Teisco constantly out of tune

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Sat Apr 07, 2012 12:00 pm

Jim Williams wrote: In 20,000 years there will only be cockroaches and Teisco Del Ray guitars, still out of tune.

And Keef, it hadda be said.

Nathangrn · Post by **Nathangrn** » Sat Apr 07, 2012 12:27 pm

One thing I did to my Teisco, which I had forgotten about until I looked at it just now, was to put the height adjustment screws on top of the bridge to clamp the bridge down. This seemed to help a lot with the tuning. If you need some extra height to the bridge you may have to shim it up with some washers. It stays in tune fairly well now with all stock hardware.

vivalastblues · Post by **vivalastblues** » Sat Apr 07, 2012 5:16 pm

Wha? Pictures please? I dont follow

Nathangrn · Post by **Nathangrn** » Sat Apr 07, 2012 6:34 pm

Okay, the screw the arrow is pointing to is normally underneath the bridge to provide height adjustment. I put it and it's twin over the bridge and cranked them down to eliminate slop in the bridge.

vivalastblues · Post by **vivalastblues** » Sat Apr 07, 2012 7:14 pm

Gotcha I think...

Scodiddly · Post by **Scodiddly** » Sun Apr 08, 2012 6:53 pm

There *is* something special about my old Teisco, which is kind of a Strat copy. Dunno what ever happened to the middle pickup, except that it was on there when I bought the thing for $5 from a second-hand furniture store.

Narrow neck, intonation is still a bit dodgy. But it's got a very particular vibe and tone about it. Sounds amazing playing whacka-whacka funk bits. Sloppy with immense style. Sure, I'd take a thousand bucks for it, but not much less.

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Mon Apr 09, 2012 4:54 pm

In my not so humble opinion, you kind of lose the magic of these crappy old guitars when you do everything mentioned herein to fix teh tuning problem.
Honestly, I think the best solution is replacing the tuners with locking tuners, or at least good quality die cast. This seems to fix most of the tuning problem without changing the tone too much. I have seen people mod the bridges to be less ornery, or replace them outright with a gretsch or Gibson style bridge. That totally changes the whole feel and tone though.

zorf · Post by **zorf** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 6:21 am

they feed back because the pickups are super microphonic.
some people like that.
i have a teisco and it's fun to play, but they were the most poorly built guitar of their time.
intonation problems are common.
sometimes you accidently get a good one.
i bought mine a couple of years ago.
the guy wanted $30 so i gave him $40.

floid · Post by **floid** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 6:58 am

calaverasgrandes wrote:In my not so humble opinion, you kind of lose the magic of these crappy old guitars when you do everything mentioned herein to fix teh tuning problem.

amen to that - embrace the crappiness people! A few years ago i recorded a band that had an entire song based on a particular Teisco's bridge's inability to hold two of the strings in their slots. Weird bendy not notes, friggin beautiful.
and hey, if you're having problems with feedback, why not stop trying to force these guys into shred duty?

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 7:53 am

When I have used Teisco/EKO/other shitty off beat guitars, I just play fast enough to keep ahead of the microphonics, or use one of those non-sustainy fuzzes that kind of "gates" out.
A side note, I modded one of those EH double muff fuzz bixes by putting a pot on the voltage that "feeds" the transistor. When I lean out the volts a little it get that perfect dying fuzz/gated sound.

But yeah, microphonic pickup + nasty fuzz. Because the clean sound of those is nothing special to my ears.

floid · Post by **floid** » Fri Apr 13, 2012 7:23 am

calaverasgrandes wrote:But yeah, microphonic pickup + nasty fuzz. Because the clean sound of those is nothing special to my ears.

don't misunderstand - i'm not advocating their pristine cleans. But that treble bite they get with an old single-ended small watt up around 7 or 8? Yum.

Cool call on that transistor mod. I once was playing around in an old radio and managed to bias the preamp tube wrong for what i think was a similar result - raging overdrive when digging into it, but as i backed further and further off there came a point when it just stopped passing signal. Cool sound in the right application.

Scodiddly · Post by **Scodiddly** » Sat Apr 14, 2012 6:51 am

A Teisco is best played through an old Silvertone amp where all the resistors have drifted high over the decades, resulting in excessive and somewhat non-linear gain.

Nathangrn · Post by **Nathangrn** » Tue Apr 17, 2012 3:00 pm

Jez...

You'd thought I put Floyd Rose in there...

Judas Jetski · Post by **Judas Jetski** » Tue Apr 17, 2012 5:25 pm

Scodiddly wrote:A Teisco is best played through an old Silvertone amp where all the resistors have drifted high over the decades, resulting in excessive and somewhat non-linear gain.

NICE.

At this point, the main reason I keep my Melody Maker around is 'cause of the vintage tuners. There's something about their... imprecision which is just kinda rock 'n' roll. I feel the same way about Teiscos, but I don't care for the Teisco neck.

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Teisco constantly out of tune

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