Lollar Teisco pickups coming soon

[David Schwab]

I like the old Teisco guitars and the Sears Harmonies with the gold foils. My first bass was a Kawai Concert, and the next one was probably a Norma violin shaped thing. I liked the pickups in the Kawai.

My favorite thing about these types of pickups is they don't sound like a Fender or Gibson.

To show those cheap guitars being put to good use, check out the lovely Annie Clark:

[David Schwab]

Another one, just for the heck of it.

[jason lollar]

I have heard her play some scary sounding stuff! Those pickups are similar internally but are missing a pretty big chunk of steel inside like the Teisco used in the cooder caster model so the Teiscos are actually fatter and clearer at the same time with more sparkle on the high end. The gold foil Dearmonds like she has are a little darker and more laid back, each has its own strengths. I dont like repairing that Dearmond model- the bottom of the "bobbin" is just the steel plate and its covered with enamel paint so the coil doesnt short out and there is no room for error- fussy little buggers to work on.
I know alot of people havent figured this out because its been told to me many times so here is a tip for repairing these- I use to make the rivets with a piece of brass tubing cut slightly longer than the thickness of the assembly and would just center punch the ends to flair them over and then you tap the ends flat with a smooth face hammer or press but for the teisco I had actual rivets made with one closed end. The pattern in the gold foil is done with a press plate that was engraved with the pattern on a laser cutter, put your foil between a positive and negative plate and it will emboss just like the original material.

[SonnyW]

I have heard her play some scary sounding stuff! Those pickups are similar internally but are missing a pretty big chunk of steel inside like the Teisco used in the cooder caster model so the Teiscos are actually fatter and clearer at the same time with more sparkle on the high end. The gold foil Dearmonds like she has are a little darker and more laid back, each has its own strengths.

Personally, my very first guitar in 1967 was an old Japanese Howard Byrdland copy. (no one has ever heard of them much even now) which came from the Matsumoku factory. I have kept the original single bridge pickup and added a aftermarket johnny smith type neck pickup and a new Les Paul type neck, and the guitar really does sound great accoustic and amplified for what it is. The sad thing is that I bought the Matsumoku in preference to a used Fender 1963 Lake Placid Blue Strat from the same hock shop at the time and the Howard was the more expensive one. Oh well, choices 40 years ago. My finger stretch at the time was too small for the Fender scale. Thanks Jason for reviving any interest in these old pickups. I have wanted to do something along the lines of pickup making for these for a long time and haven't been able to come up with all the needed resources. the old Japanese pickups do have a unique and desirable sound in some cases. This is a great effort.

[Possum]

Jason, back in those days in the 60's and 70's our amps were different than now. I had a blackface Deluxe Reverb in '67 and I HATED that amp. It was shrill and trebly, and my Japanese "Pleasant" guitar that I had sounded horrible in that amp. We didn't know about biasing or changing speakers or any of that stuff, all we did was go to Radio Shack to buy tubes if one of them went microphonic or died. So those weird old pickups probably sound alot better in the newer amps I bet, something that has a master that you can make break up easily. I never played one like you made so don't know about those. My Jap guitar had square pole pieces, single coils, I couldn't afford an American guitar, tho later got a vintage Strat that was impossible to set up and play so got rid of that one (damnit). I have a box full of weird Japanese pickups I've never listened to, maybe this weekend I'll dig some out and see what they do for fun.....

[Steve A.]

From what I've heard there were some really nice sounding Teisco gold-foils and some that weren't so nice. I really don't think that Jason would go to the trouble to copy one of the crappier sounding ones. The Coodercaster threads specify one particular version; it ain't a real Coodercaster if it has one of the other gold foils, or so they say. Jason's copies will keep some of those old Teiscos from getting cannibalized, just as his Supro copies have done for the Supro/Valco/Oahu lap steels.

Steve Ahola

P.S. I just checked the Lollar site and found the new menu extremely hard to navigate. I kept trying to click on Misc. Single Coil Pickups under the Guitar Pickups tab but the menu kept changing to a different tab. I finally bulled my way through and got to the Misc Single Coil Pickups page.

