Teisco WG-4L

Yes I have A Teisco T-60 Guiter. Need to know how the pickups are wired in to switch, tone , volume are connected. because some moron took it apart. Well any way I got it for free, So I cant Complain much.

Dont Know/Cant get any Blueprints!

Action is good

Dont Know

N/A

SIX YEARS

The finish on mine was redone a very nice bright orange with a matching headstock. Originally I believe these were a sunburst (black into orange) or a bue metal flakish golor. It is an interesting, somewhat original shape. sort of like an elongated strat body. It has a roller-type bridge that stays in tune very well. The bridge is like a j-master roller that goes to the trem that top mounts. Mine has a new set of tuners that was probably put on during the refin that stay in tune very well. Here's one of the only bad things: the neck. The scale length is a normal 24.75" (LP style. The problem is that there are four pickups on it, taking up more space on the body for the scale. So if more scale length is used on the body that means less will be used on the neck. So my point is that the neck is a little bit shorter than usual, probably shorter than a regular 24" neck. Not enirely bad, even if you have bigger hands. Smaller neck + regular frets = less fret space. If you have huge hands maybe you should not buy this straight off of EBAY. I can't comment on the frets as mine was probably refretted from the looks of it. This is a post 65 model, in the refin they took the serial # off. I found out the general year at teiscotwangers.com on the timeline. It was made in Japan. There are 20 fretson this guitar with the coolest inlays ever. It's like the inlays come over from the binding and form squares on the top side of the neck for a cm or 1.5cm (see the picture). This guitar has 4 hot single coil pickups and each has an on-off rocker switch. I believe these pickups were called "Z-coil" pickups. It has a master volume and master tone. Like said it has a bass boost. These are stock Teisco pickups.
The fingerboard is a BEAUTIFUL Brazilian Rosewood finger board. The neck is mahagony and I have no idea. The only problem (besides the neck being small) i could see with it in the future is that it has a body adjust truss rod. It's a very large neck profile wise.

I'm giving it a nine for the neck; otherwise a 10.

PICTURE:http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j13/marcolberding1/TEISCO.jpg

Its takes std C, DADGAD and std just perfectly with the replacement tuners. MINE WEIGHS APROX. 9 LBS! It is about the size of a strat so it's a bit heavy for it's size.

It suits my music style very well, which is a mix of indie and rock. it has a very unique sound. I'm using it with a Boogie Nomad 100 and a normally horrible SS Johnson amp. Sounds great with both of my amps, which is suprising. If I do use it with effects it's on the Johnson and it's a BP200 pdealboard by Digitech. It really can do a lot. It's rarely noisy; if it is with heavier distortion on the single pcikup settings. The rocker switches go in pairs and if both of the rocker switches in the pair are on it's similar to a full humbucker. It's rich on the 3 closest to the neck and a bit bright on the bridge position, which is when i use the bass boost as well. There is an amazing amount of variety in this guitar. The only thing it probably can't do is metal.

here's it through the Johnson with the bridge pickup. quite bright but not ear-huting. it kind of naturally distorts. The mic distorted a bit too
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=549443&songID=4743340

I got this in August so i have no idea of any of the set-up things in this category


NA

Everything seems solid. the strap buttons are replacements and the strap buttons were in aweird spot before. On the inside of the upper horn??? I can definetely depend on it but I wouldn't gig without a backup. I haven't had a string break on this yet *knocks on wood* but better not take my chances by bringing it to cancert without a backup. In a perfect world where strings don't break then definetly. This guitar has no string-breaking issues.

Company is now owned by Kawai I belive no need to talk to them as in the refin chances are, if it had a warranty, the warranty is gone.

I've been playing for 3 years as you can probably tell by the clip. I won a Barcley DC semi-hollow. I played this guitar and bought it without reading anything and I would hunt down that devil who stole it and.....i don't know, do something bad. I would try to find one with as much mojo but it would be hard. I didn't really compare it to any guitars. Other than the neck i really wouldn't have any other guitar, honestly. Wouldn't change anything becuase I know if I changed the neck it would lose a part of it's sound. If I made the neck longer I would lose a pickup and if I changed the scale length it would get brighter. It's perfect for me. If you can get your hands on it and it sounds like you buy it! Try it first if you can though. I found this one in the area at an amazing shop I knew I could trust and I bought it.

Mine is a '66 made in Japan, WG-4L in sunburst.
More features than i'm used to basically because she has 4 pickups each with an individual on/off switch.
Then you have the regular volume and tone knobs (my tone knob works backwards), AND a tone switch that's more like a bass boost in the up position.
What's it made of? Good sounding stuff. Solid wood body (basswood? alder?).
FOUR HOT alnico single coil pickups made by Teisco mounted to one of the craziest pickgaurds I've ever seen... striped metal?
The body is a strange (ugly?) combination of strat and LP? with a crazy looking scimitar headstock.

http://www.geocities.jp/a104gs/teisco.wg4l.jpg

The bridge is a weird thing-o-matic? made of stamped pot metal, then on to a face mounted trem with the longest arm you've ever held.

