Teisco bass guitars

[JIO]

Yeah, JIO. I know their body shape is very reminiscent of others like the Burns (big horns) or even Moserite (the backwards slanted tail end). The guys in the repair shop were apparently all discussing this bass, and what other basses it reminded them of. In fact, the guy who worked on it said he traced the body to make a template for a guitar he planned to build, but he might make it slightly smaller (for a guitar, rather than a bass). And I AM enjoying it. In fact, playing it a lot while sheltering in place these last two weeks! There's a really nice video a guy did on YouTube to demo one of these he bought for $5, to showcase the nice tone he could get from it. (His is slightly different - 2 knobs, and slightly different looking pickups.) For anyone who is interested...

Nice vid - great tone - flats and a pick, that's what's on my Teisco EB Del Rey. Aside from being in the fingers, I never think of it as having 'wasted' money on more expensive basses - instead enjoying that they are real instruments the are fun to play and look at.

 

[Eddie LeBlanc]

They also built basses for Lafayette Electronics in the 60s. Pretty much very low quality for entry level folks back then.

 

[JIO]

My Norma short scale bass. I believe made by Teisco

View attachment 3758772

Norma's were made by the Sakai Mokko Co Ltd, located outside of Nagoya City. They were a major supplier of Norma and Decca guitars in the US. They started in 1923 making cabinets/furniture and began producing guitars in the early '60s. Other brand names used were; Cameo, Prestige, St Moritz, Recco, Decca and its own "Sakai" brand that continued to make guitars into the '70s. They are often confused for Teisco's as they used similar components and were imported by many of the same buyers.

However, it's not that simple. Kawai purchased Teisco in early '67 splintering into Firstman, Idol, and Honey brands ending in bankruptcy in 1970. Teisco Gen Gakki (factory started by Tadashi Maruyama, plant manager of Fujigen in the early '60s) processed wood for Teisco guitars (bodies and necks) and shipped them to Tokyo for electronics and final assembly.

On their long list of brand names, some were overlaps; Apollo, Beam, Blackjack, Bruno, Burns (not of London), Camaro, Crown, Excetero, Fandel, Fiama, Firstman, Givtone, GPO, Greco, Honey, Idol, Kent, Lafayette, Liberty, Maestro, Marco Polo, Marlin, Noble, Norma, Sekova, Silvertone, Thomas, Truetone, Voxton and Zim Gar.


This is a mahogany plywood body Decca that I refurbished -

 

[JIO]

They also built basses for Lafayette Electronics in the 60s. Pretty much very low quality for entry level folks back then.

View attachment 3758809
View attachment 3758810

Lafayette was one of many brand names used by the Zen On Guitar Co. Ltd. in the mountains of central Japan near Lake Suwa. Other brand names used were; Artist, Artist Supreme, Audition, Knox, Morales, Olympic, Omega, Rodeo, Rossi, Victoria, Zenon, and Zim Gar. I have not found a correlation to the electronics company of the same name, at least during the '60s.

 

[Backdrop]

The TB-64 is one that caught my eye years ago. Blonde Redhead used one for a long time.



Eastwood made their own version recently.

 

[Eddie LeBlanc]

Lafayette was one of many brand names used by the Zen On Guitar Co. Ltd. in the mountains of central Japan near Lake Suwa. Other brand names used were; Artist, Artist Supreme, Audition, Knox, Morales, Olympic, Omega, Rodeo, Rossi, Victoria, Zenon, and Zim Gar. I have not found a correlation to the electronics company of the same name, at least during the '60s.

Really..... hate to say it but I had my dad buy a Lafayette / Teisco bass back when I was in the 6th or 7th grade. It was directly ordered from the Lafayette Catalog. It was a piece of junk, but I was a kid and over joyed to get it. Also got a Lafayette amp for it the next year. Before that all I had was an old tube Alamo map with a 8" speaker. Older than dirt from a pawn shop. So the Lafayette amp was a real upgrade.

But the bass looked just like this

This was the amp....

 

[JIO]

Really..... hate to say it but I had my dad buy a Lafayette / Teisco bass back when I was in the 6th or 7th grade. It was directly ordered from the Lafayette Catalog. It was a piece of junk, but I was a kid and over joyed to get it. Also got a Lafayette amp for it the next year. Before that all I had was an old tube Alamo map with a 8" speaker. Older than dirt from a pawn shop. So the Lafayette amp was a real upgrade.

