More One-Pickup Wonders

Here's a another power trio for you; a garage-rock triple threat consisting of a Danelectro-made Silvertone, a Teisco-made Kay "Tulip," and an earlier American-made Kay Vanguard.  This is the second Vanguard we've had and about the third or fourth Silvertone, but amazingly this is our very first "Tulip," despite its status as a ubiquitous pawn shop beater that everyone seems to remember owning at some point.

The main attraction to a lot of funky old guitars like these is that they work great for slide - you can bypass the often "quirky" action and fretwork while still taking full advantage of the unique tones that these vintage single coil pickups can crank out.  It's hard to choose when they are all so wonderfully rude, but it's hard to go wrong with the Vanguard's sweet DeArmond "Zippo" pickup.

60s Audition Guitar and Amp

Well, it looked like Santa Claus came early - we had boxes of new goodies piled up when I came in today. My boss gestures towards the tall, thin box in the corner and says, "got another Mexican Strat for you to sell..."

Grumble, grumble...



Hey, wait a minute - that's not a Strat case!



Score! A nifty mid-60s "Audition" guitar with funky, oversized gold foil-type pickups.



Audition was a brand name for guitars sold through Wool-worth's department stores in the sixties - in actuality, this is a Japanese instrument, probably built for Wool-worth's by Kawai or Teisco. The pickguard and body shape are off-kilter, the knobs & switches numerous, and the neck is as thick and heavy as a Louisville slugger. In other words, a perfect example of mid-60s Japanese guitar design.


The gigantic gold foils alone are worth the price of admission - sweet and twangy at the same time. These look very, very similar to the one that the great slide guitarist Ry Cooder slapped into the neck position of one on his famously hot-rodded Stratocasters (along with an old Supro/Valco lap steel pickup).

The "Cooder-caster." No, really.

But, just as every old low-watt Supro amp is the "one Jimmy Page used," I'm well aware that every Japanese gold foil pickup is the "Ry Cooder" pickup, especially when it pops up on the interweb. I say use your ears - mine tell me that this guitar is cool either way.


Also, we have the matching amp that goes with it. It's a 1x12 tube amp, and though it sounds like about a watt-and-a-half of volume, it gets nasty and crunchy very quickly.



Just for fun, here's the chassis/guts of that amp. This has built-in tremolo, but otherwise its about as bone-simple as can be. Yes, that's a Hitachi brand tube there in front. My boss says that the pots date this setup to about 1966, which sounds about right. Stop by and check these out soon - the funky stuff seems to practically fly out the door these days!

We've got plenty of other cool finds on way for the holidays - check back soon!

Mystery Guitar

?????

Here's a mystery guitar that we can't quite identify. It has the word "Japan" pressed into the back of the neck, and that distinctive striped plate under the knobs and input jack practically screams late-60s Teisco, but so far I've been unable to pinpoint the exact model. In fact, I've haven't been seeing any single cutaway semi-hollow guitars made by Teisco, so I may be way off the trail. But when the trail includes digging through Japanese guitar sites with names like Rolling 60's Bizarre Guitars Garage, I think the journey alone is well worth it.

Well worth it, indeed

If anybody can help us out, just leave a comment or send me a message. And of course, even if we never figure out where this one came from, it could still use a good home...