Teisco

Teisco was a Japanese instrument maker that operated from 1948 until Kawai bought the brand in 1967. Its roots go back to 1946, when Atswo Kaneko and Doryu Matsuda founded a research company that built lap steels and electric Spanish guitars, and in the United States Jack Westheimer of WMI in Evanston, Illinois imported Teisco guitars from 1961, later marketing them under the Teisco Del Rey name and under other importers' labels.

Teisco guitars became known for unusual shapes, such as the palette-shaped May Queen, and features such as four pickups. The Spectrum 5, from about 1966, was the top model, with staggered pickups, a five-ply ebony neck and a switch panel named for its five tonal colors. Teisco's gold-foil pickups are especially prized by collectors; Ry Cooder helped make them famous.

Kawai kept exporting Teisco guitars to the US until 1973, with later models generally regarded as inferior to the originals. Kawai reissued the Spectrum Five in the early 1990s. Guitar Radar follows Teisco reissues and vintage-style releases.