It's certainly worth more to me than the price of decent lunch, which is about what I paid for it when it was missing parts and completely unplayable. When I look at it, I appreciate the original design elements, the shape of the pickguard, etc., as well as the obvious "plagiarism" in the Fender-ish headstock, the first step towards the copy era that would come just a few years after its construction. How much is it worth? That's again subjective. Is it as good as a modern beginner's instrument? No.ĭoes it sound as good? That's subjective, but I think it sounds better than many. It'd be great for someone looking for a dedicated slide ax, but not a primary instrument. It sounds great and is a joy to play around on, although I'll be the first to admit that there's very little room for adjustment should the setup drift and intonation is non-adjustable. I was going to harvest the organs I needed and sell the remainder, but once it was on the work bench I realized I had the parts needed to bring it back to life on hand, while the ones I was going to take from it wouldn't come close to completing the work on the intended recipient.Ĥ5 minutes later it was cleaned, repaired, polished up and plugged in. The pickups have some wear but sounds awesome All the other hardware is in great condition. The first frets have some minor wear and the rest of the frets are like new. I had effectively signed its death warrant. This guitar is 100 original and in good condition. Not one of the later "tulip" Teiscos with the floral guards that I see commonly and blame for much of the hate, although they do have their fans as well, but an ancestor just a few years older. I knew it was a fairly early model: chrome pickguard, reverse-wired pots. It wasn't one of the higher end models, just a short scale single pickup guitar. Most of my recent posts in this sub-forum have focused on some of the old budget axes I've picked up recently, including what I believe is an early 60s Teisco that I originally bought for parts to use on a couple of other projects.
And as noted, some of the pickups were quite good and are now in high demand.Īs a hobbyist guitar player/repairman/seller I'm glad to see the budget guitars of the 60s and 70s starting to demand a bit more on the collector market, not because of any personal investment, but because I hope that as their perceived monetary value increases they're will be more examples preserved they have historical value that I consider greater than their value as functional instruments. At the same time, quality varied and really fun and amazing examples can be found. Yes, many were cheap and often unplayable. I know where the vitriol is coming from, but I'll still defend them. The profile is also thicker in cross section, and the radius is flatter, more consistent, the frets are bigger, and rather than using Rosewood for the fretboard, or painting it (giving the major problem of the H-803 and H-804's neck), they decided to use a "baked maple" fretboard to give it the Rosewood appearance, either htat or they dyed it black/brown on examples like my white 2813 above.I've repaired and/or sold dozens of Teiscos and Kawais and currently own a few. Also, the zero fret has been eliminated using a proper Fender style nut.
#TEISCO DEL REY TULIP ET 210 FULL#
It also attaches with a full sized, blank, neckplate with a plastic "spacer" between the body and the neck joint. The tuning machines are "F-Mount", and most likely the same as Ping-Brand aftermarket Allparts budget tuners - which are much better quality than the six-on-a-plate found on the H-804/803/802/801.
It has a wider heel than the original H-802/804 models, no truss rod adjustment at the body end, instead it's accessed at the headstock end like a CBS era Fender guitar. The neck on these guitars is actually pretty much the same neck as found on the Harmony H-80T Stratocaster copy guitars. Other than that, the only other significant identifier that these are the same guitar is because despite the headstock relabel, they have a regular Harmony EST 1892 neckplate of the skinner H-804 variety. Actually, if you scrape off the paint over the headstock you will sometimes find a "Harmony EST 1892" waterslide in gold under the red repaint and Rogue waterslide decals. These guitars are easily identified because the red finish flakes off easily under heavy playing, as it's usually just a thin coat of red paint over the older black paint job used for the Sears/J.C. Penney catalog except minus the case, strap, cable, and mini amp.
They sold at $99.99 USD just like the same guitar under the Harmony brand did in the J.C. These are pretty much the same guitar as the late 1990's versions. Sometime around 1999, Harmony did one last round of H-804 to use up stock by painting these in a thin coat of red paint and labeling them with the "Rogue" brand for the Musician's Friend catalog.