Tuners are laid out four on one side, two on the other!

LOTS OF FEATURES!

I play much guitar for many years now:
americana, indie, rock, traditional blues, traditional r&b, fastcore, shoegazer, noise, et al.
I have a '54 RI Tele w/ Mjotone PUs, Hagstrom Swede w/origPAF neck-Pearly gates brg, Danelectro 2PU amp-in-case (lipstck tubes), Schecter Hellcat w/gibson minihums, 56 Harmony H-62 w/gibson P-13s, frankenstrat w/old duncan rails, '66 Martin D-18, etc...
Amps include '68 Fender Dual Showman Reverb, '68 Princeton Reverb, tweed Champ, JCM800, 35WT JMP style custom made head, etc...
This is one of the MOST versatile of the fifteen guitars I own.

Having four hot single coils (alternating polarity) each with an on/off is enough. Add the tone switch and things go from crazy to outright nuts. Any two pickups will either give you a really fat humbucker, or a crazy twangy inbetween strat sound depending on polarity combination. All positions are free from all noise. I assume this is a perk of the metal pickgaurd. I have four settings I fall back on when I get crossed up.
You can get convincing tele sounds, hollow epi type sounds, strat middle pu and in between sounds, P90 type bridge, LP bridge...
I only have the bass switch on for bridge pickup only position, all others are in the bright position. This guitar produces more unique sounds than I can mention.

Also I should mention that the whammy is the best functioning nonlocking type I've owned. Sounds like a Jazzmaster, but feels much better and stays in tune damn well. You can set the trem arm angle with a clever little adjustable baseplate under the trem spring and it'll sit right where you can get at it.

LOTS OF SOUNDS

Mine needed a new nut (old one was too high) and a crown and polish on the frets. Now it plays well (not the best of my lot, but plays and stays in tune) but could use a full on refret since the previous owner(s) played the crap out of it. Neck is a chunky V and straight. Finish is actually good old fashioned laquer w/ a good burst but I find it an ugly buddy that I've grown to love, Like an old Gremlin or and Edsel... you get it or you don't, but it has what it takes to survive in the wild.

One gripe: THE ROCKER SWITCHES SUCK ROCKS! They work, they're quiet, but they're in the worst place and they won't stay put in a playing situation. I've gotten used to them (and worked on them quite a bit to stiffen their resolve to stay in a position), but I will get around to replacing them with mini toggles, because I really have to. I know some people just tape them down in a good position and I've seen some homemade "switch guards" (Brainiac pops to mind).

Work horse strength in everything BUT the rocker switches.

Plays out strongly in indie, blues, etc... settings. Not a standard sounding instrument, so if you want a generic guitar sound, buy an old standby axe. This thing rules at sounding like nothing else with an attitude.
All the hardware (switches not included) is well made and has already withstood abuse beyond the telling. I don't play without a backup if possible, but when relying on this guitar I've never had an issue, and no other guitar could cover the sonic ground this one does... at all.

Forget it. This thing is a forty year old brick house. I can't see anything going wrong. Or anyone helping if it did.

Playing for going on 20yrs.
It hasn't been stolen or lost and I'm looking for another as I write this.
Love the sounds and the vibe. Nothing else like it (in a great way).
Stands alone and defies comparison with all cookie cutter guitars (fender and gibson).
Wish it had better switches and that I'd lucked into a better color?
At the price these go for (around $200) you should get one and get it fixed up. If you have a taste for the left of center, it will not let you down.

Well, being an instrument freak...I was pawn shop crawling in a city about an hour's drive away the other day looking at mostly cheap Chinese and Korean copies of something or another. I was really searching for something USA made, like a Peavey or Mosrite (just got one a couple of weeks ago, a Celebrity 2). Well, I did find a nice Peavey Tele and while looking at the Peavey the guy hands me this BIZZARE looking axe that has this horrenious dark metalflake spray can paint job...well, the guy asked me if I knew what it was. and of course I have no freaking idea. Well, it DID resemble some of those old department store quitars of yesteryear, like Sears and Western Auto and etc.

Looked kinda cool, tho..I said to myself "Self, that would look cool hanging in my bathroom"! But I almost never buy anything the first time around...so I passed it up.

Well, home and rationalize to myself that I need the Peavey Tele...so I tell my wife I am going back to get it and she immediately reminds me that I have just bought the Mosrite, and besides that, I have entirely too much gear.(Well, what can I say?} Anyway, I call up my Colleague and friend that plays bass in my band and ask if he wants to buy my Hartke amp, which I no longer use, and he agrees, so back to the store with some money.