Lollar Guitar Pickups

If you have trouble getting to the Misc Single Coil Pickup page here is a link to it:

Single-coil Pickups

It could be my browser- there are a few other sites that the menus work strange for me but not for anybody else.

[bramley]

http://music-electronics-forum.com/t20691/

[Mark Hammer]

I think it is fair to note that there are a great many different sorts of pickups that one will see if you do an image search for "gold foil pickups". The underlying construction may not be worlds apart in those pickups that have the adjustable screws placed midpoint, those that have them essentially along one edge, and those that have no adjustable screws at all, but they may be enough to produce audible differences in tone.

FWIW, I heard a demo of your (Lollar) re-issue in a Youtube video, and they sounded just lovely.

One of the aspects people tend not to note often enough is that, by virtue of their low profile, in many instances they can be installed between the neck and bridge pickup without having to route to provide acceptable string-to-pickup clearance. Just a little bit of machining of the pickguard and you're pretty much good to go.

[bramley]

I have an original Oahu and Teisco pickups set up Coodercaster style. I'm curious to know how others deal with the fact that one half of the Oahu is out of phase . I've never noticed any "O.O.P - ness " in Ry's sound, perhaps he never used them in together.

[rhgwynn]

If anyone wants a Teisco, there is one that's a 2TSB @ Twice Upon A Time in Brattleboro,VT and it's in pretty good shape. They want $275 for it, comes in a homemade hard case. If you pay a finders fee, shipping, and insurance; I'll send it to you; if they still have it, of course. The necks on these things are fat as hell, definitely a chunky. I would buy it if I had the money, for sure.

-Rob

[R.Madgwick]

There's a silly amount of them on eBay I just acquired a single pickup tiesco for 160 for my girlfriend in near perfect shape, I watch a lot of Goya, tiesco, harmony, eko and other oddball vintage guitars sell for to cheap on there often. Its very hard to control myself sometimes.

[bramley]

There's a silly amount of them on eBay I just acquired a single pickup tiesco for 160 for my girlfriend in near perfect shape, I watch a lot of Goya, tiesco, harmony, eko and other oddball vintage guitars sell for to cheap on there often. Its very hard to control myself sometimes.

They're hard to resist! I have a collection of over 100 Teiscos of all kinds but primarily early 60's " what were they thinking" models (before the "plywood and microphonic" era.)

Regarding the Teisco pickup Mr Lollar has re-made, the originals are few and far between and when they do appear they go for upwards of $200 JUST for the pick up. Unfortunately anything with a glimmer of gold foil visible is labeled " Ry Cooder" on ebay these days.

[R.Madgwick]

You definitely gotta farm through the bullshit when it comes to ebay a lot of people think they have a gold mine but just because someone asked some crazy amount doesn't make em worth that, I turn off buy it now stuff right away and narrow my search results to 50-200 or 350 depending, in the last 3 years I've scored numerous 4 pickup tiescos, gold foils switches everywhere lightest crappiest feeling thing ever but two features you don't find in most guitars is the resonation of that crappy wood is awesome, insanely loud unplugged and the necks are actually pretty good feeling 9/10 times, I usually regret my players with jumbos and beat the piss out of em til someone offers me a fair price! You get a lot of attention and questions when you play a old oddity like those and generally people are in awe when you tell em they're old department store guitars

[rhgwynn]

The one I found has two gold-foils, the burst is black and a really dark gold-ish color (even the back of the neck and the headstock matches. I've no idea of it's value or origin, I was just throwing it out there in-case anyone was looking for one

-Rob

[R.Madgwick]

I wasn't trying to condescend by any means. 275 is a good price on a nice clean one, does it have the striped pick guard? What's the nody shape like? Matching neck/headstock is standard, for the time these guitars were seen as junl but they really have some nice features and they'll blow away most garbage Chinese cnc'd guitars and if you record one is a must at all times imo there's unique tones I associate with them but they can be quite versatile with a good engineers, I actually use a 22" called smaller Norma for blues and clean stuff, they have a 24.75 spacing and only 19 frets generally. The action on many is screwed, the truss rods are kind of touchy and a lot I get are seized up from over tightening or just age, a few clamps and a little love will get em straight and if not slide guitar and gold foils go hand in hand