Teisco 60s Gold Foil Single Coil

Teisco goldfoil pickup


Bought of e-bay ??10 including guitar.




single coil chrome cased ceramic pickup no bottom (very thin) 5.6 kOhm

It came attached to a cheap 60's japanese plank (Norma? badged as Montana) with a baseball bat neck and thin ply body but sounded fantastic.
I took it off anyway because it was screwed directly onto the pickguard and was toutching the strings when playing above 15th fret . tried shimming the neck but eventually used it to replace dead pickup ( bridge position) of a Heit Deluxe (again cheap plywood junk but very cool looking)

Wow ! vintage dirty blues fantastic for slide .. will distort just about any amp you plug it into. Much louder than the meter reading would suggest, due no doubt to the large ceramic magnets glued each side of the coil
Instant Hound Dog Taylor ! very responsive to picking dynamics .. bright and glassy at lower volumes .

I replaced the other pickup in the Heit guitar with a cool green chrome Kent Armstrong dano style lipstick which is nice for chord work - flip the switch for Hound Dog Taylor tone slide..

There are two other versions of this style of pickup this review is for the large screw polepieces running along the centre without chrome surround..
The other types have smaller polepiece screws and a chrome surround with 4 fixing screws (like a rickenbacker toaster or dearmond )
this pickup is slightly lower in output but still very responsive & bright
I have an old Zen On (Guyatone ) which has these fitted The 3rd type has small polepiece screws along the top edge I haven't heard these and believe they are the type that Ry Cooder uses in middle position on strat for slide)


If you want to get hold of one , look on e-bay but not just for the pickups (they can fetch over $70.00 each) Keep an eye out for
cheap no-name Japanese plywood twangers in a bad state. You may be able to get a complete guitar for less.
If you don't like the guitar then sell it for parts & get your pups for free (seen the cheap tinplate tailpieces and bridges fetch $ 20-30)

Pickup features: See my original review below.
Impedence or other specs: See below

Model of guitar or bass: See below
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: See below
Other pickups on guitar: Powersound middle Strat single-coil and Seymour Duncan Broadcaster single-coil in bridge
Artists using this pickup: See below and add Ben Harper to the list
You musical style(s): See below and add Hawaiian steel, lap steel and pedal steel to the list
Reason for pickup change: See below

Perceived output level: See below
Tone: See below
Sonic evaluation: UPDATE:
Since my original review below, I made a few changes to my guitar. I took off the Strat tremolo bridge, removed the tremolo springs and claw from the back and tightly blocked the tremolo cavity with a solid block of custom-fitted wood. I drilled six holes in the wood block and put six string ferrules in the bottom. A vintage-style Telecaster bridge with three brass barrels was added as the new bridge and I dropped a Seymour Duncan Broadcaster pickup into the bridge position. In addition, Schaller (Keith-style) banjo detuners were added to both E strings a la Clarence White. A standard Hipshot B-Bender unit was installed and the drop D-tuner on the Hipshot was moved over from the low E to the A string. With the combination of detuners, I can go from standard tuning to open G tuning in the same song with a few quick moves.
So why the update? Well, getting rid of the Strat tremolo setup and running the strings through a Tele string-thru body setup changed the tone of the Teisco pickup dramatically. The airy, ambient quality I noticed before has been severely limited. While I would not say the pickup is muddy, it is definitely missing the openness it had before. To use a cliche, it sounds like a blanket has been put over the amp. I think the springs for the Strat tremolo play a BIG role in getting a clean, airy and open tone like Ry Cooder gets on his soundtrack and more recent work. The overdrive sounds are still great but the clean slide tones have taken a hit.
Since my original review, I have also learned that my Teisco pickup does not have a sealed metal cover on the back side like some similar pickups other people have. Perhaps this adds to the behind-the-pickup sensitivity of my pickup? Whatever the case, my pickup certainly sounds different now that the Strat tremolo springs are not behind it.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: See below

Comments: To supplement my original review below, I think that if you are looking for airy, open clean slide tones, the Strat tremolo setup is a huge part of getting there. This may be stating the obvious but hopefully this will help those who are wondering why people swap these pickups out of the original guitar into Strat-style guitars.