But the bass looked just like this
View attachment 3759496
This was the amp....
View attachment 3759497
View attachment 3759498

Like I said, I just haven't found information clearing up exactly how they were related. Possibly the same company with different branches/wings. If you can help find it we will all be more educated for it.

 

[TN WOODMAN]

I remember Lafayette was the hot pick for 23 channel mobile CB radios in the ‘60s. Sonar was the top brand for tube type base stations .

 

[Mark Gastambide]

Like I said, I just haven't found information clearing up exactly how they were related. Possibly the same company with different branches/wings. If you can help find it we will all be more educated for it.

JIO, you're Teisco (and other Japanese instrument) knowledge is quite impressive. You've done your homework. Thank you for sharing.

 

[JIO]

JIO, you're Teisco (and other Japanese instrument) knowledge is quite impressive. You've done your homework. Thank you for sharing.

I confess to relying on articles I've found on line and a few research books related - this one by Frank Meyers being especially informative about that period. If you are interested I highly recommend it. Many photo's, and extensive in-depth history about the Japanese factories that answered the clarion call for rock & roll guitars/basses in the ‘60s.

 

[JIO]

I remember Lafayette was the hot pick for 23 channel mobile CB radios in the ‘60s. Sonar was the top brand for tube type base stations .

Yah, for sure Lafayette was practically a household name at one time. Just not certain how they as a company related to the guitars.

 

[TN WOODMAN]

I have no idea either but waxed nostalgic for a second to the good old days. I’ve seen other Lafayette branded guitars and assumed they were affiliated but just that. Now I’m curious about the amps you occasionally see, too.

 

[Mark Gastambide]

Let's face it, the appeal of these basses is in the way they take us back to a simpler time, when we were younger and so infatuated with music, and guitars in general. I recall being very uneducated about quality of this guitar versus that one, and (like any 10 year old kid) based my preferences on how pretty they looked hanging in the store. I was visually attracted to basses, practically before I even knew their function in the music. Something about the name "Bass" sounded badass, and the look of those big tuners, and the four big, fat strings seemed like the coolest thing ever! So in the event that Teiscos (or other cheap, vintage basses) have that same effect on you... Then they ARE worth whatever fond memories they might help us relive and whatever emotions they evoke. So maybe a couple of hundred bucks for a musical "Time Machine" isn't a bad investment after all.

 

[Bobby Bass]

Even though there are examples of Teisco's and other economy/student level Japanese basses from the guitar boom years of the 60's that were less than ideal - I own this '65 (they were made throughout the 60's, not just the early 60's) Del Rey and it is far from junk IMO. It's a very interesting bass in many ways and definitely suitable for live performing. Country star Johnny Paycheck played one like it at the time when he sang "A-11", the song that launched his solo career in the mid 60's. The Del Rey badge was applied to many different Teisco's so there is no one type/style of Del Rey. The one I have, at one time referred to as "The Johnny Paycheck bass" long before Flee used one in an early RHCP vid is still seen often for resale as many were produced over a few years. Prices vary but who cares what they sell for - if someone wants that specific bass it's worth as much as that player wants to spend on it. Think it's too much? Simple - don't buy it.

First off, it's a short scale (30") bass, but is as long as a Jazz bass. As you can see - the bridge is mid-body and the hs is large/long which leads to the 47.5" length. It is a reasonably light-weight bass at 8lbs/13oz with a thin (1-1/4") mahogany body and it balances well. (absolutely no neck dive) It has tiny "banjo frets" and because it probably always had flats - they are in great shape. The neck is the 'baseball bat' variety that may have seemed too thick when I was a teen starting out - but it feels great now. The two single-coil pu's are very strong sounding and with flats the tone of it can out-Motown a lot of P-basses. No other bass I own matches the Del Rey in the rich pillow-y bottom dept. This specific style/design of pu was the most famous of the many Teisco pu's. In the 60's the Japanese produced a staggering number of different pu designs - over 100. Many guitarists love the "gold foil" pu's for their tone to this day.

My first bass was a solid body Japanese "Stadium", also badged "St George" that I bought new from Woolworths Dept Store for $40. I don't have a single picture of it - only a fading memory of it. I think it had 1 pu, I remember the strings being high off the fretboard and hard to press down and what did I know about set-up or tone or anything back then as a young teen? (answer: nothing besides wanting to be part of the R&R movement sweeping the world) Bad set-up on a bass I could afford then didn't stop me from my life journey as a bass-player and I very much appreciate these basses that helped me and many others 'join the club'.

View attachment 3431082

View attachment 3431095

What strings are you using on the Teisco Bass. I have one same color given to me by a friend with out strings. Been hanging on the wall for many years.

