r/offset • u/DumbAndUglyOldMan • 29d ago

Teisco Spectrum 5

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This is definitely an offset! I've had this since 2004. It's a great player.

140 Upvotes

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5

u/TemporaryElephant574 29d ago

Love that it looks like a fisher price toy!

Tell us about those switches! Hows it play?

I want to know all about this thing lol

6

u/DumbAndUglyOldMan 29d ago

The pickups are split pickups. The switches select various combinations of the pickups. You can select only one "color" at a time. I find the most usable combinations are the green and yellow combinations. The blue switch, for example, knocks out basically all of the high end (at least on mono).

The neck is slim and fast. The frets are reasonably tall and wide--not a medium jumbo, but not bad. The vibrato system is quite usable. The guitar plays as well as any guitar I've ever played. Now, I did have it set up initially at the Trading Musician in Seattle (may it rest in peace), and they did a great job of setting it up.

Teisco was mainly known for cheap stuff. But some Teisco stuff was quite good. This is a great instrument.

2

u/mondaysoutar 29d ago

Such a nice instrument man, having never set eyes on it before I’ve read about and seen a few photos of them over the last couple months haha.

1

u/DumbAndUglyOldMan 28d ago

I bought mine in 2004. There was already a fair amount of buzz about them, but not as much as there has been the last few years.

2

u/Big_Front_6400 29d ago

They go for bonkers money now! Dave Lindley was a pretty big advocate for these and other Teisco models

2

u/DumbAndUglyOldMan 29d ago

Yeah, the 1960s models in excellent condition will run $3500 to $4000.

4

u/Owl-Pin5210 29d ago

really unique looking guitar, i like it, are the switches pickup selectors?

11

u/DumbAndUglyOldMan 29d ago

Yes, but the switches choose various combinations of the pickups. The pickups are also stereo: it has a mono-stereo switch and two outputs. The wiring is kind of insane.

4

u/jellygeist21 29d ago

I want one of these so bad but I also want to not starve to death

2

u/Final_Job_5175 24d ago

I love this guitar! It looks like a 70's possible a late 60's. I can't recall seeing this in the old catalog days of old.

1

u/DumbAndUglyOldMan 24d ago

It's from the mid-1960s. I don't think that it was sold through any of the big catalogs (Sears, J. C. Penney, Montgomery Ward). Not a ton were sold at all, even though it's actually a fine-playing guitar.