There’s no problem setting it up to play. Put it all together and, well, given a lot of choices of what guitar to pick up and play, this keeps sliding down the list. There’s a lot of visual slight of hand here. Maybe if the cats eye was really bound, but it’s just paint. These simple rip-offs of Bigsby vibratos are really pretty good. Good if you’re back is bad, but lacking “heft.” It plays fine. The pickups on this May Queen are nice, beefy single-coils, but the whole package just comes off as sort of, well, limp. They have great features and, with a little attention to set-up, can far surpass guitars in the same class, including those made in the US and Europe. Some of their solidbodies are spectacular. Teisco just never did do hollowbodies too well. This was, perhaps, the first golden age of Japanese guitars. A whole spate of Japanese-style guitars appeared, reflecting creative thinking, not just copies of other people. In any case, in 1968 the Japanese companies were feeling their oats and began to come up with original guitar designs. Kawai seems to have kept the Teisco and its own lines separate throughout this period. In January of 1967 they were acquired by Kawai, the piano company turned guitarmaker. They were probably the most successful brand during that decade. Teisco, which had formed following World War II as a Hawaiian guitar and amp company, had considerable success with exporting into the 1960s. The Teisco May Queen appeared at a significant time in Japanese guitarmaking. This rarity has to contribute to Holy Grailness. And, as mentioned, a red finish is really special. We have no idea how many were made, but ‘60s Japanese guitars are fewer than most people suspect. These just do not come around very often. Still, I’ve never seen a catalog, ad, or other evidence of it’s being sold in the US. Then again, it does have an English engraving on the pickguard. As far as I know, the May Queen was made for domestic consumption-or at least regional consumption-only.
Vintage 1968 Teisco May Queen Electric Guitar
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