little guitars.

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Pickups to pair with Teisco body.

I actually used one on stage for a few months. I cut the cover on a shallow P-90 looking single-coil to surface mount it in the bridge position and got a very interesting surfy twang sound. I would probably hate it now but circa 1986 playing in an original sort-of goth, sort-of punk, sort-of trashabilly band I really liked it until the neck warped like spaghetti.
The pickup was actually wound a lot like a Jazzmaster pickup, kinda wide but very shallow coil. Can a Jazzmaster pickup cover be cut down enough to surface mount like that?

 

[freefrog]

Re: Pickups to pair with Teisco body.

Some vintage Rowe/DeArmond have a big fat old school tone in a very flat format and can still be found for relatively cheap IME. They would be interesting for someone who plays with not much gain (or they'll squeal). Just be aware that the models with pole pieces match narrow string spacings - reason why it's safer to try a "foil" model without screw poles. Last but not least, their flatness is adapted to surface mount (and they are relatively easy to mod because they hold to their baseplates with cheap hollow rivets). I've currently one of these in mid position of a semi hollow body (a Silver Foil like these ones, which are actually Rowe/DeArmond and not Teisco: https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/21134-cult-coils-lesser-known-vintage-pickups?page=7).

Other solution coming to my mind and requiring possiby no routing (or not much): Tri-sonic's. These are also shallow pickups, with a lot of character. Even more than Rowe/DeArmond. And they don't squeal nor hum much IME.

I'd also consider the possibility of lipstick pickups amputated of their mounting brackets, for example.

Let us know what's your choice and have fun!

 

[JuanHalen]

Re: Pickups to pair with Teisco body.

Some vintage Rowe/DeArmond have a big fat old school tone in a very flat format and can still be found for relatively cheap IME. They would be interesting for someone who plays with not much gain (or they'll squeal). Just be aware that the models with pole pieces match narrow string spacings - reason why it's safer to try a "foil" model without screw poles. Last but not least, their flatness is adapted to surface mount (and they are relatively easy to mod because they hold to their baseplates with cheap hollow rivets). I've currently one of these in mid position of a semi hollow body (a Silver Foil like these ones, which are actually Rowe/DeArmond and not Teisco: https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/21134-cult-coils-lesser-known-vintage-pickups?page=7).

Other solution coming to my mind and requiring possiby no routing (or not much): Tri-sonic's. These are also shallow pickups, with a lot of character. Even more than Rowe/DeArmond. And they don't squeal nor hum much IME.

I'd also consider the possibility of lipstick pickups amputated of their mounting brackets, for example.

Let us know what's your choice and have fun!

See I did consider Tri-sonics but I have it in the back of my head somewhere to make a red special-esque clone...maybe this could be my red special? I wonder if the relative hollowness of the body, as you can see above the size of the cavities in relation to the body and that it's a very lightweight and not particularly dense wood/laminate construction if it would pair well with the Tri-sonics? Because I know May's has a relatively hollow body with large cavities.

 

[freefrog]

Re: Pickups to pair with Teisco body.

See I did consider Tri-sonics but I have it in the back of my head somewhere to make a red special-esque clone...maybe this could be my red special? I wonder if the relative hollowness of the body, as you can see above the size of the cavities in relation to the body and that it's a very lightweight and not particularly dense wood/laminate construction if it would pair well with the Tri-sonics? Because I know May's has a relatively hollow body with large cavities.

IMHO, the scale of the neck and its material would matter more than the hollowness of the body. For the record, I've fitted a Burns Bison RI (3 Tri-sonic's model) with a Brian May'esque wiring : its very large electronic cavity add some subharmonic and depth to the tone but the overall sound remains bright. If the guitar had something else than a Gibson scale maple neck, it would probably sound closer to Red Special (like a short scale Strat in which I've mounted a bridge Tri-sonic, although it's made of "wrong' woods and is less chambered).

If I had to rebuild a guitar with the body that you show, I'd probably try to end with a clone of Danelectro Hornet: http://www.oneverybootleg.nl/MK_guitars_silvertone.jpg

That's why I've mentioned Lipstick PU's.

Do what you want and be happy. Good luck in your experiments!