Pickup features: Passive floating (top-loading) single-coil pickup. Chrome cover with six small-screw adjustable polepieces aligned down the center. The polepieces screw into a removable metal bracket inside the pickup. The cover has six round holes in the top on one side of the polepieces and two larger oval holes in the opposite side. The gold-foil mesh under the cover shows through these holes. The pickup is a top-loader (floating) that mounts on top of the pickguard by two screws through the cover, one of each end of the pickup. The polepiece bracket on the inside sits inside a clear plastic ring surrounding by copper wire. Two ceramic magnets are glued inside the cover, one on each side of the plastic ring. Three very small insulated wires are used for connection: red, black and a yellow ground tied to the removable metal bracket.
Impedence or other specs: Odd size: 1 1/8" wide, 3 1/4" long, about 1/4" tall. I forgot the impedance I measured but it is lower-than-average for a Strat-style single coil.

Model of guitar or bass: Originally a 60's Norma single-pickup guitar, now in a Strat-style Kramer Aerostar
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: Powersound single-coil (original Kramer pickup)
Other pickups on guitar: Powersound middle single-coil and PAF-copy humbucker in bridge
Artists using this pickup: Ry Cooder, David Lindley, Jackson Browne
You musical style(s): Electric and country blues, rock, pop, country, alt-country, jazz, classical, etc.
Reason for pickup change: Wanted the Teisco pick-up sound in my hibernating Kramer Strat-style guitar for electric slide.

Perceived output level: Slightly lower output than standard Strat-style neck pickup
Tone: Very clear and defined, with an unique airy and ambient quality.
Sonic evaluation: I chopped the pickguard on my closet Kramer Aerostar to put the Teisco gold-foil pickup in the neck position. I run the guitar through either a tweed Champ or tweed Deluxe copy and occasionally a Vox AC-15 TB reissue. I use it primarily for electric slide using fingers and a glass small-bottle slide. Running it into the cranked tweed Champ, it sounds very much like Ry Cooder. The pickup has an unique clarity and note definition. It sounds somewhat similar to the middle-position single coil but with a deeper bass response and more sensitivity to the player's attack. It picks up all the subtle nuances of playing and even some unwanted sounds (like a belt scrap on the tremolo springs on the back of the guitar). Probably would sound even better with a shielded guitar cavity. Something as simple as string choice makes a profound and very noticeable difference with this pickup.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: As a neck pickup for playing electric slide, this is a fabulous pickup if you need clarity and use a lot of picking dynamics. Clean sounds are perhaps its strong suit but it handles grind pretty well. I can definitely see how this pickup is a large part of Ry Cooder's sound on some tracks. One drawback is the odd size of the pickup. You will almost always have to chop a pickguard or a guitar cavity to get it in the guitar. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that this is a top-loading pickup. In other words, you need to make a big hole to get it in and figure out some way to mount it and make it stay at a usuable height. It took me a lot of work to get it to fit and work in the Kramer.

Comments: I have been playing guitar 18 years in all different styles of music. At present, I have seven guitars including a Les Paul, hollowbody electric, Strat-style Kramer, classical, acoustic steel-string and a dobro. I play through three different amps: tweed Champ replica, tweed Deluxe replica and a Vox AC-15 TB. I have a small box of various pedals but I do not use pedals that much. I got this pickup dirt-cheap: $15 for the clean 60's Norma guitar with the pickup and a hardshell case. I see these pickups occasionally on Ebay selling pretty inexpensively. If you play slide or are looking for the Ry Cooder/David Lindley sound, I would try this pickup. The odd size and the top-loading nature of the pickup make it a difficult pickup to drop in and play. After making it fit and work in a Strat-style guitar, this is my favorite pickup for slide. For the money, it is a fantastic value if you can make it fit and work.