 

[JIO]

What strings are you using on the Teisco Bass. I have one same color given to me by a friend with out strings. Been hanging on the wall for many years.

The flats on it were on it when I bought it 6 years ago. They have med-blue wrap but I don't know what brand or how old they are. Most likely these basses had flats from the factory so to me that's where this bass's sound lives. The very thin "banjo" frets are in perfect condition so it's probably always had flats on it. So we can safely say "old flats" and it sounds great!

 

[JIO]

Mid-'60s Teisco Del Rey NB-1 in LPB with modifications; lined-ebony fretless fingerboard and tug-bar, Guild RI Darkstar pu, and Manton RI pu switch.

The ebony fb was on it when I bought it but I added the Darkstar pu. While doing so, I sheilded and star-grounded the cavity

 

[Verne Andru]

Has anyone ever own these basses or tried them out?...my brother send me an email saying that I should buy a teisco del ray bass guitar mainly because he found a teisco del ray guitar at chicago music exchange(music store from my hometown chicago). he also said that it might be interesting to have a matching set-up(instrument-wise). anywho, I'm not familiar with teisco guitars and I was wondering does anyone here have any experience with their bass guitars?

Here's the bass guitar that my brother wanted me to buy.

Chicago Music Exchange

Teisco was the height of the "MIJ-Crap" era of the 1960's and are largely responsible for the demise of companies like Danelectro and the start of Fender and Gibson's quality decline. They were cheaply made and sold for peanuts which caused a race to the bottom for the MI industry.

With a lot of work you may be able to make a playable instrument. My first guitar was a Teisco made Silvertone and it was so bad it put me off playing for years.

Buyer beware.

 

[HeadWind]

Yeah, JIO. I know their body shape is very reminiscent of others like the Burns (big horns) or even Moserite (the backwards slanted tail end). The guys in the repair shop were apparently all discussing this bass, and what other basses it reminded them of. In fact, the guy who worked on it said he traced the body to make a template for a guitar he planned to build, but he might make it slightly smaller (for a guitar, rather than a bass). And I AM enjoying it. In fact, playing it a lot while sheltering in place these last two weeks! There's a really nice video a guy did on YouTube to demo one of these he bought for $5, to showcase the nice tone he could get from it. (His is slightly different - 2 knobs, and slightly different looking pickups.) For anyone who is interested...

Thanks for posting that () Exact same as mine. I am going to have to fetch it out of the basement and pour a can of deoxit into it and put a new nut on it. I got mine in 1974 or so (probably Sears catalog) but haven't played it since I got a used Fender J-bass a couple of years after that (that worked out pretty well ;-) Still have both.

 

[Gaolee]

Norma's were made by the Sakai Mokko Co Ltd, located outside of Nagoya City. They were a major supplier of Norma and Decca guitars in the US. They started in 1923 making cabinets/furniture and began producing guitars in the early '60s. Other brand names used were; Cameo, Prestige, St Moritz, Recco, Decca and its own "Sakai" brand that continued to make guitars into the '70s. They are often confused for Teisco's as they used similar components and were imported by many of the same buyers.

However, it's not that simple. Kawai purchased Teisco in early '67 splintering into Firstman, Idol, and Honey brands ending in bankruptcy in 1970. Teisco Gen Gakki (factory started by Tadashi Maruyama, plant manager of Fujigen in the early '60s) processed wood for Teisco guitars (bodies and necks) and shipped them to Tokyo for electronics and final assembly.

On their long list of brand names, some were overlaps; Apollo, Beam, Blackjack, Bruno, Burns (not of London), Camaro, Crown, Excetero, Fandel, Fiama, Firstman, Givtone, GPO, Greco, Honey, Idol, Kent, Lafayette, Liberty, Maestro, Marco Polo, Marlin, Noble, Norma, Sekova, Silvertone, Thomas, Truetone, Voxton and Zim Gar.


This is a mahogany plywood body Decca that I refurbished -

View attachment 3758820

View attachment 3758828

Endless brand names are like '60s and '70s stencil drum kits. They were sold cheap in department stores, but have a wonderful resonance and Pearl style splatty tone that is all their own. I love 'em and have two different Reuther branded kits that I use when it is time to sit in back and drool.

 

[JIO]

'66 34" scale Tempo - recently acquired and renovated... same as my 1st bass bought that year. Long-scale basses from Japan started coming into the US in the later '60s. Teisco related, as so many basses/guitars were.

Here's my thread on it - My first bass resurrected (including back-story)