There sat the Blue Bomber...looking at me. It had four big chrome pickups and four white rocker switches and a striped metal (aluminum, I think) pickguard. For some reason, I lose interest in the Peavey. After all, I have a real nice Tele copy made by Samick, and it's a Valley Arts job, to boot...I think, well, hell, it WOULD make a nice wall hanging...the guy has 100 bucks on it, and I offer him 75...I guess he figures nobody else will buy it, so out the door I go with the weirdest guitar I have ever owned...STILL had no idea what it was..

Home, hooked it up and VIOLA! The beast plays...action is set about 2 inches high so couldn't tell much about it other than, HEY, this thing has got balls...what a thick chunky, funky sound...and all the knobs, switches, and pickups work! (Scratchy, but a bit of WD40 helped that)

Has a spring tremolo tailpiece with the whammy bar flopping around, but that works, too..

Anyway, I start researching on the web, and after about 2 hours and numerous dead ends (boy, there sure are a lotta guitar makers that have come and gone), I spot the headstock in a picture..unique, 4 on one side and two on the other...this leads me to a website of a Teisco collector and player (www.Teiscotwangers.com) and lo and behold! I found a picture of my model...could've been imported by sears as a sil vertone, but with the butt-ugly paint job, hard to tell..

It was a 1965 model WG4L, yep, that's it, dead ringer for the one sitting in my lap (except for that dreadful, well, you know)..

Any way, let's get to work and see if this puppy will play...

New strings, my choice set 11 12 22w 30 40 50 damn action is impossibly high, so down comes the bridge (screw adjustment)..this helps although the nut is a little high, and somebody got glue all over the nice rosewood fretboard on the first fret replacing the nut at some point in time..might not even be the original one, come to think about it...

Well, now, the neck is arrow-straight, and has easy trussrod access, so not much to worry about there...got the action low enough to play, and running some scales...oops...dang the B on both the 1st and 6th string doesn't sound...fret is too low..well, I think, on the wall it goes...but athe SOUND!! I hate to hang up that sound..so I get out a small screwdriver and a mallet (don't try this at home) and bump that fret up out of it's slot a bit...bango! now I have clear notes all the way up the fretboard, find a few more that need lifting slightly, and buzz free all over..dang slick action now, almost as good as my Strat..

Features? yeat, this thing has enough switches on it that it reminds me of the old Mercury spacecraft..

And, the worst paint j

I play with a bunch of teachers that I know, and we rehearse once a week and play the occasional gig, mostly for fun and frustration...we do jazz, blues, classic rock and torch songs that my lovely wife sings and plays keyboard with...

I am really from the horn section, but filling in to we found a reliable guitarist has become a full time job now...

I play mostly through a Roland BC-30 that I have reviewed elsewhere on this forum, and I also use a Boogie Mark I when I really need to make the guys holler "your TOO LOUD!!!" I don't use effects much, but ocassionally drag out a tubescreamer, or the heavy artillery, the fuzz face...pisses everyone else off, tho so mostly I just lay back and play cool jazz licks...

Oh Yeah, the Teisco...

Think a Telecaster on steroids...plus a lot of other sounds you dont run into a lot...got some Mosrite tones...

Man, this thing kicks my Strat Texas Special American's tonal butt..althought it dont play quite as smoothly...yet...

After I got the dust out of the switches and pots, it is very quiet...

I've got a restaurant gig next friday night, and I'm gonna use this ugly blue thing...

Blues...yeah... use the neck pickup (1)

Crunch...yeah. Dang, this thing will drive the pee out of my amp..I gotta go dig out my Laney AOR and try this thing with it...

Jazz? Yep, turn it down and use pickup one and 3..nails that mellow type sound...

I really love it..

Ugly, Ugly, Uglier..

Action was great with some tinkering...

I thought about stripping it down to the bare wood and varnishing it, but I'm scared to mess with it it sounds so good..I think I will just get another Teisco, maybe one of the e-series, that is a little less violated...Did you know that Ry Cooder plays these things? Yeah, seriously.

This one has taken a licking and is still ticking...probably about as reliable as my Honda bike...

I'm 56 and have been playing and teaching since I was in the 4th grade, playing something, mostly trumpet. still do that a lot..haven't really concentrated on the guitar much except for the last 3 or 4 years, although I have played since college days..as the man said, some are born guitar players and some have guitar playing thrust upon them...

I think I am gonna buy another couple of Teiscos, they are reasonably priced and collectable, and they play very well...

I own 5 junky acoustics, a Strat American, a Mosrite Celebrity, a Samick 335 copy, a Samick Tele clone, and about 40 trumpets and assorted brass and woodwind instruments...man, I gotta unload some of this stuff..

I really, really love my Strat, and am partial to U.S. made guitars, but this little homely Oriental chick is going to be a keeper...

I give this great old Japanese guitar a 9...knocking off a point because of the paint job, but that isn't really her fault...get you one while they are one of the best-kept secrets in the world of vintage guitars...before they catch on..now on to my search for a Peavey T-60 in the natural finish....