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A bit of history. Back in the late eighties, when I was in high school, I played with a bass and I picked up an old beater six string to mess with as well. I never did get very good with the bass. I know now that it's setup was so bad it was nearly unplayable. As for the six string, it was the weirdest looking thing I'd ever seen. Unfortunately, there was a spring missing from the tailpiece, the trem arm was long gone, and the neck was held on with these gigantic ugly wood screws. I was never able to get the thing to hold a tune long enough to be playable and had long since decided the $100 I'd paid for it was a complete waste of money. Both of these guitars have been languishing in my parents basement for the last twenty or so years, patiently waiting for me to re-discover my interest in playing guitar.

So finally, after many years, I have decided to get back into music, this time playing, building, and fixing guitars. I've purchased a new Squier Strat and have a couple of kit builds underway. This week I dragged my two old guitars and my Peavey bass amp home from my parents house. They were happy to have the "junk" gone from their basement. After an hour of tweaking, my old Cort bass is fully playable and I look forward to toying around with it.

This left the ugly duckling beast of a six string. My original plan was to either part it out or practice my re-finishing skills on it, converting it over to a modern hardtail or tune-o-matic bridge and replacing the open gear tuners with something a bit more modern. But my gut told me, before I started modifying anything on this nameless beast, I should try to find out what it is. There are no identification marks on it except a "Made in Japan" tag with the model number 960 on it. It didn't take me long to figure out this monster was a Teisco SS-4L from '62-'64. Fortunately, I'd found this out before cutting into the old girl.

Armed with the information that these were a fairly sought after collectors item, I proceeded to give the Teisco a quick once over. The tuning issue had more to do with loose tuners than with the missing spring in the tailpiece. I dowelled the neck and re-set it with modern neck screws, fixed the loose tuners, adjusted the tremello tailpiece, a new set of 10-46 strings, and gave the multiple switches a little tweak so they'd work. Wow, am I ever glad I didn't cut this beast up. It sounds absolutely amazing. The bridge assembly cannot compensate for intonation so most of the strings are sharp at the octave but those old gold foil pickups are really sweet. This thing makes my Strat sound like strings stretched over a piece of lumber. Gotta love it when a closet queen turns into such a wonderful gem of a guitar.



My guitar collection thus far, the Teisco in the middle.

This is someone on YouTube playing a Teisco SS-4L (no, not me, I'm not that good). I love the depth of the sound this beast can make. The audio of the YouTube video doesn't do it justice.



Doug M

As I was reading through this story, and I got to the part where you were talking about cutting it up, I wanted to scream, "DON'T DO IT!!!" That's a beauty. I've always wanted one of those old Japanese weirdos.

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David Morris

I used to have a Cort like that. It was a decent bass to learn on. Mine set up killer. Had a maple fretboard with antique white finish.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Yeah I destroyed some old Japanese pieces of junk that I had back in the day and have always regretted doing it. I was stupid back then. I also cry when I think of that Olympic white 65 Mustang that I butchered up and installed Dimarzio humbuckers in and painted black when I was teen...Mike

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Guitars, guitars and more guitars.

So glad you spared it, you can't believe what those SS models are going for now. The gold foils they use are made differently then other similar looking 'foils that Teisco/Kawai made. Look for the ones with the pole pieces on the outside rather than the center, those are the 'holy grail' ones that Ry Cooder used on his Strat.

An update on the Teisco. I have been playing it a bit over the last few days and love it even more. I found a complete bridge with a reproduction trem arm and bushing on E-Bay which is on its way. so the missing trem arm and third spring won't be an issue anymore.

I have, however, found another minor issue with the neck. There is a crack in the heel of the neck likely related to the ugly wood screws that were used by a previous owner to hold the neck to the body. Anyway, this crack is causing a slight lifting on the base side of the fretboard at the heel. Not major but is does cause a slight fret buzz at the upper frets on the low E string. I can't decide whether I want to fix it or enjoy the ol' girl the way she is. It has such a minor effect on playability and I'm worried an attempt to repair it might break something worse than it already is. This is a fifty year old guitar after all, a little problem like this just adds some colorful character.



Hard to see in the picture but the fretboard is bowed up a little bit. at the heel.

Doug M

On a side note, I didn't want to break the news before it was official but Jason Lollar is re-popping the SS-4L pickups now. Woohoo, no more scrounging 'em on eBay!

Are the Teisco goldfoils listed on Jason's website yet? I looked through all of the pickups on his website but the only one that looks close to the Teisco is "The Broiler".

Doug M