guitar of MYSTERY

I bought this guitar at a thrift store in Richmond like 6 years ago:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1150/1443836148_df449ffe19_m.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1218/1443836154_b2f009d19a_m.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1146/1443836158_e2b4d672c5_m.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1076/1443836180_23613105a4_m.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1354/1443836168_f88b187376_m.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1319/1443836184_7749c7ab13_m.jpg

I have seen that same guitar at more than one used music store.

Also your house.

Not that that helps.

Nick - maybe try this message board?

Open up the backplate. Take a look at the electronics. Perhaps there will be some further clue. Offhand, it looks like a Teisco/Sekova which would make it Japanese, mid-to-late Sixties.

Yeah, I was scrolling down to post that it looks quite a bit like the half-stolen high-school Teisco I learned to play on!

To get to the electronics I'd have to take off the pickguard, which I'm a little afraid to do because it's already cracked in one place. I might be able to take off one of the pick-up covers, maybe there's something under there.

Same guitar on ebay, looks like they're just guessing it's a Teisco though:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Teisco-Japan-Electric-Guitar-4-Pickups_W0QQitemZ190154775830QQihZ009QQcategoryZ119094QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Ha, the eBay seller is from York, PA, fairly close to where I used to live. When I was a kid, one guitarist in a rock band in my town played a Sekova, which was known to be a Teisco under a different name, and it looked just like the guitar on eBay, and yours. A friend of mine had one which was slightly different. The pickups were the same, however, and the sliding switches.

definitely a teisco.

My first guitar (kind of) = Teisco Del Ray, for obvious-similarities reference:

http://www.myrareguitars.com/teiscosmall.jpg

(I actually found it in a pile of junk in the high-school band closet and took it home for a while. It was very old, and made by a company I'd never heard of, so I eventually bought my own guitar and returned it to the closet. I have to admit, I now almost regret that. I mean, I don't regret not-stealing, but if I'd had the internet around in those days to tell me it was rare or interesting, I'd have appreciated it more.)

Well, to console you a little, when I was in the process of picking up guitar, Teiscos were common but not particularly desirable. Attention didn't start to prick up until a decade later when Guitar Player started running a column by "Teisco del Rey," the nickname of an aficianado of all inexpensive and somewhat odd-looking guitars regarded with fishy eye. Teiscos have gone up in the world since then and that preceded easy access to the Web by a bit.

I don't need consolation, I paid like $100 for it at a thrift store and it sounds terrible, so I wasn't thinking it was a supervaluable item.

Oh you were probably talking to Nabs.